If you’re looking to squeeze in some 1080p gaming between classes, the MSI Thin GF63 is worth checking out. For a gaming laptop, it’s actually quite lightweight at just over four pounds, which is great for those who like to game on-the-go. Most gaming laptops tip the scales at six pounds or more. As for what’s going on under the hood, it packs a decent amount of power for a budget gaming machine. Let’s dive right in.
The MSI Thin GF63 comes with an Intel Core i7-12650H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. Given the hardware, you should be able to run most games on the Medium or High graphics preset. For more graphically demanding games in which speed is everything, we’d recommend dialing the graphics back a bit. The 15.6-inch display has a resolution of 1920×1080 and a refresh rate of 144Hz. Although it ekes out just 300 nits of brightness (which is common for a budget gaming laptop), gameplay should be reasonably smooth thanks to the high refresh rate. It’s not the most vibrant or color-accurate screen we’ve ever seen, but it’s passable, especially for a sub-$1,000 machine.
If you can live with the sacrifices, then the MSI Thin GF63 is a great budget option for most students.
