MSI’s Delta 15 is the first gaming laptop to feature AMD’s new Radeon RX 6700M graphics,
so let’s test it out in 13 different games and compare
it against other laptops and see how it stacks up!
My Delta 15 has an 8 core Ryzen 7 5800H processor with Radeon RX 6700M graphics.
There’s 16 gigs of memory and a 15.6” 1080p 240Hz screen.
The 6700M is AMD’s middle option out of their new RDNA 2 mobile graphics, sitting in between
the 6600M and 6800M with 10 gigs of VRAM, and AMD says it competes with Nvidia’s RTX 3070.
Now the AMD spec sheet for the 6700M notes that it can run up to 135 watts.
In a GPU only stress test I found that my Delta 15 would run the GPU up to 120 watts,
and then with the CPU also under load this lowered to about 95 watts.
The MSI Center software can be used to change performance modes,
all testing was done here with the highest extreme performance set.
Unfortunately the Delta 15 does not have a MUX switch, so it’s not possible to disable the
integrated graphics. But both the right hand Type-C port and HDMI port connect directly to
the 6700M, so connecting an external screen should bypass this and I’ll test this too.
The MSI Center software has overdrive enabled by default, which affects screen response time.
With this enabled we’re looking at about a 5ms
average grey-to-grey response time for the Delta 15’s 240Hz panel, so
a little slower than the 4.16ms needed for all transitions to occur within the refresh window.
The Delta 15 was about average in terms of total system latency,
which is the amount of time measured between a mouse click and a gun shot fired in CS:GO.
The Delta 15 is also available with a 144Hz panel though,
so expect different results with that option.
Now the memory that came in my Delta 15 was the faster
x8 stuff rather than x16, so I haven’t changed it.
Alright so with all that in mind let’s find out how well MSI’s Delta 15
and AMD’s Radeon RX 6700M perform in games and compare against other laptops.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested the same on all laptops, and I’ve got MSI’s Delta 15 with
RX 6700M highlighted in red. It seems to be in between laptops with RTX 3060 graphics,
so definitely not a bad result as the 3060 is great,
but it’s also not quite the 3070 tier AMD have been saying, at least in this one game,
we’ll check more. I’m going to compare the 6700M against the 3070 and 3060 in 17 games
at 2 resolutions soon, so make sure you’re subscribed for those upcoming comparisons.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the game’s benchmark, and this time the Delta 15 was more in
line with those 3070 results, so it’s clearly going to depend on the specific game. What was
strange though was that the 6700M was actually 3 FPS ahead of the higher tier 6800M. Now I did
test the 6800M basically right at launch, so maybe driver updates would boost its score. I’m
actually getting it again soon to compare with the 6700M, so I’ll retest that once it arrives
and update the result. I think it’s more likely to be the case that the 6800M laptop had x16 memory,
while the 6700M machine has x8 memory. I’ll be sure to use the same memory when doing
the dedicated comparisons though, but this is still valid as this is how both laptops ship.
Control was tested running through the same part of the game on all laptops, and the 6700M was
now back with the 3060 laptops, granted this is an Nvidia sponsored title, so that’s not super
surprising. Of course this game also has DLSS support, so that could be enabled on the 3060
laptops to significantly boost performance too. AMD has FSR, but it’s not present in this game.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the game’s benchmark,
and this was another where the Delta 15’s 6700M was back in line with the 3070 laptops.
This also puts it ahead of the higher tier 6800M that I previously tested a few months ago,
so yeah it definitely looks like I’m going to have to retest that with the latest drivers and
find out what the deal is, because it should be higher. Again I’m guessing it’s the memory,
as this is another game I’ve found to be greatly affected by x8 and x16 memory.
As mentioned earlier, it should be possible to get a speed boost in games by attaching
an external screen to the Delta 15, as this will bypass the integrated graphics.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider we’re only looking at a small 2% increase,
or 2 fps, but hey this is only a simple change and at least it seems to show you’re not missing
out on much by sticking to the laptop’s screen. Results will of course vary by game,
generally GPU heavy games at higher setting levels see small changes with an external screen,
while high frame rate esports titles have a bigger change.
I’ve just compared one game here, because as mentioned I’ll be comparing the Delta
15 in 17 different games at 2 different resolutions in many upcoming comparison videos,
so again make sure you’re subscribed for those.
Alright now let’s see how well MSI’s Delta 15 performs in even more games at all setting levels.
Let’s start with Call of Duty Warzone, which was tested with either all settings at max
or minimum as it doesn’t have built in presets. It was playing perfectly fine
for me even maxed out, the difference was fairly small at minimum settings,
so might as well enjoy the better visuals with higher settings.
We compared control earlier, but now I’ve also tested it with ray tracing
enabled in the green bars. I’ll save direct comparisons for the upcoming dedicated videos,
but I am noticing that the ray tracing results are behind Nvidia’s options, and yeah no DLSS support
for Radeon graphics, which is something that I usually test with this game, so I’d probably
stay away from ray tracing in this game, but it’s running fine with it off even maxed out.
Cyberpunk was also compared earlier, but with all setting presets now I’ve also tested the
ray tracing presets up the top. Again no DLSS and FSR isn’t supported in this game,
so I’d stay away from the ray tracing presets given the performance is
significantly higher without it with high settings getting us above 60 FPS.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was able to pass 60 FPS with the high-end setting preset,
though it was possible to pass 100 FPS with the low setting preset if you’re
after a smoother experience at the expense of visuals.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a game that I’ve found to generally do well with Radeon graphics,
and that’s the case here, 70 FPS at max settings is a nice result for a gaming laptop,
but again this will be one of many games I compare in depth in a future video soon.
Watch Dogs Legion was still above 60 FPS at max settings. Most of these AAA games don’t
necessarily need mega high FPS to enjoy, but I’d probably take the 20% boost to
average FPS by lowering down to very high settings, as that still looks pretty good.
Fortnite on the other hand is more of an esports title,
and it was running above 100 FPS even at max settings, while medium or low settings
might be a better match up with the 240Hz screen if you’re playing competitively.
CS:GO was also reaching super high frame rates, though the differences between the different
setting presets were very small. This game generally sees big gains with a MUX switch or
external screen, but even without this the frame rate is higher than the screen’s refresh rate.
Rainbow Six Siege was also hitting very high frame rates no problem,
low settings had 1% lows that were above the screen’s 240Hz refresh rate,
but even maxed out 200 FPS is still going to be more than fine. I should also note
that this game opened up on the integrated graphics by default, I’m not sure how they
still haven’t fixed this at the driver level, as this is a problem that’s existed for years,
but I had to manually set the game to run on the RX 6700M instead of the Vega GPU in the 5800H.
I guess this is also a decent time for me to jump in and just say that I had no
other driver issues with the 6700M. No games crashed and everything was perfectly stable.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was compared earlier, and as we saw there the Radeon GPU was doing
quite well compared to others. Above 60 FPS at max settings is a great result for a laptop,
and near 100 at high settings is closer to RTX 3070 performance.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was above 100 FPS at max settings, and similar deal for Battlefield 5,
still easily playable on this hardware at max settings though these are essentially older gen
games now. Going back even further and The Witcher 3 was above 100 FPS maxed out even for the 1% low,
and although it was running fine at ultra you can get a fairly big 35%
boost to average FPS lowering down just one level to high settings.
The 6700M can also make use of AMD’s new FSR in games that support it, but unfortunately none
of these games that I regularly test have FSR support yet. I did consider adding some games
that do support FSR to showcase it and see what it can do, but at the same time it felt a little
weird and I guess biased for me to go out of my way and test games that I don’t otherwise test.
I think if FSR just isn’t yet supported in these popular titles that I often test then
it’s just bad luck. I really do hope that we see it in more of these games that I regularly test.
I’ll cover absolutely everything else about the Delta 15 like thermals, battery life and more in
the upcoming full review, so make sure you’re subscribed for that upcoming content, and of
course for all the upcoming 6700M comparisons. Otherwise for now come and join me and the
community in Discord and get behind the scenes videos by supporting the channel on Patreon,
and come and check out some of my other videos over here next, I’ll see you in one of those.