The Dragon Soul Blade is out of its sheath again! MSI Katana 17 B13V Gaming Laptop In-Depth Test: Outstanding appearance design, next-generation gaming performance overwhelms the audience!

With the release of the new-generation NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series laptop GPU performance ban, the e-sports laptop market has become lively, and MSI, a major player in the e-sports industry, also launched “Leaping over the Singularity” in February. ” as the slogan, released a full series of new machines equipped with 13th generation Intel Core H series processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series notebook GPUs, from top flagship, mainstream performance, light and easy to carry to practicality…etc. All orientations have new faces, providing players with quite a variety of choices.

Previously, MSI Sword and MSI Katana, the cold weapon models created by the “Special Edition” in the practical-grade gaming notebook GF series, this year MSI also plans to make them a completely independent series, and simultaneously launch 15-inch and 17-inch laptops. There are two sizes in two inches, and its appearance is also like its name of “Dragon Soul Blade”. It has a body line that resembles a sword cut. It is sharp and neat with many finely crafted details. appearance.

▲ This year, MSI made “Dragon Soul Blade” a brand new series, with unique appearance and good hardware performance.

The update of hardware specifications is naturally the most concerned part of Dragon Soul Blade. In addition to the excellent performance of the 13th generation Intel Core H series processor, the new generation architecture also brings a comprehensive upgrade to the game’s operating performance! Of course, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB GDDR6 laptop GPU, which debuted on the laptop platform for the first time, is definitely the highlight among the highlights. It not only adopts the same Ada Lovelace architecture as the desktop host version, but also upgrades to the fourth-generation Tensor core, The third-generation RT core also further enhances the performance of the game when running ray tracing. DLSS 3 technology greatly improves the dynamic fluency; in addition, thanks to the process upgrade, it can still release excellent performance at lower power consumption, supporting MUX independent Graphics direct connection technology enables it to enjoy advanced performance without the need for an integrated graphics card.

MSI Katana 17 B13V Features preview

• Up to Intel Core i7-13620H processor
• Up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB GDDR6 laptop GPU, Ada lovelace architecture and Max-Q technology, support DLSS 3
• Built-in DDR5-5600 memory, PCIe Gen4 SSD
• Equipped with a 17.3-inch Full HD resolution IPS-level panel that supports 144Hz refresh rate
• Supports direct connection design of MUX discrete graphics card to further boost processing performance
• Equipped with a full-size keyboard with independent nine-key digital keys, four-zone RGB full-color backlight, 1.7mm key stroke, unique translucent WASD keycap design
• MSI’s exclusive Cooler Boost 5 high-efficiency cooling technology blessing, built-in six cooling ducts and dual-fan cooling modules
• MSI Center provides comprehensive system monitoring functions. Players can adjust system performance and switch exclusive gaming modes through customized configuration files
• Support playing high-resolution music

Ultra-classic and simple appearance, with details showing a unique e-sports style

MSI’s two “Dragon Soul Blades” have completely different styles. Among them, the Sword is as white as snow, giving people a fresh and refined sense of agility, while the Katana shows a straight-forward, elegant and neat feeling. The color with dark gray as the main tone has the classic atmosphere of MSI’s previous gaming notebooks, but the lines of the body are closer to the current mainstream simple aesthetics. It is worth mentioning that many details are painted with Chinese ink painting It is presented by various techniques, such as the modification of the corners of the fuselage, and the C surface and side are also equipped with local blocks and dotted pixel style patterns to bring a lot of variability to the whole machine.

▲ The whole Katana 17 adopts a dark gray tone, without too many decorations and dazzling RGB lighting effects.

▲ The upper cover of Katana 17 is embossed with a dragon shield totem in the form of a three-dimensional carving, which presents a very delicate visual effect.

▲ The words developed and designed by MSI are embossed on the top cover near the hinge of the screen.

▲ The bottom cover of the fuselage is designed in one piece, and the air inlet openings in the shape of hexagonal honeycomb are distributed on the surface, which properly corresponds to the heat dissipation system inside the fuselage.

▲ The MSI Cooler Boost 5 cooling module, which is composed of six cooling ducts and dual fans, can be vaguely seen from the cooling holes.

▲ The built-in speakers of the fuselage are arranged on the left and right sides of the front side of the bottom cover.

In terms of display, Katana 17 is equipped with a 17.3-inch narrow-frame IPS-level screen with FHD resolution and a 144Hz gaming-level refresh rate. Stability and fluency allow the advantages of hardware performance to be fully displayed in the experience of sound and light effects.

▲ The 17.3-inch large screen and narrow bezel design greatly reduce visual interference while bringing excellent viewing effects. The C side of the fuselage is equipped with a full-size keyboard and four-zone RGB full-color backlight, which is much more gorgeous than the previous monochrome design.

▲ The Katana 17’s display uses an IPS-level panel with excellent brightness, color saturation, and viewing angles, and supports a gaming-level refresh rate of 144Hz.

▲ A video lens and an array microphone are arranged above the display.

The C side of the fuselage is an island-style keyboard with keycaps of the same color as the fuselage. The four-zone RGB full-color backlight is very eye-catching, and the keys also have a long key travel of 1.7 mm. The performance of the measured feel is really excellent.

▲ The C side of the fuselage is an island-style keyboard with keycaps of the same color as the fuselage. The four-zone RGB full-color backlight is very eye-catching, and the keys also have a long key travel of 1.7 mm. The performance of the measured feel is really excellent.

▲ A long pixel-like block is planned near the hinge of the screen, which adds a bit of sci-fi atmosphere to the whole machine.

▲ The WASD keys commonly used by players have a unique transparent keycap design, allowing players to locate their fingers more quickly.

▲ The design of the arrow keys is quite special, it can also be used as a hot key to control the functions of the notebook, including one-key activation of performance mode, multimedia control, cross-axis mode and turning off the screen for energy saving…etc.

▲ The touchpad is keyless, and it can be seen that a pixel-style decorative area is also planned above the touchpad.

▲ On the side of the fuselage, you can find the same pixel-style decoration as the C side, and the sense of ceremony is not bad.

▲ The left side of the fuselage is equipped with a power interface, a USB 3.2 Gen1 A port and a USB 2.0 port.

▲ On the right side of the fuselage, the RJ-45 network port, HDMI port, USB 3.2 Gen1 C port and USB 3.2 Gen1 A port are planned, as well as the 3.5 mm headphone and microphone jack.

The new generation of hardware specifications is worth looking forward to

In recent years, the hardware specifications on the notebook platform have developed like a great leap forward. Among them, the core processor related to the overall performance also has a new architecture. Take the 13th generation Intel Core H processor, which is the mainstream of gaming notebooks this year, for example. , the design continues the “hybrid architecture” of the previous generation. Through the combination of multiple performance cores (P-Core) and energy-saving cores (E-Core), it provides better multitasking performance and battery life. Not to mention that the newly unlocked NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series notebook computer GPU also brings a new generation of architecture and optimization technology, so that real-time ray tracing effects and AI artificial intelligence computing capabilities can be greatly improved, not only presenting more than before. Gorgeous game sound and light, and at the same time, through deep learning technology like DLSS 3, combined with game optimization support, it can achieve smoother game dynamic effects in high-quality images, and Katana 17 is through this new generation of ” Dual-core” provides players with efficient and smooth excellent performance.

▲ The Katana 17 tested this time is equipped with a new combination of the 13th generation Intel Core i7-13620H processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 laptop GPU.

In addition, Katana 17 is also equipped with the same high-speed DDR5-5600 memory, and adopts PCIe Gen4 SSD, which further improves the speed of game startup, and brings more stable data loading and transmission speed while the game is running.

Katana 17 （B13V) list of key specifications

Katana 17 （B13V) Processor and storage performance benchmark list

Katana 17 （B13V）3D List of performance benchmarks

Katana 17 （B13V) System comprehensive performance running score list

Game performance test

This year’s new version of Katana 17 combines the 13th-generation Intel Core i7-13620H standard-pressure processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 notebook GPU with two powerful cores, how powerful it can run 3A masterpieces is naturally It is very exciting, and the author also selected four 3A masterpieces that support real-time ray tracing or DLSS, including “Long March 5”, “Horizon: Dawn”, “Thriller Tunnel: Exile” and “Dian Yu Rebellion” Guest 2077″, to test the actual performance of Katana 17.

 ▲ “Long March 5” with the image quality set to “Auto” and vertical sync turned off, used the built-in performance benchmark and turned off/on the real-time ray tracing effect to run twice.

▲ The results of the two tests achieved an average of 123.3 fps and 111.3 fps, respectively.

▲ Then set the image quality to the highest “Ultra High” and turn off vertical sync. Also use the built-in performance benchmark and turn off/on the real-time ray tracing effect to run twice.

▲ The results of the two tests achieved an average of 60.2 fps and 52.8 fps, respectively.

▲ Horizon Zero Dawn ran the benchmark twice with graphics settings set to “Maximum Quality” with DLSS Off and DLSS On.

▲ When DLSS is turned off, the measured average is 103 fps, and if DLSS is turned on to balance mode, an average of 116 fps is obtained.

▲ If the image setting is set to “Quality Priority”, when DLSS is turned off, the measured average is 115 fps, and if DLSS is turned on to balanced mode, an average of 121 fps is obtained.

▲ “Thriller Tunnel: Exile” was benchmarked with three default settings – High, Ultra and Extreme, and turned off DLSS, and achieved average results of 80.5 fps, 65.19 fps and 41.58 fps respectively.

▲ “Thriller Tunnel: Exile” also uses the default three settings – High, Ultra and Extreme, but when the DLSS is turned on to the “Balanced” setting for benchmarking, the average results are 107.23 fps, 88.57 fps and 58.21 fps, which can be clearly seen I feel that the smoothness of the screen has been greatly improved.

Among them, “Dian Yu Ren Ke 2077” is also one of the few games that supports DLSS 3 technology. Through the “DLSS frame generation” function, AI artificial intelligence can be used to directly generate a new frame between the original image frames of the game and improve its resolution. , thus greatly enhancing the fluency of game dynamics.

▲ “Dian Yu Ren Ke 2077” not only supports DLSS super-resolution settings, but also supports “DLSS frame generation” function, and this is a new setting that can only be supported by GeForce RTX 40 series.

▲ When using the default “Extremely High” setting, DLSS is not turned on, and the benchmark test has a score of 55.78 fps. If the default “Ray Tracing: Highest” setting is used, DLSS is automatically turned on to the automatic gear, and the benchmark test is 56.96 fps scores.

If you choose to enable the DLSS frame generation function, the benchmark test achieves 126.01 fps under the default “Extremely High” setting. If you use the default “Ray Tracing: Highest” setting and turn on the DLSS frame generation function, the benchmark test A score of 125.07 fps was obtained, which is more than twice that of before it was turned on.

MSI Center Tailor the performance you want

Katana 17 also has a built-in one-stop system adjustment tool “MSI Center” that players are familiar with. In addition to the simple and beautiful interface design, the modular “function set” also gives players a high degree of flexibility in matching the required functions. At the same time, players can Instantly view hardware specifications and system resource usage to achieve proper hardware monitoring, and can switch to different environmental setting modes according to personal needs such as usage scenarios, game running, etc. Even the fan speed of the cooling system can be adjusted freely school!

In addition, MSI Center has newly added the “Display Mode Switching” function. In addition to the default “MSHybrid Display Mode” where the system distinguishes between the built-in graphics card and the dedicated graphics card, players can also switch between the CPU and the dedicated graphics card according to different needs. Directly connected “Discrete Graphics Mode” or “Built-in Graphics Mode” that focuses on battery life, you can decide how you want to run.

▲ MSI Center provides comprehensive hardware monitoring functions, allowing you to check the resource usage of CPU, GPU, disk and memory in real time, or view detailed hardware configuration.

▲ The built-in “function set” of MSI Center allows players to choose the function modules they want to install.

▲ The settings of MSI Center also provide options such as interface color, language, startup method, etc.

▲ MSI Center has an exclusive gaming mode built in, which can optimize system performance for specific games, and can pre-adjust related settings and even key prompts for the keyboard backlight.

▲ The “Usage Scenario” of MSI Center provides multiple different laptop operating modes for players to switch freely. At the same time, a new “graphics card mode switching” function is added, which can be customized to use only the discrete graphics card/built-in graphics card or switch by the system itself.

▲ In the advanced settings, you can customize the core frequency of the GPU and the frequency of the VRAM to obtain more performance.

▲ What’s even better is that the fan speed of the cooling system can be customized to maintain the best cooling effect.

▲ The general settings of MSI Center provide switches including specific function keys, or can be customized to switch on and off functions such as video camera, screen sight, screen power saving, etc.

▲ Through the Mystic Light lighting effect control page in MSI Center, you can adjust the dynamics and color changes of the keyboard lighting according to your personal preferences.

▲ The “system diagnosis” function is provided in a centralized manner, which can manage and correct the charging mode or perform system detection according to the health of the battery.

▲ MSI Center also provides a WiFi scanning function, which can scan the Wi-Fi signal strength and reception status in the environment.

▲ With the assistance of the MSI Center hardware detection function, system checks can be performed at any time to ensure that the hardware functions are operating normally.

Summary: A good choice to enjoy the performance of the new generation without hurting the wallet!

As a “practical” gaming laptop, the overall performance of Katana 17 is indeed quite satisfactory. Although the size and weight are not up to the performance of the previous class, the 17.3-inch large screen in exchange is also quite satisfactory. The sound and light effects of the game are greatly improved, and the IPS-level e-sports panel has a good level of image quality and color. The high update rate of 144Hz also shows the good performance of Katana 17.

▲ Katana 17 has a large-sized gaming-grade screen, and its appearance exudes a strong e-sports sci-fi atmosphere.

In terms of appearance, Katana 17 lacks fancy and gorgeous decorations, and presents the most mainstream contemporary technological aesthetics in a minimalist style. In particular, Katana 17 handles small details very delicately, allowing players to enjoy the practicability of the laptop while also looking at it. to rich visual elements.

In terms of key performance, Katana 17 also performed well. Although the discrete graphics card that is closely related to game running performance is paired with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB GDDR6 laptop GPU, the actual results are very good, comparable to RTX 3080-level Performance, but relatively lower power consumption, when running games for a long time, there is no need to worry regarding the problem of excessive system temperature. In addition, the DLSS 3 supported by RTX 4060 notebook computer GPU has an excellent effect in increasing the number of frames in the actual test, especially for supported games such as “Dian Yu Ren Ke 2077”, when the DLSS frame generation function is turned on, the frame rate The improvement can even be as high as more than two times. The combination of top sound and light effects and excellent fluency is impressive. I look forward to more games supporting this technology in the future, so that the game experience of 3A masterpieces will be even higher.

▲ The upper cover of the Katana 17 fuselage is etched to create a unique visual effect, which is the most distinctive feature of the “Dragon Soul Blade” series.