There is no second opinion on the fact that a gaming laptop is crucial for enjoying hypnotic gaming sessions on the go. The year 2022 is about to end and you can see various leading brands in the market with diverse gaming laptop options. MSI and Lenovo are two of the most dominant laptop brands now.
When it comes to gaming, MSI quickly managed to become the most-loved brand among gamers. MSI laptops come jam-packed with several innovative features and high-end specs. These include state-of-the-art cooling systems, extensive memory, high-refresh rate displays, and top-class CPUs as well as GPUs.
On the other hand, Lenovo was mainly known for manufacturing top-of-line business notebooks. However, after the launch of Lenovo’s first gaming-focused laptop series back in 2017, named as Legion, the China-based largest PC manufacturer had redefined its Unique Value Preposition (USP).
If you are rounding up your preferred specifications list for your next gaming laptop, MSI gaming laptops or Legion range of Lenovo gaming laptops are some of the best options to consider. In this handy guide, we are going to compare MSI Crosshair 17 and Lenovo Legion 5. Both gaming laptops are available at almost the same price point on Laptop Outlet – A leading UK-based technology ecommerce site.
MSI Crosshair 17
Key Specs
- Processor: Intel Core i9 12th Gen. Processor
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
- Display: 17.3”, 360Hz, 1920 x 1080
- Memory: 16GB
- Storage: 1TB SSD
- Operating System: Windows 11
MSI Crosshair 17 is built to meet the imagination of gamers for smoothly playing all modern heavy-duty games. It gets its power from its beefy Intel Core i9, 12th Generation processor. The reinventive multi-core architecture of the Intel’s CPU provides unrelented boost for handling complex applications and advanced games.
Crosshair 17 gaming rig comes powered by GeForce RTX 3070. Based on NVIDIA’s 2nd Gen. RTX architecture, this top-notch graphics card delivers you vibrant in-game graphics. While the inventive combination of dedicated 2nd Gen. RT Cores and 3rd Gen. Tensor Cores in the GPU supplies you with the power you need when playing high-intensity games.
Another remarkable feature of the MSI gaming laptop is its huge 17.3” display. With its narrow-bezel design, you can perfectly relish a wholesome gaming experience. With its 165Hz screen refresh rates support and FHD screen resolution, Crosshair 17’s ensures that you enjoy smooth gaming visuals when playing steadfast games.
A gaming laptop with spacious memory is always a hardcore wish of most gamers. The good news is that MSI has tackled this situation by loading its Crosshair 17 gaming laptop with a vast memory duo. You get a spacious 16GB RAM on the laptop which comes in handy in smoother running of resource-intensive games. And to occupy all your critical virtual data including games, applications, and multimedia files, a capacious and fast 1TB SSD is available on the laptop.
MSI Crosshair 17 comes pre-installed with the latest Windows 11 and entirely supports all its productive features, specifically Game Mode, Windows Hello, and Snap Layout. In addition to that, you get access to a plethora of connectivity ports such as USB3, HDMI, and RJ45. While the HD webcam of the gaming laptop becomes quite useful when you want to live-stream your gaming actions.
Lenovo Legion 5
Key Specs
- Processor: Intel Core i7 12th Gen. Processor
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti
- Display: 15.6”, 165Hz, 2560 x 1440
- Memory: 16GB
- Storage: 512GB SSD
- Operating System: Windows 11 Home
If you are looking for a gaming laptop with minimalist design yet ultra-rich hardware, Lenovo Legion 5 is the way to go. The clamshell body of Lenovo laptop looks stunning in its Storm Grey colour. While the 12th Generation Intel Core i7 processor on the rig is all-ready to deliver ultra-fast processing speeds.
To deliver you an out-of-this-world gaming experience, Lenovo has enriched its Legion 5 machine with cutting-edge NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU. With its Ampere architecture presenting Ray Tracing and DLSS support, this graphics card is well-designed to avoid latency while rendering the in-game graphics of fast games.
The 15.6-inches large display of the Lenovo laptop delivers a rich resolution of 2560 x 1440. And the viewing experience becomes smoother and better with 165Hz support of the Legion 5’s display. The WQHD screen of the laptop features minimum bezels for providing you with rich game play. While the anti-glare coating on the laptop’s display reduces contrast and in turn causes less stress to your eyes.
Talking about memory, Lenovo Legion 5 comes equipped with commodious 16GB Random Access Memory (RAM). It boosts system bootups and assists the PC in reducing the application loading times to minimum. The icing on the top is the laptop’s spacious storage space, consisting of 512GB SSD. Hence, you can easily store all your well-liked games, work applications, and related data on your Lenovo Legion 5.
Lenovo exhibits too much generosity when it comes to inculcating the machine with a bunch of ports and other gaming-friendly features. You get Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.0, Wi-Fi 6, LAN on your Legion 5 gaming station. The Lenovo rig presents an RGB Backlit keyboard with smooth keys for effortlessly navigating in the games, even in the dark.
Lenovo Legion (5) Vs MSI Gaming Laptop (Crosshair 17): Who wins?
Let’s do a quick comparison between Lenovo Legion 5 and MSI Crosshair 17 gaming laptop based on certain Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Display:
In contrast to Crosshair 17’s 17.3” large 360Hz display, Legion 5 carries a 15.6” large 165Hz display. However, Crosshair 17 lags behind Legion 5 in terms of screen resolution. The Lenovo laptop’s display throws a FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution while MSI laptop carries a WQHD (2560 x 1440) display. Overall speaking, MSI gaming laptop overrun Lenovo Legion here.
Processor:
MSI has enriched Crosshair 17 with market-best Intel Core i9, 12th Generation processor. On the other hand, you get Intel Core i7, 12th Generation processor on Lenovo gaming laptop. Although Legion 5’s CPU is competitive enough with a turbo boost clock frequency of 4.80GHz still it can’t match the 5.5GHz maximum processing speed of MSI’s i9 chipset. So, here again MSI Crosshair 17 gaming laptop is a clearer winner over Lenovo machine.
Graphics Card:
A gaming laptop’s performance is largely defined by its Graphical Processing Unit (GPU), also known as Graphics Card. Now, this is where Lenovo Legion has a little edge over MSI laptop. In comparison to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU of MSI Crosshair 17, Lenovo laptop carries a bit more advanced NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU. The RTX 3070 Ti supplies 6144 CUDA Cores to the GTX 3070’s 5888. The 3070 Ti also has faster base clock frequency and boost clock speeds than 3070, although the difference is not much.
Memory:
Although both Lenovo and MSI gaming stations carry forward an equal RAM, 16GB. However, when it comes to storage space, MSI Crosshair 17 clearly knocks out Lenovo Legion 5’s 512GB SSD ROM with its 1TB SSD capacity. Thus, if you want more storage in your next gaming rig, MSI gaming laptop is the way to go.
Conclusion
After doing an in-depth comparison between Lenovo Legion 5 and MSI gaming laptop, we are now in a position of giving our verdict. Considering the almost same price of both gaming rigs and better features of MSI laptop, there is no reason we cannot declare MSI gaming laptop (Crosshair 17 in our case) as a clear-cut winner here.
Read More: Is Nware 17 on a Laptop suitable for gaming? | Reviews & Features
