MSI Sword 15.6" A12UC 144hz Review

The MSI Sword 15 is a gaming laptop that looks better on paper than it feels in your hands. It's got the right buzzwords—RTX 3050, 144Hz screen—but the experience is held back by some seriously dated core specs. The one thing you need to know is that the 8GB of RAM is a deal-breaker for modern gaming, making this a tough sell even at its price.

The performance is a mixed bag, and the GPU is the only real highlight. That RTX 3050 lands in the 68th percentile, so it can handle 1080p gaming on medium settings in most titles, and the 144Hz screen is nice when the frame rate gets there. But the 8GB of RAM is a massive bottleneck. You'll see stutters in open-world games, and having Chrome open in the background while gaming is a recipe for frustration. The CPU is also in the bottom third, so don't expect blazing speeds for anything beyond gaming.

At $959, this isn't a good value. You're paying for an RTX 3050 and a high-refresh screen, but the crippling 8GB of RAM and weak port selection make it feel like a laptop from three years ago. For this money, you can find better-balanced machines that won't bottleneck you on day one.

This is where the Sword 15 falls apart. Don't even look at the MacBook Pro or high-end Legion Pro 7i—they're in a different league. The real competition is in the $900-$1100 range. Look at last year's models from ASUS TUF or Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3. You can often find them with an RTX 3050 or 3060 and, crucially, 16GB of RAM for the same price or less. The MSI Vector 16 or Gigabyte AORUS models on the competitor list are also much more powerful machines, but they cost more. The Sword 15 gives up too much to compete.

I can't recommend the MSI Sword 15. The 8GB of RAM is a fatal flaw for a gaming laptop in 2024, and the mediocre CPU and terrible port selection make it feel cheap. That 144Hz screen is wasted on a system that will struggle to feed it. Save your money and look for a sale on a model with 16GB of RAM. You'll have a much better experience.