Acoustics

Fan Noise and Thermals (Subjective)

The fans are large, and the many fins move a considerable amount of air fairly quietly on the MSI GP76 Leopard. For most uses, only one of them spins up. When required, or requested, the second fan comes to life, though it manages to do so without producing any motor noise at all. All we hear is the air rushing through the vents. A lot of air.


In 21 °C ambient, the laptop exterior on top stays at 40 °C or less. Interestingly, only the keys above the fourth row from the bottom emit any system-related heat; the rest of the laptop and keyboard surface never rises above room temperature, and while I do hear the fans, they aren't that bad while gaming, and not heard at all during general tasks.

Subjective Audio Quality

Of course, it's the laptop's audio that helps us overcome that fan noise. MSI has long used Nahimic Audio software processing on a lot of their products, not just laptops. To me, it offers a decent boost to audio quality in all sorts of situations, and does so with the GP76 Leopard as well. Two speakers have been put into the front of the GP76 Leopard, but when watching a movie, voices seemed to come out of the screen rather than the front or sides of the laptop. 3D positioning was considered, and with that said, it is impressive. I heard no distortion even with the volume maxed out on the MSI GP76 Leopard.

Combining the Two

You're not going to need to turn that audio solution up too high when just doing office stuff, and I commonly find myself with 40%–50% volume while gaming. Even with the fans at full blast, turning up the volume all the way wasn't really needed. Whether it's by physical design or the Nahamic software add-on, I'm not sure since it is likely a combination of the two. The fans being relatively quiet since there is nothing but airflow noise is pretty nice, too. I could have pulled out a dB meter and given a number, but that isn't very telling. It is the tone produced by the fans that matters, which is kind of like a purr; while noticable, it is soft and almost comforting instead of annoying.