When we had the chance to discover the MSI Claw at CES 2024, we were able to take it in hand without really getting an idea of the new console’s performance. But this first, purely “physical” contact enabled us to see that MSI’s console had a lot going for it, particularly in terms of ergonomics. If the choice of Intel had surprised the “specialists”, a simple study of the blue’s roadmap made it easy to understand why MSI had positioned itself in this way and not, like everyone else, with AMD. However, the far-reaching transitions being led by Intel suggested that the hardware chosen would require patience, like letting a fine wine mature. But how can such a position be envisaged when the target market is the hardcore gamer? A public that doesn’t really care about hardware, as long as it delivers what they’re looking for: FPS? MSI’s choice for its launch was logically (unfortunately) to rely on influencers, youtubers, mainstream media from this gaming target… The outcome was a foregone conclusion: the MSI Claw took a beating. To say that this was unjustified would be dishonest, however: the Claw was behind its competitor Asus, often by quite a margin. But a few points of context and explanation would undoubtedly have enabled the brand to explain where it wanted to go, and to nuance the criticisms…
MSI bets on the Intel roadmap for its consoles.
It’s all very well to take shots at Intel these days, so there’s no need to revisit the subject. However, once the froth has settled, the roadmap planned by the blues is impressive. It’s full of promise for the world of PCs and, in particular, the world of mobility. Meteor Lake, which equips the Claw, is already a considerable revolution. Its Arc Alchemist-based graphics are a major leap forward. However, as with all ARC desktop cards, it suffered a number of setbacks during the latter stages of its development, particularly with regard to its drivers. This is an important subject, because if you follow ARC-related news, you’ll have noticed that the gains made by each update are spectacular. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been able to take an MSI Claw back into our hands, applying all the updates brought to it by Intel and MSI alike. And let’s face it, it’s not really the same console anymore.
Updates really transform the MSI Claw
Until now, comparisons between the MSI Claw and its main competitor had not been flattering. Not only did the Claw perform less well in early tests, but power consumption was also worse compared to AMD’s Z1 Extreme. From the second quarter of this year onwards, MSI and Intel stepped up their updates. Things happened in two stages. First, in April, the new Intel drivers brought an overall performance improvement of between 4% and 40%. Then MSI also delivered a deep firmware update for its Claw, bringing a further gain of almost 30%. According to MSI, with these vitamins, the Claw is now 26% faster than the ROG Ally. We were lucky enough to get our hands on an MSI Claw (equipped with the Core Ultra 7 processor 155H) to take a look at the situation.
Our summary tests and feedback
We were able to run a battery of tests to compare the Claw, once all the updates had been carried out, with the Rog Ally equipped with the AMD Z1 Extreme. Although we weren’t able to push our tests to the limit, we were able to confirm that the MSI console has made great progress. The synthetic tests speak for themselves, and the few games we tested gave indications. However, the trend is not the same everywhere.
For this quick temperature check, we used the Claw in the modes it offers. The comparative figures were taken from our Rog Ally Z1 Extreme test.
The few games tested under the same conditions as the Rog Ally Z1 Extreme :
MSI relaunches with these updates and prepares its second generation
We wouldn’t presume to say that these measurements have the value of a full-scale test. They do, however, reveal the evolution and significant performance gains that MSI has made to put its Claw back on track. But that’s just for technical reasons. Asus has chosen to build its consoles on AMD APUs, which have been tried and tested for years. MSI took a gamble by launching with Intel. Commercially, it’s probably been a failure for the time being. Even if the Claw is now competitive with the Rog Ally, its launch is not what the brand had hoped for. MSI has lowered its prices, but so has Asus.
However, the second half should be played out in a few weeks’ time. Asus has upgraded its Rog Ally, but will have to make do with the same AMD hardware until at least 2025. MSI should offer a second version equipped with the highly promising Intel Lunar Lake SoC, due to arrive in early September. Its graphics should be far superior, but the Intel solution could also make the difference in terms of autonomy. It seems that Intel and MSI have joined forces in this console PC category. Intel’s aim over the coming months is to offer x86 SoCs that are not only highly efficient, but also very powerful in terms of graphics.
It is with this hope that MSI will be able to relaunch itself and hold the upper hand at the end of 2024…if Intel’s latest product confirms all the promises it has made.
