MSI Katana 17 B13V laptop review. For playing at high settings with a fast screen

For our new review, MSI presented a laptop from the Katana gaming series with a 17-inch screen, NVIDIA RTX 4070 Laptop and Intel Core i7-13620H on board. We’re not familiar with this line yet, so let’s find out quickly.

We received the MSI Katana 17 B13VGK-471RU model with a display with a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels and a refresh rate of 240 Hz. The line itself is represented by three more options with FHD displays, RTX 4060 Laptop and Core i5-13420H. All other components of the models are the same: 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD and 53.5 Wh battery.

The model is only available in black and the housing is completely made of plastic. The laptop has no bright parts: only the keyboard is illuminated. On the lid you will see a matte, slightly voluminous logo and various pressed lines and design accents. The plastic does not crack, the lid opens easily and effortlessly. The plastic panel containing the screen does not resist rotation perfectly, but this is difficult to notice when opening the laptop normally. The lid opens 180 degrees and is easy to secure.

The thickness of the frame around the screen is 8 mm, at the location of the webcam – 14 mm. The frame at the bottom is 27.5 mm. The camera resolution is low: HD (30fps@720p).

The screen itself is bright enough for daytime work and gaming in sunlight. The color gamut is wide and the response speed is 3 ms. Combined with a 240 Hz refresh rate, the screen offers smooth images in both applications and games.

The keyboard of the Katana 17 B13V is membrane and full-size, with a numeric keypad. Located in the center, the margins on the sides are 40 mm. The WASD keys and the power button are highlighted. The key spacing is approximately 1.7 mm. There is no fingerprint scanner. The RGB backlight is switchable and, as usual, can be easily configured in the Mystic Light tab in the MSI Center application.

The bottom of the laptop has elongated legs and honeycomb-shaped ventilation holes. This allows you to see the Cooler Boost 5 cooling system with common Shared-Pipe heatpipes for the processor and video card. Cold air is sucked in here. Blow out – at the back and on the left side closer to the display.

There you see on the left the power connector, one USB 3.2 Gen1 and USB 2.0.

On the right side there are RJ-45, full-size HDMI 2.1, two USB 3.2 Gen1 connectors – Type-A and Type-C (with DisplayPort support), as well as a minijack for audio. There is also a charging indicator here. Thunderbolt USB-C no.

The battery capacity is a modest 53 Wh, which will allow you to work with the laptop for about two hours. The kit includes a 200W Chicony power supply.

We tested the MSI Katana 17 B13VGK-471RU laptop in synthetic tests Cinebench R23, CPU-Z and CrystalDiskMark. The results are in the screenshots.

We also assessed the laptop’s power in 3DMark: Fire Strike Ultra, Fire Strike Extreme, Time Spy, Time Spy Extreme, Port Royale, CPU Profile and Storage Benchmark tests to check the speed of loading games on the SSD .

All gaming tests were performed in maximum performance mode. The temperature of the Intel Core i7-13620H processor with a maximum TDP of 115 W did not exceed 80 degrees in gaming tests. The temperature of the RTX 4070 Laptop video card with a maximum thermal package of 115 W rarely exceeded 75 degrees.

At the same time, the cooling system remained silent during the tests. The fans made no noise and did not create any unpleasant noises. It was very comfortable to play. Without load, the cooling system can function passively for a long time without fans.

Starfield. We first ran tests at the native 2560 x 1440 resolution at maximum settings without scaling and got an average of around 50 frames per second.

Testing with modification with DLSS and frame generation improved the situation. With this, the game already showed 75-80 frames per second.

Cyberpunk 2077. The test was conducted in the updated version of the game 2.01. With frame generation, DLSS, max graphics and ultra ray tracing we got 55-60 fps. The internal benchmark showed 64 FPS.

Ray tracing mode overload (with path tracing) – 40-45 frames per second. In this case, the benchmark lies and shows an average of 70 FPS.

The mode with the medium setting for ray tracing turned out to be the most optimal for the game. Here the frame rate did not drop below 60.

The Witcher 3. Ultra settings and maximum ray tracing, only 50 frames per second, so for a stable 60 FPS you have to sacrifice some detail.

Baldur’s Gate 3. At maximum settings the game still dropped below 60 FPS, although drops were rare.

Counterattack 2. It was not possible to achieve incredible eSports values, but at maximum settings you will see a stable 60 FPS.

The MSI Katana 17 B13VGK does not reach the maximum graphics levels, but can handle the game well at high settings.

On some projects, by setting the extreme performance mode you can achieve a stable 60 FPS even on ultra settings, but you should be prepared for fan noise. Without such a load, this is a quiet, not warm and productive laptop.

God of stealth. You should really try to get this laptop’s fans to make noise. In operating mode you simply forget any sound.

Perfect installation. And although the entire body of the device is made of plastic, there is nothing to complain about here: no backlash, no unnecessary noises.