Maingear Pulse 15 3K Gaming Laptop Review

The Pulse 15 managed playable framerates in Metro Last Light at 1920x1080 with an average of 32fps, though things can get choppy at times. To play a game like this on the Pulse 15, some visual quality concessions (motion blur might be a good one to uncheck) will need  to be made in order to maintain smooth on-screen action.

Running the same benchmark with a 3K resolution, the Pulse 15 was able to complete the benchmark run, albeit the 10.33fps average is far from being playable. We don't have a 3K score for MSI's machine because it was overheating and throttling in this benchmark.

Bioshock Infinite DirectX Gaming Performance

Bioshock Infinite

BioShock Infinite is clear game-of-the-year material. The floating city of Columbia is one of the most evocative, intense, and gorgeous environments we've ever seen in a PC game -- but how much you like it may depend on what sort of visual wizardry you prefer. BioShock Infinite is built on Unreal Engine 3, and while it pushes that framework's capabilities into the stratosphere, there's a clear difference between BioShock Infinite and, say, Crysis 3. BioShock Infinite emphasizes light, color and motion, and while the characters look more exaggerated and cartoon-like than some other games, they still look great. We tested the game at 1920x1080 with its DX11 code path with DOF effects enabled.

There's no concern over playable framerates in BioShock Infinite. At 1920x1080, the Pulse 15 averaged nearly 54fps, giving itself lots of headroom to contend with more demanding scenes. That score also plops the Pulse 15 right in between the Alienware 17 and MSI GT60 Dominator Pro.

At its native 3K resolution, framerates fell to just under 22fps on average, just below the threshold of being playable. Bear in mind this is with the Ultra Quality setting -- a little bit of tweaking the system settings would likely allow BioShock Infinite to be played on the Pulse 15 at 3K. 

Hitman: Absolution DirectX 11 Gaming Performance

Hitman: Absolution

Hitman: Absolution follows Agent 47, a cold-blooded assassin, who takes on his most dangerous contract to date. Betrayed by those he once trusted - and now hunted by the police - he suddenly finds himself at the center of a dark conspiracy and must embark on a personal journey through a corrupt and twisted world. We tested the game at 1920x1080 with all in-game options set to their maximum values and global illumination and 4X anti-aliasing enabled.

We wrapped things up with our Hitman: Absolution benchmark, and once again, we see the Pulse 15 managing playable framerates at 1920x1080p, though it takes the bottom slot behind the Alienware 17 and MSI GT60 Dominator Pro systems. That said, we like that even the minimum framerate in this test stayed above 25fps.

Moving up to a 3K resolution, the Pulse 15 again showed that it really doesn't have the hardware to play demanding games at its native resolution, which isn't too surprising.  However, again, dial back AA and the machine would definitely scale higher.