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| The MSI laptop can draw as much as 250 W when gaming even though the AC adapter itself is rated for only 240 W |
When it comes to gaming laptops, the battle between performance and portability is a never-ending tug-of-war. But one of the most overlooked battlegrounds in this fight isn't the CPU or the GPU—it's the humble AC adapter sitting in your bag.
For the new MSI Crosshair A16 HX, the power supply situation is raising eyebrows. While the laptop packs some serious heat with its AMD Ryzen 9 8940HX processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 graphics, the included 240-watt power brick might be cutting things a little too close for comfort.
Here is a deep dive into why this "small" adapter choice matters for your gaming sessions, battery health, and overall performance.
The Math of Power: Why 240W vs. 250W Matters
If you’ve been keeping up with the latest hardware, you know that the components inside the Crosshair A16 HX are power-hungry beasts. In our rigorous testing, we found that the system’s average power consumption while gaming pushes nearly 250 watts.
This creates an immediate mathematical dilemma: if the laptop needs 250W to run at full tilt, but the AC adapter is only rated for 240W, where does that extra 10W come from?
The short answer is: it doesn’t. The laptop is forced to tap into the battery to make up the difference. This has two immediate consequences that could impact your user experience, especially if you like to keep your machine plugged in during intense gaming marathons.
The Thermal and Charging Trade-off
One of the first things we noticed when putting the MSI Crosshair A16 HX through its paces was the charging behavior under load. When you are gaming and attempting to charge the battery simultaneously, the charging rate slows to a crawl. Because the system is prioritizing power delivery to the CPU and GPU to maintain frame rates, very little wattage is left over to top up the battery cells.
For a detailed breakdown of the laptop's overall performance, thermals, and display quality, check out our comprehensive full review: MSI Crosshair A16 HX E8WGK review - Ryzen 9 Zen 4 outperforming Ryzen 9 AI Zen 5.
Beyond the sluggish recharging, there is a physical price to pay for this power deficit: heat. When an AC adapter runs at or near its maximum rated capacity for extended periods, it naturally gets hot. However, in the case of the Crosshair A16 HX, the thermal output is notably intense.
During a session of Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing enabled, we measured the surface temperature of the 240W adapter reaching nearly 60 degrees Celsius. For context, most other gaming laptop adapters we test usually hover in the 45 to 50°C range under similar loads. That extra 10°C might not seem like much on paper, but it can be concerning for users who keep the brick resting on a desk, or worse, on their lap.
The Portability vs. Performance Conundrum
So, why would MSI skimp on the wattage? The answer is almost certainly portability. A 280W adapter—which would comfortably cover the 250W draw with plenty of headroom—would undoubtedly be larger and heavier.
For the frequent flyer or the commuter, carrying a massive power brick defeats the purpose of buying a somewhat sleek 16-inch gaming laptop. The 240W adapter is noticeably more manageable to toss into a backpack.
However, for the "performance hunters" who paid a premium for the Ryzen 9 8940HX and RTX 5070, the 240W limitation is a bottleneck they didn't ask for. While the machine is still incredibly fast, the reality is that you aren't getting the absolute maximum "Turbo Boost" potential simultaneously with maximum charging speeds unless you opt for a larger, aftermarket power supply.
The Verdict on the Adapter
Ultimately, the choice of adapter for the MSI Crosshair A16 HX is a polarizing design decision.
If you are a portability seeker who rarely games at full load while the battery is critically low, the 240W adapter is a blessing. It keeps your carry weight down while still delivering enough juice to handle most competitive esports titles without issue.
Conversely, if you are a performance extremist—someone who expects 100% CPU and GPU utilization for hours on end without the battery dropping a single percentage point—you may find this adapter severely underpowered. You might be looking for a larger third-party solution to truly unlock the full potential of this AMD and NVIDIA powerhouse. In that case, you might have to sacrifice a bit of bag space for that extra 40 watts of peace of mind.
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| Thermal map of MSI 240 W AC adapter when running Cyberpunk 2077 |