---> The Official MSI GT60 and GT70 870m/880m Owners Lounge <---

I have not seen a thread like this yet and I am planning on ordering my GT60 form Xotic pc tomorrow. How is everyone liking theirs? I plan on getting the 870m and 16gb ram and thats about it. Thanks all

 

I got the GT 70 with gtx870m and its great so far.
Pros: Great display
Great Value (I think the cheapest model without windows is just about 1100 Euro)
Easy to maintain/upgrade
Great performance (I can play amlost all games in fullhd ultra settings with over 30 fps)
Solid built quality
Cons:The fan is pretty loud even in idle
Weight (its ok for a gaming laptop as long as you dont carry it with you everyday)
Only one fan(Although it remains cool while gaming I think it would be better to use two fans for higher cooling perfomance and maby less noise)

 

How heavy is it including the charger brick?

 

My GT70 2PC is 8.5lb on it's own and 10.96 lb with included 180W adapter & cord.

In my Everki Titan bag with all my stuff... I'm afraid to check.

 

Hello,

I have a MSI Whitebook MS-16F4-017.
Right now I'm planning to upgrade my Processor and Graphic Card.
I'm planning to upgrade to 880M with either 4900MQ or 4930MX.
Is it safe to upgrade?
Do you think it's worth it?
Which one do you suggest?
And did any of you have any experience with upgrading this specific Barebones?
The seller from eBay says that my current 770M heatsink will fit with the 880M, is it really so?
Do I nees custom BIOS or can I just use my current BIOS?

Thanks for your help. Really appreciate it.

Regards,

Yuri

 

Which card do you have? The 3gb vram or the 6gb vram? Gratz on your new purchase by the way ^^

 

Fan speed can be adjusted with svet's tool.

 

Hi, I ordered GT70 Dominator Pro 889 with 880M, which will arrive soon. I wonder what kind of screen protector (glossy or matte?) should I use with it as it will come with Anti-Glare FHD screen (matte?) already. If I put matte protector on matte screen, would that be a problem?

Or I should give up on screen protector altogether?

 

i have msi gt60 with 880m, anyone know where is the channel A dimm 1 with the 8gb kingston ram preinstalled by msi ? i want change this with crucial ballistix 1600mhz cl 9

 

There's no such need to get a screen protector for your screen, since it's unlikely to become scratched.
Rather, it's easier to crack the screen than scratching the surface of the screen.

 

2 slots under the keyboard, and 2 slots on the bottom.

 

He more means which of those does the 8 gig dimm come in from the factory. You can look through the vent holes or just remove the cover when you get it.

 

When the laptop comes with a single stick of RAM normally it is installed under the keyboard.

 

thank you, is a complex process to remove the keyboard? risk of damaging some component?

 

Just got my gt70 dominator 895! I'm working so it will stay in the box until I can get to it around 6 or 7pm

Sent from my Galaxy S5 using my neighbors internet

 

Not too complicated. You will need a flat head screwdriver to pop the power panel off and then a phillips screwdriver to remove the 5x screws from the keyboard. And that should be it. Good luck!

 

Hi guys,

Any problem with adapter being only 180W if no overclock for the version with 880M? And how much problem when overclocked?

 

on dell I sow reaching 212 w on normal use...i dont know how you use them with 180w

 

212w from the wall = roughly 180w supplied to the system (which is the number bricks are rated on)

 

It seems that 180W PSU without o/c should be fine, is this correct understanding?

Can I use 220W psu with modified jack to use with GT70 Dominaor Pro right away, or modified BIOS or EC is needed?

 

Modified EC will be needed but not even Svet can do this yet, except MSI themselves.
The laptop is only going to draw 180W, so even with a larger wattage transformer you will not be able to benefit from it.

 

Thank you for clarification.

 

Is the 880m a big step up from the 870m?

 

Depending on the game it can be. I'm getting up to 50% more FPS in watch dogs but it's more than just FPS, it's smoother overall too. I'm guessing the additional vram and bus width help is some situations as well as the additional shaders and clock speed. Benchmarks are about 20%-25% higher if I remember correctly.

 

My sd card reader doesnt work so I called MSI today and they had me update a driver and still a no go. I have to send this back to amazon and was thinking if I should upgrade to the 880m?

 

Are you still able to return it?

 

Yes Amazon has a 30 day return Policy I have had it since Friday..

 

It is a pricey upgrade, about $400 more on Amazon for 4GB more system memory and bump to the 880m. The 870 is a great card, I just wanted to try the 880 in the GT70 so I could compare. I'm expecting most games will be closer to the 20% gain in FPS but was surprised with how much better watch dogs runs. Granted my 880 machine has a better CPU too, and I also see now that it uses more than the 3GB vram that my 870 has in addition to that.

I'd say if you want the absolute best single GPU system you can buy, and it's worth $400 to you, then go for the 880m. If that $400 makes you cringe just thinking about it I would stick with the 870. I'm playing watch dogs at the same settings on both GPU's(ultra at 1080 with FXAA), its just that the 880 has higher FPS and doesn't go down as far during graphic intensive scenes. Sorry I haven't played any other new games yet to make other comparisons.

*Update*
I ran the Bioshock Infinite benchmark for something repeatable and defined, and it was 25% higher on the 880m

Ran MMX on both systems, same settings and resolution, and surprisingly it was 38 FPS on the 870. and 60 on the 880m. Again, over 50% difference.

 

It's sad you pick hardware based on how badly coded a game is these days rather than how good it looks.

The 880 will have an advantage but watchdogs is likely CPU throttled and not properly threaded.

 

Watch Dogs runs pretty smooth on my 870 with a little overclocking.

 

Anyway to turn off NOS? Sometime I just don't want battery drain and can accept reduce performance.

 

It's automatic and firmware controlled. You could remove the battery.

 

Does TDP indicate just heat or also power consumpsion? Upgrading from 4810MQ (TDP 47W) to 4940MX (57W) will more likely to get NOS kick in, while 4810MQ and 4910MQ (both 47W) will roughly the same in term of power consumed. Is this correct?

 

The xm will consume more power yes. The other two would be similar and would more matter how you did in the silicon lottery.

 

The unit may not have enough power to give that processor all the power it needs.
Best not to upgrade to such processor since its potential would be limited anyway.

 

Thank you both Meaker and Kevin. 4810MQ seems more suitable to this model.

 

The 4810MQ is a fine choice, the XM is only for those who intend to do extreme tweaking.

 

So after a week of testing and messing around with games I am starting to check the temps to see where they settled in at. My CPU has been peaking around 86C and my GPU around 93C after about an hour of watch dogs (ultra @ 1080p). I haven’t had any issues with bad throttling, I did see a little during these hour long sessions in the HWInfo64 logs but nothing even noticeable in game so I am ok with everything except the actual temps.

I have no interest in overclocking, I just want my CPU/GPU temps to be a little lower than that, especially the GPU. I already have a cooling pad with fans I crank up and I’ve been using the cooler boost too. I am currently messing around with CPU undervolt but it hasn’t noticeably helped from my in game testing. -80mv crashed the machine so -60 is about as far as I think I can go. I don’t really want to lower the CPU performance any, just a standard undervolt with stock settings.

Are there are recommendations with paste and pads for a GT70 with 880m? The simplest solution for me would be to use a paste I already have on hand and reuse any pads but I am not against buying new pads and a certain type of paste if you guys think it will help a little more. I would rather not paste multiple times, and honestly, I don’t think a repaste has every noticeably lowered my temps before any other time I’ve tried it. I am willing to give it a shot here because I love this machine and don’t want to fry it with hours of gaming every night.

I haven’t done as much detailed testing with other games but I do think older/less demanding games have lower temps, which is great, but I wanted to lower them a bit more if I can easily enough without sacrificing performance (hence the repaste). I wanted to add that Skyrim at 4k, ultra settings, plays and looks excellent, 50-60fps, many times locked at 60 (I have FPS limited to 60 in nvidia inspector). I know its 2 years old but wow, that impressed the heck out of me!

 

I once changed my pads to Phobya XT pads which suppose to be one of the best pad out there, but the result is hardly noticeable. So unless your old pads is worn a lot and need to be replaced, I think you should just reuse them.

People seems to like IC Diamond paste, but personally MX-4 is my choice as it is easy to apply and ICD can scratch the chip.

 

This thing is so much easier than older machines that I took apart, it's almost like they made it easy to work on, on purpose.

Good news is with a simple repaste my CPU dropped from 87 to 75. Same game, same play session, same settings and conditions. Bad news is the GPU didn't change at all, still 93 for most of gaming session. I'm not sure if I want to try to repaste again. I don't like the fact that I have to take 2 of the 3 screws off the CPU just to do the GPU. Those are the 2 screws holding the bridge to the CPU heat sink which also double to hold the heat sink itself down.

I really don't want to screw up the better CPU repaste job. I could give it a week or so to see if the new paste gets a little better over time.

*Maybe its just THAT intensive of a game for the temps to be any better and the paste job is actually fine? I know, I know, I'm just trying to talk myself into it being "ok". Maybe I'll try playing some of my other games for a few days and watch those temps and compare.

 

Possibly, what is your idle and ambient temp?

 

About 75F in my room.

I played Skyrim before I went to bed and the GPU hit 93C within 5 mins and the CPU was only in the 60's. I'm thinking I need to check it again tonight.

Both GPU temps (core/RAM) were about the same the whole time, but I noticed the thermal pads did not have any imprints of the RAM chips on them like the CPU thermal pads did. That would mean that the GPU core is making better contact and just the RAM should be overheating? Also the stock job had a pad folded over so it was double thickness on that one spot, I fixed that (assuming it was not intended anyway) thinking at the time it would solve my issues allowing for better contact on all the RAM.

 

I think your GPU temp is too high and may need repaste. Make sure the heat sink has a good contact with the chip and the paste applied to all area of the chip after got compressed by the sink. Don't worry too much about the pad, but make sure that changing the thickness in certain area didn't affect how well the heat sink contact with the main chip.

 

Well I'm officially frustrated now. Tried repasting my GPU 3 times now in total with no difference in max temps. It's funny how I dropped my CPU temps so easily but cannot seem to make any difference on my GPU. I still see that the pads are too thin to even make contact with the memory but I don't see any disparity between mem/core, both max at 93 still after an hour of Watch Dogs. The paste looks evenly spread out and I tried what I consider normal amount, a little more, and less, all with the same results.

I used AS5 that I had on hand, worked great for the CPU but maybe I should try another like MX4 for the GPU?

Also I was thinking of getting new pads for the memory but I need to know what thickness I should get since some of the stock ones are not even making contact. I would need some stock thickness and ones maybe 50% thicker I am guessing (1mm and 1.5mm??)

Lastly, maybe I should be patient and wait a bit, since AS5 does have a break in and maybe I will see some difference after many more hours of use? (CPU change was noticeable right away though).

*I did some additional testing with Skyrim tonight, and last night the GPU was peaking at 93 after a few mins, but tonight it's only peaking at 80. So I do think it's helped in one game, but it didn't help in another. Weird.

CPU temps I'm totally happy with now. Peaking around 70 in Watch Dogs and 56 in Skyrim. I am worried however the more I mess with the GPU the more likely I will mess up the paste on the CPU because the way you have to take 2/3 the screws from the CPU heat sink off to get the GPU heat sink off.

 

All games are not equally demanding on GPU, so temp will be different. I am not familiar with AS5 because I don't like conductive paste. How is the viscosity and thickness of it? From my experience, some paste are too thin as some notebook heatsink is not contact with the chip that well. Changing to more viscous and thick paste can help. I had the same frustration when I tried to repaste my GT683 2 years ago. All issues solved when I change to MX-4.

 

It's thin, not nearly as thick as MX4. I will order some of it and try to find some pads too. I'm messing with them more than I'd like and want to start fresh.

 

AS 5 is one of the worst current pastest - do some research; the difference yet isn't so big :
Results: Air-Cooled GPU; Medium Mounting Pressure - Thermal Paste Comparison, Part Two: 39 Products Get Tested

 

MX4 is not that thick in the world of thermal paste, a lot less than say ic diamond.

 

Thanks everyone, I have MX4 and new 1mm pads on the way.

I am thinking of doubling up some of the pads (unless the stock ones are .5mm) so they make contact with the memory, I would assume that's not as good as a single thicker pad, but way better than a gap between the pad and the chips. I may as well repaste the CPU with the MX4 when it gets here but with my repaste history I really hope I don't lose any ground since the CPU is perfect.

 

Be careful not to pay too much attention on the contact of the pads, which not as important as the actual chip itself. Using too thick a pad can make the heatsink to not fully in contact with the chip itself.