The Official MSI GS73VR Owners' Lounge

Hi, guys:

Welcome to MSI GS73 owners' lounge. I definitely think this is a great combination of power and the mobility. The key reason I choose 17" because I really want to have the 120Hz screen with 5ms response time !!!

I found a MSI 120Hz 5ms video on Youtube:


Equiped with Nvdia Pascal VR Ready graphic card GTX1060


The skus proposed by MSI
GS73VR 062
GS73VR 052
GS73VR 025

They also provide the 4k panel as option
GS73VR 016

Some support links
BIOS
Driver
Firmware
Manual
Utility
Mouse Driver


Video


Where to buy

MSI Pascal landing page

Comment:

• 3DMARK Fire Strike score: 9489 (test with MSI sporty shift mode)
  • Graohics score: 11 596
  • Graphic test1 : 54.53 FPS
  • Graphic test2: 46.88 FPS
  • Physic scor 9378
  • Physics test 29.77 FPS
  • Combined score: 4047
  • Combined test 18.83 FPS

• In-game test: Overwatch setting: 1920*1080/ Custom limit FPS/ EPIC graphic quality/ 100% Render Scale/ Local Fog detail Ultra/ Dynamic reflections high
  • FPS:97
  • TEM: 83°C
  • VRM: 1301MB
  • PMG: 61MS
  • RTT: 85MS
  • IND: 24M

• Noise and temparature: I don't have any device to test noise and temperature, so I only can judge with my perception. The temprature is always acceptable and never overheat during the game. I touch the hotest part with my hand but I just feel warm. According to their product pages, they use 3 fans and 5 heatpipes for the cooling and one of 3 fans is a big fan with very thin blades. Really curious how they put 3 fans in a slim model as GS73. as caitsith01 said, it's quieter than I expect. With AC on on my home, I barely heart the noise when runing the Fire Strike test. With my AC off, I can hear the fan is runing. not really noisy but the frequency is kind of high, which I don't like.

"In progress"

 

Are you currently using one? What kind of gaming performance are you getting?

 

I just ordered from newegg and waiting its arrival. I'm really not good on gaming performance test but I will update the basic test results. I think they claim around 40% or 50% of performance enhencement than 970M.

 

Would be very interested in how hot/loud it gets under gaming load, and how hot/loud it is doing ordinary websurf / photo editing / office work.

I was not impressed with the 70 or 72. The gtx 1060 as a design runs hotter than the gpus they had in those.

 

I can't wait to hear how you like it. Please keep us updated.

 

Nice to see this lounge.
Do add any info that might be useful to the OP. Users who browse these forums, and who are looking for more info on the specific notebook, will really appreciate it as all the info in neatly in one post. Thank you

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

I had one in my hot little hands, but there was a problem with it. I posted about it over at reddit, so I'll repost here:

 

@caitsith01, thank you for the review
I should say, you are more thorough than most of the initial reviews around the web at this time regarding these notebooks hehe kudos for that

Cooling i guess should be essentially similar on the GS63VR and the GS73VR. If im not wrong, both use the same design cooling solution. Its really good to know that your temps were around 60-70c. Im guessing with something like a witcher 3, temps will be lower 80s and high 70s. But im hoping for 80c max . Most of the reviews up until now say around 78c internal temps.

So did you RMA?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Thanks caitsith01 posted the review before I got mine. I will check the problem you mention. nice they took this as DOA. I checked, all MSI 120 Hz panels aren't IPS. It should be wide view TN panel or something with 94% NTSC gamut according the spec chart. Anyway, this doesn't bother me.

 

MSI agreed to treat it as DOA and so I am entitled to a new one (or I can just cancel what is now effectively a pre-order, because that was the only one in stock at the place I bought it).

I would think the size difference between the 63 and 73 would make the 73 slightly quieter and cooler. Just more materials to absorb and dissipate heat, and more separation between components.

 

Where are you getting that info? At least some articles suggest that at least some of the 120Hz panels are IPS, e.g.:

http://www.overclock3d.net/news/gpu...release_a_notebook_with_a_120hz_ips_display/1

 

Is seems that the 120hz screen ares avha which is kind of a IPS design. Better then TN.

 

I have one on the way. I picked the GS73 since it's the thinnest/lightest/cheapest option currently available to feature the 120Hz screen. This will be my first gaming laptop and I'm not sure I want to put up with a beast like the GT73.

Anyone doing a fresh OS install? Does the laptop come with a certificate sticker with the license key?

 

When you guys get your new GS73s, can you please do some gaming benchmarks? Really interested in seeing the temps. Would really appreciate that. Many people are reporting high temps for pascal, but the few initial results from GS43 users here and some GS63 results from reddit and some websites gives me hope for near 80s temps. Seriously hope it wont go into high 80s internally.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Stopped by my local Fry's where they have one on display and ran Fire Strike that comes with the machine.

 

Nice. My local frys also has them in stock. I'll stop by on Friday on the way home from my trip and check it out. This laptop is the other one I'm interested in besides the gt62vr with a 1070.

The 1060 in my GT62vR that I will return for one of these is great and I would be happy with a 1060 and 120hz display.

One thing I won't settle for is high temps, throttling GPUs or extremely or uncomfortably warms palm rests and keyboards.

Can someone please make a video of firestrike or games with temps and frequencies overlaid on screen.

 

Can owner confirmed that this GS73 has G-Sync?

 

How is the battery runtime? The one from the GS63VR is quite low. I hope it is a bit better with the larger battery in the GS73VR

 

Mine is also on his way
Should get it mid next week.

Why this one ?
- the pre-reviews online sound amazing,
- last gen GPU
- design, not a huge monster (was hesitating with the GT series)
- the cooling system has been improved since the last version
- apparently the 120hz screen is really a plus, especially if you play FPS (Overwatch <3).

I ll post my feedback once I get it

 

Got mine yesterday, I'm Australian so my regions model may vary slightly.

Thoughts so far. Playing Doom at 110 FPS at Nightmare settings on a notebook is insane.

Build quality is excellent.

Keyboard is so pretty and colourful.

No idea how but this thing is so thin and there are no wasted edges. It literally (just) fits inside my satchel which was designed for a 15" MacBook Pro. Weird but I am not complaining.

Removed the ****ty mechanical drive and replaced it with a 2.5 1TB SSD. God why do they ship these with such terrible old tech?

The bloatware is awful. Spent an hour removing everything. Norton.. lol, Jesus.

I was worried a GTX1060 would not meet my needs but the 1070 machines are all mammoth and thick. No thanks. Surprisingly the GS73 is disgracefully light and I can't tell the difference with it in my satchel compared to the MPB 15" (Retina)

God it really does decimate modern games. At full fan noise it is not obnoxiously loud like my Alienware 17r3. They are still noticeable in a quiet room though.

The companion iPhone app is a nice touch, you can check temp, system status etc in realtime and also change the keyboard colours. Pretty sweet.

Brushed aluminium feels sturdy and elegant. It isn't a plastic piece of crap like the Alienware 17

It is half the thickness of my Alienware and gets double the framerate and quieter.

Going to try VR tonight. At medium settings I expect great results. I have a desktop for that though it's just a nice to have when I demo VR at work.

120hz screen. Wow! Though getting to 120hz with a 1060 is a bit of a stretch at high settings.

Oh man thunderbolt 3 is nice. I can also use an external thunderbolt amp now if I ever need it. Awesome.

Proper ports! 3 USB 3.1, DisplayPort, HDMI 2.0, USB2.... Love it.

Do not like the MSI logo on the front. It is as tacky as the Alienware logo. FFS I am an adult, just make it all uniform without plastering your embarrassing logos on the cover. Looking for a skin now.

2799 was a steal considering my Alienware cost 3400 five months ago and is inferior in every single way.

Make sure you register your new machine as MSI give you an extra 3 months on your warranty. Pretty cool.

I ran a heaven benchmark stress test on extreme for four hours. 85 degrees Celsius was the heat ceiling.

I don't think it has GSync. Some sites say it does but it sure isn't in my Nvidia control panel.

Don't regret my purchase at all. Solid machine

 

Can't wait to have mine !!!

 

I travel for a living and have been lugging large laptops around for over 15 years because I like good gaming performance, my current one is a MSI GT70 from 2012, it has served me well but its gaming life is over and I'm shopping around. On my layovers I use my laptop as an entertainment base, I charge my phone, plug in a mouse and N52 gaming pad, and use Bluetooth to play music from my phone. In some situations I have many hours to game. This leads me to a couple of questions.

How do the speakers sound?, I'm not expecting too much but the ones on the GT70 are pretty good and would like them to be similar.

After hours of use what wat the temperature of the palm rests and keyboard?

These other questions a good to.

Thanks

 

NO G-sync

 

Has Optimus but external ports are routed to the dgpu so you can use VR.

 

It would be great if the battery runtime could be estimated as Optimus should provide a good oportunity for a long runtime

 

I let it run on battery downloading steam games and playing some music, it's got terrible battery life. You wouldn't last more than 3 hours max with light use.

 

No throttling? How is temps and fan noise? I am comparing this with ASUS GL502VS, that has G-Sync, but 60Hz.

Which model do you prefer?

 

Fans are very quiet even at full load. The temps hit 85 Celsius in an extreme heaven 4 hour stress test. I'm Shocked to be honest. My 2016 Alienware r3 is twice the weight and thickness and is noisy as hell.

 

Thanks. I hoped for a little more

 

does anyone think that MSI will launch gs73 with 1070 gtx?

 

Just got one of these bad boys. So far I'm really liking it. I can answer any questions anyone has but I should have a formal review up in a few days. Anyone else's unit have sharp edges on the bottom?

 

Not a chance. The thermal comfort zone for manufacturers is around 85C and the 1060 already hits that.

 

Optimus and no g-sync.. Hmm yea maybe I won't be looking at this laptop anymore. Yes it has that 120hz and form factor I like but the higher thermals, 1060, no Gsync and Optimus are now making me not want to even consider this unit. I can't believe they didn't include Gsync and still used ****ty Optimus which does cause issues occasionally.

Looks like GT62 with 1070 it is. I was leaning towards it anyways for the powerhouse performance it offers and has Gsync and no Optimus.

 

I can see how this panel could be confused with TN. At first glance, I thought the same and I haven't been able to look up the actual spec sheet of the panel to confirm or deny it. The viewing angles are pretty good, like most IPS screens are, but the extreme horizontal viewing angles actually change and invert the colors, which is the drawback of TN. What's weird though is the viewing angle from above is ok but the underneath angle is what screws with the colors. It might be IPS still but it's unlike any I have seen before(and I've seen a lot). Even if it is TN, it's extremely nice to look at and the 120Hz refresh rate is a huge bonus. Also, I calibrated the display and they aren't kidding about the color space. I got 88% aRGB, which is pretty darn good.

Their true color software is kind of cool but it ultimately screws up your viewing angles and brightness, so I uninstalled it.

 

Any way to disable Optimus and allow the dGPU to drive the internal screen directly? Some screenshots or pics of relevant settings would be greatly appreciated.

 

Nothing in the bios. It could be included in the bios update though. There's an option in Advanced that includes a UEFI bios upgrade to ver1.4 of AptioV. I have no idea what that means but I'm leaving it alone for now. There were a couple other interesting settings which I took a picture of. Swapping the Win and Fn key is pretty cool, given the key caps reliably come off somehow. Also there's a setting to update the Thunderbolt firmware, which may or may not have to do with the messy release of Thunderbolt 3 GPUs and their incompatibility with certain laptops. I plan on testing this with my Razer Core sometime soon.

Edit: nm, I just did a search on the text I saw and it's just an option to update the TB and UEFI firmware. It's not done through windows, only via thumb drive in this menu.

 

Thanks for digging around.

Without the option to turn off Optimus, the 120Hz screen seems wasted.

 

Why's that? I can see a huge difference in gaming.

 

Mmm, right, it's still better than being limited to 60Hz.

I was hoping that the 120Hz screen would eventually get certified for G-sync and give me a desktop-level gaming experience.

Have you tried hooking the laptop up to an external 120Hz+ monitor? I wonder how much performance Optimus is costing. Does it add noticeable lag?

Also, how far does the screen open?

 

I only have a 120Hz monitor that takes dvi-d unfortunately.

It opens about the same as the gs60 and gs70 did. I don't have an exact measurement but it's about average. Not 180 degrees like the GS63VR unfortunately.

 

Here is the latest word from MSI:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...for-the-msi-rep-2.795226/page-3#post-10326270

We started a thread for GT72/GT80 owners to discuss the upgrades:

GT72/GT72S and GT80/GT80S Owners GPU Upgrade Discussion
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...0-gt80s-owners-gpu-upgrade-discussion.795236/

 

That's pretty cool of them. With Alienware they just brick your machines with ****ty untested bios updates.

 

Yes! I only noticed when I replaced the HDD and I thought did I not screw the base back on tight enough? It's not cut me sharp but it is indeed quite sharp

 

Yep that's the same for me to.

I am curious if we will ever be able to swap the card running the main display but I believe it's hard wired? I tried disabling the Intel card and it basically made both cards stop working

 

Does this monitor is IPS? or TN?

 

Apparently it's not a TN or IPS, some kind of weird in between.

 

And here is the first in-depth review by Notebookcheck !!!

http://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-GS73VR-6RF-Notebook-Review.172138.0.html

Must say it s kinda satisfying.

 

It's an "IPS level" TN

 

Not thrilled about those fan noise levels.

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

I haven't found it to be that bad yet. The dB may be high but the tone is pretty good on the ears. Compared to the GS60 and the P35X, it's an improvement.