The Official MSI GS73VR Owners' Lounge

Hey guys. Proud owner of the GS73VR here. Had it for about a month games flawlessly and love everything about it however I noticed this weird (hard drive spinning?) type of noise when i play a video. When I pause it the sound becomes almost non existant but it's still there. Anyone else with this issue? Could it be from Realtek or Nahimic? I'm already out of the 30 day return period and MSI says the turn around time will be 10-25 business days and that is not acceptable for me as I use it for business as well. Also I can hear something inside the laptop when i move it side to side, it sounds like maybe 1 screw is loose but I can't be sure. Please help

 

Is it on the upper right(edit)? If so, it's coil whine from the cpu.

 

Ahh it does seem like it is from the upper right but I would have to check again. Damn I didn't think mine had coil whine since I always gamed on it with headphones on. What do you think is the sound internally? The loose screw type thing. It doesn't make the noise all the time but once in awhile its there.

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

 

Yeah, there are a couple noises with this Skylake CPU unfortunately. One is the noise you're hearing and another is heard through a higher pitch and generally through the fan. It's across all systems I've had with that CPU.

Not sure about the internal noise. Could be a broken plastic tab or something. You could open it up to remove it but it might be a lot of work if it's under the motherboard.

 

To those who uninstalled Dragon center and stuff, what about SCM?

Also if I uninstall dragon center, how can I keep my turbo/boost CPU speeds (as opposed to stock speed)? What about the FN keys? This thread has been very educational so thanks to everyone.

And what's x-boost? First time hearing about that!

 

Afterburner will let you overclock. I personally just leave it alone since the overclock isn't all that much.

I don't have SCM installed either.

Fn keys work fine. I think those are bundled with SteelSeries, which is the only MSI app I have installed.

 

i have another noise that is not so bothersome but definitely there. bottom left corner near the mic/headphones port there will randomly be a hard disk type noise HOWEVER i have removed the hard disk and replaced it with an EVO 1tb ssd. i have heard it with the speakers completely muted (lowered volume when i heard it) and also with fans on high and low and off. it sounds like static mixed with hard disk noises, very faint, and if the fans on high you cannot hear it at all.

heard it with Nahamic installed and uninstalled. so i don't think it's related to that.

right now i'm typing i cannot hear it so it is random, if i can replicate it i will post back later.

 

You want to disable x-boost, both options - they generate a load to fool the OS into better throughput, but for some reason stays loaded and active when no or low activity is happening and creates a constant 20% - 100% CPU load.

This phantom CPU load has confounded many until the X-boost function of MSI Dragon Gaming Center options were found to be the culprits - before this completely uninstalling MSI DGC was the only solution.

 

Wanted to chime in and confirm that uninstalling Dragon Center gave me substantial FPS boosts in games. I kept SCM because I've gotten used to it -- removing it didn't seem to affect performance at all (though please let me know if it does affect performance). I didn't use Afterburner or any other form of OC. I'm on Win10 using the latest Nvidia drivers.

Are there any alternatives to Dragon Center? It's not worth the performance cost but I do miss it.

 

Anyone try undervolting to help it run cooler?

 

MSI GS73VR Stealth Pro, is the world’s slimmest but powerful gaming notebook

 

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Coil whine isn't really a defect but it's more like tolerance issue upon higher clocks. However, you can still do an exchange with your vendor if it gets onto your nervous, or you can ask MSI to replace the main board.

 

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Coil whine is related to power choke when they are under stress/exceeding spec, some have better tolerance than others so that really depends. But you know what your option is therefore in case you can't live with it anymore you can always get it fixed.

 

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The touchpad buttons (left one specifically) on my GS73VR have repeatedly gotten stuck in a depressed/clicked state. Saw several customer reviews mentioning this issue (they returned the laptop) so it may be a common or standard defect. Usually I can just slap the keyboard deck and the touchpad will reset itself but I got it permanently stuck yesterday. Had remove the back panel to remount it and put a piece of cardboard under it to prevent it from happening again. I almost stripped half the tiny screws in the process. Hope I can get replacements.

 

Can you install micron m600 m.2 ssd with gs73vr? I just picked 1 up and it looks really small.

 

Should be ok. As long as it's 80mm long, it should fit fine.

 

It's smaller around 6x mm. But xoticpc has it as an option for upgrade. So I'm guessing it should work?

 

There's an 80mm version of it too I think. It'll still work if it's short but you'll have to tape it down. Have some kapton tape on standby, just in case.

 

Thanks! Yea looks like the description of the product was 2280, but when I got it it's actually 2260. Do you suggest I still use it even if it means taping it down?

 

As long as it's secure, it won't matter. The motherboard is inverted anyways so it's really unlikely it'll pop out.

 

To avoid the uncertainty of securing the wrong sized part, you should return it and get what fits correctly from the start. The pressure applied by the socket naturally pushes the card up and out, so the card needs that retaining screw to hold it in.

IDK where you bought it, but some Amazon ad's represent several card options, you might have selected the wrong one when ordering.

I'd note the seller's name and if you can't find a reason they sent you the wrong size, options in the listing, then pick another seller for the next purchase of a 2280.

 

Hi everyone!
I'm thinking about buying a GS73VR with 120Hz screen.
Does any owner know the possible refresh rates for the 120Hz version of GS73VR? Can it be set to only 120Hz? Or 60Hz/120Hz? Or 40Hz/60Hz/75Hz/120Hz?
I'm asking because for games like csgo, GTX 1060 can easily acieve 120+ fps + VSync; but for games like Battlefield and Assassin's Creed, they are graphic intensive and can't get to 120+ fps easily, so it may be a better idea to set the refresh rate to 60Hz + VSync.

 

This is something to characterize by carefully constructed testing, as I am not sure what the best way to approach this would be.

Off-hand, you could keep the refresh at 120hz, and use a Frame Limiter to limit the FPS to a multiple of 30 FPS - 30 FPS / 60 FPS / 90 FPS / 120 FPS depending on the average FPS of a game, set the Frame limit to just below that as a multiple of 30 FPS.

Not sure how the screen will react to changing the refresh, but if there are no anomolies introduced by setting the refresh to 30hz / 60hz / 90hz when default is 120hz, that would make it easier - vsync / gsync at the closest multiple of 30hz below the game average.

The reason I mention the two directions to try is because someone mentioned trying to OC the 120hz display and it not responding well to even 1hz off default.

There might be a problem with setting the 120hz screen to a custom refresh rate, so the frame limiter method might be a good alternative.

Can someone please check if the 120hz screen will take a custom refresh for 60hz, 90hz, and 30hz?

 

But... but... will a frame rate limiter work well with VSync?

I mean, the entire objective here is to make the gameplay smooth, and I saw that, in many games, there is an option for setting the refresh rate and an option for toggling VSync.

So if I, say, limit the refresh rate to 90Hz using in-game setting and turn on V-Sync using in-game setting, will there be any "imcompatibilities"?(In this case the physical refresh rate of the monitor is 90Hz)

Or, if, as you said, using frame rate limiter and limit fps to 90fps(but the physical refresh rate of the monitor is still 120Hz), will VSync work?(Because I thought VSync's mechanism is to sync the frame rate with the refresh rate, no?)

Sorry for my ignorance on this subject, I've never used a monitor/laptop with refresh rate above 60Hz =_= ......

 

Yes, that's the catch, you need a game that will vsync to a rate different than the refresh, if the refresh can't be set to anything other than 120hz.

If you can set the display refresh to a custom setting, and the game either automatically reads the refresh and vsync's to it, or you can set a custom vsync - like to 30hz/60hz/90hz, then that would work too.

If you can't change the refresh or the vsync to match refresh at a lower FPS - say if your game average FPS is well below 120 FPS so it can't G-sync / V-sync to the default 120hz refresh, then a frame limiter can be used to a "multiple" of the refresh, like 30/60/90 fps, which should sync up well enough to not show tearing.

Someone needs to verify that the 120hz display can be set to a custom refresh lower than 120hz. And, if a custom vsync can be set to a fractional multiple of 120hz.

If you have ever had a 60hz display, but a game can't do 60 FPS, and adjusted the refresh and vsync to 30hz (or 40hz), that is the same idea.

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~~ right... thanks, i'll follow up when i get the laptop~~

 

Gs73 supposedly has 3 fans?

In Dragon Center it only shows 2 fans, CPU and GPU

You can only control those 2 fans in the settings.

So where's the 3rd fan?

 

(I won't have this laptop until in two days.)

But I believe the two fans next to GPU are controlled simultaneously, i.e. they are always at the same speed.

 

the gpu fans work as a pair

 

I have found Dragon Center profiles buggy. Especially Sport. Audio hangs and even some mouse stutters occur.

I like Dragon Center as a central monitoring device so I choose to run it with Power Options which default to Windows settings of High or Balanced etc. I do use custom fan settings with 100% as the 4th stage on both CPU and GPU. Without this is noticed the CPU hitting 95c easily. Now it's 89c max so far.

I have xboost off and monitor color set to Gamer with a slightly warm tint. Gamer seems to be the brightest setting.

Most intense games I'm playing at max is SW Battlefront but anti aliasing off or else it crashes. And Witcher 3 at max. All run beautifully and I'm never going back to a smaller screen than 17 inch. I still have my GS60 15INCH and it just feels so small and cramped now.

 

Anyone 100% coil whine free?

 

Got (finally) the GS734K, came with the AUO IPS panel but it shows very strong color banding, every gradient shows as a series of distinct bands, it's awful.
Even the default MSI desktop background shows bands of grey instead of a gradient to the right, where it fades to (almost) black. The red "explosion" around "MSI" is made of separate red circles instead of a gradient.
The MSI DragonCenter and all that software have lots of gray gradients but, on my screen, they all show like separate gray bands. On the MSI website itself, that gray gradient menu is made of 7 distinct horizontal grey bands on my screen.

Until now I tried:
- resetting the default W10;
- uninstalling and reinstalling the nvidia and intel drivers;
- playing with the TrueColor software;
- installing a completely different W10 from different media;
- booting W10 into the safest possible mode, without any drivers and software;
- installing Ubuntu (yeah);
- installing back the original W10 from restore.
Same problem every time.

For example, when I start the W10 color calibration tool (that one with the guy and the black/white shirt), the black shirt is a series of distinct gray/grayer bands no matter what I do. The banding is awful on darker tones and less of a problem on lighter ones.

With a screen testing software, the gradient test on my screen starts with 1cm-wide dark-grey bars then (instead of, you know, a gradient).
For example or a website like http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gradient.php... On my old cheap laptop it shows as a gradient, on this new expensive monster it's a list of separate gray bands.

Anybody having the same problem?

 

GS73 Stealth Pro 4K from XoticPC, has the AUO IPS panel but it shows heavy banding, every gradient shows like very distinct bands of grays (it's excessive on darker tones, more acceptable on lighter ones).
I tried installing a fresh W10, then a W7, then W10 back, playing with True Color, booting with or without the drivers loaded, upgrading BIOS/EC, no change.
What should I do next?

 

Another smaller problem, not related to display banding one:
- bought this GS73 4K from XoticPC;
- I asked them, on chat, if the default SSD is PCIe, as it says on msi.com. They said yes, I also got the copy of this chat through email;
- I ordered it with the default SSD, the only customisation was a 2TB HDD instead of 1TB;
- the MSI sticker on the palm rest says PCIe SSD (without any "optional" under it);
- but it came with a SATA SSD.

Is this normal, is this GS73 Stealth Pro 4K expected to come with a SATA SSD by default, or is it a "trick" of XoticPC?

 

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What's the part number of the SSD?

 

Yeah, my banding sounds worse...




See the full collection, original sizes, at https://goo.gl/photos/otN9Cp79hEUpLTpy6. Pictures taken 20min ago with my phone in this very room.
(those silver symbols on the right of the MSI logo are some letters left from XOTICPC, those guys thought to "personalize" my laptop even if I ordered it without any personalization)

 

It's HFS512G35MND-3510A, a Hynix M2 SATA drive.

 

Regarding the screen banding issue, see here:


Full collection of pictures are at https://goo.gl/photos/otN9Cp79hEUpLTpy6

 

I checked and it is true that GS73VR came with SATA M.2 SSD but not PCIe M.2 SSD, specifically on the sub-model 016 and 025.

 

Wow, that's awful. It looks like the color depth is set to 8 or 16 bit. Did you check that? To my knowledge, that should be locked to 32 bit but I think if the wrong display drivers are loaded, it can be toggled. Sometimes when Intel graphics isn't recognized correctly, a default Windows display driver is used and it uses a bare bones color profile with limited framerates. I'm sure you probably checked that but it might be worth double checking.

Here's what mine looks like on lagom lcd banding test. I have the same panel as you.

 

I tried all possibilities, from installing a different copy of W10 to another W7 then Ubuntu then W10 again, nothing. I tried with and without the latest drivers, same thing.
(it's not in 16bit cause natural images, those without gradients, display somehow OK. Also the banding is more pronounced on dark tones and way more on R than G and B)
The only thing that's still so-so is the fact that, even if it looks like updating, the BIOS is not actually updating. I'm installing the latest but, immediately after, that MSI software reports the same old version. I just hope that finally, when (and if) that newer BIOS will update, something will change.

 

How did you do the BIOS/EC update? Did you do it within the Windows?

 

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@Kevin No, put the file on USB, go into BIOS, select UEFI update, blablabla, end, reboot, it starts to BIOS by itself, updates, restarts, bang!, same BIOS.