The Official MSI GT70-2OD Owner's Lounge

You're right. I won't be testing it long though. Gotta pop it back out, and give them back. This is just to see if they work. Laptop is opened up and ready to go. As soon as I take some screen shots, I'll post them on the barebones section, since it is running on a barebone machine...

 

I went unplugged tonight and it stayed Orange, I'd like to extend my battery as much as possible any way to check settings somehow?

 

If you have steam running in the background that will keep your dedicated GPU running as will MSI afterburner or GPUZ .

It should not be hard to figure out what is keeping your dedicated GPU active just by shutting down a couple things.

Considering they have that red/white light now its going to be even easier then ever to figure out what triggers it which i really think is great.

 

Agreed Quad, I also tried to give him/her a heads-up, but I think reason has given way to exuberance. At some point it becomes a bit annoying...... like the Geico Pig that constantly goes, 'Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!' Eventually you feel like it's time to BBQ that sucker.

(fire'in up my smoker!)

 

Oh okay thanks!!

Is there a way that I can edit the settings of the power options and have them stick? Each time I change back to gaming it keeps removing the ability to put the display to sleep after 10 minutes. If I change using the SCM, it reverts back to what MSI has put as the default way to do.

Thanks a bunch so far with all the tips.

 

Two bugs I've discovered with SCM so far:
(Both have to do with sleep mode).

1. With a mouse plugged in - After awaking the GT70 from sleep, the touch pad is no longer dissabled (need to press the enable/dissable button to re-activate the touch pad lock).

2. Cannot change keyboard LED colours after awaking GT70 from sleep.
The keyboard colour utility will launch and show any changes you make, however the keyboard itself will not respond to these changes.

 

That said, I don't think it actually will use the Nvidia GPU while your unplugged.
I comfirmed this while playing a steam game (launching it directly from steam) and the in-game performance clearly took a hit compared to when the laptop is plugged in and using the 780m.

 

Didn't mean to annoy you all... My laptop is all setup. Wanted to share what I was learning. I'm usually not on forums, nor understand what is considered to be double post or not. Anyhoo, Thanks for all the help. Best of luck to all! I'm out.

 

It will use the Nvidia GPU on battery but yes it is massively underclocked because the battery could never sustain that kind of load running the CPU and GPU at full tilt without killing it.

MSI it is not so much annoying as it is not how you do things around here and the veterans of the boards get a little more annoyed then most people. I know you were so excited and new here so i figured you might catch on after a few people told you to knock it off so i tried to explain it again.

Double posting would be posting a comment then coming right back and posting another comment but not in the same space as your old one using the Edit Post button . There should always be someone else who posted in between what you said last otherwise that is considered a double post.

So next time you post if you have a new idea or a comment just edit you're old one and add to that one instead of creating a whole new one. It is not really hard to grasp how it all works and you will eventually notice how you're comments are stacked like bricks one after the other which is a no no .

 

post #855, 856. This is not a full answer but:

The profiles are located at C:\Program Files (x86)\SCM\MSIECO. Listed as .eps files. Need to find a way of editing them.

 

Thanks for posting that Dave. Hope my previous post didn't cause thrash where I couldn't get it to install. Brand new to Windows 8 and didn't realize that I needed to disable driver signing on every reboot. Worked like a champ! 3DMark (new version) scores up 5-10% across the board. Default Fire Strike from 4663 to 5002. FPS in combined test (most punishing) from 8.89 to 9.92 for 11.5% increase. Very pleased.

Also, I know people are saying just wait and all will be fine without having to mod .inf files, but I'm still spooked by nVidia's auto detect telling me that "Your product manufacturer requires you to download a driver for your device from their website". Maybe that's just what the installer defaults to if it can't find a supported driver, but it seems pretty specific. My way old Alienware had this as did an old Dell XPS and its one reason I switched to Sager for my last 2. If MSI really is going this way, it'll be bad news in a year when they stop updating drivers, unless they're way more attentive to legacy products than all the other manufacturers.

 

Do not even worry about the current driver issue . MSI is not alone on this as other people from other manufactured laptops are facing the same issue. Sometimes it just takes them longer to add the device ID's but eventually every new driver release will have it and all will be back to normal as it already should be. There is always a lag from release of the new machines for some reason or the other .

 

You should only have to disable driver signing once to install the modified drivers. When you reboot it will automatically be enabled again.

 

For those who don't know:

the 4900MQ (I think also the 4700MQ & 4800MQ) can be overclocked easily using the intel XTU utility (needs to be version 3.2. latest version doesn't work). Even though they are not extreme processors some of the multipliers are unlocked.

stock 4900MQ 3.8ghz max turbo

1 core - 38x
2 core - 37x
3 core - 36x
4 core - 36x
Ring Ratio - 38x

Stable Overclock 4.1 ghz max turbo (any higher causes BSOD).

1 core - 41x
2 core - 40x
3 core - 39x
4 core - 39x
Ring Ratio - 41x

No voltage changes (seems to lower performance if you increase the voltage). Also I recommend you don't mess with the other settings as it may crash your computer or stop it booting.

3dmark11 before changes - 8394
After - 8473

Pcmark7 before changes - 6365
After - 6512

Performance test 8 before changes - 5206
After - 5427

 

Nice Dave! Thanks for posting that info. How does the OC affect temps? Notice any difference there?

 

Correct. I had tried modding my own .inf files last week and it didn't work, so when I tried yours, I thought the driver signing was still disabled. It wasn't, which caused the install with your .inf to fail. I messed around a bit and thought I'd try to make sure it was disabled and then it worked. So, lesson for me is must disable every time you try to install a non-signed driver as the setting doesn't stick permanently like "show hidden files" or other changes.

 

OK, great. Thanks!

 

Can't see any difference in temps

 

As in an Adobe Illustrator file?.... That's weird.

Maybe try the suggestions here: With which programs I can open a .EPS format file? - Yahoo! Answers

 

so do i download the modded inf file, the 320.49 beta drivers, then disable digital driver sigs, then overwrite the inf file in the nvidia folder, then install 320.49 drivers with digital sigs disabled right? Ive never done this before, but since you guys seem to be getting noticable gains with various programs, i may as well give it a shot.

 

1. download the certified whql 320.49 drivers and extract
2. overwrite the inf with my modified one.
3. reboot and disable driver signing (to get to boot menu options in windows 8 goto change pc settings > general > advanced startup > restart.)
4. install the drivers using custom install (deselect 3dvision).

 

You should add your guide to your signature for other people to see it everytime you create a new post. I see you put some serious effort into that so it should not get buried or ignored for people new to laptops and In need of assistance.

 

That INF looks exactly like the modified inf on laptopvideo2go.com

v320.20 Windows 8 64bit | NVIDIA Mobile OEM - 32x Series GeForce Driver release - LaptopVideo2Go Forums

 

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4700MQ,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1763

new stock scores, overall a little better than the 311.48 drivers that came with the laptop. When I first tried to run 3dmark 11 i got an error about the drivers, but then when i ran it again everything seemed to go fine.

 

wow the SEA version cut out so much spec
for further upgrade, go to hybrid drive 7200rpm or mSATA SSD 128GB (same price) ? any suggestion ?


GT70 2OD (Dragon Edition 2)-235MY
Intel i7-4700MQ
2 x 8GB DDR3L RAM / Super Raid 128GB SSD (64GB x 2 SSD mSATA3)+750GB (SATA) 7200rpm
Windows 8 64-bit
17.3" screen
Killer DoubleShot WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0
nVidia GeForce GTX780M 4GB GDDR5
Blu Ray DVD Writer

 

HI All,

I left, but had to come back, because I needed to understand something, as well as to provide some information that I know MANY was eagerly waiting for....

I've successfully updated the whitebook / barebone 1763 to MSI branded versions. Both the bios and EC. Everything functions flawlessly. The power button also works correctly (Optimus (white LED), NVIDIA (Red LED). All of the lower status LEDs in oragen (Bluetooth, Wifi, Sleep, Disk activity) all work just fine. I've also verified and confirmed all keys are working (function keys, touch anel keys, volume keys, screen brightness, LED saturation, Screen On/Off , etc..,).

Except for 1 thing which I cannot verify since I do not own a GT70 nor have I ever seen one..

The question is around the tocuch panel keys. All of the keyboard keys function exactly as expected: Same as before. There is no difference in keyboard keys layout from the Branded MSI vs. Whitebook / Barebones. On the barebones, the touch panel keys are laid in like this (from left to right):

" P1 " --- "Turbo Fan" --- "Keyboard LED on/off" --- PowerButton ---- "Airplane Mode" --- "Display On/Off" ---- "Eject"

On the MSI Branded the keys are laid out in the following manner:

"Cinema" ---- "Turbo Fan" --- "Keyboard LED on/off" --- Power Button --- "Airplane Mode" --- "Display On/Off" --- "G button"


On the GT70 model, the is a " G " button (upper touch panel) which brings up the SCM interface when pressed (assuming SCM is installed and running.) But on the barebone, the " G " button is replaced with an "Eject" button. After the firmware update, the eject button now bring up the SCM interface (as expected). I have no need for the eject key, since I'm using a HDD caddy in place of the dvd-drive bay.

Sorry for the long explanation, just wanted to make sure that background info is covered...

The mystery is this: On the barebone model, the very first touch panel button is labeled as "P1". Taking a closer look at the GT70 machines, I see that P1 button is "Cinema Mode"? The icon looks like a 'film' to me.. Anyway, what is the function of this "Cinema" button on the GT70s? With SCM running, when I press that button ( P1 ), it lights up then fades out, and nothing happens. But when I press Function+F4 (Which is also P1), "User Defined Key1" menu pops up. Is this behavior the same on the GT70s?

This is regarding a barebone, so it may, or may not belong on this thread, but I'm posting it here since the question is regarding the function of that "Cinema Mode" button on the Branded MSI GT 70s.

Once I have this question answered, and re-test is complete with a fresh / clean Windows 8 install, I'll post the process (what I did) on the barebones section.

Sorry to bother you all... Thanks in advance.


Update: posted the process and some pics on the bareboner section.. http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/650737-official-bareboners-lounge-57.html

Goodbye, and take care everyone. Thanks for all the help. I've learned a lot. Best of luck!

 

10 - 15% increase in crysis 3

 

I don't think all SEA versions got there specs cut down a whole lot. This really surprised me though. I hope you got it for a good price.

To answer your question, it would be better to get the mSATA SSD option since you'll feel a greater performance bump over the hybrid drive. Although, I'm not really sure if there is a Dragon Edition 2 that does not include the mSATA Super RAID 2. Are both the models you are looking at Dragon Edition?

 

"Cinema Mode" ?old model MSI may refer to "Cinema Pro" mode , is sound like increased the volume of sound and the brightness with 1 click

 

This is the MSI catalog for Malaysia , don't have normal version GT70-2OD , their price so expensive , but no choice need to buy it
Inside have 3 slot for mSATA , maybe can support RAID 2
MSIebrochure

 

Hi all!

I kinda just registered and hope someone can help me, specially -=$tR|k3r=-
I am also a proud owner of a GT70 2OD-039US and even before I received it last week, just like -=$tR|k3r=-, I bought 3 Plextor M5Ms. Everything worked perfectly (benchmarks) as expected, right after I substituted the Sandisk X100's for the Plextors, firmware updated them to 1.03 with no probs, created a Raid0 (128K stripe size) system with all 3 and made a fresh / clean Windows 8 install. Everything still benches fine, except the CDM just doesn't...



The Bios Intel RST option ROM is 12.0.0.1783v and I have installed the IRST RAID driver 12.5.0.1066v (which I think should be no prob). I also tried with the stock IRST RAID driver version and I get the same kind of values.
I read SSD optimization guides and was able to easily optimize speeds (10~20Mb/s improvement, image above is not optimized - image taken right after drivers installation) but of course never in the ballpark of what they should be, as -=$tR|k3r=- has shown above.

There's obviously something wrong here that I forgot to do or am noob enough not to see it.
I appreciate any kind of tips and help from you guys.

Many thanks!

 

Thanks for posting the .inf and the tips, worked great. Just got them installed on my gt60. :thumbsup:

 

You could try enabling write-back cache on the controller. I don't remember right now if it's on the devices manager or somewhere else

 

Hey guys I recently got the GT70-2OD and I've connected it my TV with a HDMI cable to play games on but I'm having a issue. I've tried Battlefield 3 and Black Ops 2 and within the options you can specify which monitor to play on, for some reason in the game it's only showing monitor 1 and I can't change it to monitor 2. It's as if the games not detecting the second screen.

Out side of games the TV is being extended as a second screen just fine and I used the same setup on my MSI GT60 and I always played games on it.
Heres a screenshot of the in game option to set which display to use. http://i.imgur.com/WyqFYxQ.png

Anyone have an idea why it's doing this?

 

Just change your settings to only use your TV as the display. This will black out your laptop display and when you join the game it should only run on your TV. I believe the option is under screen resolution when you right click on the desktop.

I take it you are trying to still use your keyboard on your laptop?

 

Thanks for the reply Talon. Yeah If I set my TV as the primary device I'm able to play on it, though I was concerned if somethings wrong with my GPU or my system. Since I was able to do it on the GT60 I thought there's something wrong if I'm unable to do it on the GT70-2OD

I've plugged in another keyboard, I'm not using the laptop keyboard.

 

Hmmmmmm, this is yet another one of those situations, where I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when you did this upgrade. Honestly I am not sure, because it appears you did everything correctly and I think I have the same versions of IRST...... but I'll double-check everything. When I initially received my notebook, I had a bad A-Data memory module (failed MemTest86) and sent it back to Ken@GenTech for replacement. While there, I had him do a few upgrades, including the Plextor M5M's. Anyhow, I'll check everything on my end, and I have forwarded this to Ken for his thoughts.

 

I guess what you're saying is that you can't select which monitor to actually use while in the game? Not sure, probably just a driver issue. The 780m drivers are pretty immature at this point. I have BF3, I will try and test it later to see if I have any different results with my GT60.

 

Yeah, most games just use the primary monitor.

 

SSD Check List:
Power Setting = High Performance
Bios = Speed Stepping = Off
Enable Write Caching in SSD properties>policies

Run the Microsoft WEI to optimize for SSD

Try 64kb stripe size also in raid0 setup.

After a clean Windows installation benchmark with the built in storage driver before installing any Intel RST.

Windows 7 and Windows 8 have Raid Storage Drivers built in so there's no need to install an iRST during installation.

Then benchmark with different versions of the Intel RST starting with the older series 12 working your way up to the newest v12.6.3.1000 or beta 12.7.0.1018
intel drivers pour Raid/Sata/Ata/Ahci

If you can,run an Anvil Storage Utilities benchmark using the 100% incompressible setting and then using the 0Fill setting.This IMO is the best benchmarking tool and a screenshot displays a lot of your system info.

ASU download link:
http://www.ssdaddict.com/apps/AnvilBenchmark_RC6.zip

EDIT:sometimes installed software like some anti virus programs can skew test results.

Compare a benchmark done in Safe Mode to a non Safe Mode

 

Hi again!

Many thanks WhatsThePoint, felix3650 and -=$tR|k3r=- for your replies.

WhatsThePoint, regarding your check list, I kinda tried more or less all that (have not tried the 64kb stripe size yet) before with a rise in a few Mb/s in performance, but still it does not explain the hundreds (Mb/s) that I am missing. Also I just present CDM benchmarks because right now what I want is to get the right number of hundreds (-=$tR|k3r=-'s 1.3Gb/s sequential reads for example). Then I can worry about tunning it and get a few more decades of Mb/s. For this purpose CDM is enough for now.

Since I was not getting anywhere, I decided to spend some time and do a "3-fold cross validation". 3 Plextors M5Ms, 3 tests and in each one I would try a different combination of two SSDs in RAID + 1 SSD solo and run CDM for the RAID (2xSSD) and the remaining SSD (solo). Always performing the same fresh/clean Windows 8 and drivers install.

Basically, what I found was that for two of those combinations I would get the following (similar) results (RIGHT: CDM for 2X RAID system; LEFT: CDM for the remaining SSD):



For the third test, I got the following results (RIGHT: CDM for 2X RAID system; LEFT: CDM for the remaining SSD):



My first conclusion was simply, Ok, I just have a bad Plextor SSD (which was included in the RAID system in the first 2 tests and therefore the low bench result compared to the single good Plextor; and which was the single SSD unit in the thirst test and demonstrating exactly what is wrong with it by running on very low speeds comparing to what it should perform). I then tought: Can be replaced. To make sure it was a "bad SSD" and not a MSI raid board fault, I opened the laptop and changed the position (in the MSI RAID board) of the supposed "bad SSD" by a good one (one of the two "good" included in the 2x RAID system - bench is shown in the left picture above with the best performance) and bench both again (2x RAID and SSD solo). For my bigegst surprise, got similar results to the ones showed in the first picstures (bad performance)...


Wrapping it up, I tried positioning SSDs in different places and basically all 3 SSDs perform exactly the same as they should (they're all "good"). This means my MSI raid board is faulty in the empty SSD slot shown below. Those two Plextors are able to perform at 980 Mb/s sequential reads, but when I add the third plextor in that specific position performance goes down as I showed you in my first post. All due to something that is wrong with this specific SSD slot on the MSI raid board:



Do you guys agree, with my conclusion? Or is there something else I am not trying? I actually haven't tried to go back to the Sandisk X100's and check how they perform..
If you agree with my conclusion, than unfortunately I'm screwed.. I would have to RMA it to get the MSI raid board fixed and the problem is I bought it in XoticPC while I was in a conference in the US, since I leave in the UK. It's just to expensive to send it back..

Sorry for the long post..

Many thanks for your help and time!

 

@Doom4Ox,

I can confirm my RAID volume is set-up the same, IRST versions are the same, and Write-Caching is 'Enabled'. Your Write Caching is enabled, right? After installing WIN 8, did you run the WEI? Not that this will necessarily improve things with CDM, it will optimize the OS for SSD usage. I knew WTP would jump all over this, but since everything seems set-up as it should, I think I would wait on Ken's thoughts before proceeding further. How does HD Tune scores look? Are you seeing comparable scores?



EDIT: Whoops, looks like you posted just ahead of me, LOL! For grins, what is IRST reporting (HELP button, then System Info button) for each SATA port? All SATA III? Also, checking the X100's wouldn't hurt in verifying your suspicions. I posted CDM scores for these too, and the are actually not bad.

 

Can't see your picture but It's possible the RAID board is defective. have you try 2 of the SSDs in one of the "suppose to be" bad slots and perform the test?

Also try what -=$tR|k3r=- suggests check the IRST see how each port being reported.

 

Yeah, all the slots should be identical since they all have dedicated SATA lanes, so looks like a fault to me.

 

Dont know if this applies to ssds in raid but have you checked the partition alignment? You can check it with AS SSD. Bad alignment will cause ssd to be slower than expected.


Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

A screenshot of an Anvil Storage Utilities benchmark will show if the alignment is OK plus other valuable information that other benchmark screenshots don't show.

Also try what -=$tR|k3r=- suggests check the IRST see how each port is being reported.

Comparing a benchmark run in Safe Mode to a normal on will eliminate software interference.

To use the F8 key to enter Safe Mode on bootup in windows 8 first requires the command

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy

to be run as administrator because the feature is missing from W8

 

:hi2: Hey Guys,

For those interested, good news! Svet just sent me the following regarding his VBIOS Tuner:

Enjoy!

 

is this a free download?

 

No, but all you need do is make a donation...... which if you think about it, he well deserves it. He has been working on this for a long time, and it's a on-going work in progress for him. He is constantly re-coding, updating, and adding new GPU's. Go to his forum page and you'll see what I mean.

Svet's Vbios Tuner

 

/
Minimum donation seems to be 15 euros. Have you tried it on the 780M?. Does it work?