GT70 Dominator-894

I'm usually an Asus or Sager kind of guy but I saw this model at Fry's Electronics and noticed that it has the GTX 870M graphics card, so I bought it. There are still a few things that make me not want to own an MSI such as the flex on the keyboard under light use, the ugly Chi Mei? screen and that annoying sticker that reads "Warranty Sticker. Void if tampered" but the GTX870M card really is something cool. Compared to a GTX770M it feels much smoother and FPS seems to benefit from the extra shading units. The only thing that puzzles me is the fact that the ONLY place I've been able to find this laptop is on the Fry's website. I did not know the 800 series Nvidia GPUs were out yet.. there's no driver support from the Nvidia site for this specific card yet but luckily MSI has supplied ones that do the job for now.

Should I hold on to this or wait for newer stuff to come out? At the same time I feel like this is a LOT of laptop for the price, especially compared to some of the other units out there.

Specs:
Intel i7 4800MQ 2.7GHz
12GB DDR3 1600mhz
GTX870m 3GB
128GB Toshiba Msata SSD
1TB Western Digital 5,400rpm HDD
BluRay Drive
FHD Matte display
And all the usual as far as KB and sound goes.

 

Surprised you were able to buy it and they have it listed. Several of the resellers including us do have this model listed for pre order but do not have the GPU listed. The reason its the only place you're seeing it is because the 800M series are still under NDA and are not supposed to be listed anywhere per Nvidia.
Since you were able to order it you might as well keep the order in.

 

As with the previous MSI offerings, it has been available for shipment from many different retailers since even last week. More and more have been adding the laptops to their inventories and more are adding in the description of what Nvidia card the laptop comes with. I'm not bothered with this go around of MSI laptops because the top end card is reportedly a re brand of the 780m. I'll wait for the next generation before I decide to upgrade.

 

The top end cards maybe, the mid range could be very interesting.

 

I am very intested in what is happening in the mid-range area.

 

In the mid range area it seems that the GTX 870M is getting a big boost in power. It's got more shading units, higher clocks and it's 100Watt compared to the 75Watt GTX770M. And I actually have the laptop with me now, it's definitely a beast compared to the GTX770M. When I get the chance I will post a screenshot of GPU-Z.

 

Here's a comparison between the GTX770M, 870M and 780M. They aren't 100% accurate but it kinda gives and idea of the changes between the 770M and 870M.

 

Thanks for those! Can you maybe post a 3dmark11 run? What are the temps like?

 

Yeah I can run some benchmarks. In WoW all ultra (Except for shadows) and BF4 all high settings temps never go above 75c with 67f ambient temps.

 

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1763

That's the score without any overclocking or tweaking. Hopefully the official Nvidia drivers (When they're released) will offer some improvement.

 

Not bad, beats 3630QM/GTX 680M by 10%.

 

I will do some overclocking and see if we can push those numbers. I'm sure when the official Nvidia driver is released the numbers will go up slightly anyways.

 

Unlikely since it uses the same driver path as the 680/780.

 

It's still running the 332.35 driver published by MSI. The current driver (334.89) is supposed to bring stability and some improvement to some applications. I understand that the boost provided by the drivers are mostly game tweaks but I'm still hoping the official drivers will be better.

"New in GeForce 334.89 WHQL drivers

Performance Boost – Increases performance by up to 19% for GeForce 400/500/600/700 series GPUs in several PC games vs. the previous WHQL-certified drivers (332.21). Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration. Here are some examples of measured gains:"

 

It wont impact the 3dmark score so the difference will stick.

 

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1763

+100 on the core and +125(600mhz) on the memory.

 

Thanks for those!!

 

Today Fry's has the Dominator 890, with the 880m 8GB card.

I got to my local Fry's just as they were putting it out for demo. FRYS.com | MSI
I got to play with it before anyone else.

Essentially it's the same GT70 chassis it appears, at least from the outside. New MSI software/control center. still has Hybrid Power (deal killer for me, I'd like to know my notebook will still be usable when the battery is no longer functional).

Looks like an ok system, but the screen is just not great. Too grainy still.

The new steel series software looks nice, you can macro anything. I changed the windows button to say "Hi".

The model they have has only 1 1TB HD. Does anyone know if that model comes with another bracket for a 2nd hard drive? The Fry's guy wouldn't open it because of they "warranty void if sticker removed" sticker (I tried explaining the situation and he still didn't want to break the sticker).

I almost got it but the Hybrid Power stuff (It still has only a 180 watt power supply, I confirmed it) and the really grainy panel made me walk away.

Oh and the specifications on Fry's site says 2 Mini DisplayPorts. Wrong. It still has the same old HDMI, Mini DisplayPort and VGA ports.

Anyway, if you really have to have an 880m system this weekend, check your local Fry's if you have one.

 

Is the new GT70 actually red like it shows in the Frys pic or are they the same black as before? Also I went to Frys to buy one and they wouldn't sell me one due to street date. They even said they had to take down their demo...

 

The machine is functional without the battery installed.

 

It was black. No red.

The machine is not fully functional without the battery. Look up Hybrid Power. If you play a very CPU and GPU intensive game or task, the system will need more power than the 180 watt power supply can deliver.

 

The 15.6" models will have 2x mDP but as you mentioned not the 17.3"

 

Just got my hands on one. I will post 3dmark11 results as soon as I can. I did read somewhere that a vBios mod is necessary to keep the graphics from throttling like crazy though.

 

And there we have it. GTX880M 8GB 3dMark11 results.

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1763

 

It seems to beat GT70 w. 680M by 30 - 35%; not enough to consider an upgrade yet (relief..)

 

Well it uses the same GK104 chip so not that surprising and that's in a short benchmark run.

 

I'd like to see the 870m and 880m benched on 337.50.

 

They will exhibit the same behavior as the 7xx series.

 

P8450 on 880m on 337.50 beta drivers. Not much difference.

 

Is that as high as you can go without tampering with the voltage of the card? According to notebookcheck the 870m in the Clevo P170SM achieves about 7300 points in the same test. Could be that the 180W PSU is limiting the GT70 but then again the Hyprid Power software should kick in during benchmarks and shorter gaming sessions.

 

Sorry I have been extremely busy lately. I am still waiting on Nvidia to release decent drivers for these cards. Adaptive VSync is still not available under Nvidia Control Panel and I see a lot of glitches in games but besides those issues it is a very solid card.

 

Are you on the latest set from laptopvideo2go.com with a modified inf?

 

No I'm still on the Nvidia Beta. What's the main diff between the two?

 

More modern, might help the glitches.

 

I checked the latest available as per vendor and hardware id and the Nvidia Beta is the latest for this card.

 

I have been doing some research on this rig. I am looking for a good gaming rig, with current specs at a price point of around $1500 Canadian. I found this laptop on several local retail sites for $1599.99 canadian. The sites featured the i7 4800MQ 2.7GHz with the 1TB HDD aswell as the 128GB SSD and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M 3GB. If anyone could let me know how this computer compairs to other gaming computers in the price point, (ie Asus or alienware), that would be great!

 

It is still a very recent product and it's definitely powerful enough to run anything you throw at it.
MSI has good Dynaudio speakers that others can't compete against.

 

While the keyboard is miles ahead of most other too.

 

Hey! Bumping this thread up a bit. I've been looking at this specific laptop too. It seems like one of the best tradeoffs I could find as far as a good gaming laptop in the 1,500-1,600s goes. Does anyone have any more advice to give on the subject? Are there any other devices out there (MSI or otherwise) that rival this one for the same price range?
Thanks!

 

Well slightly smaller is the GT60 which can offer an IPS display in either 1080P or 3k with all the same internal hardware.

 

That sounds interesting. But I did want to stick to 17" :/

 

Please refer to GT60 Dominator-424 which is $1399.99.
Brief spec:
- Intel Core i7-4800MQ (2.7 GHz, 6 MB Cache)
- 8GB DDR3L 1600MHz System Memory
- 1 TB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
- 15.6-Inch Screen, NVIDIA Geforce GTX870M with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM
- Windows 8.1

 

Here's the 17" model that qualifies your criteria.
MSI GT70 Dominator Dragon-1886 GTX870M - $100 MIR
This is a very recent model with newer processor.
http://us.msi.com/product/nb/GT70-Dominator-Dragon.html#hero-specification&sku_no=155

Spec:
http://us.msi.com/pdf/GT70 Dominator Dragon-1886.pdf

 

You could also look at the barebones, option it comes with is the M290X which gives you an AMD option if you are that way inclined. It's around the performance of the 870M but comes in cheaper.

 

Thanks for your advice! The Dominator Dragon 1886 is definitely tempting now, especially with that MIR. I've found some pretty good additional rebates for it on the reseller Prostar. Is that a trustworthy provider?

 

Yep. Resellers here are the real deal and as you saw, many of them helped you find what you were looking for. MIR works and most, if not all of them, will price match, so you can go with the best

Dominator Dragon is a pretty awesome machine

 

Sweet! Thank you.

One last question - I heard about this new GTX 970. This won't be available for the Dominator Dragon 1886 or any similar laptops, right? It'd have to be ordered separately? Would that even function?

I guess that was three questions. Ha.

 

That will come in under a different model number but not 1886 because it is already a designated model.
Right now, you will have to wait until further notice if you are interested in 900 series.

 

I probably won't. Chances are it's beyond my budget anyway. I think I'll stick with the 1886 and the 870. Good enough, right?

Thanks for your help, guys

 

Yup, you are right.
Feel free to let us know if you have any questions, and have a pleasant weekend.