GT72VR vs GT73VR

Assuming you get the 1070 in the GT72VR what other differences are there, besides the 120hz screen?

Been googling and googling but having a hard time figuring it all out. Some different internal ports, and a lack of optical drive on the GT73 is what I've gotten so far. Also the ever so slightly higher base processor on the 73.

 

From my research, the GT72VR does not have option for i7 6820HK; has 2 fewer m.2 slots (1 on GT72VR vs 3 on the GT73VR); and I believe also does not have 4K screen option. However GT72VR does have option for additional 2.5 inch HDD by removing the optical drive.

 

There's nothing you can find, that the GT72 does better than the GT73.

 

If I am correct here the basics are:

GT72 Advantages: Lower price point, Optical drive
GT73 Advantages: 120hz Screen, more open interior spots (m.2, etc), slightly faster processor

Does that about sum it up or is there more to it? As neohopper mentioned earlier he basically confirmed what my research has said so far.

I *wish* the GT73 could have an optical drive. I know a lot of you don't care about them and don't use them but I use my laptop as a DVD or Blu-Ray machine a LOT and not having an optical drive is a deal breaker for me, as archaic as that sounds.

I currently have a 120hz screen and I gotta be honest I really can't tell when I swap it from 60 to 120. I had it on 60 for a LONG time before I realized you had to swap it over to 120 and I just didn't see the big deal. I know some people really love the 120hz screens but they don't do much for me personally. I can appreciate why people like them though.

When I spec'd out my GT72VR Dominator Pro with a 1070, i6700, 16mb 2400mhz ram, a 520gb SSD primary, a 128gb SSD secondary, and a blu-ray player I still came in at under what a baseline GT73 cost. Not much mind you (like maybe 50-100 bucks) but still under.

 

GT72VR - No MUX switch, no RAiDing of SSDs.

The older GT72 had both of these.

The GT73VR (or premium version of the GT72VR) has both of these features also.

MSI have mislead their customes recently in regards to upgradability to so are no longer a recommended purchase.

 

What exactly is the "premium version" of the gt72? The dominator pro?


As far as the switch goes I'm not even sure what that is so likely it's above the level of skill or enthusiasm I have for the machine, and the raid....I didn't think ssds needed any more speed than they already have. Is there a good reason to run ssds in raid?

 

There is no "premium version" of the GT72 in that one frame is better than the other.

The GT72VR's are all the same feature-wise. They are based on the HM170 motherboard chipset version from the year before last.

The GT73VR isn't the premium version of the GT72, it's a new frame that took on the features of the GT72S series from last year - the CM236 motherboard chipset that gives all the extra sockets and features.

I haven't done a side by side view of the motherboards to know for sure, but feature wise it's like MSI took the old GT72 (non-S) HM170 motherboard as the base and went forward with that in the GT72VR.

The GT73VR might even be the GT72S motherboard base but it has a different layout with 2 MXM slots in the top model, so it's most likely a different motherboard and frame to fit it all in - given the keyboard is a new form factor mechanical keyboard for the GT73VR.

 

The switch refers to a button that converts (requires reboot) from dedicated graphics (GPU) to integrated (CPU) graphics which would be useful to extend battery life when unplugged and not gaming.

 

Interesting that he says there is one then. Maybe he's just mistaken? I thought maybe he meant the dominator pro version or something.


@neohopper thanks for the info. I had an Alienware years back that would do that and it was cool but nothing revolutionary, the battery life was still sorry even off integrated gpu.

For me these sort of laptops are almost never on battery power, usually just when moving from one plug to another.

 

Link? Model number?

 

I'm not the one who said premium version, you'll have to ask him.

 

Looks like it was a circular discussion

The GT73VR *is* the continuation model for the "premium" CM236 motherboard chipset version of the GT72 "S".

 

Ohhhh I mistook how he meant "or."

Thanks for clarifying.

 

https://us.msi.com/Laptop/GT72VR-Dominator-Pro-6th-Gen-GTX-1070.html#hero-overview


By the way that's the dominator pro. They have so many different variants of the gt72 it's a little mind boggling.

 

How did you spec a GT72 out so cheaply? Base GT72 with 1070 is $1999, base GT73 is $2199. The BR drive is extra $99, so how did you add such a large SSD and still stay under $2199?

If I end up with a GT73, I'll buy an external Blu-ray drive. The unlocked HK CPU is worth the price of admission, as you won't get the full potential out of the GTX 1070, with just an i7-6700HQ.

 

Yeah, I believe 6820HK is a must, as 6700HQ is way too weak to fully take advantage of the system. I am considering going with a GT73... Still wondering between Barebones GT62 and GT73.

 

You can RAID two or more "budget" SSD's in RAID 0 and have massive space which will go head to head with a single, much more high performance (and much more expensive), single large SSD.

This is what I did with my 2 year old MSI GS70 Stealth Pro ... found a good deal on x3 Crucial M500 mSATA drives, installed them in a RAID0 configuration so that my rig would see the RAID array as a single, *extremely* fast 1.5TB drive. No way could I have found a 1+ TB single SSD that would be anywhere near as affordable ... or fast ... as the x3, cheaper drives in RAID 0.

That's my main use for RAID ... buying multiple, cheap SSD's and configuring them as RAID0 ... for a massive amount of disk space that's also mind bogglingly fast.

Just as the original acronym reads: RAID = Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

One can also use the other varieties of raid (1, 5, etc.) for data security by mirroring data between disks.

So yeah ... tons of good reasons to use RAID.

Least that's my take on it... been using RAID ever since the old SCSI days and love it.

;-)

 

Guys i am in a confusion which to buy ? MSI Gs73vr stealth pro or the MSI GT72vr Doninator pro ... gs is slim weightless and has 1060! 120hz panel GT is heavy , big and has 1070 g sync 60hz any ideas plz !

 

I've been considering this for a while. On one hand you can have the convenience of an optical drive and less storage but probably enough. On the other hand you can have SLI(which I don't care about) and more storage storage thats faster in the m.2 for factor. So while I don't often use my optical drive its nice to have, on the other hand I won't use SLI but may use fast storage. Its just too bad the GT72VR doesn't have just 1 more m.2 slot and and that has NVMe. The ASUS ROG G752VS has this middle ground but it runs too hot... Btw at ibuypower all 3 systems(GT73VR GT72VR ASUS ROG G752VS) are going for $1899

 

If money is not an issue: Aorus x7 v6
If weight and size are not an issue: GT73VR with a 6820HK
If weight and size are not an issue, but price is: GT72VR
If weight and size are very important, and you want to be competitive in games: GS73VR
If weight and size are the most important things: Razer Blade with a GTX 1060

 

^ That sounds good, except that if weight and size are the most important things, I'd recommend checking out the GS43VR (a great machine, and less expensive than the Blade), or at least waiting until reviews come out for the new Razer Blade.

 

This is a pretty good line of thought. My only problem being that I haven't seen thermals or noise levels for the Aorus x7 v6 yet. If these are both high then that pushes me to the GT73VR as it seems best in those categories. One there are some reviews as well as some on the AW17R4 then we can make a more educated decision. But the Aorus stats read as being almost ideal and it does look very nice. I'm on the MSI GS60 with the 870M right now and it gets very loud and hot so even though it is thin I'm always using a cooling pad eliminating part of that purpose.

 

i have a questions, i bought a GT73VR with 1070, but PCI'E dont recognize the PCI M.2, this is normal?, i mean i bought it clean, not os intalled, should i need to install special Raid controllers for this?

 

Are you sure, I have a GT72S 6QF(DominatorProGDragon)
Model 9S7-178344-094 and it has a 6820HK, using the dragon centre its running at 4Ghz with zero problems.
It also has a desktop 980GTX card 8Mb and 32Mb memory.

Its amazing, I just need to try and add a 1070 card, it should be possible.

 

Yes, the GT72S does have 6820HK option, which is why the GT73VR is the true successor to the GT72S (and not GT72VR).

 

There are some GT72VR with 6820HK option.

 

Hmm, I guess based on my review of the usual US MSI resellers (Xotic, HIDevolution, Gentech), was not able to configure an i7 6820HK. Maybe this is region based? Apologize for any confusion or misinformation.

 

Between GT72 and GT73 right now is due to chipset difference and optimus mostly. I prefer the GT73.

 

The Tobii version of the GT72VR comes with i7 6820HK.
Even the regular version of GT72VR can come with the 6820: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/test-gt72vr-gtx-1070-i7-6820hk.795782/

 

Thanks for the info. Any US based MSI resellers that you know of that offers GT72VR with the 6820HK?

 

Sorry, I have not that info.

 

Unfortunately, all the models of the GT72VR that I know of are coming with 6700HQ.

 

I suppose it is region based too. You might see a specific UK model with 6820hk that won't be coming out.

Like GT62, i've seen a 4k version with 6820hk but I think that model is not for USA.

 

Do the nvme ssds really make that much difference over non nvme ssds?

Thats honestly the only thing i sorta care about between the 73 and the 72. during the 3 to 5 years of ownership will i miss out on nvme?

Keep in mind im a bang for buck guy. so i wont buy hardware if its very expensive for what you get out of it.

Right now at ibuypower the 72 has a $200 mail in rebate and is priced 100 less then the 73 making a difference of $300. so im shifting to the 72 to save 300.

 

you can put an nvme ssd in the 72 too

 

Right but i thought it doesnt have the nvme controller to take advantage of it?

 

It has one m.2 slot which is a combo, supports SATAIII and nVME.

 

Like ekkolp said it's a combo slot. It actually depends on how slots are hard-wired and if it has 4 SATA lanes on the slot then it will support NVMe.

 

Cool thanks guys!

 

There is a GT72 VR Dominator Pro 234UK on AMazon for £1652.89- best price I have seen for this in the UK.
MSI GT72VR 6RE "Dominator Pro" 234UK 17.3-Inch FHD Gaming Notebook (Black) - (Intel i7 6700HQ, 16 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, 1 TB HDD, GTX 1070 Graphics Card, Windows 10)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-GT72VR-Dominator-17-3-Inch-Notebook/dp/B01K5QEXJC?th=1

As usual with Amazon, it is difficult to get the exact specs- some of the reviews say 120Hz screen, the FAQ says 60Hz- can anybody shed any light on this?

Also, how does this compare to a similar spec Clevo P670RS-G (Defiance III) from PC Specialist? The clevo costs about £200 more and doesn't have the type-c USB port or the multi-backlit keyboard. Its is a bit lighter but I'm mainly using it in one place.

Thanks.

 

Only "1" M.2 NVME, not "3" M.2 - 2 are NVME and 1 is M.2 SATA - like in the GT73VR... that's a big difference + you can run RAID0 on those M.2 drives in the GT73VR.

I think the thing I would miss most is the GPU Mux switch, that lets you switch between iGPU and dGPU instead of putting up with Optimus.

GT73VR is feature-full like the last GT72S.

I wish MSI hadn't futzed up the GT72VR by dropping the CM236 motherboard chipset for the HM170, losing all those IO and feature options.

 

It's very likely to be 60Hz with G-Sync since US models with similar spec have it.