Just ordered an MSI GT72..... Couple questions

After having my New alienware 17 for a week and a half I have sent it back today for a full refund. I was getting blue screens and screen bleeding bad and didnt feel good about spending $2300 on something like that. I just ordered from newegg a MSI GT72 dominator pro G-219. Its actually almost like the Alienware but it doesnt have the 4K screen. I do a little aerial photography so I liked the 4K screen on the Alienware. Im excited I should have it tomorrow as I paid for next day air.

Question. I notice MSI makes a GT72 with a GTX 980 not the M but is this a desktop 980 in a laptop? How will that perform with only a 230 watt power supply. Is it worth the extra to get that with a desktop 980 and a 4k screen?

 

Screen bleeding is a bit common on this msi screens, i have one myself, and i can see some bleeds.
Dunno if is me, but it seems the i dont use the screen to often, im using external monitor 90% of the time, the bleeds become more aparent.
About the 230w, ye, it may be a little low, i have the 980m version, and with unlocked vbios, i drain the batery even in stock.

 

I have the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro and it had some bleeding as well, it was too noticeable at times. But usually if its in a dark room you can tell sort of.

 

The GTX 980 in the GT72 and GTX 980 desktop is the same GPU, but the GTX 980 in the GT72 utilizes less wattage and slightly lower performance (roughly 5-10%). You could say it's a toned down version of the desktop 980, but the GPUs are close in performance. The MSI GTs will have no problem using the GTX 980.

 

Like Owntec said, screen bleeding is common on laptop screens, sometimes it can't be avoid since the black still needs backlight. It's even more noticeable on LED backlights since it's much more brighter than the old CFL backlight.

The screens uses the LED strip to to lit up the screen even the black, so this is how it looks like in simulation:





The only time you won't see this is on a OLED panel. the OLED works differently and the black does not need backlight.

Also the screen is not laptop brand specific, the exact same panel found on Asus G752 does exact same thing:



nVdia did make a desktop 980 on laptop and it's a 150W GPU, the performance is about 30% more than the mobile and MSI do have 4K version as well, you can watch our video review of the GT72S with desktop 980 here:

 

Now Im Debating if I should go with the Desktop version 980 in the Msi. GenTech are there any deals right now on that MSI? On your website Im looking at the one that I believe is $3099. GTX 980 with a 4k screen. Do you offer overnight shipping if ordered today?

 

There are gaming bundle promotions going on right now. You can email us direct if you have more questions.

 

Well I ordered form Newegg for the first time and it will be my last time as well. Twice they took the money out of my account and then voided my order. I ordered from Gentechpc yesterday at 11:10 and paid for overnight shipping. They shipped my MSI GT72S Dominator Pro G-219 6th Gen Skylake GTX980M 8G G-Sync and I will have it by 10am this morning. That is customer service right there! Woke up this morning to see that Newegg put my money back into my account so thats a plus.

This computer I ordered it didnt say on the website but is this the 75hz screen?

 

Glad you will have the laptop this morning.

Yes it's confirmed that the screen is 75Hz.

 

The 980 inside is a MXM 3.0 card, just a bit different then the usual cards like a 980M (actually completely different even though they share same "980" part) its the same as the desktop card in terms of power and configuration, but the components are higher quality and much much more efficient. Might even be a smaller lithography on the GPU, it also requires some extra power usually, because its a 200W card. I assume they gave you a larger PSU if you have the 980 version. a 230W PSU would be fine for a 970M(Takes about 80+Watts) or MAYBE*** a low CPU clocked 980M version ( as the GPU takes like 125W).

Anyways, get a MSI laptop barebones and upgrade the crap out of it, I'll help as I'm sure many others would if you simply ask or search around - that's my philosophy on this.

But yeah the 980 inside is not a desktop card per se as in you can not remove it and use it in a desktop without actually using a bridge to connect the different interconnects i.e MXM form factor using a desktop PCI-E connection.. as an example.
but that same laptop, even though it came with the 980 desktop version, can use MXM cards in the future if you change the heatsinks to correspond with them. Hope thats the kind of info your looking for.

You should see a part inside that is a auxiliary power connection to the 980 too, if you see it, should be connected to one of the corners of the card.

 

the "desktop" mobile version of the 980 has variants. Only Clevo has the single 200W GPU. I believe the GT72 uses the 150W version or maybe lower. GT80 uses an even lower power version.

240w is more than enough power for stock 980m and high end CPU, but is not enough if you overclock at all. The GT72 with 980 probably gets around this the bad way using battery power additionally to the PSU, which is the current annoying issue with GT80S 980 SLI.

 

GT72 does have a 150W version afaik, GT80 probably 130W.
https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/8555-gtx-980-m5500-n16e-gxx-all-variants/

 

Does the gt72s with the desktop mobile version of the 980 drain battery normally or only if the vbios is unlocked? Trying to decide between the gt72s with the 980m vs the 980 and curious if the performance increase was worth the additional $600 (going to always be playing at 1080p) especially since the 980 version doesn't have the 330w adapter. I haven't been able to find a good stat page showing the performance difference between the Clevo 200w version versus the MSI's 150w version.

Is there any overclocking room with the 980m? It seemed in some of the older reviews there was some overclocking room with the gpu (135mhz to 200 mhz) but was not sure if that's gone away now that the machine has a 6820hk cpu vs the lesser powered cpus in the initial generation.

Thanks!

 

Well, on my msi gt72 with i7 5700hq and 980m, i drain battery even with stock vbios.

 

I just ended up pulling the trigger on an open box gt72s Dragon -070. I will let everyone know my experiences with it and whether I notice any battery drain on stock!