Official MSI GT640 Forum

Nvidia 1GB GTS 250M DDR3 Video Card
WSXGA 1680x1050 resolution
Bluetooth and Intel Wifi 5300 CARD Genuine
Windows 7 64-bit
Exclusive ECO Engine Power Management System •
Exclusive Cinema Pro Technology •
Housing combines aluminum alloy construction and brushed metal texturing •
High-end nVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M 3D discrete graphics card (with DDR3 1GB VRAM) •
Digital/analog 7.1-channel headphone output qualified Premium Sound™ •
HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) Output •
Built-in 2.0 Mega Pixel Webcam

My Custom Configuration

Processor: i7-820QM 1.7-3.06 - GHZ
RAM: AUM DDR3 PC 10660U 4GB (2GBx2) 1333Mhz SODIMM
OS: Windows 7 x64
Wifi: Atheros x3
Hard Drive - 7200 RPM 16MB 320GB Hard Drive
Battery - 9 Cell 7800mAh battery upgrade


MS-1656-ID1 purchased from - Frosty Computers I have purchased everything from MSI desktop components to the GX series, GT series, MSI netbooks & my newest edition GT640. They are definitely the cheapest, fastest and best service I found from any MSI Retailer. The best part is that they will also work with you on the quoted price when you config the unit with them.

Everest Benchmark: Benchmark

Windows Experience:
CPU - 7.1
RAM - 7.4
Video - 6.6
Hard Drive - 5.9 - slowest component switching to an Intel X25-M G1 80GB SSD should give me a 7.6 on the windows experience as it did for my friends Asus G51j-A1 his windows experience see here

Current Fixes: Forced install of 195.62 drivers on Windows 7 x64 you can find the fix here

 

Top features description has gts 520m ddr3.

Looks good, although still a shame they went ddr3 on the video card, hows battery life treating you??

 

Battery life is not bad I upgraded to the 9 cell battery.

Good 2 hours on it.

 

In high performance?

I can get 3 hours out of my 4850 in power saving, and the gts 250m uses a tiny tiny amount of power if im correct.

 

Yes 2 hrs no eco. I will definitely get more time in eco. I usually have it plugged in and on a laptop cooler.

 

Hmm, it still feels like its not getting too much out of its battery life, How you finding overall responsiveness? Is the i7 feeling faster in comparison to your GT627?

 

Kind of a silly question

Anyways, any chance of OC the 250m and running some 3dmark06 (or more preferably vantage)?

The i7 is probably the culprit for low battery life, but 2 hours isn't bad.

Also, some photos would be nice if you can

 

I overclocked the 250m to 540/830/1270 (cre/mem/shader) and got about 8100 on 3dmark06. Didn't write down the numbers, just did it for giggles. Since I'm not a gamer I only wanted to know how much margin I have and will go back to the defaults. The temperature never went over 61C, so I'm assuming there's plenty of leeway for people who want to get serious about it.

I'm more interested in undervolting, but I couldn't find any utility that would work with the 720QM. Looking forward to see what other people find!

edit - I feel I need to add: This is not the GT640, but the PowerPro 7:15 so it's possible that PowerPro did a superior job with the cooling system. Also, exact score was 8186.

 

Haha, true, although at one point in the sager section (im talking the big fat ones here) people posted that the responsiveness next to the standard high end duals didn't really feel too major.

And his t9800 was running pretty fast .

 

Yes the i7 is probably the battery demon here. Wonder how the 920XM drains battery haha.

Compared to my GT627 the i7 is definitely faster. It is a great notebook. Responsiveness it is very quick and can run multiple applications with ease.

 

How does the video card hold up when gaming?

 

It flies. GTS 250M is a great card. GPU stays cool under extreme stress. I also have some arctic silver on both my GPU and CPU.

 

You used to have an XPS 1730 what were the specs? How does your MSI do against it?

 

Yeah I owned one for a couple of months.

Let me just say, the MSI leaves this thing for dead. It had 2 8700M GTs, until one broke straight after I got it

The MSI could do much better in game, and didn't heat up nearly as much, is lighter, smaller, its just a better laptop.

I mean if I could get a M1730 with 2 9800s (which I think they are selling with?), I'm sure I would feel differently. But as it is, it was a regretful buy.

 

Yeah my friend was trying to sell me his M1730 with dual SLI 8800's and a T9300 for $1300 the other week. I love all the LED and backlit components but I knew the GT640 would blow it away.

 

Yeah to its credit with all the lights it did look stunning. But try to pick it up and you'll quickly be wishing you bought the MSI. The power brick alone weighs a kilo!!!

EDIT: It had a good screen though.

 

Anyone else purchase the new GT640?

The reason I went with the 820QM was after reading this post with the significant turbo difference from going from a 720QM to an 820QM compared to going from an 820QM to a 920XM found here

 

It doesnt feel different, my uncles m1730 with that configuration died in two weeks and running OCCT fps tests, the 4850 got 48 fps while the 9800s got 60 (and that occt test was scaling 100% too apparently.

So the difference isnt that big,

 

^^ The 8700s with the drivers that were out then, were crap.

I never ran any benchmarks, but I could swear the MSI would smash the crap out of it...

 

Sorry i wasnt so clear, i was using the m1730 with dual 9800s

The msi wouldeat 8700s for a snack haha.

 

Ah, yes I was wondering what you were on about

 

Granted, i did like the m1730 though was i think the first sli machine i'd ever used. (And a kick @ss lid.)

 

How does the GTS 250M compare to the GTX 260M and the new GTS 360M with DDR5?

 

It really does not compare, when gaming in high resolution the GTS 360m and the GTX 260m crushes the GTS 250m. The 128 bit bus does cripple it..

 

fixed ..

 

Whats the gts 360m based off? Or is this something new by nvid?

 

It's the same thing as the 250m/260m, only different clocks.

 

I think nVidia tend to do that a lot with their newer cards don't they?

Kind of lazy if you ask me...

 

Well they have yield troubles with Fermi so they have to find a stop gap solution...

 

It's going to be a long time before fermi gets into laptops, it runs even hotter then nvidia's past gpus.

 

Things definately aren't look so bright for the once dominant nvidia, they need to get a move on.

 

Why did msi stick a hd5870 in the gx640 but not the gt? Aren't gt series supposed to be higher end gx?

 

Good question, I dont know either but it will have awesome power.

 

I suppose that plain old "g" series regardless of model name are gaming.

 

Yeah I've given up trying to understand MSIs branding.

I think it was when I discovered the GT725 was better than the GT735.

 

Hi harry. Congrats on your msi. Hey I've been doing a lot of thinking about my really soon laptop purchase and came back to 1680x1050 on 15". Ive read that these laptop fans can be audible perhaps a little annoying. Do you find this true? Also I plan on doing light gaming like starcraft2/wow, photoshop, video editing and processing... do you see the gt 250m being a hender in those areas? I see that xoticpc is selling the system called Force 1656 and was wondering if there was a difference than powernotebook 7:15? Oh and one last thing are there any other 1680x1050 15" compariable laptops to this out now or coming in the near future? Sorry for my long list of questions.

Thanks!

 

I'll get the barebone version as soon as I have saved up enough money gonna go with the i7-720qm tho.

 

I suppose this was addressed at me? One reason I went with the 1656 is that it has a 16:10 aspect. I absolutely loathe the 16:9 format because I actually work on my computer and don't just use it for watching videos. Can't stand the glossy displays either. Oh well...
About the fan - I'm not an expert there but it seems to me that it's not the fan that's audible, but more the air swooshing through the cooling system. For me, it starts getting barely audible when the CPU hits about 53 C and decidedly audible when it goes to 60C, but that happens rarely. I don't fintd the sound annoying, though. There's no humming, just the sound of rushing air.
Interestingly, the GPU doesn't seem to influence the fan speed as much.
Again - I don't know if this is due to the quality of PowerPro assembly work or just the nature of the beast, but no matter what I did I (including furmark, 3dmark06) have not yet managed to get either the CPU or the GPU temp up to even 70C. Seems that the cooling of this laptop is extremely conservative.

You'll have to rely on other people about the gaming performance. I'm not much of a gamer; mostly just download demos to check out state of the art graphics. I can tell you though that this laptop is great for working with Blender 2.5!

What I'm most impressed with though is how solid the computer feels. Seems like it's built to last for decades, rather than 2 years (which is what most laptops feel to me these days)

Question for you guys: Is Google Earth extremely finicky when it comes to overclocking? It's always the first app that locks up for me.

 

Thank you for your input about the laptop. From what you said and a couple of other people I talked to it sounds like this is the laptop for me. 16:10, i7, not loud at all. Since my gaming is limited as well the graphics card will be perfect for my needs. Thank you!

 

Does it have the same chassis w/ GT 627? You know GT 627 doesn't have so good build quality.
How much does it cost, BTW? Well I think w/ $1300 HP envy 15 is the best choice among 15" gaming lappies.

 

I built mine for $1340 with
i7-820QM
4GB DDR3
500 GB HD
...

 

Which you can also get with a HD3870. That is sad....

 

Direct X 11 would have been sweet

 

You guys might find this thread interesting, LINK. Let us know if it works.

 

Interesting, nice find mandrake, nobody had informed us of the i7 OC.

Rep

 

xoticpc now shows the gddr5 version in video card detail of the GX640-098US.

Maybe the US version too will carry the gddr5. If that is so, the 5850 will be a significant jump from its earlier avatar.

 

Actually, the GX640 with GDDR5 gets more like 12k points in 3DMark06 (with the i5-520M), it seems.
3DMark06 is kind of useless now, though.

 

Good score for a medium CPU, the GX640 is definate confirmed GDDR5, theres no 3 in existance i believe at this time.

 

I just want to see people review it, to see how it is with heat, and quality of the screen and keyboard. I'm buying one if it doesn't fail in those areas.

 

Heat its going to run fairly hot, it wont won't be reccomended to furmark that thing, the CPU should remain cool and the performance should be mad...

The 640


G73

Stock

Comparison of the 640 and ASUS G73, 3DMARK06 is kind of wrong to be comparing but the difference isn't so big, we need a vantage run of the 640 to make an accurate comparison (To some extent.)