Ryzeki's MSI GX660R Review

I'm thinking either there are a lot of process shifts/variations from one card to another in ATI's manufacturing, or they just set their voltage levels too low and the card is affected by the unavoidable variations from chip to chip. If it makes you feel better about your machine, mine isn't stable at stock clock with stock drivers. I can't run furmark for longer than 2 seconds on full res without <color>SOD, and I even managed a GSOD by simply opening the control panel...definitely not a task I would expect to force my GPU to tap out.

Anyway, First thing monday morning I am going to RMA my unit, and I would suggest you do the same. The question is should you exchange it or get a refund and seek greener pastures (nVidia pun intended ). That is the route I am going to probably go.

MSI built a damn fine laptop, but even if I get a new unit, and even if it works flawlessly now, how's it going to perform when 11.0 comes out or 11.2 or so on and so on. If this becomes a widespread problem, maybe someone will come up with a slick vBios fix like they did for the G73JH, but maybe you will have to wait for a year or so to get it before it's finally right. Or worse, maybe it won't be very widespread, and the few people who do have problems will have to play RMA roulette with their retailer or MSI after every new driver release.

Like I said, everything else is great about the MSI, and the sound system really is the best I've ever heard on a laptop, same with the cooling system, but I think I will be returning my GX660R and trying out either the G53JW or G73JW. In this case I think the devil I don't know might just be better than the devil I do know. I do hope we were the unlucky ones who got saddled with the two lemons in the whole bunch, but I have my doubts.

 

Well, that's bloody useless. Wonder if I could rebind it to, say, enable/disable touchpad...

 

^

Yeah really. It was put in as a feature because apparently many people accidentally hit the windows button while gaming... I guess I didn't realize that was such a widespread problem, haha.

 

If you really like the sound, colling design, etc of the laptop but just don't want the hd5870m, why not try the gt660 (with a 285m), or the upcoming gt663 which will have a 460m and optimus with i5/i7 processors (optimus only with i5 though)...Although there is no official release, but I read somewhere it's around Oct.1st

Link is here: MSI GT663 gaming notebook spotted in the wild - Pocket-lint

I kinda want the optimus 460m combo, but I don't want to lose that 10-20% performance either lol =D... Just hope I don't get a lemon on Friday =O

 

Well the 660 is out cause I'm somewhat of a screen snob, even if the 660R has terrible viewing angles, and so-so contrast at best, it is 1080p and I don't want anything less . Now the GT663 I will confess I have heard nothing about until now. That might just be the answer I'm looking for. It would be tough, but I could probably hold out until October. Thanks for the heads up about its impending release!

 

Or you can enjoy the 660R right now, and maybe down the road snatch a 460m and corresponding heatsink to see if it'll work.

Choices, choices.

 

The GSOD was more of a 99% Asus issue due to their own manufactured HD5870s. You probably got a lemon. all G73 users were affected by the Asus HD5870 issues, in this case, neither mine nor forge's seem to be affected an the crashes we have had was due to overclock. Personally it only happened to me once, under 840/1070. I currently game at 830/1040 and I haven't had a single issue.

Your best bet is to return it and get a refund then. If you prefer nvidia go that route. Personally, the 460m was a disappointment for me, along the whole fermi GPUs. I will stick with my HD5870 for now, and check out if I can use an HD6000 series GPU later down the road. The only reason I didn't go the G53jw/G73jw is because it uses the 460m, and I would rather have HD5870m.

 

I do that sometimes, it gets me killed pretty much every time.

 

"There he is, now to get my crosshair lined up..."
...
"START BAR, U AHVE KILED ME!11!!"

 

Yeah I imagine accidentally hitting it in game does not end well. It does make me wonder now whenever I see someone just stop dead in their tracks in a mp shooter, are they yelling epitaths at the keyboard while staring at their wallpaper and start menu?

 

I managed to get my bone stock HD5870 Furmark stable at 8X AA and 1920x1080p resolution for over 20 minutes at only 70-72C with fans on full speed. I only get freezes when i overclock. Even at 715/1015 clocks. I really hate to RMA my GX660R. I'm just a little jealous you two guys can overclock and I can't. What performance increases are you guys seeing with your 5870 overclocked? How many more FPS?

 

You do bring up a good point and that was a bad example on my part to use the G73JH. I brought it up more as an example of time waiting for a fix than trying to say that my machine's problem was the same as theirs. I will still say that I personally find more instances of 5870m users finding themselves stuck with older drivers because upgrades cause instability than I do see with nVidia. (Strictly talking about the 5000 series and nVidias 2009-10 line of cards).

This is why I suggested that ATI cards, must have a lot of variability from chip to chip. Admittedly we have a small sample group right now, but its all I have to base my decision on. My concern is if I RMA my machine for an exchange, do I get a machine like yours or Forge's (presumably a less aerated version ), or do I get Handsomerobs or worse yet, mine back.

Ultimately I think that most of the 5870s in these machines will run just fine, and most people who purchase this laptop will be very happy, I would say its the best HD5870 based notebook on the market right now. However, irrational or not, I just feel in my gut that I have less of a chance of playing RMA roulette well into November or December with an nVidia powered notebook, and piece of mind is more important to me than a moderate gain in performance.

 

Just so you know, I did have a wonky graphics card during an issue I was working out with Ken. Luckily, because of the big mountain of win known as Ken Lee, I had effectively zero downtime while I fixed the problem.

 

LOL! You beat me to the punch. Serves me right for being a long winded poster.

For sure, that man has acheived god status in the G73JH community for all that he did for them. I'm glad to hear it was a fixable problem for your machine too. After seeing your clockspeeds, you definitely got a keeper!

 

i remember i was getting pretty nice ocs with my np8690 5870m.... around 870 1150 stable, but i ran it on 850 1130 just for that extra peace of mind when gaming.... i hope the 5870m i get will able to do atleast 850 lol... =P

 

Out of curiosity, what voltages were you using?

 

So Forge what do u think I should do. Is it worth doing an RMA. Are the performance increases from overclocking worth shipping it back to Nebraska

 

Wonder how much battery gain will we get if we use a i5, 720p model of this beast? Also does gx660-053us sports two hdd bays? And is there any option for getting a 1080p screen for that model?

 

I honestly don't know. Depends on how picky you are, I guess.

For the average person, I wouldn't recommend it. However, since you do plan on overclocking, you might as well. If a card is unstable with such a tiny overclock who knows how stable it'll be down the road.

 

Maybe I can just send it back and just get a new 5870
Is there a big difference in performance when overclocking
Are we talking about 10-20 more FPS of just 1-2 more FPS?

 

If it was me, I would still send it back. If I remember right you are running an older driver and your graphics card is barely stable. Especially since there are others in this thread who have been able to acheive pretty high CS and use the most current drivers.

I would look at it this way, how your machine now is as good as it will ever be (baring upgrades of course). If you are happy with what it can do now, aren't worried about upgrading to 11.0 and beyond drivers, and aren't worried about playing the newest games at maxed setting, I'd keep it. Otherwise RMA it.

 

Depends on the game. You could say about 10% more performance with my current overclock. So games like crysis can go fro 28 to 30fps. Not a big jump, but from other games its around 5fps.

I haven't seen a gain of over 5 fps or so. And well, if the machine is working on Stock, I am not sure how easy will be to return it. Remember that overclock is not covered as a functionality except for the turbo button.

Anyways, it seems memory is the most sensible right now. I wish we can find a way to overclock the memory to 1100mhz. It will certainly help with high resolutions. I wouldn't mind 800/1100, but I have to settle for higher core, less memory.

 

forge, voltage was at stock for the 8690, which I believe was 1.15 volts

 

I reallly REALLY like MSI, I used to have a gx620 and I couldnt be happier, I liked the design... But you know these new desings are pretty much a copy from alienware (alienware/asus hybrid)... They should stick with their designs. But this seems fresh and powerful .

NICE review m8.

 

For crysis at 870, 1150 I would get around 4-5 fps boost, in other games like JC2, it was around 6 or 7. But that's a pretty high OC..... You won't get much fps gains, but it helps when you are dropping into the high teens in games like crysis, or if you just want to squeeze that extra bit out of your system

 

Thanks for the support and for reading my review I agree the design is different from their own lines but it feels like a powerful refresh, just as you said.

Wow, you reached 870/1150? that's a pretty darn high OC! very close to HD5770 clocks (actually, HD5770 is 850/1200, so you pretty much have such performance).

Yeah, OCing helps specially with the minimum framerate, so you get a smoother experience thanks to thos extra 4fps etc.

 

I now just realized that I was using MSI Afterburner 1.1.0 which is a 1 year old version of MSI's overclocking tool. I upgraded to the new 2.0 Afterburner and I reinstalled the new 10.8 Catalyst from ATI's website instead of getting it from another site and I got my 5870 to 720/1020 25 minutes stable with MSI Kombuster and also ran 3DMark06
5x with no probs.

In my previous posts I said that the 10.8 drivers gave me FPS probs in BF2 but that was user error. I'm unfamiliar with the CCC from ATI and had Supersampling on and instead of having it on adaptive Multi-sampling
Once I messed with a few settings I'm now have max 100 Framerates.

What settings do y'all have in the CCC?

So in conclusion the 10.8 drivers work great.

I've been told that the longer you burn in the graphics chip the better it gets. This computer only has about 5 hours of Burn In

I honestly want to RMA it but what are my chances of getting a better one.

 

Forge I hope you'll include overclocking instructions in your optimization guide for some first timers.

 

Yea, I think I god a godly card with my 8690, because it was rock solid at those clocks, but after around 875 and ~1155 it would crash and burn

Although I have heard a a few people getting stable 900, 1200.... Insanity

 

Hi Guys,

This is my first post here. Been lurking for a while because I'm looking for a powerful and affordable gaming laptop.

MSI GX660 certainly caught my attention given its specs and price. Though the model available here in the Philippines only has Core i5-450m. Will it be a major hit to the unit's gaming performance especially to CPU hungry games like BFBC2 and NBA2K10?

And by the way, thank you Ryzeki for this thread. Looking forward to your full review and hopefully you provide some optimazation process you did (and the drivers you used).

 

I think it's because his Clevo's 5870 came at 1.15 volts for full clocks, whereas our stock voltages are a mere 1.05. Just kick up the power and I bet we can get something close to what super got.

 

My 5870MR can reach 950/1200, though right after 950, at around 950-960 clocks, it will crash. 900/1200 for stable everyday usage.

 

I'm assuming 1.15v for your high clocks, yes?

 

Holy crap thats insane 950

@Forge, wow, I didn't know the MSI came with only 1.05v... I'll definitely crank mine up a bit when I get it.... Hopefully I can get clocks as good as fz lol .... Now I know why the gx660 was getting low temps... hmm I wonder how the cooling will fair with 1.15v

 

Well, I'd better crosscheck, haha. The screenshot is the stock vBIOS, ripped through GPU-Z. I'm correct in that it's only 1.05v?

 

this is my stable everyday usage overclock, I'm not sure about the voltage, because the amd gpu clock tool says that my voltage is 1.05V.

 

Well then.

Give me your address. I'm going to your house to ninja out your GPU.

 

hmm.. ok, RBE shows 1.15V.

 

And here I thought the god of ATI--I mean AMD--had bestowed upon you a truly magnificent card.

Good to know, in any case. I'll fiddle around with clocks on Tuesday, when I'm off work.

 

yea AMD gpu tool showed 1.05v for me also, but RBE showed 1.15v, which is thte correct voltage for the sagers. Looks like the MSI's really do only come with 1.05v which should give someone around 800 max OC (and that's pushing it....). I'm willing to bet that you should be around 850-870 core atleast when you up the voltage a little bit. Would also be interesting to see how your moded cooling fairs with the increased power draw Forge =D

 

Wait a sec. Are you guys adding more voltage to your GPU's
I'm just moving the sliders on Afterburner
The voltage control is locked and I can't up the voltage.
If you guys are adding more voltage that explains why I can't get any higher than stock clocks.

 

Super and zghgjzzhblahgete have Clevo 5870s, which come with stock voltage of 1.15v.

Ryzeki and I, on the other hand, have our 5870s at stock MSI 1.05v. We're just lucky to be able to reach our clocks without instand BSOD. That being said, my 840/1050 and 800/1050 have occasionally caused a blackscreen error on my machine, so I'm assuming I'm not completely stable.

 

My MSI (barebone MS-1727 aka GX740) came with the card running at 1,15V. I undervolted it (by modding the vBIOS and reflashing it), for some time I had been running it at 800/1000@1V. Later I had flashed the new, updated MSI vBIOS, in which the card run at 1,05V with stock clocks. Currently I use this vBIOS, though I undervolt and OC at the same time. My current clocks and voltages are 840/1050@1,02V, perfectly stable with no artifacts, freezing, black or blue screens. Furmark tops at 85*C on a hot day (around 30*C ambient). All that after serious modding of the cooling system of course .

 

Lets try 1.1v, I want to reach 1100 and not more for now. with 820/1100 I think I will be happy enough.

When I get crazy I will try much more.

 

You need to flash the vBios to modify the voltage.

 

^^^ CORRECT... Sadly the procedure can be somewhat alarming if your not savvy on the matter. You can brick the GPU if you dont know what your doing. Read up there are plenty of resources to guide you through such

 

*Update* So im very happy to say im finally able to overclock my GX660R.

In my previous posts I couldnt even get 720/1020 stable whatsoever, but what I did was... put the Core to 820 and Memory to stock 1000 and i'm able to get it 15x runs of 3DMark06/Furmark 20 minutes/Crysis Gameplay Max Settings 2 hours stable. I thought for sure the memory wasnt the problem. On all my previous desktop GPU's the memory clock is normally the easiest to overclock.
I guess overclocking the GPU memory was my problem. I cant up that clock one bit. But im happy with the results so far. I can actually get the core clock up more but im happy with my results so far. My temps are freaking amazing!!! Never above 70C
I scored consistent 13750 in 3DMark06.

 

Congrats man! And don't worry, my max memory clock is 1050 before being completely unstable. We need to get the voltage up I bet!

 

Great to hear!!! I'm glad one of us ended up with a happy ending

 

nice rob, glad u didn't have to rma (i know how that goes... lol)