MSI GX640: $1100 for a Speedy DX11 Laptop
by Jarred Walton on June 13, 2010 3:05 PM ESTMSI GX640: Bring on the Games
We have an interesting matchup against the previous gaming laptops we've reviewed. The GX640 sports a lower-end i5-430M processor with a fast HD 5850 GPU. The HD 5870 is the current single-GPU performance leader, besting the GTX 285M by an average of around 15%. The 5850 has the same 4GHz effective memory bandwidth as its elder brother, but the 750MHz core clock of the 5870 is 20% higher than the 5850. That means the GX640 should offer performance similar to the GTX 285M for a much lower price—and with lower power requirements as well. Here's a recap of our test laptop.
| MSI GX640 Testbed | |
| Processor |
Intel Core i5-430M (2x2.26GHz, 32nm, 3MB L3, Turbo to 2.53GHz, 35W) |
| Memory | 2x2GB DDR3-1333 (Max 2x4GB) |
| Graphics |
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 (800 Stream Processors, 625MHz/4GHz Core/RAM clocks) |
| Display | 15.4" LED Glossy 16:10 WSXGA+ (1680x1050) |
| Hard Drive | Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB 16MB |
| Optical Drive | 8x DVD+/-RW |
| Battery | 9-Cell, 10.8V, 7800mAh, 85Wh battery |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
| Pricing | Starting at $1070 Online |
Starting with the gaming benchmarks, we have a standardized test resolution of 1600x900, and we'll include results from the GX640 at the native LCD resolution with 4xAA where applicable. We chose the HD+ resolution as a nice compromise between HD+, WSXGA+, 1080p, and WUXGA LCDs, all of which are currently available depending on the laptop. Our 1600x900 results allow for apples-to-apples comparisons between the notebooks, but we understand most users will want to run at the native resolution so we have those results as well (in dark green).
We used the built-in benchmarking tools for every game except Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Empire: Total War, and Mass Effect 2, which we measured using FRAPS by playing through a section of the game. For games that support DirectX 11, we also tested it on the 5850 and will highlight those results (or 4xAA) in gold.
The HD 5850 ends up trailing the 5870 in most titles as expected, but the margin varies according to the demands of the game. Shader heavy games come closer to the 20% core clock difference, and in some instances the combination of i7-820QM with 5870 trumps the i5-430M with 5850 by more than 20% (L4D2 and Stalker DX11). In other games that depend more on memory bandwidth the laptops are a lot closer in performance. Oddly enough, there are even a few cases where the GX640 beats the G73Jh and W860CU—Empire Total War and Far Cry 2, to be specific. It's possible that the code on those titles is such that the quad-core chips can't hit their higher Turbo speeds, allowing the 430M to beat them. Overall, though, the GX640 places where we would expect, and it's more than capable of running any current title at high settings (Mainstream for Crysis) and 1680x1050.
As for the NVIDIA comparison, there are titles where the 5850 beats the 285M and others where NVIDIA leads. Most of the time the difference is ±7%, but DiRT 2 has the 285M leading by 41% (in DX9 mode), 17% in Call of Pripyat (DX10 mode), and 12% in L4D2. On the flip side, the 5850 beats the 285M by 22% in Far Cry 2 and 7% in BFBC2. Overall, the performance is generally close enough that we'd call the two "equal". In terms of extras, you need to decide whether you place more weight on CUDA/PhysX or on DX11 features.
Looking to the future, the NVIDIA information on their GTX 480M indicates that it will be around 30% faster than the 5870 in many titles. Given we're looking at a $500+ price premium, that may or may not be enough. More to the point, there aren't any other low-end DX11 parts coming from NVIDIA just yet, so the HD 5850 occupies a sweet spot in terms of laptop price and performance. You can get a laptop with a faster CPU or GPU, or even spend the money on a fast SSD. Those things bump up the price quite a bit, and short of GPU upgrades they won't do a lot for gaming right now. In that respect, the GX640 is a very impressive piece of mobile gaming goodness. A laptop with DX11 and 1680x1050 gaming for $1100 is going to be hard to beat, though you can ditch mobility and buy a basic desktop with an HD 5770 for quite a bit less and get better performance. As always, mobility has its price.
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NecessaryEvil-BC - Sunday, June 13, 2010 - link
Agreed, the 5730 is a substantial downgrade, as is the plastic, the lower resolution LCD, etc. It's still a rather potent gaming system for the $900 mark.While I realize that a current Quad won't have integrated graphics capability, if it used the HM55 instead of the PM55, is there anything the system would really lose? Switchable could be disabled for Quad i7s, and enabled for i3, i5, Arrandale i7's. I haven't found anything saying specifically that HM55's don't support i7 Quads..
JarredWalton - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
The GX640 supports quad-core i7 chips, so what that means is the discrete GPU is required. That being the case, you have to have traces going from the GPU to the LVDS, VGA, and HDMI outputs. If you do old-style switchable graphics, you put a mux on each of those (actually two per video I think), so you add probably $10 to the cost of the mobo just in hardware, and there's a ton of validation stuff that you need to do. Then there's the other drawback: switchable graphics in this manner requires two drivers (one IGP and one discrete) with knowledge of each other, so you can't just update one driver very easily. The old Alienware M11x and ASUS ULx0Vt laptops use a single driver package from NVIDIA that has both NVIDIA and Intel drivers combined, and NVIDIA has to get permission to include the Intel drivers each time. The same holds for AMD/ATI with switchable graphics, so there's often few if any driver updates.Optimus uses just the IGP connected to the video ports, which means no hardware muxes and no extra validation. You just have to keep the GPU cool -- "easy". But then you need an IGP connected to the video or you can't use an Optimus GPU. So it's sort of no-win unless you decide to stick with IGP processors like Arrandale, or go the more expensive route of muxes and switches with the driver limitations. Sort of a Catch 22, until we get 32nm quad-core.
anactoraaron - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
My understanding is that HM-55 only supports the integrated graphics in an arrandale chip. PM55 allows discrete graphics and RAID. That's how it was with PM45. So if you were to use a quad in the HM55 I'm quessing discrete graphics would be lost. Which would also a mean pre-Arrandale i7 on a HM55 laptop would be sold without an lcd...DanNeely - Sunday, June 13, 2010 - link
The text at the start says a 5850, the table immediately below lists a 5870.JarredWalton - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
Fixed... the 5870 runs at 750/4000MHz core/RAM compared to 625 core on the 5850. So I had the right clocks but missed updating the GPU name on that table. Sorry.Hrel - Sunday, June 13, 2010 - link
If someone could do a review on the laptop that I currently suspect is the best "bang for your buck" out there. It's made by compal, and available on Cyberpower.com who's machines you've reviewed before. If you'd like it configured like I did, which I think is the best bang for buck, do this: Go to the website. mouse over 15.6" Laptops and click on the $999 Xplorer X6-8500. It has a 1080p screen. (I'm not sure why the people who run this site do this, but even though the other configurations use the same chassis when personalized they come out to cost more than this one; annoying since it makes me configure all 3 or 4 machines built on the same base chassis to figure out which one is cheapest/best for me.) Then I configured it with the Core i7-620M CPU. (to get it over 1K so I can take advantage of the 5% off.) 4GB 0DDR3-1333, hopefully 7-7-7-21, probably not, but hopefully. ATI MR HD5650 1GB GDDR3 320GB 7200rpm HDD (I did this cause I'm gonna take that HDD out and use the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB, thanks for that review!!) Everything else on that page I left untouched. The only thing I did on page 2 was switch to Intel wifi with bluetooth; Though I'm curious if the MSI option is equal/better; 17 bucks isn't nothing. It has HDMI out and a fingerprint reader. This page says 3 USB ports, the specs sheet says 4USB ports; not sure which is true. (I do wish they were USB 3.0 ports, but I was hoping you guys would test some stuff and tell me if that even matters for use with an external hard drive, mechanical disk 7200rpm. Transferring large files like movies and games mostly.) On page 3 I select "none, format only" for the OS. And select "LCD perfect assurance" cause even 1 dead pixel is unacceptable to me. This brings the total to $1008.90 after 5% off, or $992.75 if you get the MSI network card. So yeah, I really hope you guys can get a hold of one of these for review; as a loner or given as a review unit or maybe someone will just buy one and review it cause it's really tempting me right now... like a lot! If you're review is good I'm gonna start saving up and hopefully be able to buy it around Christmas. Thanks guys! A loyal reader. - BrianJarredWalton - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
I'll see if we can get one, though I think you need to put the comparison in perspective. Removing the OS to reduce the cost is not something most people would do, and unless you really need the extra CPU performance, as a gaming setup you'd be far better off with HD 5850 in this GX640. The 5650 is the same as the Acer 5740G in GPU performance, but the 1080p LCD means native resolution gaming is going to be rough -- like you'd need to run medium or low detail at 1080p to get acceptable performance. Anyway, I can't imagine the Compal keyboard could be *worse* than the GX640 keyboard, and the display resolution is a nice extra. Hopefully we can get one sent our way....Hrel - Sunday, June 13, 2010 - link
I keep reading reviews, I love the reviews on this site SO much, you guys all really do a good job breaking things down in detail. I really really really really really really want a review on that Compal unit from cyberpower.com. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review it!bennyg - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
I don't think I saw anything about temperatures in this review. In all high-performance laptops temperatures is a huge issue - espeically ones with subpar cooling systems like this G51J.I'm partcularly interested to see whether the G51J has been knocked off it's perch as king of the fireballs - one review suggested the GPU in this MSI lappy topped 100C.
numberoneoppa - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
I don't think it has enough stickers.