MSI GT70 Review: GTX 880M Edition
by Jarred Walton on April 16, 2014 6:00 AM ESTConclusion
MSI’s GT70 (and their similar but slightly smaller GT60) line of notebooks are designed to cater to a specific class of users. If you want as much performance as possible in a notebook and size isn’t a major factor, they’re definitely worth a look. Pricing of the MSI models (and boutique derivatives from places like iBuyPower) also tends to be better than what you’ll get from an Alienware 17, ASUS G750, Clevo P177/P157, etc. MSI’s SteelSeries keyboard is also one of the better options out there, with decent key travel and colorful RGB LED backlighting. However, cooling is one area where some of the alternatives fare better; it’s not that the MSI can’t handle heavy workloads, but it does tend to generate more noise than similar notebooks that have two cooling fans.
If there’s a major shortcoming other than the single cooling fan in our GT70, it’s the lack of solid state storage. Nearly every laptop that costs $1000 or more ships with SSD caching at a minimum, and most of the laptops I’ve used in the past year have had pure SSD storage. MSI does have models with SSDs, and I’d highly recommend you look at those – or go through one of the boutiques that allow you to customize the storage setup – as even a moderate dual-core Ultrabook often feels more sprightly than the GT70 in non-gaming tasks. That said, the $1900 price point of this model is quite good, and there’s space for you to add your own 2.5” SSD so you can pick what you want and still get a 256GB class SSD with a final price of under $2100. When you compare that with last year’s GT70 Dragon that featured three 128GB SSDs in RAID 0 and carried a price tag of $2700, dropping $800 and getting a better CPU and GPU in the process is a nice alternative.
In terms of aesthetics and design, I’d really like to see MSI update the GT70 chassis and modernize the design language, though I understand the costs involved may not seem worthwhile. Still, when you look at the chassis there’s a lot of extra plastic that’s unnecessary – the quarter inch lip around the keyboard area could easily be removed, and the LCD bezel is much larger than is strictly required. Trim down these areas as well as the thickness and create a less busy look – something more like a larger/thicker Dell XPS 15 or Razer Blade Pro with colored LED backlighting on the keyboard and a 10-key layout is what I’m thinking. I’d also like to see fewer seams and pieces used in the exterior, so a single piece of aluminum, magnesium alloy, or even plastic for the LCD cover and palm rest would help. Creating such a chassis would cost more however, and it would likely be more difficulty in terms of accessing the internals to assemble/upgrade the system, so I understand why MSI continues to stick with their existing design; unfortunately, the design still looks dated, more like something you’d see from 2008 than from 2014.
As far as NVIDIA’s new GTX 880M, performance is pretty much what you’d expect from a slightly higher clocked GK104. It’s fast enough to run nearly any current game at maximum quality settings, and for those few titles that are still a bit too demanding, disabling anti-aliasing or dropping the quality setting to “high” is usually all it takes to get frame rates well above 40 FPS. We could say the same for the GTX 780M as well, however, and if you already have such a notebook I don’t see any pressing reason to upgrade. In other words, if you didn’t feel the need to buy a GTX 780M last year, there’s little reason to buy a slightly faster GTX 880M right now. What gamers really want is the next generation “Big Maxwell” mobile GPU. NVIDIA hasn’t given us any details on when such a chip will ship, but given the past few years we’re likely to see something like that in the fall (or maybe summer) timeframe. If any of the alleged specifications for GM100 are true, we may not see GM100 in any notebook part this year, but GM104 is almost certain to make an appearance and deliver superior performance to the current GTX 880M.
NVIDIA’s other new additions for the GTX 800M line are interesting, but the only GTX 800M exclusive – Battery Boost – probably needs a better showcase vehicle than the GT70 (or any other GTX 880M notebook for that matter). We did see a measurable increase in battery life with Battery Boost, and we’ll be doing a more detailed look at the technology in the near future, but if your goal is to achieve two or more hours of gaming battery life, the best we could manage with the GT70 is only about 90 minutes. Maxwell mobile GPUs again are likely to fare better, and we hope to have a GTX 850M or GTX 860M notebook for testing sooner rather than later. [Ed: And if you’re a manufacturer with such a laptop and you can get us one for review, please contact me!]
ShadowPlay and GameStream on the other hand are basically known quantities from the desktop world, and they work with the GT70 as well as they work on a desktop GTX 760. I did notice a bit of sluggishness after 20 or so minutes of gaming with ShadowPlay enabled, but I’m not sure if that was just the game (Batman Origins), or the slow HDD storage, or perhaps something else – I think it was likely the HDD, as doing a dump of the ShadowPlay buffer would clear the problem for another 20 minutes (the buffer size I set). GameStream over my local WiFi worked fine as well, but I haven’t had a chance to play with Remote GameStream yet so I can’t comment on that. Incidentally, anyone that thinks “gaming notebooks” are underpowered either has seriously high “requirements” or they simply haven’t used a system with a GTX 780M/880M, because outside of a few specific titles, I can run every game at 1080p with maximum quality, often at 60+ FPS. Doing that on a laptop (or desktop) and then streaming the result to a SHIELD is at least a somewhat novel experience, though as a PC gamer used to mouse and keyboard controls, I have to admit I’m not very good at playing games with the SHIELD controller.
When reviewing any products, besides determining what I specifically like and/or dislike about the product, I want to figure out the target market and whether or not the overall package represents a good value. In the case of the MSI GT70, It’s pretty straightforward: the target market is primarily gamers that are willing to sacrifice on the size, weight, and battery life areas in pursuit of improved gaming performance. The corollary to that is that a good gaming notebook can generally do everything else as well – office applications, multimedia, video and photo editing, etc. in most cases are far less taxing on a system than modern games – so if you don’t mind the added bulk, you can get a fast notebook that can do pretty much everything you might want. There are even models of the GT70 shipping with NVIDIA Quadro GPUs, though the maximum Quadro offering is the K4100M rather than the K5100M, which is a bit odd as the K5100M is the same core design as the GTX 880M.
Ultimately, what MSI does well with the GT70 is they give you a high performance gaming notebook (or mobile workstation) platform that can be customized in a variety of ways, and the price is generally comparable or somewhat lower than what you’ll pay for equivalent offerings from Clevo resellers – not to mention the ASUS G750JZ and Alienware 17 alternatives. While there are pros and cons to every notebook, at least in my two weeks of testing and stress testing, the MSI GT70 held up well. I didn’t see any throttling or other signs of performance issues, and other than a few areas where the component choices fall short (i.e. the HDD storage on this particular model) and some subjective opinions on the aesthetics of the design, there are no deal breakers. $1900 isn’t pocket change, and if you don’t absolutely need maximum gaming performance I’d suggest giving the lower tier GT70 with GTX 870M a look – it has a bit less RAM and a slower GPU, but at $1400 it’s going to be hard to match in terms of price/performance. (Newegg is out of stock, but you can find it elsewhere for just a bit more.)
The GT70 may not win any beauty pageants, but it’s an otherwise capable gaming notebook that can serve equally well as a desktop replacement. If you'd like something less bulky and are willing to sacrifice a bit of performance, MSI's new GS70 looks like a better alternative. We should be getting one for review in the near future, at which point we'll be able to provide a more thorough breakdown of how the two fare in daily use.
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Notmyusualid - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
My M18x R2 laptop regularly hits the 200fps cap in Black Ops 2, all graphic options maxed out...And I'm sure as sh1t the 880M GTXs are faster than my 7970M's...
I'd almost kill for a 120fps display, like the M17x's have...
smitty123 - Thursday, April 17, 2014 - link
Good review but i gotta say this, i've just had to deal with MSI customer service for my laptop i bought 2 years ago, so its out of warranty.Msi customer service, what a joke. They wanted money $$ to tell me my machine was broken. i know it is and i know what is broken, i sent them the pictures, the screen cover broke where the hinges screw into it.
Money to tell me what i need fixing ? They think people are idiots.
They wanted 50$ to tell me i'll need a new plastic cover that would probably go for 250$, can you believe that ?
I replied asking them for an estimate, its been weeks and still no reply, no mention of how much $$ to actually fix it, just "give us 50$ to open a case file". What a joke.
Here you have a loyal customer who's bought their hardware for years and instead of actually being helpful they play this money grubbing game.
Not cool MSI !
You don't mess with customers that way. it's a surefire way to not get repeat business !
So i said screw that, i went with ebay. And after that i'm selling the laptop, getting rid of that pos.
it's a horrible noisy laptop, the GT70 aren't any better, the fan and heatsink need a complete overhaul and to be quiet. it's like they don't learn from their past versions. lol
i'm never buying msi again. Their customer service sucks plain and simple.
Henry H. - Friday, April 18, 2014 - link
Dear Customer,We are very sorry about this and believe there must have been a miscommunication regarding the diagnostic fee for the OOW RMA service. We do not charge this fee which is $49.00 upfront at all we do take CC info but there is no charge for the OOW RMA number to be released all you have to do is agree to the diagnostic agreement. The only time that the diagnostic fee is charged is if the repairs are declined after the laptop has come in and has been fully diagnosed and a complete repair quote is sent out to the customer. And if the customer agrees to the repairs then the $49.00 diagnostic fee is not charged at all only the repair charges apply the diagnostic fee is waived at that point. We do believe in providing the best customer service experience to all our customers and we are sorry that you feel this way. We hope that you would reconsider and let us provide this OOW RMA if needed. But again we take pride is providing all our customers with the best customer service experience so that that they are fully satisfied and happy. So please do contact us at USUsersupport@msi.com and we will follow up with you ASAP.
Thank you,
MSI SSD,
Communism - Thursday, April 17, 2014 - link
Anyone who's not mentally retarded buys a Clevo if they're a gamer anyways.Everything else is pure crap in comparison.
Bully303 - Friday, April 18, 2014 - link
Well educated comment there..noterple2 - Friday, April 18, 2014 - link
You also need to add "... buys a Clevo with an external keyboard.." I have yet to type on a clevo keyboard that had more structural integrity than a plate of overcooked noodles.sf101 - Tuesday, April 22, 2014 - link
I agree with some things the Reviewer says.I personally Own a GT70-2OC with the 770m gpu in it instead of the 780m. a few reasons i went that route .
Price over all on the 770m versions were much much lower by a large margine and the packages available were more flexible too.
I got my version for 1300$
I immediately bought a 64gb Adata SSD and installed it "voiding warranty" and enabled Cache mode which alleviated the 5400 rpm driver performance problems for cheap "50ish$"
Reviews also said the 770m used far less power then the 780m and by everyone's complaints about fan noise with the 780m and 880m i would have to agree as i can game on the 770m gpu without having to turn on the higher fan performance button and not experience any throttling.
so that said this laptop even when gaming seems to be fairly quiet when running overclocks on the gpu it does require the turbo fan mode to be on which i agree that is fairly loud.
As far as higher resolultions on a 17" screen? i dont know if that would be worth the extra cost to me personally any smaller and i think it would feel uncomfortable to read.. and the resolution seems fine for gaming on such a small screen at this resolution. also with these gpu's im not sure your going to maintain fps very well at 1440+ resolutions.
i also agree with the op that turning down some gfx in the name of heat / power use and noise may be a good option.
and i also agree that msi is retarded with their memory configurations. they dont seem to want to keep dual channel kits involved. their 8gb models come with a single stick of memory instead of 2x4gb am i missing something here? wouldn't 2x4gb in dual channel provide supurior performance and the notebook would also still have 2 more expansion memory slots available so its not like your hindering expansion by using up two slots in the name of performance considering you void warranty upgrading as it is.
Overall Ive had a really good experiance with this laptop from msi but as the reviewer said im not sure why they dont change a few cheap options in the name of performance.
7200rpm drives for instance in the units that come with just a HDD would be a good start.
and dual memory configurations that work not breaking them with either single stick or miss matched memory sticks "8gb +4gb??????".
dual fan cooling would really help with noise on the larger units but how about just unlocking the bios for us or letting us configure a fan profile that doesn't require just 100% speed or auto ?
So while i really like the laptop i own i feel it could be vastly improved if msi just used their noggins a bit.
I like the looks of the GS models alot more even though it uses a slightly lesser GPU then the flagships it should perform well enough for desktop replacement and mobile use.
danwat1234 - Tuesday, April 22, 2014 - link
MSI, PLEASE find a way to ship the GT60 and GT70 2OD and 2PE and other 780m/880m MSI laptops with 240W AC adapters because 180W is not enough. "NOS" is a joke, a crutch. Why does the laptop have to suck power from the battery when the GPU and CPU are fully utilized when a slightly larger AC adapter would stop this?Asus uses a 240w AC adapter for good reason in their G750 and MSI should as well. I thought MSI would probably have learned their lesson after the tomshardware review blasting NOS back in July of last year;; http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gt70-dragon-ed...
This is especially important if an Extreme CPU is in the laptop. Having that being fully utilized along with the GPU, NOS will engage and whatever you are trying to do cannot be done forever because the battery will eventually drain to 30%!
Ethos Evoss - Sunday, April 27, 2014 - link
Hate when manuf. making hdmi upside down it is tacky n horrible and + chrome hphone mic etc jakcs .. looks so cheap ..bleeeHappyHubris - Wednesday, April 30, 2014 - link
I recently purchased a GS60 Pro from MSI. It's not directly comparable (4.3lbs vs 8.6 lbs), but I am enjoying the general build quality and recommend the model to anyone who is looking for a slim and light gaming notebook.Pros:
-Solid build quality
-Excellent Keyboard
-Gorgeous *matte* screen
-1080P resolution saves expense and allows you to side-step app resolution scaling issues
-You're not paying for a super high-rez screen that has little utility on a laptop unit
-Slim and light
-Excellent performance
-Ships with a SSD + HDD; you can replace the HDD with another SSD without voiding the warranty
-I haven't noticed any thermal throttling so far (the bane of ultraportable gaming units)
-Numberpad for those of us who use them
Cons:
-Giant "GAMING EDITION" logo on the cover prevents me from using this laptop in client-facing environments, because MSI still hasn't figured out that gamers are also normal members of society. My biggest con.
-Battery life is less than stellar
-The underside of this laptop gets groin-searingly hot when gaming
-Screen bezel is plastic and feels flimsy
Feel free to toss me any questions you have. Isn't it crazy to think that "Desktop Replacement" gaming laptops were 8-10 lbs just 2-3 years ago?