MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K Review
by Jarred Walton on August 21, 2014 6:00 AM ESTMSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K General Performance
Where the GE60 was lacking in general performance (thanks to the lack of any SSD storage on the unit we reviewed), the GS60 has no such problems. Below you can see our results for PCMark 7 and 8, with CPU performance and WiFi results as well.
There's nothing shocking here: i7-4710HQ is a fast chip, and all the other components are up to par as well. For general use, the GS70 can handle pretty much anything you might want to throw at it. Including dual-band 802.11ac WiFi is also a plus, with transfer rates topping 380 Mbps on 5GHz connections thanks to the 2x2:2 antenna configuration. As for 3DMark, I include these charts mostly as a point of reference; it's far more useful to look at the performance of games you actually care about, but the results from 3DMark are more or less in agreement with our gaming scores.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
47 Comments
View All Comments
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link
This system exhausts out both the back and sides, and I suspect it would run much hotter if they omitted the side vents. Thin designs are not cooling friendly, sadly.henkhilti - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link
Nice notebook review.One small remark.
In your conclusion you compared it to the Lenovo Y50 which links to Amazon.
That is a unit with 4K display for $1500 (not $1300) but please also note that is has a 256GB SSHD (=Hard disk drive + Nand flash cache) not an SSD (scroll down on the amazon page).
It also has a GTX860M instead of a GTX870M (if you compare it to the MSI's or Razer).
limitedaccess - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link
Something to keep in mind regarding the Y50 4k display is that it is supposedly a TN display that is locked to 48hz. Also the other characteristics are supposedly poor.In general it seems Lenovo's gaming oriented Ideapad series all have rather poor displays. Also to be honest in general for the entire Lenovo notebook line there doesn't seem to be a strong emphasis on display quality.
The configuration he linked to though should be one with a 256gb SSD and not the configuration with a 1tb HD with 8gb nand cache.
nathanddrews - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link
The Lenovo Y50 is $1300 with a 4K screen and 256GB SSD.It's a mistake to use Amazon as a source for validating information. Not only do the frequently get their specs wrong, they also blend reviews of similar models together and the pricing can change within hours due to allowing purchases through other vendors.
Newegg, $1249:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Either way, it doesn't matter. Lenovo officially discontinued the 4K option Y50.
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link
Hold on... where are you getting that Lenovo discontinued the 4K Y50? I can't seem to find anything on that matter. As for the Amazon pricing, it changes regularly, just like Newegg. There's a reasonable chance the model I linked went out of stock between yesterday and now, leaving places that charge more.nathanddrews - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link
I just read last week, but when I go to official Y50 UHD website, it says "temporarily unavailable". I'm either totally full of crap or just misread it.http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-seri...
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link
Yeah, that "temporarily unavailable" is what I saw. I thought it was new enough that maintaining stock was the issue, but who knows -- and a lot of people were complaining about backlight bleed on the 4K panel. If they're using a TN panel, though, that's the first I've heard of any 3K/4K LCD going the TN route; it would make me very sad if that's true.creed3020 - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link
The stress testing graphs are missing labels for the duration of time along the x axis. Possible to add this in so we can get an idea of time elapsed in the test against temps?JarredWalton - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link
The stress test charts are for one hour -- I had to hand-make the charts in Excel, and the data is actually at ~2.5 second intervals, so I figured it was best to just leave off units. I'll see if I can clarify this in the text.larspehrsson - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link
Matte or glossy? all other reviews I have read of the 3k version state that it has a glossy display but now Anandtech say that it is matte? Which is it?