MSI GT72 Dominator Pro: Performance Preview
by Jarred Walton on October 8, 2014 9:00 AM ESTMSI GT72: High Quality Gaming Performance
While the GTX 980M does manage to break 30FPS in all titles at our Ultra settings, there are times when dropping things down a notch can provide a better overall experience. Our High settings do exactly that, and if you're playing on battery power the added FPS headroom should yield overall improved battery life when BatteryBoost is enabled.
Again, full disclosure for the High settings is that I generally skip MSAA and SSAA, though if FXAA is available I do enable that. For Batman: Arkham Origins the settings are the same as Ultra (all DX11 features and other rendering enhancements enabled except for PhysX), but FXAA High is used instead of 4xMSAA. BioShock Infinite uses the VeryHigh preset (DX11 path), and Company of Heroes 2 uses High Image Quality and Textures, no Anti-Aliasing, with Snow and Physics set to Medium. GRID Autosport uses the High present with no anti-aliasing, and Metro: Last Light Redux uses High Quality and Tessellation without SSAA. Finally, Sleeping Dogs, Sniper Elite 3, and Tomb Raider all use the "High" defaults (which includes High FXAA and "Medium" SSAA for Sleeping Dogs).
1920x1080 High Performance
Here's where "beyond 1080p gaming" is really an option, as without SSAA and/or 4xMSAA many of the games push into the triple digit frame rates. Company of Heroes 2 seems to run into a CPU bottleneck or some other limit, as even at lower settings it doesn't get much above 60 FPS, making it the lowest performing game in our High settings. Metro: Last Light Redux actually breaks well past 60FPS for a change, Sleeping Dogs comes in at just under 100 FPS, and everything else is at the point where stereoscopic 3D at 60+ FPS is a viable option (though that's not supported on the MSI GT72 display).
Average performance compared among the GPUs is actually about the same as at our Ultra settings, meaning in general the games we're testing are still mostly GPU limited at 1080p High – they're just hitting much higher frame rates now. The exception is the desktop system, where the GTX 970 lead over the 980M grows a bit more (it's 29% faster now vs. 24% faster at Ultra settings). If I were to do another test at Medium quality settings, I think we'd really start to see CPU bottlenecks show up, but it's not really worth the effort as most games are already running well above screen refresh rates.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Technically the top spec version of the GT72 is the Dominator Pro-243. It has an i7-4980HQ instead of the 4710HQ, and it has 4x256GB SSDs (1TB) instead of 4x128GB. It's "only" $900 more. Hahaha... There's a Dominator Pro-098 that has the same 4x128GB as the 208 we received, but it uses the i7-4980HQ as well; it costs $400 more just for the CPU upgrade. Ouch.Meaker10 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
The 243 and 098 are cancelled for the 444 and 445 which are being updated to IPS displays but otherwise at the same price and load out.Meaker10 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Another note, MSI have an upgrade program going into effect on the GT72 series.Meaker10 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
They will be selling 970M/980M upgrade kits to owners of 8xx series systems.mischlep - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Typo: Unboxing And Initial Impresisons page ends with: "It's also large enough and has sufficient cooling that it won't get uncomfortably hot in your lap, which is a problem with "JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Fixed... was busy all day writing this up, so my brain left off a few closing thoughts. Hahaha.wetwareinterface - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
as to the omission (or in this case rejection) of optimus. it was done because it had to be done. a lot of people buy these laptops for cad or to run multiple screens for financial tracking and the like. optimus doesn't engage in those situations and you're left at that point with intel onboard graphics not supporting your app or only 2 displays available.optimus is only for gamers who want improved battery life when not gaming. this isn't really the target market for something like this laptop
huaxshin - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Dang. I just knew 4710HQ would be too weak and would bottleneck the GTX 980M in some games. Since Alienware and MSI seems to use HQ chips this year, I sincerely hope they will use their common sense and add better HQ chips (4980HQ and such).GTX 980M should probably be around 50%+ faster than GTX 880M if the CPU wasnt bottlenecking it. Bad decision about CPU, MSI.
Good Preview Jarred
Hrel - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Mobile performance is still a trade-off. You have to accept lower, but still not noticeably so, frame rates. You also have to turn some things down that don't really matter, like AA and shadows and lighting effects and such. But basically all the GTX class GPU's will give you performance that's much better than what you'll get on a console, so it looks plenty good and plays smoothly.Hopefully the next GPU process node drop will provide mobile parts where these trade offs go away, or at least heavily reduced. Which makes me feel good about keeping my GTX765M for at least a few years, just got it this year, so I'll probably keep it until 2018. At which point, hopefully, mobile GPU's that I can afford and don't DESTROY battery life will be available. Because that certainly doesn't exist today :)
Mikemk - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
"cranking every dial up to 11" XKCD reference?