Investigating NVIDIA's BatteryBoost with MSI GT72

Closing Thoughts

The bottom line is that BatteryBoost is certainly improving battery life, though it does so at the cost of frame rates. Considering many console games target 30FPS it's not a horrible solution, but gamers willing to fork out the money for a notebook with a GTX 980M are likely to pack around their AC adapter so that they can get every ounce of performance possible out of their notebook. At some point, I still want to see a gaming notebook that can deliver a decent gaming experience at 60FPS and high quality for more than two hours – and once we reach that level, I'll want to see three or four hours of gaming battery life, I'm sure. It's the great thing about technology: there's always some further milestone to try to achieve.

The results of our testing also highlight another interesting potential for BatteryBoost: G-SYNC. While no one has created a G-SYNC enabled notebook display (at least, not that I'm aware of), I personally find that 30FPS is a bit too choppy but 40+ FPS with G-SYNC can work very well. The amount of power needed to reach 60FPS tends to be a lot higher than what would be needed for 40FPS, so at some point NVIDIA may have to work on G-SYNC notebooks. That of course G-SYNC might draw a bit more power as well for the extra circuitry, and for now G-SYNC also means no Optimus Technology (unless NVIDIA can figure out a workaround), but I suspect NVIDIA will cross those bridges when the time is right.

I suppose since I'm here testing the GT72, I should also note that I really like the changes MSI made with this model compared to the previous GT70. The decision to forego Optimus is also proving to be interesting; I like the idea of automatically switching to the Processor Graphics in theory, but there are definitely times when it gets in the way. For instance, I was just testing Civilization: Beyond Earth performance; none of the Optimus enabled laptops would let me connect an external 4K display over DisplayPort and run it (most likely due to a bug in either the Intel or NVIDIA drivers, though I'd lean towards Intel). What's more, I can't add a custom resolution through the Intel drivers of 2560x1440, because that "exceeds the available bandwidth", never mind the fact that 3840x2160 @ 60Hz works fine.

The full review of the GT72 will post next week, but if you're looking for a short verdict, I really like the notebook. It's expensive, and the battery is no longer externally accessible (so you can't take two or three batteries with you, though I don't know many people that ever do that). Overall however the design is much better looking, performance is great, and the dual cooling fans are definitely doing their job. When the IPS panels arrive, this will be one awesome notebook.