GS60 vs. GT72 – Performance to weight ratio

We’ve done a couple of articles on the monstruous NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M graphics card, since we’ve been fiddling around with a GT72 quite a lot lately. However, as strange as it may sound, we (us writing these articles) haven’t actually had any access to samples with the equally impressive, but better-value-for-money GTX 970M. Until now.

We got hold of a GS60, which as you probably know is a slim machine at only 19.9mm thick. Due to some clever engineering, we can run a GTX 970M in it without any problems, and since it also uses the same CPU as the GT72 we previously used for performance tests, we can compare them side by side. You can probably see where this is going… Yes, it’s obviously going to be about 3D benchmark performance, GS60 vs. GT72. GTX 970M vs. 980M. Finesse vs. Bulk.

In any case, below are the specs of the two machines. The benchmarks used are 3DMark 11 and 3DMark Firestrike, as these put graphics performance to the test.



Starting off with Firestrike, we notice that the GTX 970M in the GS60 will go as far as the drivers will allow us: 135MHz above stock levels: a GPU frequency of 1059MHz and boost at 1173MHz. Obviously, the 970M is down on shaders compared to the 980M as well, but it also won’t overclock as high. The 980M in the GT72 reaches 1173MHz GPU with a boost frequency of 1262MHz, while its memory also overclocks better, to over 6GHz. The GS60 and 970M falls some 80MHz short of the 6GHz mark.



At stock frequencies, we hit over 9200 points in 3DMark 11, with the GS60 and 970M, wheras the GT72 with its 980M clears 11000. With overclocking, the 970M comes close to the 10k mark, which no doubt would have fallen with higher frequencies if it hadn’t been for the driver limitations.



Moving on to Fire Strike, we see a similar picture. The 980M is comfortably clear of the 970M, but the 970M still offers impressive performance for a mobile chip. Over 6500 points in Fire Strike, and an additional comfortably achieved 800 points with overclocking.



Not enough to touch the 980M in the GT72, but there’s more… Remember us bringing up weight in the spec tables? You bet, we’ve come up with another graph with more stats for you folks:



The GS models were designed for people on the go who still want to do some serious gaming every now and then, while the GT series is more performance focused. This is what we want to highlight with the graph above: the performance/weight ratio in the GS60 is probably among the highest in notebooks everywhere right now.

GS60 – Thermal Performance

During our previous overclocking tests of the GS60 we discovered that it comes with a nice performance to weight ratio, but we were also slightly surprised by the fact that the computer had no trouble supporting quite serious overclocking of the graphics card either.

Logic dictates that the slimmer a notebook is, the harder it is to fit large cooling solutions – that’s why we can cool the 980M and any mobile CPU in the GT72 with ease, while keeping it quiet. The GS60 though, is under 20mm thick including screen, meaning that space for cooling is critical.

The obvious way is to throw in a couple of fans with massive RPMs, but that would be extremely noisy. Another way would be to make the system thicker to allow more space for the cooling fins, allowing for a larger convection area helping you exhaust the heat, which of course makes the system bigger, heavier and less mobile. Instead, we’ve worked with the space available and managed to create a system that stays surprisingly cool even under full load.

Yes, we’ll have to admit – it’s not whisper quiet, but nowhere near as bad as you might imagine by looking at how slim the GS60 is. All things considered, we believe it is at a sweet spot where it stays quiet for everyday use, while making itself known during gaming, which is when you have a headset on anyway, right?

We’re always partial to a benchmark, so we set about finding how hard we can push the GS60’s thermal solution… In doing so, we got nowhere near the limits of the GTX 970M, despite a 20 minute loop of game test 4 in 3DMark 11, meaning constant 100% load on the GPU. In 22°C room temperature, we maxed out at 85°C on the GPU, despite overclocking it to the max, thus creating extra ”excess” heat.



Of course the system was audible, but even when set in an office landscape with people working all around during the benchmarks, nobody as much as lifted an eyebrow.

In case you’re worried about the cooling of the GS60, you shouldn’t be, it leaves plenty of headroom for the processors.

Dragon Gaming Center – an introduction

Dragon Gaming Center is a nifty tool to set a bunch of settings that are available on the G series MSI Notebooks. The idea with this article is to break down the settings and explain them.

The first thing that meets you when you launch the Dragon Gaming Center is the System Monitor screen:



It does pretty much what the name says – it gives you system parameters in real-time, such CPU load, RAM use, battery status, etc. You can also switch SHIFT profiles and monitor your temperatures and network usage.



Screen 2 is the Utility screen – from here, you can launch applications, with the ones you see in the screenshot are preset. In addition to these, you can add your own applications.



Instant Play comes with four tabs – the first one is ”Instant Play”. Here you can assign the P1 key shortcut to launch a specific application or game.




Tab 2 is Display & Audio, where you can adjust speaker volume and microphone levels, as well as display brightness and gamma.



Tab 3 is Mouse – you can set pointer speed, double-click speed and scrolling properties.



The last Instant Play tab is Resource Release where you can choose which applications will be automatically closed when you launch your preset game with the P1 key combo.



Lastly, Device Setting comes with the possibility to turn on/off the Windows key on the keyboard, and enabling/disabling the high performance profile. Finally, you can once more choose SHIFT modes.

GT72 Cooling layout

The GT72 comes with a much improved dual-fan cooling solution compared to its predecessors. Thanks to advanced thermal engineering and features such as the thermal bridge (the heatpipe connecting the CPU cooling block to the VGA exhaust fins), the GT72 has a world-class cooling system. Anyone can keep a system cool by blasting the fans on max RPM, but the dual-fan Cooler Boost 3 solution also manages to keep the revs and thereby the noise levels down.



As we already touched on a couple of weeks ago, we know that the temperatures never reach above 80°C, even with a grossly overclocked GTX 980M – the Cooler Boost 3 design you see above is the reason for this.

Graphics card memory – how much is enough?

How much memory do you really need? With the introduction of the GTX 900 series graphics from NVIDIA, we’ve seen a leap in two things: performance, and especially on the mobile graphics side, memory size. Simply put, the higher your resolution is, the more memory you’re going to need in addition to high raw processing power. But how much?


For example, Futuremark recently updated its latest 3DMark to support 4K benchmarking. Trying to run this benchmark on any graphics card with what is now the de facto standard amount of graphics card memory, 2GB, will give you a really hard time with the FPS figures generally below 2 (yes, two) FPS in Game Test 2, whereas 3GB will be barely enough to get you by.



This is with 4K (3840x2160) of course, and just one benchmark, but it gives you an indication of where things are heading. That’s why we’ve chosen to equip our GTX 970M and 980M graphics cards with double the amount you’d expect – future proofing, and for high-res external monitors.

A real-world example on the subject was written up by Swedish media NordicHardware on Nov 7th. During its testing of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, they discovered that the game, even with a perfectly normal 1080P (1920x1080) resolution, would use all graphics memory at its disposal, all 6GB of the NVIDIA GeForce Titan Black.



Other games are going in the same direction as well. Games such as Shadow of Mordor also require a whole lot of VRAM, also eclipsing the 4GB barrier with 1080P resolution (tests once more courtesy of NordicHardware):



With even regular games, 2GB of VRAM is barely enough right now, and is simply not going to be enough in a future that is closer than you might think. The high-resolution revolution is closing in fast, do you have enough graphics memory?

Q4 2014 Bundles

Nowadays, when you buy a gaming notebook from MSI, chances are you’ll end up with a little something on the side, apart from the notebook and the usual accessories. The tricky bit is that what extras you get vary quite wildly from region to region, making it close to impossible to summarize what’s bundled where, and for you as an end-user, even harder to know what you’re getting.



Recognizing this little dilemma, we decided to take a look at a selection of things you will find bundled in a little video presentation of the Q4 2014 bundles, including plushies, mouse pads and backpacks. The video is found on Youtube:

Audio Boost 2 – theory and practice

Audio Boost and Audio Boost 2 are just one of many MSI-exclusive features on the G-series notebooks, but most importantly, it’s one of few audio related. Audio Boost 2 enhances your sound experience, whether you’re using a headset or the built-in Dynaudio speakers.

GT72 is currently the only MSI notebook to feature Audio Boost 2 – which is a collective name for the use of triple amplifiers, an isolated audio jack PCB, gold-plated audio jacks and the use of Sound Blaster Cinema 2. The point of this article is to explain to you what this all really is.



Triple amplifiers is a pretty self-explanatory name – it’s got three separate amplifiers. The GT72 with Audio Boost 2 amp is capable of delivering a full 15W to the 1” speakers, another 15W to the built-in 36mm woofer, as well as also utilizing a dedicated headset amplifier.

The isolated audio jack PCB is again what it says. Electrically separated from the rest of the motherboard for signal separation, it comes with gold-plated jacks and is optimized for headsets with 32-48 ohm impedance.

Additionally, the GT72 employs a superior audio codec compared to the competition – with full 7.1 output, the ALC892 beats the likes of ALC668 and ALC282 used by others.


Sound Blaster Cinema 2 is also part of the Audio Boost 2 package, letting you fiddle around with your sound settings for optimum gaming sound. Another software feature is Ear Protection, which lets you set a maximum sound level, to guard your ears against any sudden bursts of loud noises, potentially preventing hearing damage.