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More and more mobile devices become narrow bezel or frameless design to get higher competitive capability. As the Ultrabook or mobile phone in recent years, becomes slimmer and lighter is the most important trend. Thought about the design on Gaming Notebooks, since the design needs more high performance hardware and cooling solution, if the technology, ID and material is keep improving, maybe the frame and size could become thinner and lighter year by year. Evantually there are 3 of 15.6” thin bezel and ultra slim gaming notebooks came out in the market, this time it’s MSI GS65, the company did work hard on the gaming market. The full name is GS65 Stealth Thin 8RF, it comes with 3 versions by different hardware combinations. Evolved from last version of slim notebook GS63, the GS65 designed with narrow bezel and brand new ID design. By the way, the previous generation GS63 with GTX1050 graphics was high C/P ratio, really worth of the price with great value! GS65 with metallic A cover and matted touched design. Printed with golden MSI Dragon logo, the frame also uses shinning gold lines to make it looks higher quality and special. The dimension is 357.7x247.7x17.9mm, the weight is 1.88kg B side attached the AUO 15.6” IPS level panel, with FHD resolution, 144Hz refresh rate and 7ms response time. The bezel only got 4.9mm slim, display ratio is 82%, camera on the top side is better place than some others at bottom side. WebCam is 720P 30fps, the mic on both side support stereo sound recording. The video image will have more noise if it’s darker environment, but the image quality and detail is better than GS63. C side is keyboard side, besides of that it’s all matted metallic material, this is same design as A cover side. Keyboard kept the design with Steelseries slim Per-Key RGB keyboard, but no numeric keys. Around the slim type membrane keyboard notebooks, Alienware still better than GS65 of the feedback type feeling. Power button on the top center position, use brushed treatment with golden edge frame line to make it higher quality. A small light on the right side, white light means it’s using UMA, orange light means it’s using GTX graphics. There were align with holes for airflow across the power button, that makes cool air into the fan to enhance the cooling system performance. The MSI logo on the bottom of panel is not obvious, it will be more shinning if comes with golden material. The IO port on left side Kensington lock \ airflow exhaust \ RJ45 LAN port \ 2x Type-A USB3.1 port The 3.5mm golden jack for HiFi headset and Mic audio jack. The headset output design with ESS SABRE HiFi DAC. The hinge frame and airflow exhaust hole design with golden material inside, it makes the appearance looks higher level. The right side IO design Start from left, Type-A USB3.1 \ Type-C Thunderbolt 3 with USB3.1 Gen 2 & DP \ Mini DisplayPort \ HDMI 2.0\ AC input \ black-golden airflow exhaust There were three 15.6” narrow bezel gaming notebooks in the market, GIGABYTE Aero 15X about 2kgs, 18.9mm height, RAZER BLADE 15 about 2.07~2.15kgs, 17.3mm height, the thinnest but also the heaviest one. MSI GS65 formal shows 1.88kg, tested model is 1862g is the lightest one, 17.9mm height in the middle. But most of the ultra-slim notebooks came with softer chassis, so the weight depends on the design, the stronger chassis might enlarge the size. But it’s not always like this rule. The GS65 display could open to 180 degree to become flat; it helps on office meeting or group discussion to share the screen. If this panel could design with touch feature, that will be great.

After activating Cooler Boost 5, the idle is now at 37 degree C and full load at 70 degree C. With 2-degrees difference at idle and 8-degrees difference at full load, are pretty impressive results. The Cooler Boost 5 cooling module of the GE63VR does a pretty good job with GPU cooling, and keeps the GTX 1070 under 80 degrees even at full load, without activating Cooler Boost 5. The i7-7700HQ CPU comes in default at 2.8~3.8GHz, with power mode set at Balance. When running full load with LinX 0.6.5 – 85~96 Activate Cooler Boost 5, and run full load with LinX 0.6.5 – 75~83 LinX 0.6.5 is one of the most demanding burn-in software, as others usually generate lower temperatures. From what I can recall, launching burn-in test with AIDA64 has a lower temperature by over 10 degrees than with LinX 0.6.5. The fan noise is quite loud when activating the cooling button, which is only suggested if you wear headphones or have speaker volume at over 60. This prevents you from being affected by the full speed fan noise. Otherwise the GE63VR stays relatively silent under standard circumstances. Both the 7RE and 7RF version of the GE63VR use the same gaming display. With FHD resolution, 94% NTSC, 3ms response time, and 120Hz refresh rate, these are one of those rare high-end TN displays. They are also ideal for games with fast-paced actions, like the modern FPS games. We tried adjusting both notebook displays to a similar brightness, to better compare the image details. On the left is the high-end TN display from the GE63VR; on the right is an IPS display from the ASUS ROG GL502VS, which has a similar spec and price with the GE63VR. The comparison is made with the built-in Windows 10 wallpaper, but you can use your own if interested. Many used to have the impression of TN displays having smaller visible angle than IPS. Yet the comparison clearly shows that the high-end TN display nowadays already have similar, if not better, viewing angles than high-end IPS displays. With a wide color coverage of 94% NTSC, it’s a definite win against the competing ASUS IPS display, whether you’re viewing from the front or the sides. I’ve seen many beauty IPS displays, but with more and more manufacturers, the quality and spec also varies greatly. Opening up the bottom cover of the MSI GE63VR 7RF Raider reveals the interior hardware design. Two DDR4-2400 slots and woofer on the right; two more DDR4 slots preloaded with 16BX2 under the keyboard. Two NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD slots; 2.5†SATA3 HDD to the left. The top section is the new MSI Cooler Boost 5 cooling design. The cooling design has been the focus of MSI gaming notebooks over the recent years. With the latest Cooler Boost 5, there are dual fans, 7 heat pipes, and 3 cooling sections. The massive cooling design with ventilation across multiple sections on the chassis prove how the GE63VR takes cooling very seriously. There are total of 4 speakers, certified by the renowned Danish company Dynaudio. Two 3W giant woofers and two 2W stereo speakers. The thermal pad on the M.2 SSD is also a thoughtful design for the high-speed high-temperature NVMe M.2 SSDs. I was planning to demonstrate with videos, but the recorded files size ended up a bit too big. I’ve replaced them with photos for now. SteelSeries per-key RGB backlight keyboard and USB port lighting. They look better in person than in photos. I couldn’t help but think that I was positive to compare with Dell and Alienware. ROG may have been the leading brand for motherboards, but just doesn’t seem to be putting enough effort in gaming notebooks. There’s still much to be improved to catch up with other gaming notebook brands. Battery life. Windows 10 power mode set to balance. Built-in battery capacity of 4730mAh 51Wh. Seems to be slightly small. With GTX 1070 playing DVD video, it’s left with 66% after 1hr; 30% after 2hr; 10% after 2hr 30min. The maximum battery life of the GE63VR is around 2hr 40min, a somewhat acceptable number considering the high-end spec. Conclusion for MSI GE63VR 7RF Raider Pros and Advantage: 1. GE63VR has more speedy ID design, also more sturdy than the previous GE62. 2. Features up to a standard NVIDIA GTX 1070 graphics, drastically enhanced its 3D performance. 3. The GIANT speakers and woofers offer the best sound I’ve ever heard so far. 4. 120Hz/3ms display with 94%NTSC color coverage is exactly what’s needed for gaming. It even comes with True Color 2.0 color calibration. 5. The built-in Dragon Center is feature-rich and also nicely integrated other exclusive software. 6. The new Cooler Boost 5 boosts the cooling capability of the GE series. 7. Exceptional keyboard feedback with software that offers RGB lighting, macro, multiple profiles. 8. ESS SABRE HiFi Audio DAC for headphone output. Supports “Hi-Res Audio readyâ€. 9. Super RAID 4 with two high speed NVMe M.2 SSDs in RAID 0. 10. Killer solution for both wired and wireless network to form Killer DoubleShot Pro, plus the Killer Shield design. Cons for Improvement: 1. The metal brush pattern on the A-side top cover leaves fingerprints easily. 2. Only 720p resolution for the webcam. The image quality could also be improved. 3. The high-end TN display has wide visible angle for top and both sides, but lacks when viewed from the bottom. 4. Slightly low battery life due to the GTX 1070. It’d be better if it lasts over 3.5hr. Performance Ratio ★★★★★★★★★☆ 93/100 Material Ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 88/10 Specification Ratio ★★★★★★★★★☆ 93/100 Aesthetics Ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 86/100 Price-Value Ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 88/100 Comparing to the last gen GE62, the GE63VR has removed the built-in ODD, but still weighs the same. This is due to many of the enhancement under the hood, especially the cooling design and the full GTX 1060/1070 graphics. The huge sound chambers grant the GE63VR far superior audio experience in volume, detail, and bass. The quality and sturdiness upon picking up the notebook proves this to be a quite an evolutions over GE62. With the MSRP just under 2000 USD, the MSI GE63VR 7RF actually costs slightly less than its rivals with similar spec. The GE73VR with GTX 1060 6GB also has quite the aggressive pricing, with MSRP around 1600 USD. The GE63VR is the mid-high model among MSI lineup, and will probably also comes in various versions to choose from, just like the GE62. So far, only the version with i7-7700HQ and GTX 1060 6GB is available in Taiwan. It’s available with GTX 1060 6BB and 1070 8GB for GPU options. If they come in 4C4T Core i5 with GTX 1060, they should be able to further lower the price tag, and become even more affordable for those who love the GE series. Aside from 3D performance, I think a lot still needs to be worked on, like audio, display, keyboard, cooling, chassis. The GE63VR may not have scored 100/100 in all aforementioned category, but are at least 80~90+ in most. The GE63VR is a well-balanced notebook with gaming-grade performance. Of course, there’re still some things that I’d like to see addressed. But the new version already has a major upgrade. I look forward to seeing more verions available for the consumers. This article also shared on my personal Facebook -Windwithme WWM If this article helps you to know more about this product, please feel free to click like to encourage me.

CINEBENCH R15 CPU => 731 cb CPU (Single Core) => 159 cb The GE63VR features Intel Core i7-7700HQ, with 4C8T. The main difference from the previous gen (Core i-6700HQ) is the frequency, 2.8~3.8GHz vs 2.6~3.5GHz. I’ve tested and shared many results from Intel 6th gen and 7th gen CPU performance. The performance is almost on identical when under the same frequency. The 5~10% increase is due to the slightly higher frequency from the 7th gen. It is more rely on better cooling capability. PCMARK10 => 4768 The storage comes in two M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen.3 x4 SSD in RAID 0 config. The 7RE features 128GBX2, and the even higher 7RF comes in 256GBX2. The model is Samsung MZVLW256HEHP, aka PM961. The hard drive is a HGST 1TB 7200rpm drive. AS SSD Benchmark - 3272 Seq Read - 2878.09 MB/s Write - 2065.34 MB/s 4K - 64Thrd Read - 1054.32 MB/s Write - 889.37 MB/s The SSDs comes with the performant M.2 SSD PM961. There are also the faster SM961. However, the highest read speed for a single PM961 is 2800 MB/s, write speed of 1100 MB/s. The RAID 0 configuration also enhances the transfer speed. It’s a shame that both desktop PCs and notebooks are still far from the ideal of PCIe M.2 RAID 0, not sure if Intel RST still requires improvement or that Intel chipset still can’t performance at its fullest. Either way, the GE63VR with NVMe M.2 SSD and 1TB HDD is an excellent config with both speed and capacity. Both the Intel HD Graphics 630 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 are featured as its graphics. The GTX 1070 comes with 8GB GDDR5, just like the desktop counterpart. The following results are from the GTX 1070: 3DMark Fire Strike => 14668 For comparison, the previously tested GTX 1060 scored 8883, and GTX 1070 Max-Q scored 11910. UNIGINE 2 1080p Medium => 13537 For comparison, GTX 1060 scored 7902. Far Cry 4 1920x1080 resolution with 3D effects at Ultra. Opening scene – 283 FPS, right after the opening animation (shown in pic) – 90 FPS. For comparison, the previous GTX 1060 has 82 FPS, and GTX 1060 Max-Q has 86 FPS. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Siege 1920 x 1080 with graphics at Ultra. Beginning of the game - 167 FPS The previous GTX 1060 has 110 FPS and the GTX 1070 MAX-Q has 145 FPS Assassin's Creed Syndicate 1920 x 1080 with ULTRA HIGH graphic preset. Beginning of the game - 59 FPS The previous GTX 1060 has 37 FPS and the GTX 1070 MAX-Q has 48 FPS NieR:Automata 1920 x 1080 with High graphic preset. Switch to the highest settings with 8X Anti-Aliasing and 16X Texture Fliter After browing through the internet for some answers, we’ve confirmed that the frame rate has been capped at 60 FPS, the same number even after turning off V-Sync. Reviewers abroad tested GTX 1060 and scored only around 45~53 FPS, and the GTX 960 at only 28~32 FPS. This is quite a 3D performance intensive game. The GE63VR 7RF features the standard GTX 1070. Its powerful 3D performance can be observed from the previous tests, outperforming than regular GTX 1060 quite a lot in many of the 3D games. The Max-Q GTX 1070 falls somewhere in between the two. Room temperature at 30 degree C. GPU NVIDIA GTX 1070 cooling capability test. Idle at 39 degree C and full load at 78 degree C with FurMark.

MSI has also improved a lot on their exclusive software over the past two years. Almost every features comes with its own software that allows for finer tweaks, especially for the gaming features, like audio, keyboard, display, etc. This is also where most of the other brands that I’ve tested fall short, like Dell or HP. First with the audio, Nahimic 2+. The audio software has been constantly upgraded to add more features. The MSI Nahimic 2+ actually looks very similar to Alienware Sound Center, but offers more configuration for different environments. For those who stream games, uses team chats, or even make video calls, the software plays an important row with the microphone settings. The following is the thoughts for the speakers from the GE63VR. This is much more subjective, and is based on comparison with other high-end gaming notebooks. High Freq. – No overly sharp tunes, rich details, great overall performance. Mid Freq. – Nice overall detail clarity, human vocal also stronger above average. Bass Freq. – Most outstanding part, strong but not blurred out, but may overpower the Highs and Mids. The GE63VR with the Nahimic 2+ present excellent audio quality, thanks to the two 2W stereo speakers and two 3W GIANT woofers. The overall sound detail was remarkable strong, and has the highest volume of all the high-end gaming notebooks tested ever. The details are also pretty outstanding, even comparing to Dell Alienware 17 R4. Whether it’s watching movies, playing games, or listening to music, the audio is just amazing. The headphone output features ESS SABRE HiFi DAC, supporting up to Hi-Res 192kHz/24bit output. The actual listening experience with a Hi-Res headphone also performances on par with the best Dell Alienware to date. Keyboard Software with SteelSeries Engine 3 It offers the common lighting control, macro settings, and multiple profiles. Lighting presets are also available, adding extra fanciness to the RGB design. The waves of color changes with each key, similar to the high-end Corsair K70 RGB mechanical keyboard tested. Clicking into Engine Apps Click on the AudioVisualizer to the center-right. Detailed menu are presented on the center-left. With a few tweaks, you can have the preview sound wave in sync with the RGB keyboard. This adds an extra layer of visual experience when listening to music. Display Software is MSI True Color 2.0 The software is quite unique on first sight. There are 6 modes to choose from for preference and different purposes. It comes with pre-calibrated configurations, as well as detailed manual adjustment options. Gamer Mode has more configuration than the aforementioned sRGB. For gaming scenarios, the response and details in shadows of a display is especially crucial. Designer Mode Offers Rich Color Adjustments Aside from gaming, MSI gaming notebooks are also perfect for image designers that demand accurate colors. As stated on the website, MSI collaborates with Portrait Display, Inc., and make sure every unit has been indecently calibrated during factory production. Such service was previously only seen on Japanese high-end monitors like EIZO. MSI sets high standards for gaming notebook displays Dragon Center is the most important MSI exclusive software. It neatly integrated all other related software, with access to system status and tuning. MSI is considered to be among the best when it comes to software integration for notebooks. System Tuner Offers configuration for VR, performance, fan speed, and display color. In the Shift system performance configuration, an extra Turbo Mode can be found when plugged in to AC. There’s also a toggle on the far right for the cool USB lighting. The following performance tests are based on Turbo Mode for enhanced 3D performance from the higher GPU frequency. GS63VR comes in GTX 1070 (7RF) and GTX 1060 (7RE), with various capacity options for DDR4 RAM and M.2 SSD storage, hence the price varies. Hardware performance test for the GS63VR 7RF are as follow: CPUZ 1.80.0 Single thread => 390 4C8T multi thread => 1925 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 28.23/13548

Over the recent years, MSI has been focusing on the high level and mid-range gaming marketing with 3 main series: The finest is the GT series that pursues maximum performance; the 2nd is the GS series with its slim & light but good performance; the 3rd is the GE series in the middle ground, lighter than GT but faster than GS. Recently the GE series just received a makeover, with improvements in aesthetics, design, and quality. This article will focus on testing and analyzing the latest 15.6†of MSI GE63VR. Starting from the A-side top cover, the design still iconic MSI with the brushed aluminum surface and a MSI dragon shield logo, that illuminates when powered on, all quality adding to its looking and feeling. The GE63VR now comes in both GTX 1060 GPU (7RE) and the top-notch GTX 1070 (7RF), both with the dimension of 383 x 260 x 27.5 mm. The weight may vary a little depending on the configuration: official spec of the 7RF is 2.39 kg. The actual measurement says 2395g, which has almost same. Straight ridges and red line are presented on both sides of the center section to perform a sense of speed. MSI often adopts the design of a sports car hood on the cover to match their brand image. Personally, I think it’d look even better if the two red stripes can light up during boot up. The backpack that came with the GE36VR excels in both quality and protection. The new dragon shield logo has also been redesigned to remove the “GAMING SERIES†wording for simplicity. The backpack fits up to 17†notebooks, which some may consider a bit too big but others may think bigger space is as a plus. The adapter next to the GE63VR 7RF comes at a max 230W to power the high end GTX 1070 version. The B-side surrounds the 15.6†matte display. The webcam on the top features 720p 30fps capability, with a small hole for the microphone on its either side. The high-end TN display features FHD resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, and 94% NTSC color coverage. C-side overview It’s paired with a SteelSeries RGB gaming keyboard, featuring per-key RGB lighting. The feedback may not be like a mechanical keyboard, but is exceptional for membrane keyboards. I personally also like the dedicated left and right button of the track pad, as this offers better accuracy when pressed down. The outer is decorated with red line, like the GS63VR, to enhance its visibility and aesthetics. The slim buttons on the right represents power button, SteelSeries keyboard lighting, and fan speed adjustment. Right IO Starting from the left is the SD card reader (XC/HC), USB3.0 X2, ventilation. I’ve noticed the red lighting from the USB port during the initial boot up, which also adds visibility during installation. Left IO Starting from the left is Kensington lock, ventilation, RJ45 Ethernet port, HDMI, mini DisplayPort, USB3.0, Type-C USB3.1. Gold-plated 3.5mm audio jacks are for Hi-Fi headphone and microphones. The headphone-out supports ESS SABRE HIFI technology. The rear has also been decorated with the red line to further enhance aesthetics and the speed theme. Ventilation can also be seen on either side for the latest MSI exclusive Cooler Boost 5 cooling technology. Under the D-side The center dragon totem not only adds to the look-and-feel, but also features massive ventilation grills. The lighting at the bottom suggests power, battery, and hard drive status. The speaker is in collaboration with the well-known Danish audio company: Dynaudio. The sound chamber is 5x the size than previous GE design, as shown in the bottom left/right of the picture, which made us really look forward to the audio quality and volume.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate Resolution set by 1920x1080, Graphics setting : Ultra High The first scene while entering the game – 48 FPS We’ve done the test of GTX 1060 before, which performed 37 FPS The GTX 1070 Max-Q version graphics presents in some 3D games, Its higher than GTX 1060 from 15%~29% depends on different games. Maybe sometimes it’s not big performance gap compared with GTX980 top graphics, but we should know that GTX980 could only installed in huge size gaming notebooks. And this kind of thin & light gaming notebook could only attached with GTX970M to GTX 1060 level graphics. nVIDIA launched the Max-Q design graphics, that makes the gaming notebooks comes with higher gaming performance but kept it same slim and light. But still need very good cooling system design within this ultra slim condition, otherwise it will still overheat or throttling. The ambient temperature is around 30°C, test GPU of GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q with it’s cooling capability Runs with FurMark, idle was 53°C, full loading is 84°C GS63VR designed with UHD 4K or FHD resolution, also comes with different type of panel. UHD is over 72%NTSC IPS panel, the model here is highest level TN display. This display is 94%NTSC color gamut, 120Hz 3ms response time. Looks more suitable for high speed gaming, will share its color and viewing angle in below. Nowadays the IPS display were too many makers and to many grades of quality, its easier to have bed quality IPS panel notebooks in the market. The left side was comparison model HP ZBook Studio G3 high level IPS workstation, the price range is 30% higher than GS63VR 7RG model. The right side is GS63VR with 120Hz/3ms TN panel, you could see it’s warmer color present, the IPS panel on the left side is colder color present. We used to think that TN display was not good on viewing angle, but you could see the difference at this photo, as new technology improved, the horizontal viewing angle of high level TN display already is as good as IPS panel, especially when it comes with 94%NTSC wide color gamut, the color range and detail quality present is better than good IPS panel no matter from front side or left/right side. Use the display test webpage to confirm this display could reach smooth 120Hz refresh rate, this helps a lot when high speed gaming or movies to have smoother experience. If you use the 120Hz TN to compare with mid-level or entry level IPS panel of other gaming notebooks, the color difference GAP will become bigger, because the GS63VR was compared with higher level display of HP mobile workstation. Of course the IPS display still got greater viewing angle and closer to real color present, there also got GS63VR with IPS display as well. But high level TN display of the GS63VR got its advantage indeed, high viewing angle, 94%NTSC of color gamut, up to fastest 3ms response time and 120Hz refresh rate. If your usage mostly is gaming, I think this version of GS63VR is really suitable. Cooler Boost Trinity cooling system, designed with 41 blades of 3 fans and 5 heatpipes, the airflow is 30% stronger than previous design. This is the latest cooling system that MSI just launched last year. CPU default clock is 2.8~3.8GHz, balanced on power mode. System in idle mode - 57°C~69°C Run LinX 0.6.5 burn-in with system full loading - 88°C~92°C The CPU idle temperature was a bit higher, but full loading temperature present is really good. Although the CPU temperature up to 92°C, that’s because the Intel 4C8T CPU getting hotter in recent years, also the 7700HQ got higher default clock than 6700HQ. The C (keyboard) side temperature was only around 30~42°C with burn-in test. The GS63VR with Core i7 7700HQ and GTX 1070 Max-Q high level SPEC, already got very powerful cooling system as a ultra slim gaming notebook, if you want a more powerful cooling design of gaming notebook, that’s what MSI GT series or Dell Alienware could provide, but also comes with more heavy weight and bigger size. Battery life present, set Windows 10 power mode at Balanced. Use GTX1070 to playback 720P video, after 1 hour the battery life around 73%, 10% left after 3 hours. As this kind of high level hardware combination, GS63VR battery life could over 3 hours is really good and above average. Conclusion of GS63VR 7RG Stealth Pro Pros and Advantage: 1.New ID with extra 3 red sport line so the shape comes with more speed feeling. 2.Designed with latest Geforce Max-Q GTX 1070, makes ultra slim notebook with more powerful 3D performance 3.Used Killer Gaming LAN and WiFi, support Killer Shield technology. 4.Matted high level 120Hz/3ms TN display with 94%NTSC, apply True Color 2.o color calibration technology. 5.Dragon Center comes with rich functions and good integration on all softwares. 6.New Cooler Boost Trinity technology makes GS series comes with more powerful cooling capability. 7.Keyboard got great force feedback of type feeling, SSE3 software is good on light management, rich Macro-Keys setup and lots of virtual keyboard sets. 8.Headset AMP designed with SABRE HiFi Audio DAC, support Hi-Res Audio format. Cons for Improvement: 1.The WebCam resolution only got 720p, the image quality also need to improve. 2.Built-in speakers still could be improved on human vocal and sound stage. 3.Although the C side temperature kept in good hand, but the rear fan exhaust still a bit too hot. 4.With the high level 120Hz TN panel, the viewing angle from horizontal and upper angel is good, but still bad from below side. Performance Ratio ★★★★★★★★★☆ 92/100 Material Ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 88/100 Specification Ratio ★★★★★★★★★☆ 92/100 Outlook Ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 85/100 Price-Value Ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 85/100 GS63VR 7RG Stealth Pro price range start from $2199, the main difference should be 256GB~512GB SSDs with SATA3 or NVMe speed, and 120Hz TN display or IPS display difference, or maybe different RAM capacity, the others should be the same. With the Max-Q GTX 1070 and high level hardware combinations and gaming features, the price is lower than the features market values, since there were some GTX 1060 gaming notebooks already kept at same price range or even higher. With more gaming features, such as SABRE HiFi Audio of headset DAC, Cooler Boost Trinity cooling system, the 120Hz/3ms with 94%NTSC high level TN display is more suitable for gaming, plus the True Color for color calibration. Every few months I tested MSI gaming notebooks, they are not so perfect but they keep improve on many different ways and features. The ID design of latest GS63VR is 10% smaller and lighter than previous version of GS60, this is how MSI improve their products in every generation. That makes MSI grew up faster in recent years, and become somebody in Gaming products field. Hope MSI keep enhance their products of weakness, and make more better products for more gamers and consumers. 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Nahimic2+ Sound Platform MSI has adopted Nahimic sound technology for 3 years and it’s quite significant than other laptop brands. According to reviews done in the past, the sound effect of MSI laptop is quite fascinating. More detailed settings of the sound effect would be offered for users to choose in high-end sound software. Options and features in Nahimic2+ are quite abundant as well. Maybe it’s due to the limitation of the slim chassis, it’s kind of hard to fit in every high-end hardware. It’s a bit pity that the performance of speakers are not as good as GS73VR. If there is any room to improve and modified as good as GS73VR, that would be more perfect. Follow the hearing experience of the Hi-Fi audio connector, which is more subjective, there are comparison between MSI and other high-end gaming laptops. High frequency – it’s far above the average regarding to richness in detailed and no sharpness sound happened. Middle frequency – Outstanding for clear sound stage and richness in human vocal Low frequency – Overall it performs good and not too turbid. But sometimes it would be covered by the mid-high frequency sound. The GS63VR got better headset DAC quality with Nahimic 2+ software than previous version. The music or songs are most outstanding, the sound detail and sound stage for video or play games also fit it’s position. This also support external speaker with Hi-Res Audio of 192kHz/24bit high quality level. Next would be the high-end hardware performance testing packed inside the machine. By featuring the latest Intel Core i7-7700HQ launched this year, working frequency is from 2.8 up to 3.8GHz and structured four cores with eight threads. Since most of the slim laptops can only feature low core clock dual core/four threads i7 CPU, the slim GS63VR with four core/eight threads core i7 proves its great thermal capability than other bulky laptops. CPUZ version 1.79.1 Single thread => 395.6 8C16T multi threads => 1940.5 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 27.35/13128 CINEBENCH R15 CPU => 716 cb CPU(Single Core) => 163 cb Honestly speaking, there is not much performance improvement if comparing i7-7700HQ and i7-6700HQ. The gap of full speed testing with multi-threads is around 4~7%. But it’s still one of the must-have if mentioning high-end laptops. Of course there would be lots of consumers wish to see more CPU performance enhancement in next Eight series family. The SSD been used for storage is M.2 PCIe Gen.3 x4 SSD Model number is TOSHIBA THNSN5512GPU7 The HDD of the storage been used is SAMSUNG 2TB AS SSD Benchmark - 2628 Seq Read - 2063.93 MB/s Write - 1322.57 MB/s 4K - 64Thrd Read - 849.76 MB/s Write - 741.63 MB/s In device manager, make sure to check two of the options regarding to SSD cache to speed up the performance to the limit. Though many slim laptops already give up to pack the HDD device to save the internal space and make it lighter, but personally would recommend the high speed M.2 SSD with huge volume HDD to enjoy the speedy efficiency and storage capacity. The design of GS63VR with HDD is good, it’s only 100g more of the weight. Dual graphics have been embedded inside which are HD graphics 630 in Core i7-7700HQ and Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR55 VRAM max-Q version. Let’s check below performance test for GTX 1070. 3DMARK 11 => 15115 3DMARK Fire Strike => 11910 UNIGINE 2 VR MAXIMUM => 7133 Far Cry4 Let’s set the resolution by 1920x1080 and turn those 3D effects to ultra mode. In the beginning scene : 240 FPS, The first scene after the opening animation - 86FPS If we compared to previous results of GTX 1060 and GTX 980, which are 75 FPS and 83 FPS Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege Resolution set by 1920x1080, Graphics setting : Ultra The first scene while entering the game – 145 FPS Previous testing result of GTX 1060 and GTX 980 are117 FPS and 112 FPS.

Behind the GS63VR could find the dual ventilator and “STEALTH†naming with three red designed lines to highlight its racing scenario, and also the efficient exhaust capability has been managed. The dark-purple pad has been placed at D side with certain range to prevent the scratch, which little bit feels like suede. In the picture you could find more exhaust wholes at the button. Dual speaker holes are set in upper side. Specification of the battery is 3-cell with 64.98Wh, packed inside the machine and it’s not attachable design. The power adaptor features 180w, little bit smaller than HP 200w. Beside the specification and the performance of this high-end gaming laptop been ranked, the slim exterior appearance and weight, even the design of the power adaptor are all with high mobility and delivers great convenience to mobile workers. Not only the hardware specification of 3C products are getting more and more important but also the application software been adopted. MSI Dragon Center is developed and exclusive by MSI, it’s on fleek with page layout and info graph. You can find App Portal on upper left and shows all the related and installed apps. System Monitor can show the main hardware status. System Tuner It’s the adjustment page for VR Technology, hardware performance, cooling fan speed or panel lighting level. Five savable profiles at the left to be used by different purposes. X boost is the feature to enhance the USB or Storage access capability. Later will change the Shift function to Sport mode for performance testing, to see how high the GS63VR’s performance could reach. MSI True Color 2.0 Color Adjustment software interface It’s kind of outstanding color adjustment software among personal sharing regarding to high-end gaming laptops or professional graphics laptops. On official website it describes the cooperation with Portrait Displays, Inc, all the production pieces have been adjusted its color appearance before shipping out. Before only the famous brand from Japan named EIZO has almost the same process to make sure the most precision color. We can say MSI had studied hard and put efforts on panel’s color appearance with all the things mentioned above. Six color modes have been provided in the application, it’s enough for different users’ scenario. More color adjustment options are offered in Designer Mode, to deliver more choices for graphics designer or visual specialists. It’s still lots of adjustment options in Gamer mode. The color precision of screen will be changed by the environment, the coordination of hardware and software has done so well with MSI. Steelseries Engine3 It provides the lighting management, macro key setting, and virtual keyboard function. The keycap is certified by Steelseries, though it’s not as good as the tactile of mechanical keyboard, but this GS63VR has been better than previous generation and even than other laptops. Positioned as gaming laptop, the GS63VR adopts Killer Gb LAN and Killer 802.11 a/c WiFi. Both Ethernet and Wifi combine as Killer DoubleShot Pro, to advertise its great capability in reducing the internet ping value by 30%. Also, it reduces the jitter during the internet transmission, offers smooth quality during the streaming or gaming. Personally has some feedback for the interface of Killer Network Manager regarding to the layout and artwork design. As a huge brand of internet chipset, Qualcomm can make it a better design than an old school one now.

Starting from 2011, MSI had been serious about the gaming market and studied the field for years. As long as it’s been through, as much as it can get for the brand awareness and richness in product lines. GT series is mainly for high-end extreme performance position while GE series is taking the mainstream line. The one which personally appreciated is the GS series, packed with high performance hardware but made with slim-shape looking. This time we would like to share the review for new coming MSI GS63VR 7RG Stealth Pro. The dimension is 380x249x17.7mm, weight is around 1.89kgw. By packing the latest Max-Q Nvidia GPU, thickness of GS63VR’s is below 18mm to fit the regulation. It’s hard to believe it belongs to high performance position by its slim shape in 15.6 inch laptops. Let’s take a look at the A cover, it’s made by brush metal and aligned with dual muscle lines like the racing car’s hood to enforce its speedy scene. Still remembering the sharing of GS70 in 2004, the design only appeared to flat one. In addition, I am highly appreciated this colorful picture with shinning sunshine on the GS63VR. Let’s check the dragon logo plate on the A side, it’s been made by Corning 8H glass and modified little bit by removing the black “Gaming G Series†wording. It glows during the booting and seems more elegant than previous design. Then we check the B side which is surrounding the LCD. Above the screen area will find the 720P 30fps webcam, with dual digital microphone aside. This matte 15.6 LCD panel here is featuring 120Hz/3ms with 94% NTSC color gamut. Black brush metal is surrounding the keyboard area, we can say the design idea of C side is same as A side. The Steelseries RGB gaming keyboard, as usual, have been adopted to MSI high-end laptops with Silver-Lining Print. When there is request to change the color scenario, you have to use the Steelseries Engine software to handle it. The tactile has been evolved and feels better than previous generation. The left-right click on touch pad have been form as one piece, surrounded the red diamond cut design to show its elegancy. Right hand side of the touch pad would be the feature stickers to show those main features and technology of GS63VR. Front of the C side set 7 red indicating lights, starting from the left which are “Sleepâ€, â€Storage accessâ€, “Numpadâ€, “Caps lockâ€, “Blue toothâ€, “Wi-Fiâ€, and “Batteryâ€. A slightly change of the power button, which had been moved to the edge of C side since last year, it will be initiated by pressing deeply more than one second to prevent the booting of accidentally touch. One of the advantages of GS63VR is the 180 degree of the flip angle. The tiny holes on the upper area of C side are designed for air flow, not the space for speaker sound. And there is LED indicator in the middle to show the figure of power button, looks special while booting and experiencing it. Right hand side of the machine can see the IO area, from the left hand side which are power button \ USB2.0 \ Thunderbolt 3(usb3.1) \ HDMI \ mini DisplayPort \ power connector. IO on the left hand side of the machine, starting from the left which are Kensington lock \ RJ45 connector \ SD card reader (XC/HC) \ USB 3.0 x3 Gold plated audio hole for 3.5mm Hi-Fi headset and microphone, especially the headset supports ESS SABRE HIFI technology.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege 1920x1080, graphics in Ultra Starting screen – 117FPS Compared to previously tested 970M – 48 FPS, GTX980 -112FPS Assassin’s Creed Sundicate 1920x1080, graphic preset is ultra high Starting screen – 37 FPS These past 2 years, INTEL and NVIDIA have started implementing their products into notebooks because of the emerging demand for high performance gaming notebooks. Though it is true the performance has increased, it brought about even higher unwanted heat and higher power consumption; and this has always been the biggest challenge for notebook manufacturers to overcome. Take GT62VR for example, it has GTX1060 for high 3D rendering, outperforming GTX970 and GTX980M. GTX1060 doesn’t fall short of GTX980 either, few games even benefits more from the new GPU infrastructure. GeForce GTX 10 Series has increased over efficiency and performance, bringing gaming notebooks a new meaning of high 3D rendering performance. windwithme opened up GT62VR 6RD DOMINATOR the bottom chassis to share the internal layout and its components. Left side are 2 slots for DDR 2400 and a subwoofer; below the keyboard are two DDR4 slots that came with 2x 16GB Bottom left is the M.2 SSD, bottom right is the 2.5inch SATA3 HDD On top is MSI’s new generation Cooler Boost 4 cooling module Left and right side are embedded with Cooler Boost 4 twin fans design. Fans are 8cm in diameter and 1.5cm in height. Copper heat pipes have been coated black and made thicker with extra materials, so as to help GT62VR with improved thermal management. 3 copper heat pipes attached to the i7-6700HQ, and 4 copper heat pipes for the GTX 1060 for the optimal thermal design. This type of cooling module and thermal design in the gaming notebook market is currently one of the best and the most efficient. As a result, the notebook might be a little bulkier, but let’s just call this a fair trade-off wouldn’t you think Room temperature roughly 29 Deg Celsius, attempting thermal test First off is the NVIDIA GTX 1060 Shutting off Cooler Boost 4, opening FurMark and we got 49 Deg Celsius on standby and 80 on full speed Turning on Cooler Boost 4, opening FurMark and we got 44 Deg Celsius on standby and 69 on full speed Thanks to Cooler Boost 4, GTX1060 temperature can decrease at roughly 5 Deg Celsius in standby and 11 Deg Celsius at full speed CPU standard clocking at 2.6~3.5GHz, power in balance mode Turning off Cooler Boost 4, operate LinX 0.6.5 at full speed – 71~82 Turning on Cooler Boost 4, operate LinX 0.6.5 at full speed – 61~74 During burn test , turning on Cooler Boost 4 helps lower CPU temperature by 8~10 Deg Celsius. Standby mode doesn’t really show the power of the Cooler Boost 4; it is during full speed performance where Cooler Boost 4 really shines. With these high quality hardware, the level of thermal management on GT62VR is exceptionally satisfactory Cooler Boost 4 doesn’t really create a lot of noise, plus it is usually at low frequency, which helps encourage its usage Built with GTX1060 while playing a DVD video, 70% after an hour, 10% after 3 hours. Battery lasts roughly 3 hours, which is still considered adequate for a high end gaming PC Concluding GT62VR 6RD DOMINATOR Its unique appeals and advantages 1.Top Cover A side has 2 strips of glowing red lines, creating that speed sensation 2.Uses NVIDIA GTX 1060, greatly increasing 3D rendering performance 3.Both Wifi and Ethernet uses Killer Gaming Processor, supports Killer Shield 4.Frosted IPS Panel that supports 100% RGB and 72% NTSC; and provides True Color screen customization technology 5.New DRAGON CENTER provides refined and a more intuitive layout for the users 6.Cooler Boost 4 twin fan cooling module with thicker copper heat pipes provide outstanding passive cooling compare to other NB of its category 7.Dynauido technology combined with NAHIMIC 2 audio enhancer, giving that remarkable audio experience 8.Provides 4-DIMM DDR4 slots, clocks at 2400, giving better bandwidth and performance 9.Steelseries Engine 3, RGB management, as well as many other customizable options on the keyboard 10.15.6inch notebook weighin at 2.93kg, lighter than DELL’s Alienware 15’s 3.2kg notebook 1.Chassis could be made a little slimmer, or lower the rubber foot on the bottom might be better 2.SteelSeries keyboards lack feedback and a bit on the soft side. More feedback would feel better 3.WebCam quality could use a little more work 4.B and D sides frosted material could maybe use a little refinement or use a different material to elevate the texture 5.If the ventilation in the back could be made to look similar to the GT72S, with a touch of red strips along the lines, could elevate the overall appeal. Performance ★★★★★★★★★☆ 88/100 Hardware ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 88/100 Specs ★★★★★★★★★☆ 90/100 Appeal ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 80/100 Price ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 82/100 This time around, MSI high end gaming notebooks have earned the reputation of faster product refresh compared to other manufacturers Lots of models are already VR Ready, and have been upgraded to GTX10 Series GPU to increase 3D performance. Furthermore, GT62VR has also improved features like the DRAGON CENTER, Cooler Boost 4, NAHIMIC 2, and more. A side has also been refined to look more sporty, and plus True Color can help with even more screen customization options Many of GT62VR’s advantages are in their internal design and use of components. Externally would be the audio and the design. But personally they could use a little more work on the exterior. Maybe it’s to reduce weight, that they had to sacrifice other aspects to find a balance. These are some of my insights after tested a few high end notebooks. If they don’t mind increasing the weight, and change to more DELL Alienware-like high quality chassis would be helpful as well Afterall, GT is MSI’s top gaming notebook model, primarily focusing on the highest performance capacity; which is why price, weight, and dimensions are relatively higher. But MSI also has the GS for slim and GE for the more affordable options to choose from In the high end market, GT62VR with its aggressive sleek design and quality build, definitely has the competitive edge facing its rivals. This article is also published in the younger brother’s blog: WIND3C, 3D enthusiasts are welcome to visit.

Nahimic 2 Audio Software in recent years has been implemented to all high end MSI gaming notebooks. Settings and customizations have been refined as well; for example, HD Audio Recoder on top right already has a second generation interface When talking about the sound speakers produce, it is often subjective to each individual, which is why we’ll focus on how notebook’s built-in speakers perform. The speakers creates quite a stir when turned on full blast, reaching over 95.2dBA High Frequency – no high pitched sound, detailed sound, outstanding performance overall Mid Frequency – excellent details with outstanding voice clarity Low Frequency – adequate performance, bass isn’t too blend; but mid and high frequency easily overpowers low frequency MSI GT62VR speakers combined with Nahimic 2 audio enhancer perform even better in music, watching movies, or playing games. The immersive sound performance is complementary to the gaming genre. Its specialty is creating a surround-like environment with outstanding clarity, but mid frequency’s voice output still got some room for improvement GT62VR is a high end gaming notebook with several different models already been pushed out. Today’s test will be using a higher model GT62VR 6RD Dominator 013TW. However, there’s a rumor that there will be an even higher model GT62VR in the near future, equipped with the latest NVIDIA GTX1070 GPU with INTEL’s 6th Generation i7 Core processor. There’s already been a few models sharing the same CPU performance previously, but let’s quickly walk through 6700HQ CPU’s software performance. CINEBENCH R15 CPU => 673 cb CPU(Single Core) => 138 cb Fritz Chess Benchmark => 25.70/12335 FRYRENDER Running Time => 5m 13s x264 FHD Benchmark => 22.8 Basically high end models carry 4C8T Core i7 architecture, greatly outperforming Core i5, and is quite often seen equipped in high end gaming notebooks. This is usually the more cost effective solution; because though there are more powerful processors such as the 6820HQ or 6920HQ, they cost more and the performance boost doesn’t always justify the cost System Performance PCMARK8 - 4582 DRAM Performance Test DDR4 2394.8 CL17 17-17-39 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 33613 MB/s Most high end notebooks still use DDR4 clocked at 2133, and MSI’s previous generation Gaming notebooks are no exception. MSI’s new gaming notebooks will increase DDR4 clocking to 2400, increasing bandwidth and performance ADIA64 Memory Read gets a 10~14% bandwidth increase compared to 2133. This upgrade will also marginally increase fps while gaming, though not significant, still worth mentioning for its improvement Storage is one of MSI’s unique features, using their own Super Raid 4 technology SSD with NVMe M.2 interface, TOSHIBA THNSN5256GPU7, using 16nm MLC IC HDD with HGST HTS721010A9E630, performs at 7200 rpm with 1TB capacity AS SSD Benchmark -2372 Seq Read - 2087.97 MB/s Write - 888.82 MB/s 4K - 64Thrd Read - 827.21 MB/s Write - 588.00 MB/s 3DMARK Fire Strike => 9627 Consumers are encouraged to spend a little more money on upgrading their computer components these 2 years. First and foremost should be the GPU; second should be the NVMe infrastructure M.2 SSD which greatly surpasses SATA3’s limitation at 600 MB/s transfer capacity by a significant margin. Of course there is also the U.2 interface that works slightly more efficiently than the M.2, but by a small margin and won’t fit inside a notebook. Ultimately, having NVMe infrastructure M.2 SSD would help transfer data at faster pace There are two GPUs built inside; one is Intel Core i7-6700HQ internal HD Graphics 530; the other one is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1060 with 6GB GDDR5. Below is the performance test result for the 1060 3DMARK Fire Strike => 9627 Heaven Benchmark 4.0 DX11 1920 X 1080 => FPS 113.8 Call of Pripyat Benchmark Resolution 1920x1080, in Ultra setting, rest are default settings FAR CRY 4 Resolution 1920x1080, 3D rendering in Ultra setting Opening title screen – 173 FPS, opening animation and starting screen – 75FPS 75 FPS compared to previously tested 970M – 48FPS, GTX980 – 83FPS

Left body IO From left, anti-theft lock \ USB 2.0 \ Line-in \ Line-out \ Mic-in \ Headphone-out Right body IO From left, SD(XC/HC)card reader \ 3 x USB 3.0 Rear IO From left, RJ45 Ethernet Port \ Thunderbolt 3 including USB 3.1 \ HDMI \ Mini- Display Port \ Power Jack Both left and right sides consist of large heat-dissipating surfaces GT62VR D side resembles GT72S, applying a sleek red chassis with large surface area. Battery is 8-Cell generating 75.24wHr, but is not detachable The small protruding red square is the woofer And the 5 rubber feet on the bottom helps elevate the notebook by a bit, assisting in heat-dissipation and stability MSI Applications DRAGON CENTER is a proprietary software developed by MSI Latest updates improved interface resolution, also giving a more refined and intuitive layout App Portal tab shows installed software and apps, helps easier access to different features System Monitor displays current hardware status The entire layout is more intuitive and informative compared to the older versions System Tuner Allows users to tweak settings for VR, hardware performance, fan speed, or adjust screen colors. On the left are 5 profiles where you can personalize each one to use in different settings Later we’ll use Shift Mode and set it to Sports for optimal performance, then test how powerful this notebook really is. LED Wizard Though users can already customize their RGB keyboard through SteelSeries Engine 3, MSI designed the DRAGON CENTER to have its own lighting functions MSI TRUE COLOR I am personally quite fond of this technology; it gives users a more elaborate screen color customizations, which is a function that is rare to see in a notebook MSI has 6 preset settings available on the go. Users can freely toggle through different settings to their preference, even allowing them to make detailed adjustments within each presets

This year in the IT world, the most popular trend and the most sought after topic would be the VR application, the so called “age of VR.†Its impact on the PC industry extends all across the gaming world and not just gaming desktop PC and gaming notebook; even its multimedia capability will be influential in future. However, the requirement for the hardware is still considerably high; for PC it will need at least a GTX970, or a GTX980M for the notebook, specifications usually carried in higher end PC. Our test subject for today is MSI’s GT62VR 6RD DOMINATOR. MSI has been working diligently in the gaming market, especially with its notebook products often refreshes faster than its competitors. With NVIDIA’s recent launch for the GTX10 series GPU, MSI also launched numerous models that are VR Ready compatible. After opening the box, we saw the nicely enclosed notebook pack along with a vacuum compressed MSI backpack This backpack made with softer fabric was designed for GT62VR, excelling in comfort but a bit bulky; even after putting a 15.6inch notebook inside, there is still a substantial space to put more items in. Personally I think the backpack looks stylish and yields impeccable comfort after wearing it for some time. GT62VR Accessories Driver CD, quick manual guide, product pamphlet, warranty card, SteelSeries RIVAL 50 mouse, DELTA 230W power adaptor, and power cable. Even with NVIDIA’s new power efficient GPU, it still needs quite a bit of power, hence having a bigger adaptor is inevitable GT62VR is 390 x 266 x 39.8mm in dimensions, weighing at around 2.94kg, which is still quite hefty for a 15.6inch notebook; but it is to be expected from a high performance notebook equipping better components, large heat-sink and fans, speakers, and additional DRAM slots for expansions. Similarly to high end models like Dell Alienware 15, close in dimensions, but GT62VR is still a bit lighter. A side is built with the usual black metallic strips, creating that engine-cap-like design. What’s different from the previous GT62 are the two red strips on each side to accentuate speed, it even lights up as you turn on the machine, greatly increases its already futuristic appeal B side is the 15.6 inch frosted IPS panel, with 1920 x 1080 FHD resolutions. The bezel itself is frosted and with a touch of sparkle to elevate the texture and quality. On top is the 1080P, 30Fps WebCam, and two dual-digital microphones on the sides C side mostly consists of black metallic strips, much like A side. You could see SteelSeries gaming keyboard which is usually used on MSI’s high end models. With silver lining printing keyboards, RGB is highly customizable in terms of colors and lighting patterns. Furthermore, the keypads are soft to touch; but compared to WS72, the latter has more feedback. The left and right buttons below the touchpad are isolated but responsive, and are less likely to mistakenly touch them There are 4 stretched buttons on the top right corner; starting from the right is the power button that emits a white glow when turned on; then the SteelSeries keyboard color switch that enables customized RGB options; next button works much like a sharing/streaming button that allow users to stream real time during gameplay; and the last button is the turbo fan boost, maximizing Cooler Boost 4’s heat dissipating technology 5 indicator lights at the front of C side Starting from left is hard-drive processing, Wi-Fi, battery/charging, Caps ON/OFF, and NumPad ON/OFF The panel can be opened to 180 degree, also one of GT series’ unique features

WS72’s drive C includes SAMSUNG MZVPV128HDGM 128GBX2 M.2 SSD The drive D is HGST HTS721010A9E630 which specs are 7200 RPM and 1 TB capacity for storing files Below is a benchmark test of 128GBX2 M.2 SSD Raid0 on the Drive C AS SSD Benchmark - 2448 Seq Read - 2752.91 MB/s Write - 1301.17 MB/s 4K - 64Thrd Read - 977.29 MB/s Write - 307.52MB/s CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 3183MB/s Write - 1357MB/s ATTO DISK Benchmark, when exceeding 32k on the above test, can show the read speed equal to 3330Mb/s and the write speed equal to 1378MB/s WS72 includes MSI SUPER RAID4 technology which is when two M.2 SSD cards are run in Raid0 mode. With high-performance M.2 SSD you can boost the read/write performance speed while with SATA3 it’s hard to achieve such a bandwidth. It’s said that the read speed can be as high as 3300MB/s. It’s also certainly achievable according to ATTO. CrystalDiskMark also shows close number: 3200. MSI equipped with a conventional large-capacity HDD which is indeed good as it expands the storage space. If SSD price continues to decrease in the future, with the internal space of 512GB or higher it won’t be really necessary to embed HDD. The notebook will then be even lighter. With room temperature about 32 degrees, proceeding to CPU cooling capacity test. The CPU being at a preset value of 2.8~3.7GHz, GPU running with Quadro M2000M, with power supply on the turbo mode. With Cooler Boost 3 used as a cooling technology, the system’s idle temperature is about 39~42. AIDA64 System Stability Test - 81~89 WS72’s outer shell’s temperature feels a bit higher than the notebooks made from other materials. This is because thermal conduction on metal body is more direct and more evident. With embedded 4C8T Architecture’s Xeon which is the same Core i7 CPU’s, CPU temperature is only 42 degrees in standby mode thanks to outstanding cooling capacity. However, it doesn’t exceed 90 degrees when CPU is running at its full speed, which is comparable with many thick-body notebooks’ thermal modules. In fact, WS72’s cooling capacity is already at a high level. It involves up to 5 heat pipes to enhance heat dissipation. Also, the noise produced by the radiator can be considered to be partially muted. Moreover, at the low frequencies, the sound doesn’t feel uncomfortable either. Battery life endurance, Windows 10 at a balanced power. After playing DVD video on WS72 for 90 minutes, the battery will be at about 50%. After 120 minutes, there will be about 33% power left. Maximum usage can be for around 3 hours. With such a high-end hardware, 4K resolution screen consumes more power then FHD. WS72’s life endurance is therefore about average which is considered as a very good battery performance. Summary of WS72 6QJ’s advantages and disadvantages Pros of features and advantages: 1.Regarding the external ID design and the shell texture, the notebook’s thickness and weight are truly outstanding. 2.Equipped Intel Xeon CPU and ECC DDR4 enhance stability which is workstation’s requirement. 3.4K high resolution IPS matte panel features 100% NTSC color gamut and 100% Adobe RGB color correction. 4.True color correction technology and a variety of adaptive modes provide more accurate colors. 5.After the evolution of SteelSeries keyboards, the keys’ force feedback feeling is of a high standard among notebooks. 6.Single speaker sound level brings clear audio experience to users. 7.High-speed 256GB M.2 SSD and 1TB HDD provide both performance and capacity. 8.3-year factory warranty is higher than usual gaming notebook’s 2-year warranty. Cons for future improvements 1.Due to the thin metal body design, users in summer will feel that the laptop’s temperature is slightly higher. 2.Backpack looks like the one from Gaming series. 3.Although the front camera captures at a high level, there’s still a room for quality improvement. Performance ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 89/100 Material ★★★★★★★★★☆ 90/100 Specification ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 88/100 ID design ★★★★★★★★★☆ 92/100 C/P value ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 77/100 WS72 workstation also includes MSI’ unique gaming technologies and specifications. It’s worth a credit since individuals used to use DELL or HP workstation. It terms of audio and keyboard, it’s still graded as a usual notebook, there’s nothing particular to highlight. Of course, graphics card or Xeon CPU with ECC RAM are workstation’s all requirements. MSI also has an advantage in its panel calibration. The default colors are bright yet accurate. It provides a great help and comfort for working or designing which sounds very impressive to people at first glance. WS72 also has some lower-price versions with Core i7, common DDR4 and 1080P panel. If there’s no demand for high-level hardware, then it also represents a good budget-based choice, even though 3D graphics machines are all in the high-end market. With every update MSI has been showing some progress or introducing new technology and of course there are some weaknesses or disadvantages. However, there’s an obvious significant progress comparing to GS70 from the previous generation. This is a good and a positive cycle. In terms of visuals and audio, WS72 looks very competitive to windwithme. After all, a combination of gaming background and workstation make it an excellent notebook. This article is also published in the younger brother’s blog: WIND3C 3D enthusiasts are welcome to visit.

FRYRENDER Running Time => 5m 06s x264 FHD Benchmark => 22.9 PCMARK8 – 3268 Intel Xeon E3-1505M v5 vs. Core i7 performance comparison The clock performance and SmartCache are higher than i7-6700HQ. Xeon CPU performance generally has a more stable high performance in consumers’ eyes. In addition, it can be equipped with ECC DRAM, which is a required option for workstation’s specifications. DRAM benchmark test DDR4 2132.2 CL15 15-15-36 2T AIDA64 Memory Read - 30154 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 24576 MB/s Embedding DDR4 improves clock a lot. Moreover, the bandwidth also improves a lot, thanks to 6th Generation Skylake architecture. Xeon CPU can run with ECC DRAM, even though its bandwidth isn’t much different from the usual DDR4-2133 has. However, stability performance is still the main characteristics of ECC, especially for drawing or work environment. I believe that stability is the first required item, because a system cannot be the reason for business losses due to its crash. As for GPU, WS72 is carrying nVidia Quadro M2000M professional-level graphics card. It’s built-in with 4GB GDDR5. Even though not the highest-end graphics card, its thin shape already looks pretty good for WS72. If you a higher-end graphics card in the notebook, MSI has a thick-body WT72 which can be competent with GT72 version. Below are some testing software made specifically for 3D graphic design to refer to. SPECviewperf12 I saw in some discussions online that SPECviewpefr12 can support DX11. If comparing to 970M, the difference is relatively small. nVidia Quadro graphics card advertised that it has a double-precision floating point architecture. GeForce single precision has a better precision mechanism computing power. Therefore, nVidia Quadro is more suitable for professional more sophisticated computational design. TessMark => 24289 points Comparison with other two, workstation and gaming, notebooks HP HP Zbook Studio G3 with M1000M scores about 17655 points Dell Alienware 15 with GTX 970Mscores about 8834 points The information is misleading as it’s for the integrated GPU. Please, refer to GPU-Z M2000M for the actual information. FluidMark => 1598 points The software can correctly display the information about a dedicated M2000M graphics card. Since nVidia and AMD classify themselves into DirectX and OpenGL, they have their own area of expertise in 3D. Though above there aren’t many pages with benchmark tests, there could be 10-50 pages occupied with different examinations. Using M1000M and GTX 970M simultaneously for performance comparison it would be easier to analyze advantages. Remember how before we would compare a graphics card with a gaming card of the same-level chipset, the gaming card would only display single-digit fps in the testing software. In the regard, the gap was quite large. nVIDIA Quadro M2000M is also able to run such a 3D graphics software such as AutoCad. Certainly, some drawings are in 2D field. However, to use 3D graphics software, having 3D graphics card is a must. There might be quite many people interested in M2000M’s performance in general games. In fact, I’m no exception. 3DMark11 => P5600 3DMARK => 3942 M2000M’s performance is similar to one gaming card of GTX 960M shows. To be able to run heave 3D-level games, it’s just necessary not to set the highest resolution. Then the main work should be carried out by workstation or selected gaming notebooks. So, the performance in gaming should also be on a good level.

On the right side, from left to right: USB3.0 X2 \ SD(XC/HC) \ DC power jack \ Kensington lock slot \ CPU cooling grid D-side also consists of metal-based materials. The number of pads supporting WS72’s button is quite big. The three pads above boost and strengthen the cooling function. The dark purple pad nearby isolates the heat and avoids user’s contact with the hardware design. The hardware warranty is up to 3 years. The built-in battery cannot be dismantled. It holds 5000mAh and is capable of 55.5Wh. The screen can be opened up to about 140 degrees. In terms of its own applications, MSI has increased their number comparing to the past. Apart from some previously existed and revised software, there are now also new applications with other features. In the lower right corner you can find a quick settings app – SYSTEM CONTROL MANAGER. Similarly to a quick selection on a mobile device, you can do relatively rapid adjustments for some commonly used features. KLM is software designed for setting keyboard LED backlighting. There are 6 modes: Normal, Gaming, Breathing, Wave, Dual, Color, Audio. Nowadays many Gaming keyboards have such features which make the keyboards recognizable and change their exterior design. Below is the description of the listening experience. This part is quite subjective, other notebooks built-in speakers are taken as a benchmark. Adjusting the volume to the maximum is considered fairly loud, so there is no need to worry that the speakers will be too quiet. High frequency: The sound isn’t too sharp. Good in deep details, the performance is above average. Middle frequency: Excellent overall clarity in details. The quality of human voice sound is one of the best among high-end models. Low frequency: the low frequency performance is good; bass doesn’t sound too hoarse, even though medium frequency in a too large volume can easily overwhelm the low frequency. The sound quality of WS72 does not reprise of the original feed line, unlike other high-end gaming notebooks with a sense of surround sound or field-based sound Listening to music or songs brings a very good feeling, watching movies or playing games also carries very good performance. In the past, the sound performance of WS72 wasn’t possible to see on a graph. Now the sound performance is even better than on most gaming models. True Color is also screen color calibration software. In the past, many laptops with non-IPS panels had unsatisfactory performance in color reproduction. But even in case of IPS-panels, there was still a room for improvement in color accuracy. MSI is among high-end laptops used by individuals and is brand with certain requirements for the screen colors. In the field of workstation or graphic design, color accuracy is the main condition. One of the modes is sRGB which provides the color correction with nearly 100% sRGB color gamut standard. In total, there are 6 modes: Gamerï¼Anti-Blueï¼sRGBï¼100%AdobeRGBï¼Officeï¼Movie. 100%AdobeRGB provides a function of a more detailed calibration which is even for helpful for professional graphics or image processing. Gamer and 100%AdobeRGB modes differ in details. MSI True Color has already adjusted the settings with adaptive colors. Of course, users can adjust the colors the way they want. Shortcut Manager is also exclusive keyboard software. It mainly allows to assign macro keys and to upload your own settings files. It supports setting shortcuts, text clips, 3 modes of quick start and also 4 features of key disabling function. The comparison of the right side of MSI WS72’s screen during Designer mode and the left side of HP Zbook Studio G3’s screen. When adjusting brightness, both screens look similar, but due to different tones brightness still looks a bit different. You can also see 4K vs 1080p difference in font details, especially if the difference is image size is big. The following are tests of the performance aspects. In this workstation, except for the common 6th Gen. Intel Core i7, there is also a Server-level version of CPU which uses Intel Xeon E3-1505M v5. The specs include: Intel’s latest Skylake architecture, with the base clock is 2.8 GHz, is quad-core and support HT technology, the latest 14 nm processor, TurboBoost automatic overclocking up to 3.7, CM236 chipset, SmartCache of up to 8MB and built-in GPU Intel HD Graphics P530. Hardware benchmark tests CINEBENCH R15 CPU => 664 cb CPU(Single Core) => 144 cb

In the past, it was more common for workstations to position themselves among computers on the PC market. Their built-in graphics card could significantly enhance the level of work efficiency for 3D CAD or video editors. Combining these two working environments’ demands, nearly three years later companies started to produce their workstations as a brand product line. After all, all workstations position themselves as high-end products with the specifications required by the professional users who prepare a certain budget for this kind of product. I’d like to share an overview of MSI WS72 6QJ. As you can see on the box, the logo is different from the Gaming Dragon logo as its light green and “workstation†highlights the product positioning. The large backpack also has the same logo. WS workstation series and the company’s GS series share a high degree of similarity in appearance. They both belong to the slim design product series. Even though the screen size ranges from 15.6†to 17.3â€, small weight and thickness still deliver extraordinary performance. The dimensions are 418.5mm x 287mm x 19.9mm, the weight is found to be about 2,630 gram. It’s lighter than GS72 (2.6 kg) and its thickness is below the one Intel 15-inch Ultrabook’s specifications state (21 mm). WS72 is a great combination of both an Ultrabook’s slim design and high-performance hardware. The backside of the backpack is made of very solid materials. The separator inside is also quite thick. In terms of overall creativity, some individuals may think that there’s still space for improvement and that GS70 looks better. Improved texture and fashionable design would let people like it more. WS72 6QJ Included accessories: CD drivers, Quick Start Guide, Product Features Guide, Two years warranty, DELTA 150W power adapter, power cable, Mini DisplayPort adapter, MSI dedicated mouse. A-side is covered with black brushed metal with a car hood design. Probably due to the materials change, WS72’s metal touch is obviously better than GS70’s. The main design of GS72 from Gaming Series is the same as WS72; the new generation of materials and design are now being introduced. When the laptop is on and in use, the logo illuminates light green enhancing appearance of the texture. B-side is a 17.3-inch screen which is UHD 4K with a resolution of 3840x2160. It features a wide view IPS panel and supports 100% Adobe RGB color gamut which enhances the color accuracy. WebCam with fixed focus lens is FHD 1920X1080p and is capable of recording video at 30fps. The frame is made of matte plastic material. The thickness is within the common scope and seems to be thinner than WS60. As for the internal mechanism these high-end hardware designs are necessary, C and D parts need to have a certain volume to in order to achieve high performance. As a concept of big length and width in the machine, if the length X width dimensions let the frame area be narrowed then it will definitely improve the thickness. WS72 can be this thin and there are no other competitive models which have the same length x width dimensions but are larger in weight. It’s therefore already considered to be a good level product. Most of the C-side is also covered with black brushed metal and is similar to A-side. The actual surface area and the body thickness are similar to Dell Alienware 17. The notebook is equipped with thin full-color Steelseries keyboard which is common for MSI high-end notebooks. The default color is blue. Using the software, users can choose the backlight color they want as well as display color mode. Individuals used to think that Steelseries had soft keys, however this time WS72 has improved the force feedback. In terms of high-end notebook market, WS72 has improved the feeling of typing on a keyboard quite a lot. The power button is in the top center and is illuminated with white during notebook’s use. It’s illuminated with orange or blue when dedicated or integrated graphics card is in use, respectively. The speakers are still by Dynaudio consisting of 2 channel- and 4 usual speakers. Four single speakers are located in the chassis area which is a more special location for the sound to come out. The following paragraph includes detailed comments regarding the sound. The grid above the keyboard is used for cooling, not for the audio. On the bottom left of the C-side there are 7 status indicators. The left are right buttons feel like scissors design. It will take some time to get used to the strength control. Line out \ Line in \ Headphone-out On the left side, from left to right: GPU cooling grid\ RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet \ HDMI \ Mini-DisplayPort X2 \ USB 3.1 X2 \ Line out \ Line in \ Headphone-out

Thanks This article also post on my own blog WIND3C, welcome to visit and feedback!

1STPLAYER Mechanical Keyboard X-SOUND BLUETOOTH SPEAKER Computex Show Girl

C7Z170-OCE CZH170-M CORSAIR DDR4 DONIMATOR PLATINUM. VENGEANCE Series Gaming Mice. Keyboards. Headsets Acer ChromeBook Hello Kitty PC World Tour 2016 HWBOT ASIA Workshop Belgium HWBOT & Taiwan Coolaler Intel Extreme Tuning Utility LN2 OC ASUS Zenfone3 Ultra

X99-Ultra Gaming BIOSTAR PACING P1 129 x 82 x 29.6mm CPU Intel Z8350 Quad Core 1.92G Storage 64GB / Power 20W / RGB LED Controll RACING Z170GT8 RACING H170GTN PHISON SSD Controller IC SATA3 Controller IC PS31109-S9. PS3111-S11T PS3110-S10 support 2TB SSD M.2 Controller IC PS5007-E7 Controller IC support PCI-E GEN3 x4 SSD SuperMicro C7X99-OCE

Computex 2016 MSI GS63 15.6 1.89KG / 17.7mm GS73 Backpack PC& HTC VIVE VR WorkStation WT72 GT73S 17.3 3.95KG / nVIDIA GTX980M SLI GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming GA-N3160TN X99-Designare EX BRIX Gaming UHD - GB-BNi7HG4-950

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege 1920 x 1080, GRAPHICS: Ultra The frame rate right after entering the game - 76FPS When choosing 4K resolution, the frame rate is about 23 FPS. 970M also demonstrates a good performance with 4K resolution, though 3D effects should be reduced to the medium level beforehand. The new GPU generations of GTX 970M or 980M, brings a big improvement in 3D gaming performance. They make the 3D performance gap between Notebook and DeskTop PC is much closer. Even nVIDIA’s newly released Desktop GPU GTX 980 (from the same product line) can be perfectly used by GT72S. According to the performance test data, GTX 970M is more powerful than GTX 780M from the previous generation. First, the price of GT 970N is much lower than 980M; second, its performance is strong enough to support a vast majority of high-end 3D games. This is also the main reason why 970M has been so popular on PC or notebook market since its release in the market. With room temperature about 18 degrees, proceeding to CPU cooling capacity test. The CPU being at a preset value of 2.6~3.5GHz, GPU running with nVIDIA GTX 970M, with power supply on the balance mode, Cooler Boost 3 off, the system’s temperature on standby mode is about 42~44 degrees. Set Cooler Boost 3 on, the system’s idle temperature is about - 31~33. The temperature difference on the standby mode with Cooler Boost 3 off or on is about 11 degrees. Set the Cooler Boost 3 off, LinX 0.6.5 discovers CPU temperature to be 66~71 degrees. With the Cooler Boost 3 on, LinX 0.6.5 discovers CPU temperature to be 58~62 degrees. With the system running at a full speed and the Cooler Boost 3 off or on, the temperature difference is about 8~9 C. It provides a crucial help to lower the system’s heating. When the Cooler Boost 3 is off, the radiator runs quietly. After turning Cooler Boost 3 on, since the radiator fan by itself is small, it will produce a high-frequency noise. When you use GE62 in a noisy environment, turning Cooler Boost 3 on is a good choice for cooling your machine. windwithme opened GE62 6QF Apache Pro’s bottom case to share the internal hardware and the layout design. The central area is occupied with 2x DDR4-2133 slots; to the left is M.2 SSD, to the right is 2.5-inch SATA3 HDD. On the left side are ODD and a subwoofer; below both sides each have 2 stereo speakers for the volume enhancement. Cooler Boost 3 dual fan design occupies both left and right side. It provides efficient cooling for CPU and GPU separately You can see copper pipes made using thick bold materials; they also carry great cooling capacity for GE62. At the same time you can see 2 cooling fans which leave less space for the battery, also reduces the battery power. As a 15.6-inch notebook with a limited space like this, GE62 with high performance and efficient heat dissipation system is a must for first consideration. Battery life endurance, Windows 10 at a balanced power. With GTX 970M you can play DVD movie up to 1 hour 40 minutes. Talking about such high-end hardware, it would be even better if the battery would handle more than 2 hours. However, there are 2 types of hardware limitations which reduce the battery performance. First of all, the 4K resolution will consume more power than the FHD. Second, the battery capacity is smaller due to the notebook’s space design. If there would be a GPU switching function, then the endurance could be further increased. The summary of GE62 6QF Apache Pro limited edition Pros of features and advantages 1. GE62 6QF Apache Pro Heroes version exterior design is attractive for the Blizzard games fans. 2. The hardware design with limited space still fits nVIDIA GTX 970M which significantly gives great 3D performance. 3. Wireless and wired internet usage Killer Gaming feature supports Killer Shield technology. 4. 4K UHD bright PLS panel with high viewing angle provides True Color 100%sRGB color correction. 5. The Steelseries Engine 3, lighting management, rich macro keys set and 4 sets of virtual keyboard functionalities. 6. Cooler Boost 3 with double fan and powerful cooling design deliver an extraordinary heat dissipation for this gaming notebook level. 7. Dynaudio technology featuring Audio Boost 2 with gold-plated connectors and 3 independent amplifiers gives an excellent sound experience. 8. Matrix Display technology, HDMI with a highest resolution of 4Kx2K, ability to have 3+1 screens used at the same time. 9. Built-in DVD –Multi drive with high-end hardware specifications, the15.6-inch with only 2.4kg - relatively lighter than comparable notebooks. Cons for future improvements 1. Suggestion to add GT72S-like switchable GPU function which may enhance the battery life comparing to its current relatively short endurance. 2. SteelSeries keyboard feels a bit soft, making feedback stronger would be better for hand feeling. 3. The 4K resolution glossy screen would be better if as a touch screen. 4. 8GBX2 dual RAM could be a factory specification, a more complete DDR4 performance could be achieved. Performance ★★★★★★★★★☆ 90/100 Material ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 88/100 Specification ★★★★★★★★★☆ 90/100 ID design ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 82/100 C/P value ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 82/100 Personal preference would be standard GE62 black color metallic, if the standard edition would earn about 88 points in the ID design score. Of course, the limited edition collaborating with a well-known game also has its own market where it’s attractive, especially for the Heroes of the storm gamers or fans. GE62 already has many improvements comparing to GE60, such as the entire case and the hardware design. Also panel, keyboard, sound, cooling system and software are all significantly outstanding from GE60. It’s more in line for modern games’ requirements. Even that some of GT72S’s power is 70% higher, high-end characteristics let GE62 got more value with better performance on a high level. GE62 currently has a few models on the Taiwan market, all use the same CPU i7-6700HQ GPU includes GTX 960M, 965M and 970M，with the price range from 40 to more than 50 thousand NT$ dollars. If there would be a Core i5 version, the price could drop to 30+ thousand, which would also give consumers a more affordable choice. GE62, from the entry up to the high-end gaming market, has a very good advantage, I believe that the real gaming notebook should cost at least more than 30 thousand NT$ dollors. Like the models ranging between 20 and 30 thousand, if update the machine to GTX 960M or higher, can you immediately call it a “Gaming notebook�! I don’t think so. For gaming, the components such as sound system, internet connection, keyboard, display, cooling, casing area, more than just 3D performance, and others require special design for better gaming experience. The GE62 has been having very good gamer’s value on the gaming market. If the drawbacks described above could be improved, then the notebook will be perfect and even more competitive. Finally, on MSI website I found other models also cooperating with Heroes of the storm, the GT72S and GT80, both of which are more high-end notebooks. The design is printed up using laser engraving technology, which makes the casing area very special and outstanding, though the prices are much higher than GE62. For Heroes of the storm fans who want high-end gaming machines so bad, this both limited editions will look like a more attractive choice This article is also published in the younger brother’s blog: WIND3C, 3D enthusiasts are welcome to visit.

Nuclearus Multi Core => 27380 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 25.30/12142 Fritz Chess Benchmark: increase by about 20.7% It’s a feeling that the original test of ASUS N551JB with 4720HQ on this software is not good, so the apparent performance gap is big between the two models. The GE62 is much higher. FRYRENDER Running Time => 5m 20s x264 FHD Benchmark => 22.5 x264 FHD Benchmark: increase by about 17.8% 6700HQ in overall looks faster than the previous 4720HQ generation. The main advantages of the Skylake architecture are 14nm processor, better UMA 3D performance boost and higher PCI-E Gen 3.0 bandwidth. PCMARK8 - 3266 DRAM performance test DDR4 2132.2 CL15 15-15-36 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 29325 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 23489 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 25130 MB/s Skylake architecture designed with DDR4, in addition to higher clocking speed, also enjoys a significant bandwidth improvement. Fortunately, DDR4’s market price, expect for the first year after entering the market, now is much closer to the DDR3 modules. For the users who need to switch to a new platform, DDR4 won’t cause extra cost. This GE62’s storage includes: Drive C: TOSHIBA THNSNJ128G8NU 128GB M.2 SSD Drive D: HGST HGST HTS721010A9E630, 7200 rpm with a total storage capacity of up to 1TB. Below is the local disk C 128GB M.2 SSD benchmark test AS SSD Benchmark - 878 Seq Read - 516.64 MB/s Write - 498.89 MB/s 4K - 64Thrd Read - 1181.42 MB/s Write - 430.96 MB/s GE62 comes with M.2 SSD and 2.5-inch SATA3 SSD, the performance level is same as SATA3 SSDs. Although this model isn’t equipped with high-end NVMe M.2 SSD technology as in case of GT72S, GT72S demonstrates an ultra-high storage performance. However, the prices range of the two notebooks are different; nonetheless, the price of GE62 with its SSD and the IO transmission capacities is more than enough. Two types of GPU are included. The first one is Intel Core i7-6700HQ with HD Graphics 530 The second one is nVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M with 3GB GDDR5 capacity, below benchmarks is all based on the GTX 970M graphics. 3DMark11 => P9606 With Cooler Boost 3 off, the heat sink running on a low speed and a silent mode scores about P9200 points For the radiating purpose, MSI has produced a hardware switch button which lets the users choose a cooling mode they prefer. 3DMARK => 5878 / 13841 / 12909 / 26262 More than ten times of performance tested by this software aren’t very different: A average FHD resolution with Fire Strike score of about 6500, which is lower a bit. It looks like some of 3D items can automatically run up to 4K resolution and carry on the test. Heaven Benchmark 4.0 DX11 1920 X 1080 => FPS 97.3 FAR CRY 4 Far Cry 4 is currently one of the most demanding 3D games with a resolution of 1920 X 1080, set the 3D to run at an Ultra mode with 111 FPS at start, when at the beginning of the game it’s around 48 FPS. Assassin's Creed Syndicate 1920 x 1080，GRAPHIC PRESET: VERY HIGH The frame rate right after entering the game - 37FPS

On the left side. From left to right: Headphone-out \ Mic in \ USB 3.1(USB Type-C) \ USB 3.0 Mini-DisplayPort \ HDMI \ USB3.0 \ RJ45 ethernet jack \ Kensington lock slot A contrasting point about the GE62’s external appearance is that the display can be opened as wide as up to 130 degrees. If the user enjoys playing Heroes of the storm or wants a 4K screen, they will definitely love with this limited Heroes Edition notebook. Personally, I prefer the standard version because of the appearance of a good texture with where A & C sides have black metal groove design. Of course, the appearance preference differs among people and everyone has his or her own taste. GE62’s dimensions are 383(W) x 260(D) x 27~29(H) mm, with 2.4 kg in weight. Among the 15.6-inch high-performance models with optical drives, GE62 is indeed one of the easiest to carry. The casing area is also thinner. Lightweight and shell thickness is often difficult to choose as most of the users would be more concerned about the weight performance. GE62 offers many versions, with a price range from the entry to mid-level on the gaming notebooks market. Below is the hardware information on the most high-end GE62 6QF Apache Pro. Latest 6th Gen. Intel Core i7 6700HQ processor with 2.6GHz, Quad-core support HT technology 14nm processor, TurboBoost with automatic overclocking reaching up to 3.5GHz, and Intel HM170 chipset. L3 Cache is 6MB, even though it’s lower than the special i7-6820HK overclocking edition’s specifications, still the i7-6700HQ is also present among a few most recent laptop architectures with high-end i7 position. A new version sound software of Nahimic is also used by MSI in its GT72S configuration. It offers four different sound effects, which includes 5 sound settings with detailed adjustments. Below is the description of the listening experience. This part is quite subjective, other notebooks built-in speakers are taken as a benchmark. Adjusting the volume to the maximum is considered fairly loud, so there is no need to worry that the speakers will be too quiet. High frequency: The sound isn’t too sharp. Good in deep details, the performance is above average. Middle frequency: The sound has excellent detailed clarity; vocal fullness is also above average. Low frequency: The performance is also good, the bass is clean, not like others, however an increased mid or high frequency will easily put pressure on the low frequency. MSI GE62’s left and right speakers positioned in the front as Alienware, which delivers direct sound to the user. Listening to music or songs is also at a very good level, watching movies and playing games with 3D sound is outstanding at this price range of the sound. Simply speaking: excellent sound clarity, good sound absorption, only sound stage still could be better. HD Audio Recorder Nahimic provides an anti-noise function for both microphone and HD Audio Recorder. Heroes of the Storm version of MSI wallpaper Below is the TRUE COLOR PROFILE mode selection software interface, Press Fn+A to turn on TRUE COLOR PROFILE selection mode. High-end GT72S also has this function. You can select 1 out of 6 color effect modes to apply them to different usage environments. Exclusive software SteelSeries Engine 3 lets the user configure his/her own Steelseries keyboard and mouse. GE62 of SteelSeries keyboard is mounted with lighting effects and includes a feature of rich color adjustment. The exclusive software MSI DRAGON GAMING CENTER Main features include detailed hardware status, Quick App, Instant Play and Device Setting. Device Setting includes 3 Shift Mode with different functions which allow the user to adjust the desired performance mode. The following is the Sport mode testing which puts GE62’s performance on the highest level. Because the factory configuration only included a single DDR4 8GB RAM, I make it become 8GBX2 memory as dual channel mode. When you get a new laptop, if there is a single RAM module, it’s recommended to upgrade it to dual channel RAM combination. A little more spending will be worth a significant improvement over the overall performance. When turning Cooler Boost 3 on, the fan operating at full performance greatly decreases the operating temperature. System benchmark test CINEBENCH R15 CPU => 678 cb CPU(Single Core) => 138 cb Make the i7-6700HQ 2.6~3.5GHz in comparison with the previous generation i7-4720HQ 2.6~3.6GHz Single-core CPU performance increases by about 4.5%, multitasking performance increases by about 9.7% 6700HQ has a 100MHz lower clock setup, however the single and multi-core performance is even higher than the previous generation Core i7.