MSI GS43VR Phantom Pro's Owner's Lounge

Already done that. It improved somewhat the performance (both DPC and frequency of DCs). It is a pity that you can't change the WiFi module easily on this laptop, as the M.2 slot is located right beneath the pipes.

It is a brilliant machine, extremely powerful for its size/weight. If you can get it with an Intel card, via a 3rd party custom builder, it is a no brainer. Probably the best balance between power and portability at the moment (not counting the Gigabyte Aero 14-W as it is hard to find).

 

Yes, that would be HIDevolution.com

 

Unfortunately, you only sell the Asus GL502VS (or something like that) on Amazon UK with custom specs (your offering with the 1070 is in my top 5 choices due to its value for money, even if the machine is a) ugly b) bulky compare the rest I am considering). Otherwise, if you add the customs and order directly, it isn't worth it.

 

Interesting...when you buy from our website, 20% VAT and shipping is added to your order. The VAT is pre-paid so you don't pay anything when it arrives. The pricing should be about the same.

To what country would we be shipping?

 

UK. The UK model comes with a nVME drive, so once you switch to an HID Evo approved one, it goes around 1268 pounds, without adding any other extras or even a UK power chord. On checkout you get 20% tax, £253, for a total of over 1500 (more if you tweak the configuration). The laptop here is around 1470-1480. I can't justify the "savings" (or lack off) for ordering outside EU. I have to admit, I am a bit paranoid when it comes to aftersales service and warranty. I read great things for your service (which is why I considered the Amazon UK offerings under "HIDEvolution UK"), but sending a machine oversees can introduce extra costs/delays.

 

No worries...I understand...just wanted you to know you have the option of a better configuration.

 

Curious...did anyone ever send their MSI GS43VR laptop in for RMA for the problem with the occasional WiFi disconnects and the microstutter issue? And if so, did they fix the problem?

 

How long have you had the unit from the date of purchase?

 

Nearly 3 weeks. Amazon allows returns within a month or until the end of January due to the holidays.

 

I had a breakthrough - which I think I saw someone else report on here...

Okay if you want major microstutters, be on battery power and default nvidia settings / balanced power...go to youtube and play a 360 video. Use the touchpad - notice the crazy microstutters as you watch and often happens when you click and drag.

Then, go into the elan mouse settings and set it so the touchpad is disabled when a USB mouse is plugged in. Plug in a USB mouse / ensure your touchpad is disabled.

Try playing another 360 video on youtube....zero microstutters!

In my case, I think it's the touchpad or the touchpad drivers causing the issue!


EVEN if I touch / rub the touchpad while it's disabled in the elan software and with a USB mouse plugged in as mentioned above, will cause the microstutters! I wonder if there's some sort of voltage issue with it or just really bad software drivers.

UPDATE: I uninstalled the elan drivers and microstutters are gone! But now I need to figure out how to get the multi touch functions back. At least now I know for me it's simply a software issue.

UPDATE 2: I allowed Windows to download the Elan drivers from windows update. Microstutters returned. It's the elan touchpad drivers, people!

UPDATE 3: also check this out - looks like a conflict between the realtek audio manager and the touchpad. Seems a common issue on other laptops. http://community.virginmedia.com/t5...Windows-10-A-surprising-solution/td-p/2970442

Read here too: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/fo...-realteksynaptic-problems-causing-cursor-lag/

 

I see, then it's best to return it (or exchange) because a defective pixel will most likely return again. Better be safe than sorry later.

Sounds interesting. Has anyone else been able to verify the solution?

 

It is still there. I wouldn't make a such fuzz over a single pixel, if the laptop was over a certain period of time. However, a 3 weeks old laptop should be "perfect". Amazon for some reason said they can only do a refund. This and scattering are the main reasons. I might switch to an AW13 (heavier than this) or XPS 15 9560 (1050Ti but better battery) as they are getting 7th-gen CPUs --not that you get much extra performance (<10%).

Again, for prospective buyers: This is the most balanced sub-15" laptop. Light, yet, extremely powerful with a "descent" battery life. If you can get it with an Intel WiFi card, you can't really go wrong with it.

 

Glad you found a solution!

Uninstalling the touchpad drivers have gotten rid of microstuttering for some other GS43VR owners as well, but it hasn't worked for everyone.

 

Thanks - so has anyone tried sending it in for RMA and got it back stutter / wifi disconnection issues gone?

I've given this info to MSI technical support and they think there's faulty hardware in my laptop. But I'm doubtful...I think it's just software.

 

I agree, it is software. In multiple owners' lounges in NBR, multiple users reported issues with the WiFi Killer 1535. Most users in the AW forums and here switched to an Intel WiFi card and their problems went away. Killer simply screwed up the drivers for Windows 10 and I am afraid the only solution is for them to rewrite them. Thus, the solution is unfortunately, at time being and the foreseeable feature, hardware change. Removing other drivers (touchpad and keeping the dGPU on) should help, as there are less things to interupt the CPU.

Personally, I am surprised that none in MSI, AW, Razer, and other companies, where they claim how they put gamers first and they are gamers themselves, actually tried to play a game (or two) with their machines. I can understand if QA doesn't pick up thermal issues, as they got much more variables, but how none of them experienced scattering out of the box is beyond me.

 

In canada, all of the GS___VR series laptops have been perpetually on sale since November. I think to me that says MSI or retailers know what's up...

Yeah good to know it's most likely software. Last thing I'd want to do is send it in for RMA for 25 days for MSI to say there's nothing wrong with it...

 

A good point thank you as I was wondering if the thunderbolt port could be used to connect to an external 4k monitor but I am not sure it would give me a good gaming experience with something like WOW- even upgraded for Legion as its such an old game in reality ( I didn't get the OWC dock after some deliberation)

 

Good to know that MSI is stepping up, but it could as well be due to the Kabby Lake refresh (just announced).

It is software, but as said, it might take a while until you see a proper fix. Unless, MSI makes hack or something to disable Optimus and other bloatware to make things a bit better in the meantime.

 

WOOHOO! Figured it out for my case - okay...anyone who's figured out that uninstalling the elan drivers gets rid of the stuttering...if you want to get the advanced touchpad features back but with no stutter, install the drivers manually via device manager instead of using the elan setup.exe! And voila, no stuttering!

And here's an app that will let you selectively disable Windows 10 from automatically downloading driver updates: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3073930

 

Have you tried a different version of Elantech software? Perhaps the one provided by MSI is outdated/buggy.

 

Yeah I tried a few different versions. The Windows 10 update version and the ones posted on MSI. I think I may have tried from another laptop manufacturer too - no matter what, if you ran setup.exe you get the microstutters. Install manually via device manager and choose the INF...no micro stutters! Finally have a perfectly functional GS43VR now

 

Have you tried the ones posted on station-drives.com?

 

I already tried that and unfortunately it did not work, at least for me on DOTA2. Removing most of the drivers and MSI bloatware (other than the MSI Dragon Center and TrueColour) helps to a large degree, as long as you don't download anything in the background.

Happy it worked for you!

 

Haven't tried.

 

Hello, one thing I want to share with you.

I still have killer wifi card, and yesterday I downloaded latest and greatest version of all drivers for this laptop. Then I was installing one by one and I was rebooting every time it ask for. Now 24 hours later I am happy that I did not have any micro-stuttering problem!

 

That's great, congrats! Which drivers did you use? From MSI or from Killer?

 

On GS63VR, latest killer driver from the Killer site eliminated the microstutter related to internet access but not those related to dGPU. In my case the only thing that stopped dGPU stutter was keeping the dGPU in an "on" state with minimal resources as previously described.

 

hi guys, anyone test MSI GS43 with external GPU (Razer Core, Asus ROG XG 2, etc)?

 

Hey guys,

I'm in the UK and I can see Amazon are planning on stocking the 7th gen version of the GS43VR : https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-GS43VR...TF8&qid=1484309685&sr=1-1&keywords=gs43vr+7re

Do you think its worth waiting for that or getting the current gs43vr?

I'm really worried about the micro stuttering, especially when paying so much money - the last thing you want is to have issues !

Or perhaps they have fixed all the issues in this release?!

Did anyone think about going for the GS63 instead of the GS43 ? i know its a bit bigger but it still seems very thin and light?

I could stretch to the GS63 if I knew it wouldn't have any of these issues

thanks!

 

Hello, sorry I was a bit busy....
KillerSuite_1.1.65.1752_Win7_Win81_Win10

but as well for all other drivers, I download greates and latest from producers not MSI...

 

This is my problem.. trying to decide between the Gigabyte Aero 14WV7 and the MSI GS43VR Phanton Pro-069 (both with Kaby Lake i7-7700 and GTX-1060). Dimensions and weight are very close - the Gigabyte being very slightly heavier, yet not as thick as the MSI.

I've been leaning towards the Gigabyte because of the huge battery life (~9 hours) and the sleek look, and it has a QHD IPS 2560x1440 screen, however it only has ONE drive slot (m.2), and NO Thunderbolt.

The MSI has a m.2 slot plus a 2.5" slot, and it has Thunderbolt, however the screen is FHD 'IPS-level' 1920x1080, and the battery life is much much lower (~2 hours). Also the chassis is less attractive imho.

So what do I do? Keeping the weight down is important, so I'm not going to touch a Alienware 13 - more than 1.5lbs heavier than either of these, and paying a premium for the name and all that bling... no thanks. I don't know why Gigabyte left out the Thunderbolt connector... The lack of a 2nd drive slot is a biggie too (regardless of whether it's m.2 or 2.5" SSD)..

Suggestions?

edit: I've posted on the "What notebook should I buy" thread on the above subject, rather than go slightly off-topic here, so if you have any comments, please post it there. Thanks.

 

Hey guys,
I purchased the GS43VR 7RE (i7 7700HQ / GTX 1060) and wanted to provide some insight with the undervolting and overclocking situation.

On my machine, I was able to undervolt the CPU/Cache to -136.7mV and the iGPU to -95.7mV.
It seemed that -150mW was stable until I played GTA V. The game ran just fine but as soon as I exit the game, I blue screened with the WHEA Uncorrectable Error (Usually an overclock/undervolt trigger).
I'll continue to experiment with lowering the iGPU further...

For the GTX 1060, I used MSI Afterburner. I pushed to +150 Core / +450 Mem but I've settled on +125/ +400. I'm sure I can push higher but I'm pretty happy with the performance. I also created a frame limit cap of 61 to further reduce temps a bit.

GTA V (using GeForce Experience Optimized Recommendations) got me 60.9 FPS +/-2. Pretty stable.

Temps:
Ambient - ~22c
CPU - 85c
GPU - 82c

Laptop was on a flat surface, wasn't lifted.

Next steps is to replace factory TIM with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on both the CPU and GPU and rerun tests to confirm there is a difference in temp.

I'll keep you guys updated once I reapply TIM (next 3 days).

Other fun stuff I'm doing...

Adding a Samsung 960 Evo M.2 1TB and a Samsung 850 Evo 2TB SSD =)

 

Thanks for this. Can you kindly confirm:
1. Did you notice any micro stuttering ?
2. What wi-fi card does it come with ?
3. I read some reports the screen is a bit dim ? How do you find it ?
4. How noisy are the fans when gaming ?
5. Is the battery that bad ?

Thanks!

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

1. I did NOT notice any microstuttering. Before I used the machine, I removed anything that was bloatware to me and updated all the drivers.
2. It came with the Killer WiFi card. No issues on my end.
3. The screen isn't dim at all IMO. In fact, I use 20%-30% indoors and feel that it's pretty bright.
4. The fans are noticeable but they shouldn't be a deterrent from this laptop. I'm coming from a custom liquid cooled desktop with a 4790k and 295x2/290x Trifire that are overclocked so i'm used to a super quiet system and this really isn't that bad. Fan noise could also be lower because of the undervolting I've done. I'm using the "Auto" fan speed config and it's perfectly fine to me.
5. The battery isn't that bad either. You can't get this laptop with the expectation you're gonna be able to keep up with other notebooks of the same size. It's a gaming notebook. That said, battery life IS a big deal to me because I will use machine primarily for media creation (Adobe Premiere) and for general use while on the go, other than gaming.
   • I got ~3 hours with the following
     • 30% screen brightness
     • 6 open windows in Chrome (1 of those a full 1080P Youtube video playing at full screen)
     • Steam open (downloading a game)
     • Speakers at 20%
     • Bluetooth mouse used
     • Keyboard at stage 1 brightness
     • Wifi power saver on "Medium Power Savings"
     • ThrottleStop Undervolt settings.
   • General surfing, Youtube (no game downloading, but with the above settings)
     • ~5 hours
   • In my experience, the brighter the window/website background is, the less battery life you have. typing this message on the website (white background) dropped me to 2.5 hours.
   • I did not use battery saver because it actually made me lose some time. i guess my ThrottleStop settings and system settings beats it out lol...

I hope all of this information helps!
I have a ton of games to play as well (BF1, TF2, R6:S, GOW4, etc.) If anyone has requests on benchmarks and temp and stuff, I can do a quick runthrough as soon as I have time.

 

Yup, the latest version of software always comes from its respective manufacturer directly, and not MSI nor Microsoft.

 

*Update*
Swapped out the stock thermal compound for Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on the GPU and CPU.

Changed undervolt from 136.7mV to 134.8mV on CPU/Cache due to instability
Kept GPU/Mem overclock @ +125/+400

Ambient - ~22c
GPU - 78c (4c change)
CPU - 77c (8c change)

Once again, I used GTAV as my benchmark. I went through the same mission as the first test with stock thermal compound.

Pretty dang good if you ask me!

 

*Update 2*
I continued to have instability when playing ultra demanding games (Crysis 3). It usually happens when I exit the game.
I began playing with the undervolt settings and finally settled on 114.3mV. Raising up 1 notch caused the game to crash while loading the level.

Temps went up ~2c-4c for CPU and GPU during load on GTAV.

Crysis 3... good lord...

GPU - 83c
CPU - 90c

That game is too much sometimes...

I'll continue to play with the iGPU settings to see how far I can lower the voltage from 100mV.

 

*Update 3*
I uninstalled Crysis 3. I set throttlestop and GPU clock speeds to default and it still crashed. It was the ONLY game I had issues with.
I also went through and removed Nahemic and installed these drivers to get louder sound and some Realtek HD Audio settings:
https://medium.com/@nathansuwanto/m...ltek-hd-audio-manager-42a91b6e116f#.xn7h6970x

I re-updated all divers, and got rid of even more background programs:

• Killer Suite has been disabled from startup
• Nahemic has been uninstalled
• Dragon Center has been uninstalled
• All MSI software EXCEPT battery calibration has been uninstalled.

I started undervolting more and I'm currently at the following:

• CPU Core/Cache -134.8mV
• iGPU -125mV (I haven't tried to go even further yet)
• +150 Core / +400 Mem

Ran Prime95, Small FPU ~1 Hour

• Ambient ~22c
• Max temp ~88c
• Max temp when laptop lifted .5 inches at the rear ~78

GTAV, GOW4, BF1, Overwatch, Unigine Valley/Heaven - No crashes and blue screens. I switched between each game after 30min-1 hour WITHOUT restarting the computer.

• Max temps - 83c / 83c for CPU/GPU
• Stabilized temps - 78c / 80c for CPU/GPU

If I raise the laptop .5 inches at the rear, temps drop 5c-10c depending on the demand of the system and ambient temp.

Gonna push the undervolt even more until I'm unstable.

 

So is this system noticeably cooler with new paste applied? I've basically narrowed it down to this or a cheaper Dell with a 1050TI. I think this system fits more of my needs -- if I can negate some of the heat worries that would be very nice.

 

Yes, I've noticed a 3c-5c when playing games on stock vs Kryonaught alone. Adding undervolting reduced temps even more. Raising the read reduced temps EVEN MORE (up to 10c depending on load)
I think the previous generation runs cooler than mine because of the lower clocks of the 6700 vs 7700. They're also discounted to around $1350 vs $1500 for mine.

 

Hi guys,

I'd like to chime in regarding the micro-stuttering/freezing, I own the GS63VR 7RF but the laptops are essentially the same. I'm a mixing engineer so DPC latency is of the utmost importance to me. I ran a couple of tests with LatencyMon (I was having a LOT of micro-stuttering) and immediately noticed NDIS.sys being the culprit, after disabling the Killer NIC adapter, guess what, DPC latency is reporting excellent values. So, before replacing it with an Intel 8620, I'd like to ask something. The drivers I'm on are the default ones that Windows install, which are (as seen in Device Manager):

Killer Wireless-n/a/ac 1535 Wireless Network Adapter
Driver Provider: Qualcomm Atheros Communications Inc.
Driver Date: 25/02/2016
Driver Version: 4.0.2.217

I downloaded the latest drivers from the Killer website (drivers only, no Killer Suite) and it makes no changes whatsoever to these values, making me think for some reason it's definitely not being picked up as another user on Reddit said his look like this:

Killer Wireless-n/a/ac 1535 Wireless Network Adapter
Driver Date: 8/30/2016
Driver Version: 12.0.0.279

Any suggestions?

 

I'm using the following driver:
Driver Date - 10/20/2016
Driver Version - 12.0.0.285
Driver URL - http://www.killernetworking.com/driver-downloads/item/killer-drivers-64bit

Try this and report back?

 

I just did and it did install now because first I had to manually update it with the .inf files you can get from the website.

The results are the same. Here's some screens.

First two are with wlan adaper ON. Look at the monstrosity amount of interrupts. It was spiking like this every 2-3 seconds.



Now, here's with wlan disabled. Yep.



I was even running on battery which is bound to have a bit more of interrupts due to speedstep and other power management features.
I've already ordered an Intel 8620 to replace this POS nic. I've never seen anything like this. I've tried all driver versions.

 

For fun, I ran LatencyMon and I had the same result as you.
However, I went and disabled the Gigabit Ethernet device and reran tests and here's my results.

DPC Latency by JayR481 posted Feb 2, 2017 at 6:23 AM

 

Can't see the picture bud

 

Sorry dude, try again. I didn't realize I had it on private.

 

Hello everyone!

I just received my gs43vr some days ago. I am quite satisfied so far, but I have a couple of questions.

First of all, I am not able to run the dragon center. When I try to open it, windows ask if I really wanna open it, but then nothing happens. I read that with the latest win 10 upgrades I am not the only person having this issue... Not that I am really keen on the dragon center itself, I just would like to be able to control fans and eventually keyboard color (don't even know if that's possible.

Second issue, and reading a bit this thread again I am not alone, is that from time to time I notice some micro stuttering while using windows. The sound my crackle for one second and the mouse stop. I see that often people changed the killer wifi card with an intel and this resolved the issue... is that so? any other solution to this?

The installation I got from the shop should be clean (no bloatware indeed) but I think I will make my own clean install, just waiting for the SSD to change the SATA HDD before formatting and installing

Thank you for any help!

 

For Dragon Center, uninstall it and reinstall it with the latest version from the MSI website.
Personally, I don't use it because I don't like the idea of having multiple programs monitoring my temps (ThrottleStop, MSI Afterburner, Dragon Center)
You can't change Keyboard color on the GS43, it's red only =( #GamerColors

For the stuttering, I finally realized I had SOME stuttering but it wasn't as bad as others on the forum. To reduce it, I disabled gigabit ethernet and updated all my networking drivers and the elan driver.
One thing I just did (Thank You "Same-Day" Amazon Shipping) is replace the wifi card with an Intel 8620. Even though I didn't have bad issues with sound, at least I know now I'll never have issues lol.

 

^ Yeah, that seems to alleviate the problem. But the stuttering I was having was REALLY bad. Unusable for my needs (Pro Audio), never seen anything like this on a PC to be honest, even though I haven't owned a laptop in years and years.

 

I actually didn't understand the entire stuttering issue until I saw it when listening to music on the internal speakers. YouTube has this stutter every 15 minutes or so. I already swapped out the wificard so my chances of stutter are extremely low, but I had very good success with reducing stutter by disabling gigabit ethernet and updating the wifi (no software suite) and elan drivers.