MSI GS43VR Phantom Pro's Owner's Lounge

Just picked one up today. Looks like a kingston m.2 sata drive not a samsung

 

A little bit bummed, been trying to play Dota 2 and was getting errors "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" causing the game to crash. Also Time Spy benchmark caused this error.
Checked for an update for the 1060 driver and it found one and installed it. Still getting this error.
Checked the Dragon Center and there's this 'Shift' option which is set to Sport (Which apparently means overclocking?), so maybe this is causing it ? Fire strike score (when it managed not to crash) was 10102 in Sportmode, and 9889 in comfort mode.

@babblin5 Have you had this error ? It randomly pops up usually when there's some sort of transition in a game or something. And is the 'Sport' set in dragon center for you ?

Edit: It's also crashing in 'Comfort' mode during the TIme Spy benchmark. Very disappointed, and I really hope I didn't get a bad apple and it's just a driver update fix...

 

I'm considering the Clevo as well for the same exact reason!

It's a shame that there isn't any dockable version of the GS43 or at least a 14" with a 1070. I was looking for something to replace my desktop system because I find myself going to more and more LANs these days

 

Yes, I saw that last night when I snuck the 2.5 drive in without breaking the warranty seal. Hopefully it runs a little cooler than the SM951 would have.

One odd thing is the bottom case presses too hard against the GPU fan (bottom right?) back stand offs and causes it to make a grinding noise in mine, if you press harder on the cover with your fingers the fan would actually stop. I had to add an additional strip of foam right at the back above the existing foam on the exhaust fins to stop it from happening. It was enough to stop the bottom case from pressing on those two white back stand offs and all is well. Easy solution otherwise I would have had to return it.

Hope that helps someone else if the discover the issue.

 

I kept getting the same error on my current Asus laptop. Tried troubleshooting it for so many days, but eventually gave up and reinstalled windows. Funny thing is that fixed the problem ive no idea what cause it lol
Maybe this is an option for you if all else fail?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

The only 256GB SSD in the Canadian model was partitioned into 5 partititions and had way to much bloatware installed. A fresh install is the only way to go.

 

Strange, Canadian model from amazon here and 256gb ssd is partitioned into 2 halves and not much bloatware, zero need for os reinstall.

 

Kind of a different weight class to the 43 & 63, but notebookcheck has their GS73 review up:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-GS73VR-6RF-Notebook-Review.172138.0.html

It has one of the best display response times I have seen thus far (on a laptop), though the worst case gray to gray is still pretty disappointing (esp. for a 120hz screen).

I have only skimmed for interesting parts so far, seems they say there is no/very little throttling but the temps do get very high (e.g. 95C on CPU).

 

There are 3 hidden partitions for recovery stuff etc.

Norton, Office, some crappy picture/music manager software, winzip, screen casting software etc. I must have a different bloatware threshold.

Plus I wanted to do a clean Anniversary install.

 

Had a worrying experience last night, played 2 rounds over overwatch and noticed performance wasn't as great as my first day using it. Going to run some firestrike and maybe a few other 3dmark tests to confirm I'm getting the expected scores as well as that my eyes aren't playing tricks on me (I run 144hz + gsync on my main desktop and believe me when I say that looking at plain ol 60hz again becomes difficultt)

 

First post updated with thanks to @Prototime

Go see now, make no haste.

 

Please let us know your findings.

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Phew! Ran Firestrike:

Graphics = 11 838
Score = 9768

Which is above average from notebookcheck's tests. Faith shaken but completely restored. I really love this little laptop.

 

Awesome!

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I checked out the inside of this machine... I'm actually afraid for some of your components are in way too hot areas.

Can someone check for me after a longish gaming session what the system PCH temperatures arrived at? And if the HDMI port on the side near the cooling vent gets very hot while gaming? Because the heatpipes run over the uncovered PCH, and even closer to the wifi card, and basically are touching the HDMI port, and I fear for the longevity of this laptop.

Especially considering it still throttles and I've seen a review where their testing doesn't even hit what my 780M SLI can do, which is extremely bad, considering the fact that a mobile 1060 is supposed to be stronger.

 

Here's a clear picture of the GS43VR internals.

Glad you could join us, @D2 Ultima. I'll be receiving a GS43VR in a few days, and if no one else here who already has a unit beats me to it, I'll let you know what PCH temps I come across and how the HDMI port feels.

Do you happen to have a link to the review you saw that discusses the severe throttling?

 

Did a factory reset, didn't help.
Updated the BIOS, didn't help.
I think I might have gotten a defective machine
I'm going to IM some of the owners here to double check what driver versions, BIOS versions they have, and talk to MSI tomorrow...

 

I saw that. Hence my chewing out of it. Look at the PCH under two of those heatpipes, and slightly to the left of it, you can see the flipping Wifi adapter RIGHT under more heatpipes, and there is a metal-looking piece directly on top of the HDMI port that the heatpipe touches to the left of the wifi card. In other words, the heatpipes are dangerously close to a number of system components that they have no business being close to. I wouldn't want anybody to buy this for those reasons.

As for the review, http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/laptops/2016/08/25/msi-gs43vr-phantom-pro-review/1 here it is. However it does not "discuss" throttling. I simply compared it to what I got playing those games myself, compared to what a 1060 SHOULD get. As far as I can see, the machine barely achieves 980M performance, if so much. And the 970M SLI benchmarks they chose were from Aorus laptops too, and they were throttling. I cannot easily overclock a 780M to achieve 970M performance as far as Firestrike is concerned, and I most certainly cannot match 970M SLI performance by comparison. However I DO cream them in BF4 and Valley going by the results they posted (their 1060 is about 61 points higher than my Valley run... except they had no AA and I did). And it doesn't even come close to matching a 970 in their tests either, which is even more of a tell of things.

 

"Laptop : 1894 grams (4.175 lbs)"

This is upsetting, they lied in the description. Everywhere they say it is 3.75 lbs. I will be getting my GS63VR amazon exclusive model soon. Hopefully mine does not deviate from the advertised weight of 4 pounds. Just found out mine only has an SSD (no HDD, wrong listing by amazon), so hopefully it is what the say. I'll soon as I get it I will post some impressions.

 

Yeah almost all manufacturers are guilty of this, to smaller and largest extents... 3.75 to 4.175 is a pretty bad case, especially in % terms. I did a comparison of claimed weights by manufacturers and the weights that notebookcheck reported back in the Maxwell days and Acer, ASUS, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo and MSI were all guilty of at least some models where weight was more than 105% of what they claimed. ASUS, MSI and Lenovo had models over 110% as well.

Sometimes, at least part of the problem is just bad conversion from kg to lbs - correct me if I am wrong, but I have not found MSI claiming 3.75lbs anywhere for the GS43, only 1.8kg. And 1.8kg is 3.97lbs.

 

Ever thought it could be that the listed weight is for the barebones laptop without any storage drives, and that adding storage drives (especially heavier HDDs) probably adds to the weight a decent bit? Maybe they don't even add wifi cards to the weight amount either. It's underhanded, but it makes sense in that state. I know when Clevo lists weight on their website they specify it's barebones and what components it includes for the weight.

 

Sure, it could be some combination of that too - since the lowest I've seen from MSI is 3.97, and alejo099 said 4.175, the difference would be right around the weight of a HDD. If barebones meant no SSD, HDD, wifi, RAM, then you'd probably already go under the stated weight.

When I did my weight comparison, the only manufacturer that consistently gave reasonable (or even higher than actual) weights was Alienware, to their credit.

 

The MSI U.S. page for the GS43VR claims 3.75 lbs: https://us.msi.com/Laptop/GS43VR-Phantom-Pro-6th-Gen-GTX-1060.html#hero-specification

I remember GenTechPC reviewed the GS40 a while back and it came out to ~4 lbs despite MSI similarly claiming that the GS40 weighed 3.75 lbs, so it doesn't surprise me that the GS43VR is also heavier than stated. Disappointing, though.

Thanks for providing the comparison to your 780M SLI; this is a bit disheartening. And you're right, the review shows the 1060 performing pretty poorly against the 970 in the Unigine Valley. Given your warnings about the heat of Pascal, this isn't altogether surprising, though it would have been nice if MSI could have worked out some better design choices. I'll see in a few days what the PCH temp gets up to and check on the HDMI port. Worst case scenario, there's the option to return.

Have you had any luck getting this fixed? Any word from MSI?

 

Ah, good catch! MSI is guilty then When I go to their US site, I usually end up in the gaming section before going to the GS section, which would land you here:
https://gaming.msi.com/products/notebook/gs-series?link=GS43VR-6RE-Phantom-Pro#undefined
and states 1.8kg. Honestly, 3.75 again feels very close to a lazy x2 conversion.

 

Haven't talked to MSI yet their tech support is M-F. I uninstalled dragon center and stopped getting this error but the fire strike score dropped to 9750~ (previously I was getting 10000 something). With dragon center in Sports mode, when I open 3dMark it says NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 1505 MHz (1405 MHz), so I guess Sports mode does some auto-overclocking.
I did a fresh uninstall of the nvidia driver from safe mode, and re-installed by downloading the driver from the website, and re-installed Dragon center, and it's been stable so far with no errors. I noticed though that it's not giving me 1505 MHz when I open Fire strike so maybe Sports mode now is doing nothing now (and the score is back to around 9780).

@babblin5 Is the only person who replied to my message, but he says that he sees the 1505 MHz and is facing no issues... (he didn't updatae the BIOS or the nvidia driver which I updated hoping they would fix it)
Don't know what to think or do at this point, like maybe I have a hardware issue and now that somehow Dragon center isn't overclocking my card it's not crashing ? Or maybe it was just a misconfigured experimental driver and there are no hardware issues?
Any ideas @Prototime ?
I think I'll see how stable it is over the weekend, and if it isn't resolved I don't know whether to just return it to the seller or talk to MSI, any recommendations ?
Thanks a lot for the support, sucks to have these issues with a brand new laptop

 

See, this is the thing. The card itself is as far as I saw, only hitting just over 80c, shouldn't be throttling that badly. The article recommended it saying they'd toss 1500 pounds at it if they had to burn that for a smaller gaming laptop... I can't see why they'd say that. This is what gets people buying crap.

 

I haven't had experience with MSI laptops before, but you're right, Sports mode should auto-overclock the GPU and CPU: https://gaming.msi.com/article/power-saving-in-msi-notebooks (edit on October 5 - this page has vanished from the MSI website, see here for Google's cached version: https://webcache.googleusercontent....ng-in-msi-notebooks+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us )

It does sound weird that after everything you've tried, the MHz in Sports mode are displaying only at the base 1405 MHz. Maybe you're right; for some reason the GPU isn't boosting in Sports mode when it should be.

I'd chat with MSI before returning it to the reseller. Worst case scenario it might be better to RMA and ship it to MSI anyway rather then return it, since the RMA will cover the shipping cost. Assuming you still want to keep the laptop at least. It sucks that you're having these problems right out of the box. When I get mine a few days, I can let you know what my settings say too.

 

Can you do me a favor and let me know what clocks you're showing while running firestrike. Do an actual screen overlay or display. I sit around 1830-2000mhz (overclocked). It fluctuates because I am very power limited and need access to a higher tdp to get it stable at the higher clocks. Voltage would help as well.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/14451598? Max temps after hours of gaming 60C.

 

Here's another observation about the 1060's performance in the GS43VR. According to Notebook Check's review of the 1060 mobile, in Battlefield 4 the FPS is 92 at 1080p on Ultra settings. According to the bit-tech review of the GS43VR, Battlefield 4 at 1080p on Ultra settings gives an average FPS of 83. That 9 point difference isn't necessarily earth-shattering, but it does further suggest the 1060 in the GS43VR is not performing at full capacity. But this is just one comparison, and it's the only one so far (none of the other game benchmarks are comparable between Notebook Check's 1060 review and bit-tech's GS43VR review), so it may not be representative of how the 1060 in the GS43VR typically performs.

 

Dragon Center is showing higher freqs (reaching and stabilizing around 1835 MHz), but 3dMark at startup shows the base clock to be 1505 MHz randomly sometimes after switching between different Shifts and then to Sports mode. It wasn't anymore after doing the clean re-install of driver + Dragon Center but I hadn't switched up the Shift modes, I think that's the trigger, maybe it wasn't really in Sports mode.

Now I wanted to check how stable things are, so I started switching from Sports to Comfort, Battery saver, etc... played a game for like 10 min, switched back to Sports and now it started showing 1505 MHz as the base clock in 3dMark before starting any task (and if you open a monitoring software it also shows that core clock is + 100 MHz) so maybe 'Sports mode' wasn't active before doing the toggling, and after it got activated and faced some GPU intensive tasks it decided to increased the base memory and core freqs, and this is what starts causing this issue. Unfortunately, running fire strike it gave me that error again

Uninstalling Dragon Center seems to fix it, don't know if it's a dragon center issue but the fact that others like @babblin5 haven't faced that problem makes me think something is wrong with my hardware which isn't stable even under MSI 'default settings', UNLESS others haven't switched modes and haven't really activated this Sports mode. Maybe when you get yours you can try doing the same thing and see if you get a similar error, or if @babblin5 is kind enough and has some time after all the requests we've asked him

Maxing out Dota 2 and just using a monitoring software I can see the core clock getting to and stabilizing around 1835 MHz, so maybe that's good enough without this Dragon Center bullcrap. Just want to make sure I don't have defective hardware, and at this point I'm thinking I do.

 

It sounds like you have a border line GPU, it's going unstable and crashing the Nvidia driver when in sport mode slightly OC'd.

I would return it for another one.

The limited OC of the Sport mode can be done better manually with Intel XTU for the CPU - set all cores multiplier and set a -mV undervolt for CPU and CPU cache, and MSI Afterburner for the GPU.

Make sure to uninstall Dragon Center and reboot before installing and tuning with XTU and AB.

It's unusual to get a border line GPU; they do tend to get worse over time. I had one many years ago, and it failed in 2 months after I noticed the first driver crash - 4 months after purchase. Asus RMA'd it in 2 weeks.

At least your GPU is showing signs now while you still have a chance to swap/return it to the seller.

Please come back and let us know how it works out

 

Thanks for chiming in @hmscott . Yep, that's exactly what I'm worried about
I really like the laptop otherwise so I think I want to get a replacement, but I wonder if I should talk to the seller (B&H: "Defective items may be repaired, exchanged or refunded at our discretion for the same model or manufacturer's equivalent model.") or MSI ("MSI will repair or by any other efforts restore the defective Product to its working condition, MSI reserves the right to refuse any unauthorized request."). I want a BRAND new one and don't want them tampering with this one and sending it back.

They both say they reserve the right to 'fix' it or send a replacement. In my case, since it's an error that appears randomly, I don't want them to determine that it's not a serious enough error (or maybe they don't even encounter it and do nothing), and I REALLY don't want them to 'fix' it, I want a brand new one. Any recommendations on my best course of action ?

 

Just talked to B&H and they issued an RMA and I'll be returning it to them for a brand new one.
Thanks a lot everyone, will keep you updated.

 

it's good to hear that you will get a replacement, when we drop as much of our hard earned cash on a laptop we should get what we paid for.

 

Good luck! One of the benefits of being an early adopter, I guess, there are no refurb units

 

Through all of that CYA talk (CTheirA), you can still return the laptop for being not a good fit for your needs. You don't need to be specific. You should do it right away.

Then re-order independent of that return, after you get your $ back - don't get stuck with 2 laptops.

Or, tell them this one is exhibiting unstable behavior, with display driver crashing in Sport mode, and you've already debugged the software side and are confident it's a flaky GPU.

You don't want to wait for a repair, as you are pressed for time and need to get this laptop up and into service quickly, can you please simultaneous ship me a replacement via next or 2 day air?

I would base my approach on whether they have this model in stock to send you a replacement. If they have stock, go for the replacement.

You may need to make a call to check for stock, but don't mix in the return on that call or day.

 

Absolutely don't want to get stuck with 2 laptops.
I saved the conversation I had with the rep and he confirmed that they will send me back a brand new one after they receive this one. They seemed very nice and I also asked if I could send back the new one for a full refund in case it inhibited the same behavior and they said yes.

@Prototime I think I would have been more stressed out had I opened the laptop and say, replaced the HDD with an SSD. The seller might have given me a hard time, and then I would have had to deal with MSI. So maybe you want to give it a week or two after you get yours to make sure everything works perfectly before replacing that HDD.

 

Strange question, but does anyone know/remember the shipping weight of their GS43VR? UPS says my package is 11 lbs. Given the 4 lb laptop + 1 lb charger, does 6 lbs of packing material sound right, or is that a bit high? I'm probably just paranoid

I'm glad to hear you're getting a new one! Are they refunding the shipping as well? And that's a good point on holding off on swapping the storage drive, thanks. Probably a good idea to do that anyway to make sure the OEM drive itself works too.

 

Maybe they are sending you a spare right away? Just joking bud, if it makes you feel any better the shipping weight on Amazon is also listed as 10.8 lbs.

 

LOL if only Thanks for pointing out the Amazon weight.

 

@Prototime gratz, soon youll have that little but powerful gaming laptop you've always wanted.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Or maybe 2

BTW, have you made up your mind up what you're going to buy, @aban714? I know you were leaning towards the GS63. What about you @PMF? I know it's still pretty early, but I'm curious to know what might be holding you back from getting a GS43VR / what info you're waiting for.

 

My shipping weight was 11 lbs as well so you're good . Yes shipping was free when I ordered it and they sent me the return label. Let's see how smooth the return process is going to be and how long before they send me a new one!

 

Im set on getting the GS63VR
Even then sometimes my mind goes back and forth between that and the Clevo P650RP6.
Im on holiday atm. Gonna go back to Uni on 17th. Probably will be able to buy it on 17th. Local shop had the GS63 since the second NDA was lifted. I wanna go and check it myself in store and kinda play with it before i buy. But i dont see myself changing my decision even if i do that so no point i guess lol

Have been comparing the performance of the GTX 1060 in different notebooks. What baffles me is that the scores of benchmarks differ quite alot between them. Dont know whats up with that... Technically it shouldn't be that much a gap. I saw a post on the pascal thread that states some scores of the GTX 1060 in different laptops. Ill see if i can find it

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Differences are linked with thermal handling. More heat, less performance.

 

Oh how I wish for a 4K version of the GS43VR....

 

Honestly, I don't even know what's holding me back. I think a large part of it is that I'm willing to blow quite a lot of money on it, but I want it to check all the boxes if I do. And right now, every single model still has too many problems or unknowns.

I'm also a bit disappointed that no physical stores around me have any 10-series models so that I could really check them out, I think that could seal the deal. I went to a Best Buy, they had no 10-series laptops, but they had an MSI GE60 or something, which felt cheap and crappy - the GS is a lot better, right? I hope? The ASUS GL502VT they had in store was pretty nice, but it's really big for a 15" (huge bezel), overwhelmingly so. I wouldn't get the thinner VT/VM one anyway, because the 1070 is a big step up and weight-wise the difference between the two is marginal.

So for now, I'm still considering the MSI GS43/63 (I almost lump them into one, though they have their pros and cons), the Aorus X3 and perhaps the Alienware 13 if it lands next week in the 1060 category. The Aorus is not available to buy yet AFAIK - Xotic has removed their ETAs but I believe they are not in stock - and there are no reviews. The Alienware 13, if it does land and has a 1060, will probably be heavy (already ~4.5lbs with 965M), but I think the graphics amp is a really cool thing to have and if they do the OLED screens again (1-2ms!) that might be a huge selling point. So really, if I wanted something now, there's only the GS43 and 63, and my issue with them is the battery life and the screens. The Aorus has a "nicer" screen but it's too high res and response times were poor last gen, but it has a bigger battery (and other things, like the overkill-in-that-chassis 6820 CPU). Alienware has historically been very good about battery life, and, well, amp+OLED.

I'm still not sure if I'm willing to have a 1070 beast, but if I did, I'd be choosing between the ASUS GL502VS, the Aorus X5, the Sager/Clevo P650RS or the Gigabyte P35X. However, I can't say I am seriously considering any of them, because I'm just not sold on the weight and size of the 1070 laptops in general. I think the decision here is easier - P35X runs too hot/throttles, Sager/Clevo looks pretty terrible IMO. So either spend a lot less on the ASUS or a lot more on the Aorus. I think I mentioned this, but I'm not seeing the 1080p 120hz 5ms G-sync screen on the Aorus although it's supposedly an option... If it was there, I think it would be an easy choice.

TL;DR What I really want isn't available (yet), and I'm not sure if I'm willing to put up with the compromises that come with the GS43/63.

 

Do you have a local Micro Center retail store? The one in Denver has the GS43VR and a few other 1060 / 1070 models. I don't know if they have them on display, but they usually will offer to let you look at one if you are serious about buying it.

I think the GS43VR is a pretty nice little machine. Its got good weight, decent battery life, great hardware specs, a nice screen, good cooling, a decent warranty, a good keyboard / trackpad, and good price for its performance. If you are worried about buyers remorse, then Micro Center is a good choice (if you have one locally) or do something like Newegg Premier and then you can return it without a restocking fee if its not what you want.

The only thing I really don't like about the GS43VR is the fact that its a gaming laptop (worse build quality and warranty than a business laptop, and that silly logo on the lid). However it has great performance and value so I would buy one anyways if I could afford it!

 

FWIW I stopped by my Local Best Buy and they had a GS63VR with a 1060 in it. I wasn't able to do much with it but it was nice to hold one and inspect it. I;m sure these laptops will be appearing all over soon enough.

 

That makes sense. My biggest disappointment with the GS43VR so far (and hopefully it stays this way after I get my own) is the lack of support for MSI's Gaming Dock Mini, so I definitely see the appeal of the Alienware 13 graphics amplifier. And an OLED screen would be sweet! Not to mention that Alienware laptops have vastly superior battery life.

But for me, I'm not too thrilled with the 13" screen (too small, and also curious if it's big enough to adequately cool a 1060) or the "alien gamer" look (don't like the dragon logo on the back of the MSI either, but overall the GS43VR is a bit more subdued than the usual Alienware look). And I wish Alienware would come out with a PCIe x 16 connection to an amplifier, since their connector is already proprietary (makes little sense that they don't just use Thunderbolt 3 if their amplifiers are connected via PCIe x 4 anyway). I'm also not thrilled with their dual-core CPUs, though maybe they'll use quad-cores this time around? Anyway, if they end up announcing a 14" next week with an OLED screen, good battery life, low weight, a quad core CPU, and a PCIe x 16 connection to an amplifier (or at least a spare TB3 port), that might cause me to rethink my GS43VR, but I'm not counting on all that happening. But if you value a higher quality display and superior battery life, it does sound like a new Alienware 13 might be more of what you're looking for than the GS43VR, assuming it has good cooling anyway. Either way, it'll be interesting to see how a new Alienware 13 (or 14?) the Aorus 13.9" will compare to the GS43VR.