MSI GS43VR Phantom Pro's Owner's Lounge

Nope, not a single Micro Center in the state... :/ I agree, the GS43VR is a nice machine Also agree that someone needs to make at least a single gaming machine that doesn't look childish!

I should probably stop by Best Buy again...

Agreed, if the GS43 had the dock I would have bought it by now 100%.

13" vs 14" I'm not too fussed, honestly, I have a 10" now The alien gamer design is not for me either, but if the machine ticked all the other boxes, I'd settle. I should caveat, I'm only considering it if it comes with quad core and 1060, and I think there's a decent chance it might. I doubt, however, that they will change the PCIe connector, there's now a x4 ecosystem they've built and I doubt they'd change. I'm sure they are using the proprietary connector for the same reason MSI did, namely TB3 adds too much latency (which is why we've still not seen everyone release the many, many prototypes we've seen at trade shows). It will also definitely not be light if it is quad core plus 1060, so we will either get underpowered or heavy, IMO. I thought the Alienware 13 already had TB3?

 

You're right, the Alienware 13 does have TB3, my mistake. The latency issue for TB3 eGPUs is a real shame, though I'd personally settle for a TB3 eGPU and an external monitor to compensate for it - but it'd have to be way cheaper than the Core. At least the GS43VR keeps the door open to eGPUs with its TB3 port (at least assuming a company ever comes out with a TB3 eGPU besides Razer), which is an advantage MSI machines in the 14" - 15.6" range have over many of the new Clevos that lack TB3. What I really want is that PCIe x 16 connection to MSI's eGPU... no bottlenecking, no latency... and no idea why MSI wouldn't include a port for it on the GS43VR. Alas, Alienware and Razer might be the only eGPU options available for long while still. I also do wonder if the fact that manufacturers are now stuffing "desktop" GPUs into laptops will further drag down the nascent eGPU market. I think there is still plenty of value in eGPUs (upgradability, better graphics for tinier machines, etc.), but I wouldn't be surprised if many people don't think eGPUs are worth it anymore, which is a shame.

 

Well, keep in mind that the Alienware amp is only $199 last I checked, which is a nice plus, and the x4 PCIe is only marginally slower in throughput than the TB3 while offering no latency issues. BTW, despite being only x4, in testing, it only has a ~5% penalty. I agree though, x8 at least would be nice and a little more future-proof.

 

On a separate note: for any new MSI owners out there, check out the below quoted post (courtesy of @aqnb in the Pascal thread) about how MSI bloatware drags down FPS while gaming - sometimes the difference is dramatic! Get rid of all that bloatware you don't need. Story here: http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2...killing-fps-performance-on-1060-laptop-ge62vr

(break)

Indeed, Alienware's price for the amplifier is much more reasonable than Razer's. My concern with the bottlenecking is that the 5% will only grow as new generations of GPUs come out, so it isn't ideal, but it still wouldn't stop me from getting a TB3 eGPU for the GS43VR (or an Alienware amplifier if I had an Alienware laptop).

 

Yes, I totally agree, I think that is a serious oversight (not anticipating the growing bottleneck).

Crazy about the bloatware!

 

Core seems to work well with MSI, a least with GS73 http://www.ultrabookreview.com/10761-razer-core-review/)

 

I agree with you fully @PMF
Someone really needs to make a laptop that can game without all the gamerish looks..

The Razer Core is way too over priced. Its a cool technology, but at that price, and for the core only... I just can't seem to accept that. If you connect the eGPU to an external monitor, the performance is really good. Shame that there is a big performance drop when playing on the laptop display.

I too have looked through all the laptops you mentioned, but not Alienware. Just dont like the way it looks at all. But have to agree, such a good battery life, and a beautiful display. Ive read alot about the previous non pascal reviews of Aorus laptops. They do run a little hot but i think its at an acceptable level. A bit pricey if you ask me though. And as everyone knows, this is NBR, so its all Clevo around here i dont have anything against Clevo mind you, i do think they really offer so much more for the money than anyone else. Just my opinion, i dont hate the clevo design, but i dont like it either.. Boxy imo...

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I can understand your struggle. But the 14" laptop segment right now is one for people wanting to compromise : I doubt we'll see a light laptop with high battery life, a perfect screen, no throttling, gsync, external dock support and no build issues (keyboard flex or other stuff). I don't think we had one with the 970m gen models after all.

By the way, anyone knows a reseller in Europe which could sell the GS43 with a custom keyboard (qwerty or azerty would do for me) ? Prices in France are hurting really bad, the GS43 is like 2200€, and I can find it in the 1800€ range in Germany but with QWERTZ keyboard.
At this price I guess I could try my luck importing one from USA, I think even with customs I'll not pay as much.

 

best price found in Europe (qwerty) was on amazon.co.uk (no custom tax -1500 pounds). AZERTY cost always much more till now and very difficult to found (2.200 sur ldlc.fr)

 

Thanks viw.

 

Nice. I've heard that some GS40 owners have had good luck with the Core as well. Hopefully they'll be some cheaper TB3 eGPU options out there soon that will work just as well (if not better).

 

Oh totally, I agree, but I would say that you have to compromise in each segment: at 17", you've already compromised on size and probably weight, for example. My point is that right now in the 13/14" space, there's just one too many compromises. I can live with mediocre (but not 2 hour) battery life, there's no G-sync in 13/14" AFAIK at all and I can live with that, keyboard flex won't make or break a machine for me, etc.

My basic wants if I go 13/14" are quad core CPU, 1060, M.2 NVMe slot, nice screen (1080p or 1440p with low response time ideally, or very pretty at least!), at least 3.5ish hours of battery, and the eGPU option is already a "bonus round" question for me. The GS43/63 falls short on battery, and the screen is meh, but it is the best option available right now and it fulfills my wants to ~80%, which is not at all bad.

That's why I'm eagerly awaiting some of our early adopters here to share what battery life is really like in a work/school setting, and how much they can improve upon that with things like undervolting. That might push me over the edge and allow me to justify getting a GS43/63

 

Wise decision, if you can hold on for a couple of weeks. Sure the GS43 is a decent laptop with probably no other fault than a battery life on the low side, but there's not much of a competition so you don't know what you're losing (or winning) by getting it right now. As for us Europeans, Razers and Aorus are quite harder to get ahold of (and hella expensive to import), and I'm not expecting Alienware to make a light enough 13 or 14 incher. The GS43 will more or less win by the virtue of being the only one easily available.

What I wanted to express is that if you also consider the 15 inchers (GS63) as a viable alternative (meaning you're okay with a bit more size and weight), you'll have a lot more perks with those.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if you can get 5 hours of wifi web surfing, just like on the GS40. It probably has very similar power draw to the GS40 when the 1060 is not running.

 

I am willing to consider 15", but really the GS63 stands alone in that segment in terms of 1060 + its weight class. My main segmentation is by performance, then by weight, so for me the GS63 falls in the same category as GS43 and the Aorus X3, rather than comparing it to something like GL502VM.

I agree that the Alienware 13 will not be light going by Alienware's track record...

I don't know if Optimus actually fully powers down the GPU completely in simple wifi web surfing, if it does then battery life should be similar to GS40, if it doesn't power all the way down, then if anything the GS43 should be better because the process shrink implies lower power at idle (assuming idle clocks are same/similar). If someone here confirms even 4 hours with reasonable but lower brightness in a typical work/school setting, I think I'll be very, very close to a purchasing decision.

 

Ill test out battery life when i get it asap. Hopefully, 17th isnt late for you?

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I think the bit-tech review said 237 minutes simulating a productivity / wifi routine on battery. I think thats still kind of high usage (15W per hour). Maybe ordering it with an Intel 8260 wifi and getting rid of the HDD would help. Also, if bit-tech had the MSI bloatware running while they were doing the battery test, that likely didn't help things...

 

That long wait stinks. Is it because the GS63VR inventory is low?

That's actually exactly my plan - I ordered my GS43VR with Intel 8260 wireless (because Killer tends to be buggy), and I'm planning on pulling out the hard drive until needed. I hadn't thought doing these things might also save battery life, cool. And I'm definitely planning on removing the MSI bloatware. I'll report how the battery life on my unit stacks up against bit-tech and others when I get it later this week.

 

@Prototime , its just that im a student studying abroad, and right now im on holiday in Home country. Ill be returning to studies on 16th. So im guessing 17th will be the day i can buy the soonest. They already have the GS63, GE72 and the GT62 models since NDA lifted. I visit the shop quite often when i was in Uni last sem. Played with the GS60 their, was quite impressed. Thats one of the reasons that made me decide on the GS63VR.

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See now as far as gaming is concerned. The 7260 AC was buggy for gaming whilst the killer 1202 was exceptional compared to it. So I've bought a killer 1535...just incase
And I've had it for a few months...untested just waiting lol. Be a biatch if my next laptop already has one though lol


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Trying to decide between the 64VR and the 43VR ot maybe the Asus. I had a 860m GS60 at one time and man it got super hot on the bottom side. Couldn't wear shorts and have it on your lap. Is that still the case with these MSI laptops or have they done anything about the heat and lap comfort?

 

The GS73VR idles pretty cold (26C-29C) according to this NotebookCheck review. I would expect the GS43VR and GS63VR to be warmer though, because there is less surface area to dissipate heat. Something like a GT62 may be more comfortable at idle due to the extra thickness of the chassis.

 

Interesting, as I've heard lots of complaints about Killer being buggy, including from folks over in the GS63VR owner's lounge. I guess mileage will vary! Though I didn't realize using an Intel 8260 might also save on battery life as @win32asmguy suggests, which would be a pretty decent perk in itself.

 

Yes from my experience. The Intel just lagged a lot on Fifa. Whilst using Windows 7 or 8.1. The killer wireless was flawless all the time. I dont get why besides the fact it's designed for gaming. Less latency. But even with the. Tel work around a. It didn't eliminate it completely. Windows 10 did improve it a lot but did show up every now and then.


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how is this compared to the gs63vr? and do you guys think it is worth dropping $300 more for the 63vr? I mean they all have the same specs.

 

Personally I don't think the GS63VR is worth the extra $300, but your preferences and needs might be different. Here are the advantages of the GS43VR (compared to the GS64VR) as I see them:

1. $300 cheaper
2. Smaller form factor = more portable
3. Thicker chassis = better cooling
   
4. Longer battery life
5. Lighter

Here are the advantages of the GS63VR as I see them:

1. Bigger screen
2. Larger form factor = better cooling
3. Thinner chassis = more portable
4. More ports
5. Multicolored backlit keyboard

Points #2 and #3 have different advantages despite being opposites. Overall, the GS43VR is more portable, while the GS63VR has a few more options because ofits larger size.

So really, it depends. If you want to prioritize portability and saving some money, get the GS43VR. If you want to prioritize having a larger screen and more connectivity options, or if you really want a multicolored keyboard backlight, get the GS63VR. We don't have too much data to go off of yet as to which model has better thermals, but from what I've seen so far they don't seem to be too far apart.

 

Points 2 and 3 go hand in hand. But if I was going 15". Then no way I'd settle for a 1060.
This is my only trade off having a 14"
If there will be a 15" with a keyboard without the numpad, and it has a 1070. I might switch. But 330mm-340mm is the perfect width for me in a laptop.
I just played r6 siege 1st time on my 13'3 screen and I realised it wasn't that bad at all even though my switched off 40" 4K curved was 3ft away


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I wouldn't be surprised if a refreshed Alienware 15 was released with a 1070 and kept the centered keyboard. However that is going to be much thicker than the GS43 / GS63!

 

No such thing as too late, since this is purely an indulgence I am waiting until I am happy to buy, and nothing (short of my patience) is pressuring me to buy sooner rather than later

I would add that the GS63 has a 256GB SSD vs 128GB in the GS43, so that also explains some of the price gap (though Xotic says the HDD in the GS63 is actually a 5400RPM drive, vs 7200RPM on GS43). And another final oddity is that it appears the GS43 has HDMI 1.4 vs HDMI 2 on GS63 (4K/60Hz-capable, though obviously not in a gaming context for a 1060).

I'm surprised, is it is really the size in inches that makes a difference for you, rather than weight? The GS63 weighs less than an Alienware 13 for example, about the same as a Blade or an Aorus X3.

I also saw this recently:

(dude also has an ASUS GL502VM review up)

Edit PS: Alienware update announcement at midnight.
https://na.alienwarearena.com/tv/

 

Well I have had an gigabyte p34w. That was slim and light so I do take that into consideration but it also had second tier graphics with the 970m which has significant power over the 3rd tier 960m (965m not really widespread).
But I've also had thicker laptops in the past that was 15'4" considered "slim" and similar weight to an Alienware would be and I used to use it on my lap and move it around the house. If I could take a 1070 in a laptop id be satisfied with 15". I'd take it because the difference between 1070 and 3rd tier 1060 is double that of a 970m and 960m was.
In regards to weight. I workout. Few extra lbs has nothing on me lol. But we will see how Alienware drops it later. Hopefully they have smaller profiles now and I'm sure I've read a comment stating they wanted away from bigger and thicker.
Might just be timely if so cos it will be my first Alienware. As long as it do t have a numpad. I don't think I'll mind what it's like. But I'll consider it. If not I'll wait and see what clevos 14" is saying.




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Gonna wait for the new alienware to come out. They are promising 6hrs of battery life on all of the models. That adds a lot into what it means to be portable. But I'll still get the gs43vr if the alienwares turn out to be terrible or super overpriced. The new alienware 13/15 better not cost north of $2000 lol

 

Well, the Alienware models have been shown and announced. For me, I probably can't wait until November to order plus who knows how long until I actually get it (they said 13 is only coming in Nov). The 13 has been reported to be 6 pounds now, which I think is probably an overestimate (maybe with charger?) but even still we are well into 1070 territory at that point. That all means I am another step closer to the MSI options And the 15 is 7.69lbs apparently. As you mentioned, they are quoting very long battery life, so I am leaning towards the laptops having a mux, though not sure.

In other news, the Razer Blade was updated with the 1060, went on preorder, and sold out in a few hours. Now you can only sign up to be notified if stock appears... Bottom FHD/256GB config was priced at 1799, low for a Razer, still a premium vs. brands like MSI. If the cooling was not updated, I think it's gonna be a pretty big compromise in terms of heat and/or noise.

 

Now that Razer is delayed, I'm back to considering the MSI GS43VR. Those of you in the thread who have them: how is the build quality holding up? I travel for work, so I'm concerned the thin screen will break at the least dent or when someone reclines in plane in front of me.

Based on past history, does anyone have any theories on how long the Razer would be delayed? If the other 14" laptops don't have Razer's build quality (the Aorus seems to have more flex than the MSI, based on Youtube), I may jump to 15".

 

There's no way the Alienware 15 with a 1070 isn't going to be over $2K with a respectable config.

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

Hey everyone , just bought the msi gs43 004jp feel free to ask questions so far ive been testing the device and everything is great so far but if there is some issues i would say the speakers are just muffled cause of their position i guess , the temperature of the cpu runs hot reaches 90c during darksouls 3 but very stable gaming , keyboard is amazing i like it a lot and how elevated are the buttons and pressing is really great , the screen is really good also maybe a bit on the yellowish hued specially when i lower the brightness , battery life at max performance battery setting is max 2 hours of surfing and non gaming , with some modification can reach to 3:30 hours , havent tried to game unplugged but will install more games and see how it goes , but so far very responsive even with norton installed , if you are wondering i bought the japanese model with 16gb ram and 256 NVMe ssd

 

For those of you who are having issue with the Killer Wireless 1535 card (e.g. constant disconnection and re-connection), I'm happy to report that I have had zero issue after a clean Windows 10 installation (with stock windows drivers). So the issue is most likely software.

I can also confirm that hooking up the mini-DP port with my G-Sync monitor works well. The mini DP and HDMI ports are driven by the GTX 1060 only. Intel Graphics context menu even disappears if you set up to only output display to your external monitor. G-Sync works well in Fullscreen mode. G-Sync doesn't work well in Windowed mode (lower FPS + tearing) probably due to WDM (Windows Desktop Manager) in Windows 10 and bugs in Nvidia driver at the moment (e.g. https://forums.geforce.com/default/...gsync-full-and-windowed-borderless-low-fps/1/)

Have you guys tried undervolting the CPU? Using Throttlestop, I undervolted my 6700HQ to the following. My peak stress test (prime95 small FPU test) CPU temp dropped from 89C to 79C. If you have tried, please share your undervolting mileage

-185.5mV on Core
-185.5mV on Cache
-1.000mV on Intel GPU (Yes, this is the max Throttlestop allows and it's not normal. Could be a bug in Throttlestop?)
-135.5mV on System Agent (Intel Graphics driver starts to crash at -150mV. This is called Graphics Media Voltage in Intel XTU. Not sure why it's called System Agent in Throttlestop)

 

I didn't get an answer in the thread I posted, so I'd figure I may here:

So I'm looking to get a gs43vr, but all of the msi laptops I test in store do not seem to do the Windows 10 multi gestures like all the other laptops, including my Alienware.

Mainly the three finger swipe up to reveal all open programs, etc.

Is something not on or do msi synaptic touchpads not do these gestures? Do you need a precision touchpad like those in Alienware?

 

The touchpad is made by Elan. Supposedly Elan drivers are available via another source that are better than the ones MSI provides (see this GS73VR review). @Derek712 maybe you can point us in the right direction?

 

I got mine! Below are some initial impressions and benchmarks. I'll update the review with more info as I spend more time with it.

Prototime's Review of the MSI GS43VR 6RE Phantom Pro-006
​

My Configuration
The configuration of my laptop is the same as the stock configuration (click here to see those specs), except (1) I had the reseller apply IC Diamond Thermal Compound to the GPU and CPU, and (2) I had the reseller switch out the Killer wireless card for an Intel AC 8260. The reason for (1) is that I hope IC Diamond will help keep the GS43VR cooler than the stock thermal paste; the reason for (2) is that I hope the Intel wireless card will be less buggy than Killer (and it was recently suggested that the Intel wireless card might even help save on battery life compared to Killer).

I recommend going through a boutique reseller when buying an MSI computer. Places like Amazon and Newegg don't offer customization options like these, nor do they put your laptop through a separate quality assurance before shipping (MSI has its own quality assurance process, but it doesn't hurt to have a second set of eyes check over everything to make sure you're getting a good laptop!) If you're in the US, check out places like Prostar, GenTechPC, XoticPC, and HIDevolution. They'll customize your laptop and perform their own QA. I bought from Prostar, and so far the experience I've had with them has been great.

Unboxing
The laptop came with a fair amount of packaging to keep it safe during its cross-country journey. It looks like MSI double-boxes their laptops, and then the reseller placed them within a third box. Besides the laptop itself and the power brick, there's also a CD with the user manual, utilities, and drivers on it (which an external CD-ROM drive is needed to access, since the GS43VR doesn't have an internal optical drive), flyers about the MSI warranty and MSI rewards program, a quick start guide, and a pamphlet about storage drive recovery.
The laptop itself comes with three stickers near the trackpad. To the left of the trackpad, there's an Intel sticker a sticker with a pop-up arrow advertising the "GTX 10 series" GPU. To the right of the trackpad, there's a huge sticker highlighting many different things about the laptop (Thunderbolt, Nahimic, SSD, etc.) I haven't removed them yet, but I plan on taking off at least the pop-up arrow sticker on the left and the huge sticker on the right.

Drive Space
Some people have asked what the GS43VR's drive space is at stock, before anything is added to or deleted from the SSD or HDD. Below is a screenshot I took that shows the available drive space after I just turned on the laptop for the first time.




Screen
The GS43VR has a 14" screen with a native resolution of 1080p. The screen is matte, and MSI describes it as an "IPS-level display." This suggests that the screen is actually not IPS. Regardless, the screen is gorgeous. The colors pop and the viewing angles are fantastic. I haven't noticed too much backlight bleed or any dead pixels. (For extra reassurance, I did buy a 1-year dead pixel warranty from Prostar). It sure makes looking at the screen on my old Asus Vivobook S400C (768p and mediocre viewing angles) a chore. The screen is also easy to open with one hand and is sturdy.

Keyboard
I haven't used the built-in keyboard too much yet, so I'll post more impressions after I do. For now though, here are some initial impressions.

Disappointingly, the keyboard backlight is red-only, not multicolored like its bigger sibling the GS63VR. I would have preferred that if the backlight were only one color, that the color be white. Still, the red light is pretty subdued; it doesn't scream "gamer!" like I had worried. It comes with two brightness settings (high and low), and you can also turn it off altogether.

My biggest disappointment with the keyboard is the lack of dedicated keys for Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down. There certainly is enough space to add another row of keys on the right side of the keyboard. Instead, these four keys are secondary functions of the arrow keys.

I'm also not the biggest fan of the font on the keys. It's not terrible, but isn't especially normal-looking either, which I would have preferred.

Better news is that the keyboard isn't too loud to type on, though it's still louder than I prefer. The travel distance between the keys seems pretty nice so far.

Trackpad
Again, I haven't used this much, so I can post more impressions later, though I honestly I don't plan to use it much at all. It doesn't have dedicated buttons, and clicking on it makes a pretty audible sound.

Battery Life
I haven't had an opportunity to test this yet, but my computer tells me that when Battery Saver is enabled and the power plan is set to balanced, along with 60% screen brightness, the battery will last 5 hours and 22 minutes. Take that with a grain of salt. I plan on doing web browsing and word processing sometime this weekend for a few hours, and will see how long it lasts on battery and post the results here.

Speakers
The speakers are decent, though nothing spectacular. They get loud enough to fill a small room and do a good job drowning out the noise fans even while under heavy load, though if you want total sound immersion while gaming you'll need headphones. When watching YouTube videos, the sound is good, not tinny or distorted, though perhaps slightly muffled. One upside or downside, depending on how you look at it, is that the speakers do a great job of projecting behind the laptop and filling the whole room with sound. I would have preferred that the volume was directed more toward the front of the laptop, though. I decided not to uninstall Nahimic, but I haven't messed with it much yet.

Temperature and Fan Noise
The laptop definitely comes with Optimus and automatically switches between the iGPU and the dGPU. I have not yet gone through the BIOS to see if there's any way to disable it.

While the power plan is set to "High Performance," at idle, the dGPU (and its fan) is turned off, and the CPU temperature usually hovers around 40 C when totally idle, 40 - 50 C when web surfing (sometimes lower, and sometimes higher if many tabs are open), and 50 - 55 C when watching YouTube videos. At these temperatures the CPU fan is usually turned completely off, though it will occasionally (not very often) kick on-and-off briefly if CPU activity spikes for a few seconds. It appears that that CPU fan will kick on once the CPU temperature hits 60 C, and it will turn off once the temperature is brought back down to 50 C. If you use MSI's Dragon Center program to turn on "Cooler Blaster" while on idle (which manually sets the fans to their max speeds), the CPU temperature will drop to between 33 C - 35 C. (Again, while at idle the dGPU is turned off, so setting the fans to "Cooler Blaster" will not turn on the GPU fan.)

As far as noise goes, since both the CPU and GPU fans are off while idling, there isn't any noise to complain about while doing basic tasks like web surfing, word processing, etc. The occasional CPU fan noise that occurs on idle is usually short lived and isn't noticeable while present. If the fans turn on when watching a video, the noise is easily drowned out by the volume of the video itself. During gaming, the noise increases considerably, but you can still hear everything in-game clearly by turning the volume up to maximum. Still, as I mentioned earlier, headphones are necessary to completely drown out the fan noise.

My biggest complaint about the fan noise isn't how loud the fans are, but the rather high-pitched tone they emit. This is apparently common among MSI laptops, which use older fans that also annoyingly cannot spin any slower than 30% of the maximum fan speed - in other words, the fans are either completely off, or they're spinning at 30% or greater. Svet, a moderator at the official MSI forums, may offer a partial solution for this in the future, as he is famous for helping MSI owners unlock their BIOSes and create custom fan curve profiles for the CPU and GPU fans that enable users to have the fans spin lower than 30%. Regardless though, the pitch of the fan noise is annoying - not unbearable, but definitely something that detracts from the quality of the laptop, and it is one of my biggest complaints about the laptop generally.

Synthetic Benchmarks
So far I've run Unigine Valley multiple times, Fire Strike, and Time Spy. I took screenshots of the results you can see here: http://imgur.com/a/oOE8i

Here's the summary. Unless otherwise noted, all of the below tests were run with the following settings:

Power plan = High Performance
MSI shift mode = Sport
MSI fan speed = Auto

Unigine Valley - I ran 4 rounds of this, two with AA on, two with it off - and within those categories, one test had the MSI fan speed set to Auto, and one test I had the MSI fan speed set to Cooler Blaster (max fan speed). Results are below. Note that the score read-out of Unigine Valley doesn't provide temperature information, but the on-screen display while Unigine Valley runs does show the temperature, and I included below (in parenthesis) the temperature that the GPU appear to stabilize at during the test.

Unigine Valley Tests	No AA	x8 AA
Auto fans	Score: 3092 Avg FPS: 73.9 Min FPS: 23.7 Max FPS: 112.0 (GPU temp: 70 C)	Score: 2361 Avg FPS: 56.4 Min FPS: 25.2 Max FPS: 98.0 (GPU temp: 72 C)
Max fans	Score: 3136 Avg FPS: 74.9 Min FPS: 25.8 Max FPS: 112.2 (GPU temp: 65 C)	Score: 2386 Avg FPS: 57.0 Min FPS: 24.5 Max FPS: 99.5 (GPU temp: 67 C)

Time Spy

1. Overall score: 3702 (better than 32% of all results)
2. Graphics score: 3670
   • Graphics test 1: 24.39 FPS
   • Graphics test 2: 20.70 FPS
3. CPU score: 3900
   • CPU test: 13.11 FPS

Fire Strike

1. Overall score: 9793 (better than 72% of results)
2. Graphics score: 11,809
   • Graphics test 1: 55.65 FPS
   • Graphics test 2: 47.66 FPS
3. Physics score: 9487
   • Physics test: 30.12 FPS
4. Combined score: 4389
   • Combined test: 20.42 FPS

Gaming Performance
I played 3.5 hours of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided last night. This game is supposed to heavily tax GPUs. I used the GeForce Experience recommended settings that were upped one notch in favor of quality over performance. More specifically, these were the settings I used:


Note: I also had MSAA turned off, the resolution was set to 1080p, and V-sync was set to double buffering.

I used RivaTuner to monitor temps and FPS, but the FPS never exceeded exactly 60.00 in the game, so I suspect an FPS limit was set, though I had disabled Rivatuner's FSP limiter (edit: @hmscott pointed out this is because V-sync was limiting the FPS to match the screen's 60hz refresh rate.) When I play next again, I'll use Fraps to measure the FPS. What I can tell you from Rivatuner is that the FPS usually hovered around 60 FPS, dipping into the lower 50s more than occasionally, and every once in a while into the 40s. The GPU temp was 73 C most of the time, with a max of 75 C. The CPU temp hovered around 67 C most of the time, with a max temperature of 76 C.

Also, @D2 Ultima, I measured the PCH temperature using HWinfo64 immediately after I finished the 3.5 hours of gaming on Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and the temperature was 60.4 C. The HDMI port was warm, but not particularly hot.

As I said, when I play again I'll use Fraps and make sure there's no FPS limit set. I'll also look for some other program to monitor temps.

Overall I had a blast playing the game. I might dial the settings down a bit if the FPS dips becomes too much of an issue, but I wasn't expecting magic given how GPU-intensive Mankind Divided is, and what I saw didn't bother me.

When I play some other games (Arkham Knight and Shadow of Mordor are on my list), I'll post their FPS and temps too.

Future Plans
My opinion of this is laptop still evolving. Overall, so far, I've enjoyed it. I appreciate how light the computer is, its great display, and the temps are pretty good. I don't like the higher-pitched sound of the fan noise or how the fans cannot go below 30% of their max speed, but I look forward to seeing how Svet can help out in this department.

I'll edit this review and post more impressions soon. In the future, I plan on undervolting the CPU with Throttlestop and will post back here on how that improves temps and performance. I'm also planning on investing in a good notebook cooler, and will let everyone know how that might help. I also plan to swap out the stock M.2 drive with a 500GB Samsung 850 Evo (thanks again to @hmscott for saving me from having a reseller do it!), and probably taking the HDD out until it's needed. And as I said above, I'll post more FPS/temperature results after playing Mankind Divided some more and some other games, including Arkham Knight and, probably a little further down the line, Shadow of Mordor.

If anyone has any questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer!

Updates (September 8) - All right, some updates that I'll add to my review:

1. Screen - The screen could be sturdier. It's thin and somewhat wobbly, and the left hinge creaks when opening/closing the lid. Not a deal breaker, but not ideal either. Also, I have now noticed a little backlight bleed around the edges, mostly in the corners, but it's not too noticeable or bothersome (not to me anyway).
2. Ports - I really wish this laptop had a third USB type A 3.0 port. The one USB-C port is nice, but I'd rather not use it with an adapter for USB-A devices. Still, this is manageable enough with a USB hub.
3. Touchpad - The touchpad experience is not great. It's not terrible either. It's just mediocre. Tapping is a much more pleasant experience that clicking on it - I often click just outside of the left-click range, usually above it so that even though is a solid click, it doesn't register as such. Dedicated buttons would have been nice. It's also a bit loud when clicking. Again, not a deal breaker (especially not for me, as I usually use a mouse), but something to keep in mind. Fortunately, the trackpad isn't too sensitive when tapping either - if you lightly brush against it when typing for example, it won't register that as a tap. I've had some laptops that seem to register even the lightest tap, so I'm glad about this.
4. Keyboard - The typing experience is pretty great. It's comfortable to rest your palms on the chassis while typing, and you don't often brush against the trackpad while doing so. The travel distance between keys is great, and so is the responsiveness of the keys, though I do wish clicking the keys would be quieter (it's not obnoxiously loud either, though). Unsurprisingly for me, I've instinctively looked for a dedicated row of Home/Page Up/Page Down/End keys on the right side of the keyboard while typing, only to disappointingly remember that those are just secondary functions of the arrows now. The lack of dedicated keys for them is definitely my biggest gripe about the typing experience. I'll manage.
5. Performance - I got tired of messing around with this Sport mode "is it auto-overclocking or not?" business. For whatever reason, Sport mode will add +100 MHz to the base core clock and +200 MHz to the base memory clock only when plugged in to an external display after a reboot, or possibly after unplugging it from an external display. So I decided to just use Afterburner to manually raise the base clocks +100 MHz for core and +200 MHz for memory. I then ran Fire Strike and got a score just over 10100, though unfortunately the score was invalid due to a time inconsistency (this happened once before too, not sure what triggers it). I'll run again soon. I also ran Unigine Valley again (no AA), but I accidentally didn't save my results it was somewhere in the 70-FPS range.
6. Temperatures: As I just said, after raising the core clock and memory MHz, I ran Unigine Valley. One thing that stood out to me during this run was the temps. I have a metal mesh laptop stand that I've run Unigine Valley on in the past, but this time, I ran it on a solid wood table. During the test, I saw the temps (in the on-screen display) rise up to 80 C. At first I thought this might have had something to do with how I used Afterburner to raise GPU speeds, but then I simply raised the laptop off of the table and into the air--and bam, the temps dropped back to 75 C pretty quickly. Unsurprising moral of the story: even if you don't have a laptop cooler, elevate your laptop and make sure it can breathe. I do plan on getting a notebook cooler in the near future and seeing how that might even further help.
7. Next steps: I'm going to play more Deus Ex: Mankind Divided tomorrow night and post the results here. Instead of using Afterburner, this time I plan to use Fraps for FPS and HWmonitor for temps. I just installed the latest nvidia driver, which supposedly makes Deus Ex run better, and within a few hours Deus Ex is supposed to get DX12 support, which should also hypothetically improve performance. So between the new nvidia driver, DX12, and my manual overclock to what Sport mode should have been doing, we'll see how performance and temps change! After that, I'm going to try to undervolt the CPU this weekend with Throttlestop and will share the results of that here. And if I have time, I may boot up Arkham Knight for a few hours so I can offer some data on how that runs.

Updates (September 9)

1. GPU Temperature:
   I played Deus Ex: MD for 2 hours last night and recorded temp info (I used the same game settings that I had in my review). Note that compared to earlier data, this is after I downloaded the latest nvidia driver and another patch for Deus Ex (I did not enable DX12 for the game, because that feature still in Beta and is actually decreasing performance for nvidia GPUs). It's also after I used Afterburner to add +100 MHz to the base core clock and +200 MHz to the base memory clock (which is what Sport mode does when connected to an external display, but for whatever reason doesn't do when using the internal display). Also, the ambient temperature in the room was about 5-7 degrees C higher than the last time I shared temp info. Finally, there is no FPS limit this time around (V-sync is off).
   
   So, with all that in mind, here's what I got for GPU temps:
   • Min: 52 C
   • Max: 83 C
   • Avg: 79.6 C
   Still pretty good considering the higher ambient temp. I also ran Fraps to record the FPS, but for whatever reason, it didn't record. This is the second time I've had this problem with Fraps and Deus Ex, and I don't know what the deal is, because it records fine when I run something like Unigine Valley. I will keep toying around with it.
   
   
2. Port heat: @D2 Ultima was right to suspect the ports getting hot on the right-hand side of the laptop by the dGPU. I had a mouse plugged in to the USB-A port on the right side, and after I finished my 2 hour gaming session last night, I pulled the plug out, and it was noticeably hot. Not scalding, but definitely hotter than the ports on the left. So that's certainly something to keep in mind. I haven't tested the mini DisplayPort yet, but since that's on the back of the laptop, that might be the better port to use to plug in an external display than the HDMI port on the right side, at least while gaming. I'm not sure of this yet though. I would like to buy a new television at some point and plug the laptop into it through an active DisplayPort 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 adapter (since the GS43VR's HDMI port annoyingly only supports HDMI 1.4), so I can test it then, but maybe some other folks here can try out the DisplayPort and see how hot it gets while gaming.

Update (September 10) - Battery Life: Update on battery life - With Battery Saver on, the power plan set to Balanced, the screen set to 50% brightness, and the keyboard backlight set to "low", I got almost exactly 4.5 hours of battery life while web browsing with a few tabs open, downloading a few small files, and watching one 8-minute YouTube video. Pretty good.

Update (September 18) - Performance and Temps: Here are some results from playing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided for 4.5 hours.

But first, some caveats:

• The ambient temperature is ~25.5 C
  
• IC Diamond Thermal Compound has been applied to the CPU + GPU
• The laptop is elevated on a metal mesh laptop stand
• The GPU core has been overclocked +100 MHz, and the GPU memory has been overclocked +200 MHz, both using MSI Afterburner. However, I'm not sure that the overclock actually stuck while playing, at least not for the GPU core; these manual overclocks using MSI Afterburner have been finicky.
• The CPU core and CPU cache have both been undervolted by -170.9 mV
• There is no set FPS limit.
  
• I play using DX11 (not DX12)
• I play Deus Ex: Mankind Divided at 1080p with all the settings set to max, except:
  • Depth of Field is set to "on"
  • The following settings are turned "off":
    • MSAA
    • Vsync
    • Stereoscopic 3D
    • Contact Hardening Shadows
    • Cloth Physics
    • Subsurface Scattering

So without further ado, here are some key results from a 4.5-hour playthrough of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

1. FPS
   1. Average: 66.4 FPS
2. GPU temperature
   • Average: 74.1 C
   • Maximum: 76 C
3. GPU Core Usage
   • Average: 93.7% (it usually stayed at or near 99%, but there are a few statistical outliers when it dropped significantly that appear to drag down the average)
4. GPU Memory Usage
   1. Average: 82.4% (it usually stayed in the mid-to-high 80s)
5. GPU Core Clock
   1. Average: 1743 MHz
6. CPU Temperature
   1. Average: 65.5 C
   2. Maximum: 71 C
7. CPU Usage
   1. Average: 42.9%
   2. Maximum: 87.8%

There you have it. Considering how poorly optimized DX:MD is, I'm pretty impressed this14 incher handles it as well as it does.

Update (September 24) - Sound Issue After Windows 10 Anniversary Update: I got the new Windows 10 anniversary update today, and it horribly messed up the speaker sound - as soon as I put on a YouTube video after updating, the sound was distorted and the speakers crackled. I was able to fix this by updating the Realtek Audio driver and uninstalling Nahimic. That completely fixed the problem. I then downloaded and installed the newest version of Nahimic + audio driver from the MSI support page for the GS43VR, and fortunately, doing so did not reintroduce the problem, so I now am back to using Nahimic as well. I hope this helps anyone who might have this problem.

Update (September 26) - How to Get Sport Mode to Auto-overclock the GPU:
I have sorted out how to get Sport mode to automatically overclock the dGPU without having the computer connected to an external display and without messing around in Nvidia Inspector. If you go to the Nvidia Control Panel and set the "Preferred graphics processor" to "High-performance Nvidia Processor" and then restart the computer, then Sport mode will overclock the dGPU upon boot. That's what I'm going to be doing now before I load up a game; otherwise, I'm setting the "Preferred graphics processor" to "Integrated Graphics" to preserve battery life and avoid unnecessarily turning on and heating up the dGPU (as much as Optimus allows, at least) for things like web browsing and word processing.

So in summary, if you want your GS43VR to auto-overclock the dGPU and don't want to manually overclock it using something like MSI Afterburner, here's what to do:

Sport Mode Auto-overclocking Option 1 - Internal Display

1. In the MSI Dragon Center, click the "System Tuner" tab, and then under the "Shift" column, select "Sport" (make sure your computer is plugged in; Sport mode is unavailable when running off battery)
2. In the Nvidia Control Panel, set the "Preferred graphics processor" to "High-performance Nvidia Processor"
3. Restart the computer. When it boots back up, the computer will be running (mostly) off the dGPU, and Sport mode will have automatically increased the dGPU's base core clock from 1405 mhz (default) to 1505 mhz, and the dGPU's base memory clock from 2002 mhz (default) to 2100 mhz. (You can verify the change by downloading and using a GPU monitoring program like GPU-Z.)

Sport Mode Auto-overclocking Option 2 - External Display

1. In the MSI Dragon Center, click the "System Tuner" tab, and then under the "Shift" column, select "Sport" (make sure your computer is plugged in; Sport mode is unavailable when running off battery)
2. Plug in an external display.
3. In the computer's display settings, set the external display as the sole display.
4. Restart the computer. When it boots back up, the computer will be running off the dGPU, and Sport mode will have automatically increased the dGPU's base core clock from 1405 mhz (default) to 1505 mhz, and the dGPU's base memory clock from 2002 mhz (default) to 2100 mhz. (You can verify the change by downloading and using a GPU monitoring program like GPU-Z.)

(Note that since the HDMI port and DisplayPort are wired directly to the dGPU, there's no need to set the preferred graphics processor to the dGPU when plugging in an external display; just plug it in, make it the sole display, ensure Sport mode is enabled, and then restart.)

I hope this helps anyone who is interested in getting the most out of Sport mode.

By the way, here's a brief explanation from MSI of what the different Shift modes in the MSI Gaming Center do (including Sports Mode, Comfort Mode, and Eco Mode (aka Green Mode)): https://webcache.googleusercontent....ng-in-msi-notebooks+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (The original webpage is no longer on the MSI website, or at least isn't at this moment, which is why I'm now linking to the Google cached version.) (EDIT: the cached version no longer works; the page is gone altogether now.) It's not mentioned in the explanation, but I've also noticed that Sports Mode will set the computer's power plan to "High Performance", while Comfort Mode and Eco Mode set the computer's power plan to "Balanced". It'd be nice if MSI spent more time explaining the differences between all of these modes.

Update 10/29 - Replacing the MSI Dragon Center, and Improving Idle CPU Temps:
The "Sport mode" business has come to an end for me. After installing the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Sport mode stopped auto-overclocking the CPU, and I could not for the life of me figure out a way to fix it, even after contacting MSI Support. In fact, the MSI Dragon Center started auto- underclocking the GPU core and GPU memory by -1 mhz each for some reason. I've now uninstalled the MSI Dragon Center altogether. I'm using the program "SilentOption" now to control the fans. It's available in the MSI forums (here: https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=255972.0 ), and like the Dragon Center, it keeps an icon in the system tray that you can click on to quickly change your fan settings or check GPU/CPU tests. It offers the same control over the fans as the Dragon Center does, although some have said that "Basic" mode doesn't work in the SilentOption - not a probably for me really, because I never used it. SilentOption doesn't have an explicit "Cooler Boost" option for max fans, but you can replicate that easily enough by opening the "Advanced" option and then sliding the leftmost slider all the way up to 150% fan speed.

Getting rid of the MSI Dragon Center is helpful in two ways: (1) it will no longer conflict with other OCing software like MSI Afterburner, meaning that you can now OC to your heart's content without relying on the glitchy auto-overclocking feature of Sport mode; (2) you no longer have to put your computer in Sport mode to auto-overclock or to allow the GPU to boost - Sport mode would unnecessarily keep your computer's power setting at in "High Performance" mode, which just uses extra power unnecessarily and keeps your computer running hotter than it needs to at idle (using "Balanced" power setting is really all that's needed, but if you insist on changing power settings, you can still easily do so without the Dragon Center by using fn + F10 to cycle through those settings). Now that I'm not in Sport mode/High Performance mode all the time, my CPU idle temps have dropped significantly; it's usually in the upper 20s C or lower 30s C, which is great. Also, uninstalling the Dragon Center doesn't uninstall other applications it links to (like Nahimic for sound control, or MSI Help Desk, MSI True Color, etc.), so as long as you install SilentOption, you don't lose any functionality by uninstalling it.

Update May 28, 2019 (still going strong!): http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...s-owners-lounge.793376/page-126#post-10916056

Update June 21, 2019 (battery bloated): http://forum.notebookreview.com/posts/10924980

Update June 24, 2019 (battery replaced): http://forum.notebookreview.com/posts/10925903

Update August 31, 2019 (it's dead Jim , goodbye old friend): http://forum.notebookreview.com/posts/10946613

Update September 4, 2019: (Back from the dead!): http://forum.notebookreview.com/posts/10947853/

 

Big information, lots of detail. I actually forgot you still had this arriving. So now that you have it. Is there any other 14" you would consider of you decided you didn't want to keep the gs43. Which one would you get and which one/s would you avoid?
You got aw13. P640 refresh (that we know nothing about). Aorus x3. Aero 14. Razor blade 14. And going to assume gigabyte will add a p34w v6 (nothing mentioned yet)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Vsync is limiting your FPS to refresh rate.

Disable vsync, in game and Nvidia 3d options Globally and in Nvidia 3d program settings, to unlock FPS to find the average FPS.

Then using the Nvidia Control Panel Custom Resolution settings, set your refresh hz to the average FPS - if it's 87 FPS set refresh to 85hz - and the game should track the refresh change and vsync at the new higher refresh.

Some games won't vsync higher than 60hz. If you are still at 60hz vsync when your panel is at 85hz (for example), then disable in game vsync and enable the Rivatuner FPS Limiter and set to Refresh+1, like 86 FPS in this example.

 

Hey guys, been lurking this thread since page 8!
Anyone who has the GS43 tried overclocking the display yet?
This old Toshiba Satellite L840 I have overclocked from 60hz to 90hz, and the difference in games is amazing, that's only in the few moments it reaches 90 fps anyway .

 

You can use any Windows 10 elan drivers and they will work. Do you could technically use p35x drivers or gs60 drivers and they'll load with different gestures available. A lot of them are the same or very similar now.

For some stupid reason, elan thinks we all want to start slideshows and that's what three finger swipe up is set to. In Windows 8, all you had to do was edit the registry and the settings could be changed to whatever you want. I honestly haven't messed with it lately, but you could still give it a shot because many others are probably wanting it as well.

HKCU\software\elantech\smartpad

The ones you're looking for are threefingermoveup and down. You have to change the decimal value to something like 22 or 23. Then open elan settings, go to three finger, disable and enable so you can hit apply. The settings should stick.

This is by memory, so the directions might differ now. You should be able to Google it. Also, I think I tried this in Windows 10 before with my old GS60 and it was a little buggy. I ended up using autohotkey somehow and got it to work. I'm sorry but I forget exactly how.

Synaptics gestures are far easier to edit in the registry. It's a shame these guys and Microsoft can't get on the same page and just let us choose...

 

@Prototime congratulations dude!

Thank you for all the info you provided!

Have to say this, those temps doe!!! Im thrilled! those are really good temps imo.

Yeah the high pitched fan noise is kind of a bummer. But i guess thats the drawback of being so slim?

Im really interested in the battery life too. Im sure many who are interested in this notebook are looking for that info too. Also, if you have witcher 3 or GTA 5, what kind of frames and temps are you getting? Are they inline with other GTX 1060s? I dont think there was any throttling but, did you notice any?

Edit: Also, cant wait for the undervolt results!

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Ah, so that's what it was. Thank you! I'm definitely going to disable V-sync for my next round. Will report the FPS results then.

From what I've read about their prior versions, I would avoid the Razer Blade 14 and Gigabyte P34w refreshes because of their poor handling of heat (not to mention how absurdly overpriced the Blades are). I'm not too familiar with the Gigabyte Areo 14, so I can't really comment on it, but if it's similar to the P34w, I'd stay away. I did recently look into Aorus, and their "13.9 inch" laptops actually look pretty solid despite their weird screen size, but they are too expensive for what they are. And the new Alienware 13 is in the awkward position of being both too small and too heavy for my tastes. So that would leave me with seriously considering only the Clevo P640 refresh, whenever Clevo might come out with it.

Thanks! I will post more battery life info very soon, should be in the next day or two. I'm quite pleased with the temps too, especially while gaming on something as GPU-intensive as Deus Ex. I don't have GTA 5 or Witcher 3 unfortunately. CPU undervolt results are coming soon too! Probably next weekend.

 

@Prototime would you be able to test if any of the display outputs to see if they are directly connected to the GTX 1060? I think the Nvidia tray icon shows the GPU activity as displays are connected and disconnected.

 

Notebookcheck just released their review: http://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-GS43VR-6RE-Phantom-Pro-Notebook-Review.172721.0.html

 

Congrats ! Glad you're enjoying this machine. I'm waiting for mine to arrive to the seller, and then them sending a replacement.
Hmm I used to get similar Fire strike scores when not in Sports mode, and higher results when Sports really kicked in (and would occasionally crash if you remember )
Would you mind switching to Comfort mode, running fire strike once or twice (curious about the scores in this mode), then switching to Sports mode, and running fire strike twice again ? This used to cause my driver to crash.
I'm wondering whether Sports mode seems to be selected, but it's not really active since I was getting a score in the 10000s when it was active, but obviously things were unstable and crashing.
Thanks!

 

So this is interesting, and maybe some folks here can help me out with this? As reported in the review, the first time I ran Fire Strike I got a score of 9793. This is quite a bit lower than the Notebookcheck review, which reported a Fire Strike score of 11,776. Now, I just ran Fire Strike twice again per @stekorghif request--once in Comfort shift mode, and then again a few minutes later in Sport shift mode. (I'm happy to report I didn't experience a crash.) The scores I got this time were 9649 and 9660, respectively - not a big difference between the two, and both about 100 points lower than the first run I did, and still far below the Notebook check number.

I wonder if this has something to do with my drivers? Each time I've run Fire Strike, the results include a message that says "Validation warning! Your score contained the following anomalies: Graphics driver is not approved." According to GeForce Experience, the driver I currently have is GeForce 368.79. When I click to check updates, it checks, and then tells me I have the latest driver. However, I know that nvidia has released another driver, the 372.70, and it doesn't appear to be a beta driver either: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/107014/en-us

So here are my questions:

1. Why is Fire Strike telling me that my graphics driver is not approved? Is it because my driver, 368.79, is outdated?
2. Could the outdated graphics driver be responsible for my comparatively lower Fire Strikes scores?
3. Why isn't GeForce Experience automatically updating my driver to 372.70? Should I download this driver manually?

Thanks, everyone! I'll post more impressions and answers to your questions soon. In the mean time, I hope you can help me out with this!

 

I just got my GS43VR. I wiped the HDD and put a fresh coat of Windows 10 Pro on it. I also switched out the 1TB HDD for a 512GB Samsung 850 SSD.

Here's my problem... more often than not, when I try to use my HTC Vive, I get the "Compositor is not available (400)" error in SteamVR. I have had the Vive work exactly twice since I got the laptop.

It's been hard to find any good info on how to fix this issue, especially when I search specific to this laptop. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, disabling the internal graphics card and setting the NVidia card as the default. I think reinstalling the drivers worked once. I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue and, if so, have they been able to fix it. TIA!