MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro Owner's Lounge

Oh SCM is required for dragon center for monitoring temp/fan speed/ core speed etc. Without it dragon center is basically disabled.

 

Hey everyone! I just got the MSI GS63VR 7RF Stealth pro laptop yesterday. So far I am pretty darn happy. Very impressed with the build quality etc.

Does anyone know where we can get some cheap 2nd/3rd sets of AC adapters?

 

I still use Dragon Center though and all my temps and fans still read normally. The only app that shows up in the dragon center "App portal" is SteelSeries Engine III. I uninstalled everything else including SCM. I just thought that SCM was just an ease of access app that really wasn't necessary for windows 10.

 

really? do you have "shift" setting in dragon center?

 

Yes the shift option is still available and Fn+f7 still works as the shortcut. I think the only thing you lose without SCM is the ability to turn the screen off completely unless there's another shortcut that I don't know about.

 

what??that's fine to me. may I know which version of dragon center you are using?

 

My dragon center is 1.2.1701.1101. I believe I have updated 2 times since I got the laptop and all of the options have worked without SCM.
The only difference I noticed is that the current dragon center activates the gpu so it can actually read the temperature. Previously it would display N/A for the gpu temp unless you were actually using the gtx 1060.

 

same, I kinda hate it because that makes my dgpu always active. previously the dgpu will inactive if no software is using it. Now dragon center will use it..

EDIT:
I figured it out! If you uninstall SCM after having dragon center installed then the dragon center will not properly display but if you install dragon center individually it will work nicely

also I use a last version of dragon center so it won't toggle dgpu.

 

So the Bluetooth LED and WIFI LED is always on. Is that a bug on latest windows update?

 

Glad you figured it out. I'm also not sure if I like having the dgpu active but I don't leave the dragon center running so it switches back a few seconds after I close it. Same deal with using the fn+f7. I've have had a few issues getting the gtx gpu still running after closing a game, but usually if I just switch power modes then it goes back to the built in graphics.

Have you tried turning them off through the action center on the taskbar? My lights are not on but I'm also not on the latest windows update. I actually disabled the updater after a full system recovery to the per-anniversery since it really slowed down my laptop. I've even seen some windows 10 computers turn on in the middle of the night to update and sometimes take hours. Between having trouble sleeping while the gs63 vacuum cleaner fans were running and the potential for losing work during random restarts, I did not like how intrusive the updates were.

 

haha I personally like to leave dragon center on to monitor fan and temp.

yes, I tried multiple times but that doesn't help. Maybe I should consider disable update too since it may mess up the system.

 

If you end up needing to, the factory reset definitely doesn't take anywhere near as long as the anniversary update. I don't know how yours is setup but I have all my games and large files running off the 2.5" Evo so it's less to install if I ever need to restore windows. That said, it is of course still annoying to change settings, uninstall bloatware and reinstall other programs.
Another reason I reset was the latest nvidia driver causing issues with Solidworks and I wasn't sure that the version on the MSI website was the same as the original. Honestly after I reset it, I immediately disabled the updater and haven't looked back since. Newegg had even allowed up til January 31st to return no questions asked, even with the new cpu/gpu possibilities I still hadn't consider it.

 

hi guys, I am thinking of buying one. Can you please do a recap regarding the quality of this laptop ?
does it crack/loosen up/do the parts come apart from each other/do the insides function properly after 1 year of using it ?

 

Hello there,
I can do a small recap of issues that have been noted (that I can remember), also from my experience. I'd bought the GS63vr 6RF (SkyLake) right after Christmas and returned it for its issues, but I'm probably be getting one of those 7RFs/7RGs (if they come soon enough). So those things you should be aware of:

On MY unit, there were faulty speakers (the sound was unbearebly distorted) and rattling fans - but MSI would've repaired it if I haven't asked for a refund. Also I recognized that SSD (Toshiba NVMe) runs quite hot (55+°C under load), but this should be ok with SSDs as I've read.

Other issues mentioned here:
1) Display (BestBuy version) - from my experience (I don't live in the US, so I didn't have that display), I got a unit with a LGD046F panel - this particular one seemed to be sooooooo dark ("too dark darks") that I had to lower gamma quite drammatically to be able to watch some darker videos on YouTube (but that ment that colors/text became a little fuzzy), but that's my opinion, I've read this thread and I'm the only one that have had this "issue" seems to me, so you probably don't need to worry about it.
2) Coil whine - many units have this problem - coil whine coming from the centre of the keyboard, some users reported this issue (including me), but it didn't seem to be that bothersome. Also there're reports that switching C states off in BIOS (partly?) solves this issue.
3) Speakers - 6RF especially (7RF users report better performance from speakers than 6RF), the speakers are absolutely terrible, it's difficult to listen to anything on that (but again - only my experience, as I wrote - there was something wrong with them on my unit...).
4) Micro stutters - when switching between the dGPU and iGPU there's a little delay - everything freezes for half a second or so. Really annoying, but can be (partly) solved by selecting the dGPU as a default renderer. Maybe fresh windows install can help, but I can't speak for that, because I don't have experience in doing that.


BUT - if you manage to get a unit without those issues (or you manage to solve them), this is the best laptop there... The build quality is exceptional, I wouldn't be worried about it falling apart anytime soon. I didn't experience any cracking noise nor any other issues regarding build quality (except that "upside down" motherboard that makes upgrading a little too much of a challenge, but that's a little different story... ).

 

There are some reviews on Amazon.
[ GS63VR 7RF]
[ GS63VR 6RF]

 

First I'd really like to thank everyone here who submitted their experiences. It made it a lot easier to figure things out after reading about people individual issues and (and happy owners) I just went through a week and several laptops to find the right one and I thought I'd share my own experiences:

My purchase experience:

1.) GS63VR 6RF-010CA
Stealth Pro 4K w/ Core i7-6700HQ, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD + 1TB, 15.6in 4K UHD, GTX 1060, Windows 10

The Good:------------------------The Bad:------------------------------------------------The Ugly:
No coil whine---------------------512GB m.2 is pretty mediocre--------------------4K Screen is horrendous. Dim and just plain terrible.

Status: Returned

2.) GS63VR 7RF-236CA
Stealth Pro w/ Core i7-7700HQ, 16GB RAM, 128GB SSD + 1TB, 15.6in Full HD, GTX 1060, Windows 10

The Good:---------------------------The Bad:--------------------------------------------------------------The Ugly:
OK screen, OK speakers-------- Kaby runs warmer than Skylake. Fans trigger easier---- Terrible TERRIBLE coil whine!

Status: Returned

3.) GS73VR 6RF-005CA
Stealth Pro 4K w/ Core i7-6700HQ, 16GB RAM, 128GB SSD + 1TB, 17.3in 4K UHD, GTX 1060, Windows 10

The Good:----------------------------------The Bad:------------------------------------------------------------The Ugly:
Amazing screen.--------------------------I couldn't make myself love a 17" laptop. -----------------Nothing.
(Almost as good as XPS15 4k)--------Even one this small. But that was all.
Good Speakers. No coil whine.--------Everything else about this laptop was great.

Status: Reluctantly returned (Again, awesome screen. Bright, beautiful colors, etc.)

4.) GS63VR 6RF-008CA
Stealth Pro w/ Core i7-6700HQ, 16GB RAM, 128GB SSD + 1TB, 15.6in Full HD, GTX 1060, Windows 10

The Good:------------------------------------The Bad:----------------------------------------------------The Ugly:
Great screen. Not as good as the------Speakers aren't amazing, but-------------------------Nothing really.
GS73VR 4k but still very nice.----------that's not unexpected with this
No coil whine------------------------------- laptop series.

Status: Kept it. Loving it so far.


I discovered on my own and through this forum there's a lot of variability with the GS63VR's. All of them have fans that are technically quieter than the GS60 Ghost Pro (my old laptop) but because of fan size run at a higher pitch. That's not too bad for the most part but there is a massive difference between normal fan spin and coil whine. If you can I highly recommend getting someone in store to demo a model you're thinking of buying and Run "Cool Booster" in the Dragon Center. That will quickly ramp of the fans and you can listen for any whine in the model you're thinking of buying. Some models seem more prone to it than others.

My two big concerns were coil whine (once I got a model that had it) and screen quality. I'm actually glad the 7RF had the whine because I didn't realize how much better the screen on the 6RF was. The 7RF had a 1080p LG panel and the 6RF-008CA has the Samsung one. It's a much better panel. That said, if you don't mind a thin, smallish 17" laptop, that 4k model was pretty nice as well.

While doing some research I discovered the Kaby Lake processors seem to run a bit hotter than the Skylake ones. This makes sense since they're running at a higher clock speed. More heat makes them a bit more predisposed to fan noise which is a thing in this model of MSI laptops. Something to be aware of.

I switched out the 128GB m.2 SSD in my 6RF-008CA with a 512GB m.2 drive. It's not a terribly complicated process but it can be a bit intimidating if it's your first venture into disconnecting cables and what not from a motherboard. As long as you lay your screws out in a removal pattern it's not too bad. The ultrabook review guide for the GS73VR is pretty good (with some minor alterations needed of course), but if anyone really wants me to I can post my own pictures.

http://www.ultrabookreview.com/12757-upgrade-ram-ssd-msi-gs73/

 

I have the same model as yours..GS63VR 6RF-008CA but I have coil whine..

 

Here's a quick review of the specific models and the screens that were on them. I got all the laptops form Memory Express in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

GS63VR 6RF-010CA - 4k Display - Forgot to nail down the exact screen but trust me... it's terrible. Maybe the 2017 4k model will be better.

GS63VR 7RF-236CA - LG Philips LP156WF6 (Dell 3874Y) [15.6" LCD] - I'd give it a 6.5-7 out of 10. A little warm and it's OK.

GS73VR 6RF-005CA - AU Optronics B173ZAN01.0 [17.3" LCD] - A solid 9 out of 10. Bright, vivid and accurate colors.

GS63VR 6RF-008CA - Samsung 156HL01-104 [15.6" LCD] - Not as nice as the 4k but pretty darn good for a 1080p screen. A solid 8 of 10. (Pretty well the same panel as my GS60 Ghost Pro. I was hoping for an upgrade here, but I'll settle for not downgrading.

 

Bummer. It's the cpu fan isn't it? That was how it was on the 7RF.

 

Oh and a final note with all MSI Stealth models. The default installed Dragon Center and Audio drivers seem to be broken right off the hop. I personally do a clean install of windows then install all the MSI drivers, but if you keep the default Windows installation, I'd download and reinstall those at the least.

 

Undervolting the Kabylake gains cooler running, less fan use, same for Skylake.

If you didn't take the time to undervolt, you may have passed on the Kabylake when you could have tuned the CPU and Fan curve for acceptable use.

 

Coil whine is much different than wobbly fan noise.

You can fix the fan noise with replacement fan's from MSI or off ebay.

Coil whine can be tempered with RTV on the offending coil/component, but it's a tough one to track down to the actual single component.

 

The 7RF was definitely coil whine. I got a wealth of experience during my week of testing/returns. I read about the undervolting, but considering the modest gains of Kaby Lake plus the added benefit of the much better screen, plus the lowered cost by $250-300... the 6RF just made much more sense. But yah, for those outside of their return window, I'd definitely look at getting replacement fans.

 

Hey all.

New GS63VR owner here. 7RF.

As the thread is really long, any quick summary or pointers of any defects/common problems I should be looking out for?

I have just finished setting it up, removing some of the bloat wares etc...

Also, I've always been looking for a clear high resolution photo in the past before buying the laptop, but am unable to find one.

So I'm just sharing photos I took of the MSI GS63VR Internals as I was swapping the SSD, HDD & RAM. Not exactly a teardown since I didn't bother taking out the heatpipes/fan for repasting, but may consider to do so in the future and will add more pictures when I do.

High Res Image of the internals for anyone who's interested.
https://image.ibb.co/hxe96F/GS63_VR_Internal.jpg

 

Hello, this might help, if that's what you're looking for.
Btw thanks for the pic - I'm sure many people were looking for that as well, now they have it.

 

What nvme ssd's are people using? Wondering about fit and temperatures... personally thinking about the M8peG since it has a heat spreader.

 

Im using intel nvme 600p. Nice upgrade, doesnt break the wallet. 1tb. Nice speed, doesnt get hot or overheat either.!

 

The Samsung 960 evo 1tb is pretty good as well, and decent value.

 

Does anyone knows of anywhere you can get the logo that's on the MSI WS63? The laptop will be mainly used for work and I would rather have that emblem over the current (imo) tacky and distasteful dragon logo.

Or maybe even any where you can get a different logo design! I've already removed it, but it's now just a blank space, lol.. If not I'll just stick some black plastic to cover it.

https://www.msi.com/Workstation/WS63-7RK.html
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/27/3e/ce/273ece20f7f843f499e8af40cc26eb32.jpg

That's a fantastic start!

I rarely use the speakers on laptops anyway, it'll either be headphones or Bluetooth speakers if needing a presentation.

I have the LG display model on the GS63VR. Brightness, from my naked eyes it's slightly darker on max compared to my Samsung (SDC324C) panel GS60 (1st gen). Will do some brightness measurements for the exact numbers this week. Colour on the other hand, I have access to a professional colour calibration tool, so not too fussed there.

As for coil whine etc, don't really notice it, or if it's there, it's not bothering me, so non issue there.

Cheers!

I'm currently using the SSD 960 PRO NVMe M.2 2TB. I'm still only setting the laptop up though, so can't comment on it at all.

 

I am using 960 evo, has a heat spreader on the back too

 

maybe directly ask msi? I don't know if they will sell logo plate through.

 

Thanks all for the SSD info. How are everybody's temps with the evo's? Nothing to worry about I guess?

(of the evo itself, to be clear )

 

just checked, mine is at 49 C. 960 evo 250gb.

 

I purchased the GS63VR Stealth Pro-001 from Best Buy on Saturday. My initial impressions were positive except for:
- the fan was loud as described previously in the thread
- it runs hot all the time which makes the fan noise even more annoying
- the colors were really washed out on the display though I did otherwise like the display
- the battery life was terrible at about 1.5 hours from full charge just web browsing.

I managed to play some CS:GO on it and I was impressed with the performance except for the occasional stutters at seemingly all the wrong times. That said, it was a huge upgrade, gaming wise, from my 2 year old MBP.

Annoyed about the stutters, last night, I followed some of the advice I had read about removing bloatware so I removed some of the more obvious programs and then closed the lid and went to sleep. This morning, the laptop was on, in the BIOS screen, fans blowing hard. I was able to boot it to Windows one more time and it has been booting to BIOS ever since.

I will return it tomorrow, though I will consider a replacement. I see a lot of potential in the laptop...

 

Thank you

 

Guys if you are experiencing micro stuttering with any MSI laptops, it's due to Nvidia Optimus and Windows 10 having issues. Don't return the laptop, this isn't a hardware issue. Windows has released a fix for this in Preview Build 1504 and hopefully they will roll the update out soon.

 

During gaming it is loud but when idle it should make no/little noise

I guess its because metal body help dissipate the heat

Because bestbuy exclusive 001 version has replaced a cheap display to lower the price

Mine is a bit longer (~3 hours) using igpu but yeah the battery life is still terrible

For the occasional stutter its because of the switching between igpu and dgpu. Force dgpu or igpu all the time will solve it.

For this, I have no idea..

 

aha~ nice to know it will be fixed!

 

Yeah as I ordered my GS63vr yesterday they finally found a fix... Super excited.

 

FYI this is the temp of my daily usage (browsing with chrome, typing document), notice that cpu and gpu fan are both off.

 

It's weird that you guys are getting stutters. The only stutters I get are a tiny pause after opening the notification icon or the start menu on the taskbar. It only happens the first time immediately following a startup. I don't have any stutters when it switches gpu.

My battery also lasted for over 3 hours of medium use with about 40% left. This included a decent amount of time with an HDMI plugged in using the dgpu. Probably would have lasted much longer in eco mode so I can't complain since my old brick lasted 2 hours max when it was new.

Anyone know if it's a bad idea to disable windows auto maintenance in the registry? It kicks my fans on every time my laptop idles and I find it intrusive. I tried to disable it in the TaskScheduler but that folder shows up empty for me. Also tried to manually run it but it NEVER seems to finish.

 

I noticed the ethernet port on my GS63VR 6RF does not lock the cable plug like one would expect. The cable slides out without having to press the little handle on the plug. Is that common or just me?

 

Mine does that but only with cheap cables.

 

TLDR:

I supplicated to RNGesus and pulled a working laptop on my second attempt. Two days in, I am cautiously, but optimistically installing my software and tools on the laptop.

Full story:

I went to Best Buy and explained and demonstrated my issue. Without delay, they provided a new GS63VR. I was skeptical so I opened it in the store with encouragement from the Customer Service rep. The fan noise was not immediately there so I took it home. After some time, the laptop warmed up and the noise was back. I decided to go with the clean installation of Windows that was suggested in various places.

I am happy to report:

• battery life has improved tremendously. I am getting at least 4 hours of battery life. It is long enough that I am no longer taking note of the time.
• the screen, though washed out, has more vibrant colors than the last.
• the fans run only when work is taking place (e.g. windows update downloading in the background).
• the sound is somewhat less truncated. Most importantly, I am not booting to BIOS randomly as before.
• most of the stutters during gaming are gone. i need to see if the remaining ones are just due to playing in a crowded server half the country away from me

Remaining nits:

• touch pad is way too tight. I use touch-clicks and a mouse so I don't have to interact with it often, but clicking takes some effort.
• placement of ports is annoying. the power supply, in particular, plugs right into the middle of the right side so the cord interacts with my mouse cord.
• have to put most things on the second drive. 128gb fills up quickly. I will upgrade the SSD if the laptop makes it past the next few months.
• due to the inability to get past BIOS, i never got to uninstall and log out of my programs/emails on my old laptop. I had to change a bunch of passwords.

 

My MSI GS63VR 7RF came in today, I realized whenever the gpu fan starts to run it makes rattling noises. The CPU fans on the left are fine but something isnt right on the gpu fan... Pretty disappointed, wasn't expecting a brand new laptop to have issues.

 

Great news: Confirmed! dGPU switch micro-stutters (due to nvidia optimus) completely fixed in Windows 10 build 15042 of Creators Update. (Currently only available via windows insiders program).

 

Nice!!! Finally.

 

same

 

Is anyone experiencing horrible stutter while using Amazon Prime Video ? I'm using Chrome and the moment a video starts playing the cursor and the video player stutters like crazy. The power LED literally toggles between orange and red every second. So I'm guessing it has something to do with Optimus. A recent update (either to Chrome or Windows or GPU) must have broken it because it used to work fine earlier.

 

Hey guys. I'm a newbie and I need some help please. I just got a new msi gs63vr and while doing my research it was recommended by many to do a clean install of windows to get rid of all the bloatware. So my question is once I do a clean install, what drivers do I need to download from msi? Like what do I really need to have? cause I'm not sure. Thanks in advance for your help and any advice.