MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro Owner's Lounge

Also, 50db is too loud. I wonder if the GL502VM is <45.

 

Yeah honestly the MSI Dragon software really screws up the fan profiles (or can help if you want to manually create your own).. I'd really like to see Svet or Prema make a custom EC bios for us (if possible) to fix the fan curve issues. I managed to just order one from Best Buy 2 days ago.. I've been checking every day and night for stock and they came in on BB eventually but now sold out yet again.

The Amazon ones say "Pre-order/not released" but I'm hearing reports of people pre-ordering them and getting them shipped.. Amazon is getting a handful of units at a time and just filling the preorders in before they go live on the site.

 

50db was recorded I believe with Prime95 and Furmark going at the same time to generate a theoretical maximum fan noise. It's a pretty noisy laptop, I don't think anybody's going to lie about that here.

I'm probably going to return my 2nd GS63VR and order a GT62VR with 1070 which runs in the low 40db range under load (which is perfect). Although you have to be okay with a 6.5~lb laptop that is 1.6" thick.

Thin/Light and Quiet = Doesn't exist (yet) in any Pascal equipped laptop or even any previous Maxwell based ones (which were even louder from MSI). The old GS60 was a few dB louder under load than the GS63!

 

Have you had a chance to use the GL502VM 1060? I'm still on the fence, especially after learning that the GS63VR has 3 fans, one of which is small and whines at a high frequency, whereas the Asus has two larger ones that may be quieter / less whiny, but it's conjecture until I see a review or hear from someone that has used both laptops,.

 

I have only held/picked one up and used it for about 5 minutes.. The feel of the materials was more of a turn off than anything else about it. Being that the GL502 has a thicker body to the GS63, I would guess it should be slightly better on fan noise.. Also Asus tends to provide better out of the box EC profiles for the fans so it's probably very silent until anything demanding is going on like a game and or some big CPU crunching program.

If you don't mind overly flexible plastics on the Asus, it probably would be quieter overall in the long run. It's also closer to the weight of the GT62VR mind you at like 5.8 lbs. Edit: Asus specs say 4.9 lbs for the 1060 model. Asus is known to underrate weight so it's probably more like 5.2 lbs.

If you want a ultrabook with 1060, the GS43/63/73 are really the only solid choices at the moment.. Anything else is quite heavier and thicker. Razer will be the next thing coming out that can compete with the MSI in thin/light but they have always been just as loud/hot running.. But they are far less to spin up fans doing normal "office" type tasks than these GS series.. Just pulling up webpages will make the CPU go nuts sometimes on the GS models and that drives me insane because it makes the laptop feel "cheap".

 

Newegg just went back in stock for the 4k version today

 

I much prefer the gs63vr over the gs60. First off, the ultra low fan speeds are almost silent. You have to be in an ultra quiet room to hear them at all. From my measurements, the ramped up speeds measure lower than the gs60 as well, but I also prefer the tone change. My opinion on that one, but it's nicer on the ears to me.

I'm pretty happy how they improved the fans on their models this year.

 

Yeah, the improvement over the GS60 is welcome (which I owned a GS60 for about 2 weeks before ultimately returning that one for heat reasons and I don't recall being too bothered by the fans back then even).

But I think what spoiled me along the way is the big 17" laptops with near silent fans that when under load, only sound like a very low frequency white noise hum.

That being said, i'm probably going to have to return this GS63 and try out the GT62VR.. Nobody knows if the GT62VR has a ESS dac though like the GS series :/

 

ESS dac?

 

High quality digital-to-audio converter at the headphone 3.5mm jack. It's for 600ohm headphones and provides better sound quality to normal headphones too.

 

Ah yes, it is much better sounding. Yeah, none of the reviews mention it in the GT line. They didn't put a HiFi stamp on it either, so probably not.

 

Small update. I managed to fix the cpu issue thanks to some good advice on the forums, bringing it down to a more normal 20% usage. Unfortunately the audio/video issue is still occuring.

 

What did it end up being?

 

When I get my replacement I expect a 1-2% usage when idle (like a normal machine be). But then again i'll be wiping the drive (complete format) and installing fresh Win10 Anniversary. Let you guys know tomorrow and another full review.

 

What's the audio / video issue? Local playback or over the internet?

Which browser? Which video service?

Are you using wireless or wired internet?

Have you updated Adobe Flash plugin in Firefox, and are you completely updated from MS on Windows, and Chrome.

Download the latest drivers for Wifi and Ethernet hardware directly from the OEM that makes it, Intel, Realtek, Killer Networking. Don't forget to reboot after uninstalls and installs, each time.

What did you stop / tune to get the CPU usage down?

 

I never trust OEM bloatware installs.. I wonder if i'll be the first to fresh install and get drivers from the source on the GS63.. I bet it will run like a dream, minus the fans still being noisy.. I'll play with fan profiles/curves to see what I can come up with.

 

It was some of the windows startup services that were messing up the cpu. I just shut off all the extra crap like Cortana, and the cpu went down.

Wireless internet.

The video issue is both with browser and local playback.

All software are updated, and I had already installed the oem drivers.

 

Does the problem go away when you are connected to ethernet, with Wifi disabled on your laptop?

 

Are you using WEP, or WPA2/AES with WMM enabled on your router / laptop?

" Use WPA2/AES and enable WMM - most 802.11n Wi-Fi certified devices will slow down to 54 Mbps if you use WEP or WPA/TKIP security, since the 802.11n specs state that the higher throughput rates can't be enabled if either of those outdated security methods are being used. Similarly, the 802.11n spec requires devices to support 802.11e ( QoSenhancements for wireless LAN) in order to use high throughput link rates, i.e. higher than 54 Mbps. WMM is a subset of 802.11e that is required for products to be certified for 802.11n."
http://www.speedguide.net/faq/how-to-fix-slow-wireless-network-speed-375

Also, go to the router vendor site and find the latest firmware, and check their forums or the www.dslreports.com forums for problems or fixes, when you are happy it's gonna not hurt, update the firmware on the router.

Router firmware updates have been 90% of the fixes for me, after the other 99% are fixed with OEM wifi updates on the laptop.

 

Just checked. WMM is already enabled and my firmware is up to date. Also, what would be the fix for the local playback? If I have a downloaded video and it's doing that I doubt it's the router in the first place

 

Oddly sometimes local playback is a problem while streamed works fine

So you are having the same problem whether it's streamed or local? The same app, or different ones, what are they and what are the services / media you are trying to play.

You haven't said exactly what you are using for playback, what formats you are using, and if you have tried multiple playback apps on the same media.

Is it WMV, MP3/4, what's the compression used?

Are you playing from the SSD or HDD?

There could be multiple source/playback issues, focus on one at a time, you can't be using the same tool to playback local and internet sources, lets try fixing one and get it working, and then move on to the next.

 

Sorry for the lack of info. On the internet I've been using firefox, but I've tried it with all three browsers and they all run into the same issue (although using chrome does seem to delay it just a bit). I've used mp4 files for the download, and used windows media player, groove music, and the movies and tv app

Edit: Almost forgot, I've also used itunes, and spotify with the same issues occurring

 

So, then, what's the symptom? Before you tell me, I have a feeling it's still something starting up in the background and taking resources.

Once thing to try to help alienate the symtoms until you find the source to turn it off, is to disable hardware acceleration - or enable it if disabled.

The problem with Optimus is that I believe all the decoders go through the iGPU... would need to test it to be sure, but that will bog down the CPU and iGPU.

Have you tried to force each browser (not IE or Edge) to use the dGPU? Google how, if simply setting the Nvidia 3D settings for Programs doesn't help.

I would focus on Firefox or Chrome and get that tuned there first, try hardware accelerated enabled and disabled, force use of dGPU.

Try some googling, like this for clues / debugging help:
https://www.google.com/search?num=5.....1c.1.64.serp..1.1.129...30i10k1.PtK_wn7Yo_g

 

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if something is just randomly popping up that's just slipping by.

How would I find out if a program is using the dGPU? I already have it set to use it in the 3d settings.

 

You can use TechPowerUp GPU-Z to select the GPU to watch, and then use the Sensors Tab to view realtime load and usage, then switch to the other GPU to see usage there.

I don't use Windows 10 or Optimus, so you are going to need to do the heavy lifting from here on out, to figure out how Optimus is directing where to render video, and how to affect it's decisions.

It very well might be that putting the decision back on Optimus - instead of forcing rendering on one or the other as a user choice, might work better.

Start reading recent Optimus + video playback + Windows 10 search results, set your google "search tools" time from Anytime to the Past Year, or even Past Month, to see new bugs / solutions to video playback - naming each tool in the search, like VLC, HPC-MPC, etc.

Open search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Optimus+++video+playback+++Windows+10&rlz=1C1CHNY_enUS692US692&oq=Optimus+++video+playback+++Windows+10&aqs=chrome..69i57.1912j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Focused on Past Month:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Optimus+++video+playback+++Windows+10&num=50&safe=off&rlz=1C1CHNY_enUS692US692&source=lnt&tbs=qdr:m&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYwbqcvIHPAhVW0GMKHRntBJ0QpwUIFg&biw=962&bih=556

You may also want to do the same naming "firefox" and "pc chrome browser", to find hidden settings tweaks for the browsers to affect playback.

Keep the Windows Task Manager + Performance Window open gathering info on IO Read / Write and CPU - notice they will keep peak readings even after another process tops the list, scroll down for older readings - expand the file name area to get more info on what has been running and how much IO / CPU it's using.
I'm guessing there will be a couple of background things to disable, and Optimus twiddling to get good playback.

Did you install and use O&O Shutup and Anti-Spy?

There is are also Windows 10 threads here on installation and optimization, look into what is already provided for helpful assistance here on NBR:

Windows 10 Tweaks and Fixes (Index post #1)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/windows-10-tweaks-and-fixes-index-post-1.779394/

NBR Windows 10 Clean Installation Guide
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nbr-windows-10-clean-installation-guide.781178/

Please come back and let us know what you find that works for you.

 

I'll see what I can find out and if i can come up with anything, but I'm gonna go ahead and let you know I already threw the baby in the bath water before we even started this discussion. My replacement is coming in tomorrow and I'm gonna have to box this up and send it back after that, so it's been more for my knowledge than anything. But if there is a fix that I'm able to find I'll let you guys know.

 

What make / model is the replacement?

That's ok, save my posts for future reference, bugs / problems have a way of coming back around

 

Well at first I was going to get an AW13 with the oled screen for portability, but then I kicked myself and realized if I went through with that, I'd probably end up regretting not getting pascal. I ended up getting a Asus GL502VM. I went with the base config since it already had 16gb of ram, and I plan on just buying an ssd and switching it out with the hdd down the road.

 

The Asus is a nice 15.6", and the GL502VM is dGPU only, so no Optimus yuckiness.

The Asus GL502VS - 1070 - dGPU only
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Strix-GL502VS-Notebook-Review.171567.0.html

See you in another thread

I do wish Asus would release the GL702VS...

 

I thought since it had a Gsync Display optimus was disabled? Also they released the VS on amazon. Although they only have 1 left in stock.

 

dGPU only on both the GL502VM 1060 the GL502VS 1070, no Optimus.

It would have been nice if Asus included a MUX switch for iGPU on battery to extend run time, but dGPU only is far better than Optimus.

 

Got my replacement GS63VR in.. Same issue, I'm to expect all of these units have a high pitched CPU fan (right side looking at the unit) at this point.. The GPU fan is more of a roaring/wooshing sound and the CPU has a ringing high pitched tone to it the moment it gets past 2000rpms. Just the way these are after having two. It's pretty annoying and maybe since I have sensitive hearing, all I hear is this ringing tone in my ears when i'm doing anything like gaming or high CPU usage. Outside of that, I mean the laptop is great.. It keeps the thermals within normal range (seemed to stabilize the GPU temps around 78c in Unigen Heaven).

Of course everything works fine at a cost of complete high pitched nonsense noise.

I performed a fresh Win10 Anniversary install and ALL drivers automatically installed.. I chose not to install any MSI related software as none of it beneficial in my eyes. Just pure unadulterated Windows10 with clean drivers from the source. To my surprise, I used the laptop for an hour off the charger downloading and installing software.. Fans behaved well, rarely making any sound you can hear. Battery life started out at 8hours on the built in Windows meter and after an hour, it still said 5 hours left with brightness at 30% (which is still pretty bright imo)! I had literally about 75% battery left after an hour of real usage.. Was youtubing, surfing the web, sending emails, you know, normal computer stuff. The bloatware Win10 installed obviously is killing CPU and doing all sorts of nasty things to these machines.

Also, my GS63VR box said the battery is 65 watts.. MSI says these are 57 watts on their official spec page. Shrug. Battery life to me, seems way better than people have been getting.. I think this would easily get 4+ hours of normal business use.

It never got uncomfortably hot on my lap when I was using it on battery.. I'm just using the normal balanced power plan which lets the CPU idle down to it's lowest when it isn't doing any heavy lifting. I'll be performing some Batterybar logging to see what my average battery life is using it for normal mundane tasks and report back.

If there's any questions, shoot them over.. But for me, I already know my end result will be looking at another laptop, probably the GT62VR with 1070.

Update 1:
Prime95 + Furmark going for 30 minutes = 96c CPU and 84c GPU, surprisingly the GPU doesn't throttle.. So it seems the PSU provided can handle the CPU and GPU pulling pretty high clocks.. Because of the CPU temperature, i'm hitting the thermal throttling and CPU is holding base 2.6ghz clocks. Fan noise is ridiculous right now.

Update 2:
Benchmarking for a while with Heaven.. stock clocks.. Fan is stupid loud:


Update 3:
League of Legends, which is a very light game and scalable.. Makes the laptop scream as well.

I find this laptop to not be recommendable by anyone who's not okay with vacuum cleaner-like noise levels. The fans cannot be tuned to be quieter without hitting 90+C on cpu and gpu.

I am done with the GS63VR and I wish you all good luck, it's a good looking laptop and has amazing weight and size but it's pretty much garbage on the heat/noise levels in my books.

It also spits out so much heat it makes the keyboard area uncomfortably hot and forget about putting your hands anywhere near the back sides of the laptop, it will fry you alive.

 

Did you consider the Asus GL502vs? A few reviewers commented (qualitatively) that it is quieter than the GS63VR while having a 1070 to boot. Lisa from mobile tech review put up her thoughts yesterday (video already linked above).

 

I did consider the G502VS 1070, but although people say its quieter than the MSI GS series (not GT62VR) that it's still pretty loud, but I bet it doesn't have any high pitched tone to it whatsoever. I just hate the orange accents all over the new Asus.. It's very gaudy.. I miss the old black/red Asus models :/

 

Quick question, has someone opened the back panel?. I bought a SSD and I want to replace the slow HDD and it should be easy (not the m.2 ssd)
I tried to open the back but is kind of difficult so I stopped since i dont want to mess it up.
I tried to find a disassembly video or something but so far none.

 

It should just be screws and maybe a couple clips where it interfaces with the plastic at the hinge area.

 

This laptop is far too thin to be taken seriously and for the money spent on one. My final thoughts and update are above post #132. I absolutely under no circumstance would ever recommend this to anyone. It runs too hot and is far far far too loud. On to other laptops, good luck guys.

And if you're just seeing this, I've had two GS63VRs.. Both identically bad.

 

Few more things you can try to help with the stuttering video/slowdown:
1) Make sure Power options in Windows settings is set to High Performance.
2) ECO mode is set to Gaming or completely off.
3) High performance is enabled in Dragon Gaming Center.
4) Shift mode is set to Sport, again in the Dragon Gaming Center.

I have a GS60-064 laptop with 970M and when I set it to green mode in shift, it throttles the CPU to save battery and results in generalized stuttering/slowing especially during video playback or when scrolling in Chrome. When I set back to Sport mode, laptop performs to full capacity without any slowdown.

 

Unfortunately that was already tried. I wasn't really able to find what it was, but either way even though I got the cpu to normal levels I couldn't get the audio video issue fixed. Msi had no idea either. In any case the laptop is being put back to factory settings and returned today as soon my my asus comes in

 

Fresh install Windows10.. The thing runs perfect afterwards, trust me. Besides the obvious fan issues (Which isn't an issue per se, they work as intended). My CPU idles at 0-1% all the time.. No sound problems.

 

SSD 128gb bench:


Nets the maximum SATA6 bus speed on reads.. lacking on the write side (all over the place).

 

So I moved the GS63 into the living room where i'd use a laptop on the coffee table most.. And my air conditioner is pretty loud out here and the refrigerator has a faint ringing to it.. Surprisingly drowned out a lot of noise from the laptop during gaming.. it's still loud and i can hear it but it's probably not loud enough to be as bothersome.. In a dead silent room, it draws a lot of attention as in "Why does that thing sound like a dyson hand vac?".

 

Perhaps get a measurement for comparison. On low fan settings I'm getting 18-20 dB, and with coolerboost at max I'm getting 34-36dB, so from light rustling leaves to quiet library. I am absolutely in love with the performance of the G63vr, it exceeds all my expectations. The only thing I dislike and have been very vocal about since the beginning is the low quality screen, I feel that the model platform got cheated with this panel. I've already modded the bottom panel for better airflow, and re-pasted everything with Gelid GC Extreme. It's a solid overclocker on the GPU side and if I can just mod the top intake panel vent above the fans, it's only going to get better. That said, this thing is powerful, thin, and pretty light for what is included.

 

There's no way full tilt (Coolerboost max) you're getting 34-36db.. maybe at a certain distance but these run like handvacs.. Very loud. I wouldn't be able to run any AAA game at a library without getting mean looks on this thing. When Coolerboost max fans are on, it's around 5000 rpms.. It's crazy loud.

In regards to the performance I agree, it's very powerful given it's size.. I'm just jaded by these fans so much it's going back.. Especially after trying TWO of these.. I just probably have a low tolerance to high frequency tiny fans compared to most people..

 

Maybe the GS73 would be better? You would also gain a 120hz display. It's the winner winner of you're looking for thing and light IMO. The GS63 doesn't even have Gsync so offers very little other than slightly more portable. The GT62 runs cool and quiet but is obviously way bulkier but can be setup with a 1070 and Gsync so it has value for the size. Ge62vr and gs63 are the worst buys this round unless you have to have that form factor.

 

I have both and they are both about the same. The fans are identical.

 

You pretty much nailed my feelings.. the GS63 is ALMOST there but it's not enough right now. The form factor creates the fan noise for me obviously and it's missing G-sync.. After having G-Sync on my Asus for about a year i've realized I absolutely cannot live without it. The GS73 is out for me because from what I've read and hear, that it sounds pretty much identically to the GS63. Possibly even the fans are identical from the 63 to 73.

The GE62vr is out because of no G-Sync and no 1070. I'm seriously about to pull the trigger on a GT62VR with 1070 because for barely more cost, it's got everything I want: G-Sync, Quiet fans, and a 1070, potentially better battery life too according to reviews. All at a cost of heavier/thicker.

I saw your videos and it seems like it gets incredible temps as well. Are you really really happy with your GT62VR? Anything you don't like about it?

OH OH, do you know if it has the ESS HiFi Sabre DAC on the headphone jack like the GS series? MSI's own website shows that it does, but nobody knows for sure.. There's no HiFi print on the headphone jack like the GS series.

Also, the only bothering thing about the GT62VR is they put all the USB3 on the right side (where my mouse hand is) and I have a couple of things i need to leave plugged into the laptop and that's going to be a problem with the GT62VR. Otherwise it's pretty much perfect. From the reviews it sounds like it has the fan sound of a large beefy 17" (like my G751) which sounds perfect. I would easily give up 2 lbs for a more comfortable laptop.

Lastly, the only other laptop I have eyes on is the upcoming Alienwares.. but they will be in excess of 2000usd for the config I want.

 

Exactly what I suspected. Thanks!

 

Seriously, I've been saying since the beginning that mine must not get as loud as yours. I measured the sound level using both an S7 Edge and a Note 4 from different angles just to make sure, I also did a third run with a different application to rule out algorithm . I usually leave mine on max because I hardly notice it. Once again I'll say it, this is one of the better gaming books I've had going all the way back to the OCZ Extreme 840 (whitebook), with 2x 3870s in crossfire and a QX9300 (now that thing was loud).

 

Well I don't know what to say, without being local and demonstrating our laptops to each other we'll never truly know

Unless i've gotten two in a row that have bad bearings or something.. These sound fairly identical to each other from listening to my microphone recordings.. Both have a high pitched CPU ringing after 2000 rpms that is just nearly piercing to my ears. If it didn't have the ring, I'd seriously be in agreeance with you and just learn to adjust..

Very well though, you may be one of the lucky ones with a quieter CPU fan and I hope that's the case. I unfortunately cannot try a 3rd unit :/

I wonder how the Clevo P650RS sounds compared to the GS63VR.