***The MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 970M Owner's Lounge***

Which wireless card would you guys prefer?
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 vs Killer Dual Band Wireless-AC N1535
I will be using Bluetooth mouse and hopefully connect to a speaker system if that matters..
Thanks

 

Both WLAN adapters are actually very good and you shouldn't have any issues or bottlenecks with either one of them.

 

Don't get killer wifi.. it sucks. It doesn't work as advertised and it gives unnecessary headaches.

It has issues such as random disconnects, random blue screens, and even lag. The only solution to this despite all the complaints ( https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=178064.0) is to not use killer wifi's software, which means not using the killer features.

I should also mention that killer wifi's advertised features don't even work as advertised. One example is here:
http://www.pcgamer.com/motherboards-with-killer-network-adapters-arent-worth-your-money/

 

It's not entirely true, and new driver gets released frequently so it is a mature product.

Last Driver Update: 26 January 2016
http://www.killernetworking.com/support/driver-downloads

And if you believe the software is causing any kind of issue, use standard driver instead.
http://www.killernetworking.com/support/driver-downloads/standard-drivers

 

Kevin, can you confirm the type of panel the G60 002 has from your site? Is it an IPS or an TN?

 

It has a LG LGD040E IPS panel.
If you have other questions, feel free to let us know, thanks.

 

Yeah I had the exact same problem on my GE62-6QF after installing the new driver (which basically has the same specs as the gs60), got 30 (!!!) fps drops on Blacksquad and I reverted it and it came back to normal...

 

I bought a GS60 2QE-433SA second hand a couple of days ago for a thousand bucks. So far, everything is in order and it is working as expected.

Does anyone know how to remove the splash screen for Sound Blaster Cinema 2, which displays when starting up the laptop? I'm not talking about stopping the program or anything, but just stopping the splash screen since it's irritating. I tried adding -nosplash to the registry entry but it didn't do anything.

 

Hello all! Just purchased myself a Ghost Pro 4k and must admit I'm impressed with this machine. Glad to see you all made a great choice in hardware as well! I like doing new and custom stuff, so hopefully we'll have a blast meddling with our expensive notebooks.

First on my list is protection, I love to skin and/or case my devices for personality and protection. Anyone have anything for their comps that I'm not seeing on Amazon or ebay?

 

Being that my laptops never stay on a desk for more than a few hours, skins are important to me to keep scratches away. Me and my sis whipped up a custom* front skin and then purchased it on Skinit.com (generic 17" laptop skin has near exact dimensions) and then got the rest of the panels from DecalRUs (amazon). We'll use their front skinfrom amazon as a template to cut out the shield emblem.

 

Hi there. I´m new to this forum. I just wanted to loose a few words about the MSI GS60 6QE 4K (Skylake) that I own.
Since I have read a lot of you want to know about the screen (mustard yellow) I took comparision photos between the MSI GS60 6QE 4K and my 2.5 year old SONY SVS 1512Z9EB.

I really like the overall built quality of the GS60. But I have some serious problems when it comes to screen quality!

Disclaimer: I am not trying to be biased here. I took the photos with my Sony Alpha 7 and the 90mm macro lens. The pictures were captured in RAW. A white balance was done in camera raw afterwards.

Side by Side Google:


Both laptops running on the highest brightnes. The Sony comes in a little brighter. The MSI is set to sRGB mode. You can already see the mustard colors with the Google Logo.

Closeup:




Side by Side Simpsons:


This particular picture of the simpsons does not look to bad on the MSI. But since the colors of their faces has burned in to out brains (at least in mine) it feels just strange to watch episodes and them having a darker skin tones.

Closeup:



The best way to see the color quality is in detailed yellow surfaces that require the device to reproduce a large palette of (yellow) colors:

Side by Side Lemon:


Closeup:


Notice how the MSI is missing detail in the color fidelity between the darker poors of the lemon. Instead of a gradient it just looks like one greenish one colored area. Also notice how much darker the yellow is. Even when taking into account the screen brightnes is not matching the Sony.

Side by Side Gradient / Bending:


I noticed heavy bending on the MSI. I really hope I am doing something wrong here. I tried all settings of the MSI True Color with no luck of reducing the banding.
I also noticed that the screen actually changes brightnes dependend on what is displayed. I tryed every trick that I could find online to turn of the adaprive brightness without success. So I think it unfortunately is built in the screen and is not caused by Windows or the GPU´s (settings)

Closeup:


Here you can see that the Sony is able to reproduce the gradient almost perfectly. While the MSI is really struggeling. Note that the Sony has some dents (brighter areas) in the screen due to its age and long lasting use in all sorts of situations.

Last but not least I noticed that if I switch the MSI keyboard backlight to white (I like white) you get colored LED´s displaying mostly green or purple on the lower edge of the keyboard. I don´t mind that issue that much. But you would not expect that from a 2149 Euro Laptop.

Closeup:



As a Verdict I can say if it was not for the screen. I really really like the MSI.
Great built quality. Very good keyboard with nice long travel distance of the keys. Great performance (I use if for 3D Rendering and GPU Rendering (Octane) while I am on the road)
The speakers are also better then on most Laptops I have heared (even though I wear headphones mostly)
The trackpad is one of the better ones. At least I had no problems handling it.
The cooler could be a bit more quiet when in idle. I do not mind it making noise when working.
Also the cooler is quite jumpy when it comes to fanspeed changes. I dont like the hectic behaviour. I rather would have it 1min in higher rpm when ending a cpu intensive task then it constantly switching back and forth between fast rpm and turned off state.

My only wish is that MSI would make this laltop available with a FullHD screen (that is hopefully better) in Germany or exchange the current 4K screen for a better one. Currently in the 250GB SSD 16GB Ram configuration only the 4K screen is available.
I am using my laptops for heavy picture progressing work.
It ranges from simple Photoshop tasts to compositing and color grading of photos and 3D animations / renderings. Things where color accuracy is required. So just because of the screen performance I am thinking of selling the laptop again.

Question:
Do you have experienced the brightnes changes (dynamic brightnes) of the screen too:

If you want to try:
Create a picture with a gradient and set it as your desktop-background.
Then open a browser with google and change the browser size so the white area of google gets bigger and smaller. You should see the gradient (banding) changing. at least thats what is happening to me.

I hope you liked that (long) post and got something out of it.

I know that the setup is not really professional. But I tried to give you an inside look especially of that MSI screen.

Edit:
As aqnb suggested. I uploaded the gradient picture. So you can use that to check your screen.
DOWNLOAD

Note that the image is a JPEG version with low compression (good quality) with minimal dithering baked into the image. I tried to use HD and UHD gradients for the MSI without too big of a difference. My tests are based on the same picture but as a uncompressed TIFF.

Thanks,
Raphael

 

Raphael, personally I really appreciate another opinion from a picky pair of eyes. I have also noticed the screen is a little on the yellow side, especially compared to my 2015 Macbook Pro Retina. I haven't seem to be bothered by it as bad, especially after I had all the drivers updated. I know MSI has a few options for screen coloring but I just keep it set to RGB. The one thing I am very pickey on myself is pixel density abd image clarity and at least this screen is way better than the QHD+ touch screen GARBAGE on the alienware 13 I demo'd last month.

Anyway if you find a way to whiten-up the screen shoot a post I'd love to know.

 

Actually hey try playing with MSI True Color tool. Hope it helps

 

If you put your gradient image source somewhere (e.g. upload it to your server, or http://imgur.com/), I can check how it looks on 1080p screen of MSI GS60.

With gradients, all LCD screens kinda suck, especially if it's a dark monochrome picture. There is just not enough precision per RGB component (many screens have sadly just 6-bit precision per color component).

Most LCD screens then cheat by either temporal and/or spatial dithering to make it look like gradients are smoother (temporal dithering makes blinking patterns if you look closes).

You can see dithering in both your 4K MSI GS60 screen photos and that Sony screen too. Sony just does it better.

Please note that dithering can be "baked" into the image (e.g. when rendering gradient in Photoshop or Gimp), so that may hide precision problems of the display.

BTW also the process of "taking a photo => image compression => rendering photo on user's own screen" may either hide or exaggerate the problem (every part of the pipeline has its own precision issues).

 

Hi aqnb, thanks for your message!
You are absolutely right in what you are saying. The picture of the gradient I used has dithering baked in to it also. Besides taking the photo from the screen also introduces noise through the camera sensor that also acts like a dither filter. Still you can clearly see that the image has heavy bending on the msi sadly.

I have uploaded a JPEG version of the TIFF image I was using.
You can download it HERE

Its very nice of you to offer to do the gradient test.

P.s. the Sony I compared the msi against had one of the best screens during the time it came out (a lot of reviews said) So I´m a bit spoiled here

Thanks for your answer. Looking forward what you have to say about that gradient

Cheers,
Raphael

 

My new 4k gs60 arrives in a couple days. It will be interesting to see if it has the yellowing issue. If it does, and if so many of us have this issue is there any recourse for us? Is it possible to pressure MSI to do a screen replacement. If we all took our units into warranty and complained about the yellow issue would they do anything?

Thanks for pursuing this issue guys.

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk

 

So I checked and it's kinda interesting.

I have two notebooks side by side - MSI GS60 with 1080p IPS screen and oldie Thinkpad W520 with 1080p TN screen ( very broad color space, at least for its time).

I took photos with iPhone 4S camera, but there is a lot of distortion compared to what I see in reality.

This is MSI GS60:



This is Thinkpad W520:



When looking at those screens with own eyes Thinkpad screen looks much better than anything else (1080p or 4K GS60 screens or that Sony screen photo) - gradient looks completely smooth and uniform.

Though when getting eyes closer to Thinkpad screen, you can see pulsations coming from temporal dithering. This also shows up on photos as strong horizontal strips (very visible in iPhone viewfinder when just looking at the screen when taking photo, this doesn't happen at all with GS60).

GS60 1080p screen looks kinda ok when checking from far away (much better than GS60 4K screen photos you posted, roughly similar to your Sony photos), but when checking with eyes closer to screen you can see static dithering non-uniform patterns. It kinda looks "dirty" (these artefacts don't show up in photos).

--------

In general, my experience with GS60 1080p screen is that it tends to exaggerate saturation, I think its gamma curve is tuned to make photos / movies "pop" instead of reproducing colors accurately.

This makes people like the screen more when just consuming content, but it can be confusing when trying to create content that's expected to be viewed on different screens. I don't have colorimeter, so not sure how much of this is just software settings and how much is actual LCD screen parameters.

Though from everything I have read so far about GS60 models, 1080p screen should be much more preferable to 4K one.

3K screen that's used for some GS60 models is also very good, though it's very hard to find such models. I had 3K unit for brief time, screen was stunning, but unfortunately it had tons of dead pixels, so I had to return it, and there wasn't any other 3K unit left to replace it.

 

Hi there and sorry I did not reply to you. Thanks for your message.
Since I have this screen I have to say the HighDPI thing is really nice. It makes text look very sharp. Nothing looks edgy and pixelated anymore. It got me hooked to UHD-Screens!

About you saying to try the "MSI True Color" I did. Unfortunately without making the screen look any better. At least in terms of Banding.

Actually that would be really nice. If you have a look at the products page here:
LINK
They are telling you:
"See the world for what it is using MSI's exclusive True Color Technology. Precisely calibrated to deliver vibrant colors, stunning details, and sharp images, True Color Technology brings the colors of the world right to your display."

I would call that false advertising given that the screen is not able to reproduce some of the yellow spectrum!

Thanks for your tests. Really interesting! This kind of confirms my theory that the HD Panel is of much better quality then the UHD one that comes with the GS60. What a shame.
Its kind of hard to get photos off of the situation isn´t it I was havinn the same issues. The Sony when watched directly (not through the lens / sensor of a camera) has also a really nice gradient reproduction. There are definitely even better models out there. Possibly your Think Pad!

P.s. I think its much harder to reproduce nice gradients for a 4K screen. Since there are only 256 gray colors available from black to white. Its a hard task for a screen to display the gradient I did because its a dark gradient that covers a large area on the screen and is not full range black to white. That means we have 100 gray colors (or so) to reproduce the gradient over the whole screen (actually half the screen as the gradient begins in the middle). Given the screens pixel density multiple pixels end up displaying the same color. So technically (scientifically speaking) it is not possible to reproduce a clean gradient with the color depth and even the FullHD the pixel count.
But I do mot mind a little bit of dither. I rather have slightly visible dithering then the banding. Just suits my eye better!

I think I will speak to MSIs support and see what they tell me
As I said I would have gone with the FullHD GS60 if it was available in Germany.

Thanks everyone!

Cheers,
Raphael

 

Hi! new owner of ghost pro 1080p (6QE). I want to change the ssd to a PCIe m.2.... Hoping around reviews to find out about the high temps the PCIe ssd have. I am confused now. So, have you put NVMe ssd inside this laptop? what about the temps you get? I want to know about idle/load temps. Thanks!

 

Assault that looks great and probably reduces the fingerprint issues. How long did that take and was it hard to get a professional looking fit?


Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk

 

Not long at all, I just went to the usual sites i use for custom skins! Decalgirl and Skinit both had close choices to the size we need, but ultimately Skinit's "generic 17in" skin took the cake at 15.2" x 9.9" and now that its arrived so i can see actual comparison, it will go edge to edge on the gs60 almost flawlessly. I just had to trace a stencil for cutting out the MSI shield emblem, but once it's all cut tomorrow ill post pictures!

 

My first thoughts for the GS60 ghost pro as a previous alienware 15 owner.

The built quality is excellent. I am impressed by it's weight, compared to others gaming notebooks (like the alienware I came from). Small size and low weight though, come at expense of battery life and (high) temperatures. The noise of the fan does not bother me. AW 15 is quieter in idle, but it has the same amount of noise when under load. Also, the air intake is on top, while in the AW 15 is underneath. You have visual contact with the fan and closer distance, that's why probably you may feel the noise is louder on MSI.

Temps... Only in one game (Ryse: Son of Rome) my GPU temps reached 90C+ and this was not so pleasant for me. Then I also got the wifi drop problem: read here and here. So I cannot recommend this notebook to those who want to play online games. For single players without the online need (Twich, walkthrough etc) is OK, but i find it a joke that MSI named that notebook "gaming". Wanted to validate it, so I run tests. For CPU stress (only) the temps go to 69 C (20 C room temperature). It's not so bad. The problem is when the GPU is under heavy load. So the cooling solution may cool the 45W TDP CPU but cannot cool the 100W GPU.

Screen... The screen is excellent like I was hoping. I have the 1080p version of 6QE. Mine has backlight bleeding but keep in mind that this is one of the brightest screens out there, so I expected to have the problem and consider this reasonable.

Battery life... well this is the biggest problem of this notebook (imo). You are going to have 2 to 3 hours of battery with the brightness in 20% for internet browsing. Less if watching youtube, streams, from 1.5 to 2.5 hours. If you want to leave the power brick home this is not the right notebook for this. But 20% brightness is way more that the average 40% of many notebooks out there, so at least this compensates me. The 1080p screen seems bright as hell!

That's all for now!

 

I used my laptop on battery power for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I was surfing the web and listening to music via YouTube. I set the screen brightness to 10%. That was plenty in a room lit by flourescent lights (like a typical office envirionment). I used my laptop like this for over two hours and when I was done, it said I still had over an hour and a half left. I was very happy with that. If you can, try to use 10% screen brightness.

 

Stickers are on :]

 

Hi Everyone, took me awhile to read all 213 pages lol and get all caught up.
Anyways I just purchased the broadwell 970m3GB FHD version. Laptop came preinstalled with Windows 8 and I want to upgrade to Windows 10.

Had a few questions

I wanted to upgrade to Windows 10, but I want to do a full clean installation (not an update).
Would I still be able to download and install MSI software (specifically the fan control, keyboard RGB control, ethernet killerpro doubleshot, and Nahimic audio control)?
Also would there be any issues with doing it this way?

Regarding reapplication of thermal paste, I've used IC Diamond on my desktop and I've had good results. But this is my first time reapplying thermal paste on a laptop. So my question is does thermal paste matter? Are there a huge difference in using IC Diamond on this laptop, or would something like MX-4 or 5 work?

Thanks again guys, and I can't wait until my laptop arrives tomorrow.

 

You... actually read... ALL 213 pages??

Under "Utility" - just select your OS: https://us.msi.com/product/notebook/support/GS60-Ghost-Pro-GTX-970M-5.html#down-utility&Win10%2064

A full install is more of a hassle upfront, but tends to mitigate potential problems that sometimes come up from an upgrade install. Do the upgrade first so that your key is validated. After that, you can run through a full install.

In a high performance laptop? Yes, they matter. ICD is great. Gelid GC Extreme, Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra, and Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut have proven to be just as good, if not better.

 

Thank you for the quick response.
And yes I did end up reading all 200+ pages to make sure my questions aren't answered in any of the pages.

As far as using ICD, do I have to be more careful when using it on a laptop? Is the laptop die smaller than a desktop cpu?
I just want to make sure I don't fry the laptop before even playing with it lol.

 

Oh, it's non-conductive, so if a little bit gets on the circuit board, you're okay! You may notice that, if you ever wipe it off, it will scratch the IHS on the CPU, as well as the copper heat sink. It's minor, but just FYI.

 

Perfect! Thanks.

 

Sorry 1 last question.
Since IC Diamond is thicker than normal thermal paste, are the heatsinks good enough to evenly spread it?
Or do you recommend manually spreading the paste?

 

I did a small pea and it worked just fine

 

got it. thanks!

 

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk

 

You don't need to manually spread it. Despite ICD's viscosity, the mounting pressure of the heatsinks is enough to spread it.

 

my power button changes buttons from blue to orange then back.
I know this has something to do with the iGPU switching to the 970m
but what determines the switch? anyway to configure this to only games/videos?

 

In nvidia control panel, you can choose which programs use which gpu. If left at auto the program will decide which is best.

 

anything else you guys recommend me doing? or not doing?
btw i just received the laptop.
clean install to W10 install the msi programs and a few benchmark apps to take stock scores and temps (CinebenchR15, PCMark8, and Unigine Heaven).
Waiting until thermal paste and 256gb m.2 to arrive tomorrow so that I can prepare it for surgery. Then will run benchmarks again and compare.


Thanks again yall.

 

So I'm ready to pull the trigger on the FHD version of this laptop and whenever I get a new PC, I like to do a clean Windows install. Is there a guide on how best to do this? Does it matter in which order the drivers are installed etc?

Thanks.

 

Ok so here are a couple of pics of my new laptop with backlight bleeding. I can handle the small amounts on the upper right but the lower left seems excessive. Am I to fussy or do any of you think the left bottom bleed is excessive?

The first pic is with light on, and a black screen - my reflection in the screen due to the lights being on, and the second is in a dark room and black screen.

I can get rid of the bleed almost entirely at the lowest brightness level but anything above that it is very evident.

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk

 

Ok, I just purchased it from Amazon for $1,699 including shipping and taxes. Is this a decent deal? (The price seems to be the same pretty much everywhere).

 

Well all depends what model etc but for the pro with 16gb and 256 SSD and 1TB HD and 4K that sounds about right.

 

No, I bought the 1080P version: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0150PLJBS

 

That's pretty good.. its maybe a bit cheaper up here in canada because our dollar is so crappy, but that looks pretty standard for USA pricing. Amazon is good about returns too which is nice.

 

Yeah like I said, the price is pretty much the same everywhere I've looked.

So are there any guides on how to properly do a clean Windows install on this laptop?

 

Just go through as you would any normal clean install.
Here are the drivers, and actually on the MSI site they have a guideline/sequence in which they recommend to install drivers

https://www.msi.com/product/notebook/support/GS72-6QE-Stealth-Pro4K.html#down-driver&Win10 64

 

Great, thanks a bunch.

 

Can someone with the GS60 6QE (1080P) take a screenshot of their device manager for the exact model # of the wireless and LAN cards please?

Thanks a ton.

 

it should be a killer 1525 wlan

 

Thanks, and what about the LAN?

 

Also, what does everyone think about installing drivers directly from the individual manufacturer instead of MSI? For example what do you guys think about installing video cards drivers directly from Nvidia?

PS. I'm trying to find the chipset driver on Intel's site but not having much luck. Anyone have a link?