*The Offical MSI GX60 Owners Lounge*

That's going to make a huge difference, I hope you enjoy

 

Hey all!

Here is the rest of my short review of the A8-5550M installation in GX60-1AC.


For information, the only Catalyst version that recognises A8-5550M ES is the 13.8 beta 2. Even with this driver, there is a lot of small bugs, such as CCC crashing, and problems with Enduro technology. Apparently, with this APU, discrete 7970M graphic card won't never switch off. The power led is constantly orange, whatever power saving profil you choose or force. This is odd, because MSI Afterburner lost the 7970M's signal outside 3D applications (please look at the next screenshot), but I can clearly feel hot air sorting from GPU's air duct. EDIT this has been solved by overwriting Catalyst's installation. Power LED went back white and consumption diminished.


Anyway, considering APU's overclocking, A8-5550M ES is rockstable with stock voltage until 3400 Mhz. With a slight increase from 1.12 to 1.18, 3600 Mhz is rockstable. I haven't tweaked precisely, but 3800 Mhz with 1.20v seems to be possible, I need to check if the CPU is throttling at this frequency.

Let's start with some basic informations, like Idle and Full temperatures:

A10-4600M, low power idling

A10-4600M, forced 2700 Mhz, after half an hour of heavy charge (take a look at the "maximum" temperature on OpenHardwareMonitor).


A8-5550M low power idling

A8-5550M, overclocked to 3600Mhz/1.18 v, after half an hour of heavy charge.


First impressions, Idling low-power of A8's seems to be a little more efficient, or the thermal paste was more efficiently applied, only God knows. Overclocking and overvolting induced 10°C increase in temps, but 71°c isn't so bad. Please note that I haven't forced MSI's Turbo Cooling, this was measured with regular fan speed. Forced ventilation induces -8°C temp drop.

Let's start with a power-hungry game called Metro Last Light. Following graphical settings has been applied before benchmarking:


Results with the former A10-4600M APU:

Averaging at 25FPS, not so bad results considering laptop's price and APU capability.

And now, results with A8-5550M, o/c 3600 Mhz.

You can observe an average of 5 more FPS, climbing the framerate to more confortable gaming conditions, close to 30 FPS.

Crysis 3 was performing quite well with the GX60's stock configuration, but some levels were particulary hanging, such as "Welcome to the Jungle", due the massive usage of complex shadows and moving grass. Even on my personnal desktop rig (Q9550@ 4200 Mhz, 7950 @ 1100/1450) this gaming area was a real pain in the @55 to play in, because of inconstant FPS.
Results with A10-4600M, please take a look at the top left of the screen.



And same scene w/ overclocked A8-5550M



As you can see, GPU usage is increasing a lot due to CPU bottleneck's diminution. Framerate augmentation is quite nice (5-10 FPS), but what screenies do not show, is that stuttering disapeared and make gameplay smoother. It's litteraly transforming gameplay in a more pleasant way. I wonder how the game will run after 7970M's overclocking (mine is rockstable @ 940/1400).

At last but not least, Tomb Raider 2013, that i've already reviewed some posts ago ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/692264-offical-msi-gx60-owners-lounge-117.html)
With the new APU, there is a 4 to 6 FPS increase in the Shiptown Level (the ONLY level of the entire game which is suffering of poor framerate).



EDIT: and for my friend Lisupoland, some comparisons in Borderlands 2 (maxed out):
A10-4600M



A8-5550M ES

 

Really nice improvement!

It's too bad this A-8 ES causes d-GPU to be constantly enabled. It's not just the higher power cost that is the problem. At the beginning of my GX60 usage I was making the mistake of leaving the notebook for the night running and having the power button all the time, 7970m had nothing to work on, but still consumed power - suffice to say, my powerbrick didn't make it and after few months it died due to overload, because even if 7970m isn't running any games - it still drains power from the powerbrick!.

Now I always make sure the power button is white when I leave the notebook idle. The A-8 ES forcing d-GPU (7970m) to run constantly might be a powerbrick killer in a longer perspective... but that is my only concern about this upgrade.

The improvement in performance is really nice, my A-10 4600m dips in Borderlands 2 to abysmal 15-20 fps at larger maps, now I see that in the glacier scene where I have like 28-30 fps you have 36 fps, now that is much more and every additional frame in this game improves aiming.
Really Borderlands 2 is a very sensitive game when it comes to the fps, when fps drops below 45 fps it already produces a really annoying choppines and lag... I do not need to cover how bad it is with 30 fps and below.

I might consider getting this upgrade! Thx a lot for the test Megatronche!

If you have the time and nerves - try to figure out how to make white power button again, so that 7970m doesn't molest the powerbrick for power, when it's not rendering any games.

 

Ok, nevermind, i've overwrited the Catalyst installation, and the LED went back white, and no warm air is exhausted from DGPU. I was really concerned about the power management because most of the time i'm using this laptop... for work! Battery life is reeeally important for me. Plus, thank to this new APU, I can save 5 extra watts of consumption in Office mode, yay!

 

the question is if there is any iGPU on the chip. what about trying to disable dGPU?

edit

yay. you back my hope in the iGPU. battery life is important to me too. and its possible that the A8 saves more energy

 

Awesome, I'm more and more inclined to shell out those 91$ for this CPU!

 

91 ? Where

 

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Baaaay.

 

10 letters yeah? ;p

 

well the lowest ES i found was 140$.... and now there are none

Edit: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-AMD-Q...et-FS1-ZM218563C44HJ-ES-Version-/281133156373 looks like ebay.com has not the same items as ebay.co.uk . I really hate those constructions.... but £59.00 is like 70euro.. thats kinda ehh cheap lool

 

New AMD Quad Core Mobile A8 5550M 2 1GHz Socket FS1 ZM218563C44HJ ES Version | eBay

Selling mine (unused) for 10€ less.

 

Tempting :O

 

Really depends what are you doing with it. Cpu intensive games/progs u will notice it , but only if have some form of reference seen earlier

 

Hey, I would be very intersted in buying that A-8 ES for 49 pounds from you

However, could you hold onto it for a while? Right know I have some other expenses and I will have to wait a few weeks, if I would really upgrade the CPU.

But, if you cannot or don't want to wait for me to figure out, if I take it off your hands, then no hard feelings

 

Can someone tell us how to replace the CPU? I mean is it complicated or do we just need to take the older one off and the put the new one in and start the computer? Do we need to put something on the new CPU for cooling or whatever?

Sorry I'm a newbie as you can see.

 

From what I know, GX60 has an easy access to components.

Simply unscrew the lower lod, and the CPU should be visible, gently unplug it and replace it with the new CPU, new colling paste IS REQUIRED, do not even try to leave the CPU without a cooling paste or it will die easy enough. The ammount of cooling paste should be the size of a grain of rice put in the center of the CPU's top square.

I haven't done that myself in GX60, so I guess it's better to wait for Megatronche for detailed procedure.

 

What? Did you see the GPU usage? It still sucks and bottleneck the crap out of it.

It is better but far from good.

 

Hey! You just need some thermal compound, IC7 Diamond or MX-4 would be extra nice for performance, some mL of Pure (or 90%) Ethanol to clean APU and rad surfaces, and two screwdrivers (cross and flat heads).
Open the back of your laptop with the cross screwdriver, and take care to unscrew the hidden screw, under the warranty sticker (it won't void your warranty as MSI's RMA service told me, you've got the right to open the laptop to change HDD or RAM dimms).
CPU is under the left metal plate:

Don't mind the blue rads I've added for extra cooling.

Use the cross screwdriver to unscrew the 3 screws that secure the rad (red circles), and unlock the CPU's retention socket (white circle on next picture) with the flat screwdriver.
Apply a small amount of thermal paste (near the size of a rice bean) at the center of the ethanol-cleaned CPU, carefully clean the rad with Ethanol too, be sure to save the thermal pads (red square) before secure the new CPU and mount back rads and plastic cover. You're good to go.

 

Has anyone tried using the intel CPU heatsink yet (It's dual heatpipe)? Something in my brain says I though about it but it might get in the way of something. I believe the posts are organised correctly though.

For best contact those heatpads should be 0.5mm thick.

 

This has nothing todo with the intel heatsink, the bridge-pipe is inthe gt60/70-2nd version and I also believe in the GX70.
I dont think it has a real-world effect, but a serious con: you have a single piece now: -> you cannot redo the thermalpaste for the CPU or GPU alone, you have to do both everytime.

Edit: I looked at it again, and it`s 2 pieces, but to get to the cpu, the gpu heatsink must be removed too it appears to me.

 

Mega did you also redo the thermal paste for the gpu ? And maybe got pics of that ?

 

Those blue rads really help cooling at all or is it all show?

 

For 49 pounds, I'm immediate buyer bro! Are you selling it?

 

A10-5750M or A8-5550M ES?
Now i have the A10 in my laptop, will i notice any difference with the OC'd A8? I don't care the extra costs btw. Will ir perform better with certain cpu intensive games? Or are they a biton par?

 

Sorry, first come, first serve. Mullrof was the first one to reply.

 

Btw I noticed my mistake. I bough it for 80 $ that unfortunately is more expensive then 49 pounds ; p

 

I never said 49ukp, I said I bought it for 69 and am willing to sell it for 59.
Dunno where the 49 came from....

btw have you seen the prices on ebay rose to ~150ukp?

 

Hehe, seems like my "review" put the fire on the powder. A8 became more rare than diamonds
@Any_Key: those blue rads are totally placebo. I don't think this thin thermal exchange surface can reduce more than 1°C the CPU temperature. But, eh, I was keeping these from an old dead desktop GPU...
@Randomice: I've also repasted 7970M, maybe I can find some photos on my cellphone. This is a little more tricky than APU, coz there's a lot of thermal pads on ram chips, mosfets, controllers... I personnaly ordered these: Phobya Thermal Pad XT 7W/mk 120x20 x 1mm | eBay, two of these will cover APU+GPU, and there is an extra piece that can be used later.

 

The last price on ES was 159euro ? -_-

Wait for new parts)))))

 

They're ES, there wont be any more, that's why the prices are that ridiculous...........

 

But still, I'm happy for those who got them, noticable boost from A-10 4600m weakling.

I didn't manage to get my own unit, so now the only chance I got is Kaveri... desktop versions already are confirmed not to fit in FM2 socket, odds are same thing will happen with mobile versions... but no official info was released yet.

If no upgrade aside from A-10 5750m will appear, then I will sell my GX60 in about 1 year and get a GT with i7 + high end GPU.

 

I love my gt

 

Just a short update of 3DMark11 results of A8 with overclocked 7970M : Generic VGA video card benchmark result - AMD Eng Sample Mobile 2185_A1 ,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-16FK

 

Nice, but do not overclock the GPU, it's pointless when CPU is holding the GPU back, that additional power is wasted.

 

Hello all!

What do you think - could I use backlit keyboard for win-8, if at first I have bought GX60 with DOS and keyboard non-backlit for win-7???

Becouse I want to buy it, but I found only for win-8 it...

 

Hello again guys,

Previously I mentioned my hard disk failing and about sending it to technical service. I got it back two days ago. I wanted to check if they replaced it with one that has 7200 rpm as well. But I could only find the brand which is the same as the older. I don't know how to check the speed of the HDD.

Anyways, yesterday after leaving my laptop running for about half an hour I came back and continued using it. But it froze with the HDD light constantly lit. The old HDD used to do that before failing completely. My laptop stayed frozen for about 5 minutes until I restarted it. When I checked task manager no application was using the HDD too much. It's just freezing by itself.

I did a quick google search about WD discs and I found something saying that if we keep turning our HDD's on and off they eventually wear out. Apparently the power plans in our laptops turn the HDD off if we don't use it for a while, and then turns it on when the computer becomes active again. And that damages the HDD in time.

I did the necessary adjustments in my power plans but I wanted our experts here to clarify that information with some more details. Thanks in advance.

 

I could you a little advice, buy an 128gig ssd . It was the best thing i ever did for a pc...
Use the hd as a data disk for movies games etc

 

Why not? Tests were showing 100% GPU work with overclocked CPU.

 

Thank you randomice for your suggestion. I'm planning to do that sometime in the future. But that's not what I was asking.

 

Tests, but not games.

Benchmarks will use that additional GPU power, games witch lag already on stock 7970m due to A-10 CPU, will lag on OC'ed 7970m aswell.

 

Hello.
I plan to buy an MSI gx60 very soon. i have to chose between the clasic model MSI GX60 A10-4600 + ATI 7970M 2 and the new model MSI GX60 ATI8970M/A5750M / backlit keyboard. The price difference is somwhere at 250 dollars (2000 rmb). My question is if the new version worth the extra money.
Thx.

 

well. the backlit keyboard is worth ~100 dollars. also you got the nice back of the screen. you will never get richland a10 for 150$ so it would be a good news. at least is is some improvement. and the last. is the 8970 woth some dollars? well. you have free warranted OC and you can feel pro having best AMD mobile graphic at this time. I would say if you are decided for this model and you have free to spend the 250$ then its worth

 

Great, turns out Rome Total War, Barbarian Invasion, Alexander, all will not run on the dedicated card either. Same problem, set everything to "high performance" in Catalyst, and it runs these games on the integrated card nonetheless. So, this "gaming laptop" will not let you play many modern games, because the CPU bottlenecks, and it will not play older games, because Catalyst does not recognize and overwrites your settings... There must be a way to play games on the dedicated card?

Are there any registry settings I can mess with to run games on the dedicated card? I keep going back to my 5 year old laptop to play games, but I want to play games at a higher resolution. Any suggestions?

 

Do what I did, get a GT60 0ND.
At first I was sceptic that gpu-heavy games wouldnt run on the 675mx as good as on the 7970m, but turns out they do, even with adv. physics.

 

I'll keep the GX60 for non-gaming tasks and save money for a custom build desktop. I think I'm done with laptops for gaming and with AMD completely.

 

new drivers are out,

so far it froze my Splinter Cell Blacklist 3 times, never happened on 13.8 beta2

 

This is how MSi screwed things up, people are using "gaming sector" GX60 for non gaming tasks now... and I agree, because this is a multimedia notebook, not a gaming notebook.

 

I learned my lesson and MSi and AMD lost a customer. I knew beforehand that the APU was not great, but it seemed good enough on paper and in the reviews - certainly did not expect not to be able to play 90% of games that I wanted to play. At least I can play Far Cry 3 and Skyrim on high to very high settings, but these games have such pathetic storylines and dialogue that I cannot really get into them. Anyway, laptops are handy, but the next time I'll build my PC.

 

thx for the quick replay ..

 

Same thing here, I didn't even believe a respectful company like MSi would ever release such a unbalanced hardware combo on the market, so I thought A-10 must be enough to handle 7970m.

I was wrong...

MSi should rename GX60 and GX70 to Bottleneck60 and Bottleneck70.

And it's the MSi who screwed up, not AMD. AMD has awesome high-end GPU's and low-end CPU 's that are intended only for multimedia notebooks with no dedicated GPU's.

MSi simply twisted A-10's intended sector and stuck it into a combination that just cannot work efficiently...

If it only wasn't for that damn fm2 socket... I would have stuck Kaveri in there for sure.