*** The Official MSI GS65 Stealth Owners and Discussions Lounge ***

Have a concern with my GS65... I've taken it on about 30 plane flights and pretty much everywhere. I've started to notice that sometimes when I open the laptop to wake it from sleep I see marks from the keyboard where the keys touched the screen. There's considerable flex when pushing down on top of the laptop with light force when it is closed. Will this scratch my screen overtime? I'm really hoping this will last me 5 years or so and it will be doing a ton of traveling

 

It should have come with a microfiber cloth to lay over the keyboard. I’ve always bought one for every laptop I’ve owned for extra protection for the screen. It’s nice that MSI ships one with their units.

 

I've had this happen on many laptops. Never scratched my screen, but I keep my keys clean.

 

I'm very interested in hearing more, I also travel frequently, not as much as you, but want to ensure it holds up well.

I don't feel like my GS65 is fragile, but I treat it better simply because of the cost, not the build quality, vs my XPS 13's.

 

Honestly I’m on the fence between this and the new blade 15. Trying to decide if it’s worth the $300 extra. So far it’s not really. I’ve been taking it literally everywhere as I travel and I’ve had no issues. I even travel with a cooling pad so thermals are a non issue. The screen doesn’t seem to have any scratches.. maybe it’s just connected dust from the keys? I’ll try to post a pic but I’ll start traveling with the microfiber cloth it came with

 

Something to note. I was playing around with sound and opened up the nahimic app... after turning effects on and surround mode the speakers sound 100% better to me.. and they sounded great before that too. they also seem to be louder

 

I didn't realize until today that my Nahamic drivers were not working (device not found) - checked the support link - https://us.msi.com/Laptop/support/GS65-Stealth-Thin-Intel-8th-Gen#down-driver - and there's a new driver dated May 2018 - installed and all is good. FYI.

 

I really don't know if I should pull the trigger on this or on the Razer. What bother me A LOT on MSI GS65 is that it is not acceptable to have that "not-so-good" building quality on a 2000 euros machine. The creaking and bending are really disturbing if you think you spent all that money on it. And the flipped motherboard, oh guys . And the not so bright screen...it is a little bit "meh".
On the other hand, the fact that I am going to spent 200 euro more for the Razer (that by the way has Max-Q also for the 1060, so less power) and I will risk to face bad heat dissipation and maybe bad Customer Support bring me again on the starting point and I need to a laptop in the next days/weeks

 

If "creaking" and flex is going to bother you "A LOT" then you should probably not consider the GS65. Just get a Razer Blade 15 and make sure you buy it from a good store with a flexible return policy, and seriously consider an extended warranty. The Microsoft Store is awesome if you have that as an option, but not sure if they have them in stock, yet, at least here in the U.S.

I owned a GS43VR before this, so I know what MSI laptops are like. I am not sure why people get all stressed over it, but it's your money so make the move that will make you happy.

 

Good afternoon all,

I swung by Best Buy to see this model in person....

1. Based on the posts regarding heat, is this suitable as a literal laptop, or must it be used on a table/tray? It was warm to the touch simply idling and we gotta think of the children ( ' ;

2. If people are using USB cooler trays, are the any recommendations?

3. How exactly does the maxq kick in? Is it controlled by nvidia control panel? Best Buy didn't have much on the demo to actually play with to test out the 1070 (so only saw the Intel graphics 630) and dragon center appeared to be locked behind an admin password.

4. How is the keyboard? I ask because the gs63 (with the 1060) was right next to it and had a totally different keyboard... that I happened to like (although th he gs63 touchpad buttons were firmer). Would stepping back from the 1070 be horrendous?

Thank you all for your advice.

 

An old NC-820 cooling pad (A clone of an ancient Zalman pad), even without the worthless cooling solves all the "heat on your lap" problems without causing grip or slippage issues (and you can always buy rubber sticky feet from Amazon for more grip). And it gives better ventilation just by having flat elevation even on a table, compared to nothing at all. I still use it to this day as an elevation pad. If you can get it on firesale for less than $20, it may be worth it.

 

Is there software I can install that will check ALL the drivers, bios, etc for new versions?

 

There is a new BIOS released today:

https://us.msi.com/Laptop/support/GS65-Stealth-Thin-Intel-8th-Gen#down-bios

I am holding off until I hear a few others confirm it's safe. Is there a utility that can update the bios in Windows?

 

About the building quality, look at this, minute 1.00


Seriously ? It reminds me those old low quality Acer some years ago...
Not only it is "creaky" but also the feeling is to have a bending plastic stuff under your hands.

 

Update software is in the download. So is the changelog. This one is for the fingerprint reader, although mine still doesn't do anything after the update. Seems safe to flash so far though.

 

Had some more time messing with Throttlestop and fan settings:

Firestrike: 13116. Max temp reached was 75C
Cinebench: 1247. Max temp reached was 76C

Max temp reached with Aida64 was 82C.

CPU fan profile: 30, 50, 70, 80, 90, 100
GPU fan profile: 0, 50, 60, 85, 90, 100

Coming from a cooling monster, GT73VR 7RE, and the solid MacBook Pro, I am pleasantly pleased with the GS65. It does everything I want it to do and I now travel with half the gear. The keyboard is much nicer to type on than the MacBook. The build quality is solid enough for not being a unibody design. I'm thinking maybe MSI needs better QA if some people are receiving units with creaking. A lot of the online reviews had me a bit nervous, but after spending some time with this laptop, I am happy with my purchase. The touchpad isn't all that great but I followed Dave Lees suggestion of replacing the Synaptics drivers with Precision drivers found on Levono's website and now it seems to work a lot smoother. Worth a look if anyone is having unsatisfactory results with their touchpad.

 

Hi guys sorry to bother you all, just picked up one of these and have installed WOW. When I play the laptop keeps alt tabbing out intermittently. Have I done something wrong?

 

MSI BIOS Release Notes:
Latest bios: E16Q2IMS.10B
ROM CheckSum: 0x54CA
Release Date: 2018/05/29
Notes: improved system stability

Previous versions:
E16Q2IMS.10A
ROM CheckSum: 0xA363
Release Date: 2018/05/22
Notes: update EC FW to 16Q2EMS1.105

E16Q2IMS.107
ROM CheckSum: 0x529E
Release Date: 2018/04/13
Notes: Add Backslash - ALT Right Key Swap Function

E16Q2IMS.105 (First Release)
ROM CheckSum: 0x8704
Release Date: 2018/04/11
Notes: first release

 

Maybe this is absolutely normal, but I recently tried to download a few games from Steam using the wired Killer E2500 port on my GS65 When I do this, my CPU usage hovers between 55-60% just dedicated to Steam Client Bootstrap. When I pull the Ethernet and it swaps over the the Intel Wifi 9560 - it drops to 15%-17% on that process. Yes, the downloads speeds drop as it's now over wifi.

Is this normal? I've never noticed that Ethernet cause such a CPU hog - causing heat and fans to kick into high gear.

Thanks for any insight!

 

I found that you can actually just browse to the BIOS update file from your C:\ drive within the BIOS. So it's not within Windows but the process couldn't be more simple - download the BIOS, extract it, place it at root of C:\ (or Temp or whatever), reboot, hit "Delete" go into BIOS and select the file and go. Make sure you're plugged in so you have battery and AC power as backup in case of power issues while flashing...

EDIT: just updated to 10B with no issues.

Check the function keys and other "gamer" macros that are enabled by default...someone posted about this pages ago.

Bought this extra power supply for $29.99 (made a "Best Offer") shipped:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Delta-AC-DC-Power-Adapter-Gigabyte-Brix-180-Watt-ADP-180MB-H/152927319233

Works fantastic and it's the OEM brand, just a little different model. MSI uses standard power supplies so there are a lot of options, this one worked well. The only caveat is it is designed for the Gigabyte Brix SFF systems so the cord is a tinge shorter.

 

This is an interesting news, thank you. It seems to be, in Europe you can find the "ADP-180MB F" adapter for "ASUS G750JW", with the same power, the same Ampère output, same voltage ( 19.5V 9.23A ) and the same 5,25mm x 2,5mm connector. I don't know what is changing between "H" and "F" final letter, but the unit seems technically the same.

There is also another version, that ends in "F", but looks more like a brick, like certain Chicony bigger PSUs

 

You sure it's not some sort of notification trying to pop up? I've seen this in other makes/models and it was usually something trying to push a notification.

 

I'm looking to replace the thermal pads in my GS65. I'll be ordering some Fujipoly pads, but it's fairly expensive to get them to Canada, so I want to make sure I get the right ones.

Does anyone know which pad sizes are required?

 

MSI GS65 Stealth Thin - Lightest GTX 1070 Max-Q Laptop
MobileTechReview
Published on May 30, 2018
Lisa Gade reviews the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin, a very light and thin gaming laptop minus the gamer looks. It has a classy metal chassis and weighs just 4.1 lb. / 1.87 kg.

The GS65 starts at $1,799 with an NVIDIA GTX 1060 and the GTX 1070 Max-Q model (used in this review) starts around $2,000.

All configs have an Intel 8th gen Core i7-8750H 6 core, 45 watt CPU, a 144Hz matte non-touch IPS display, per key GRB backlit keyboard and an M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (except the Best Buy model which has a SATA3 SSD).

The gaming and pro apps laptop houses up to 32GB DDR4 RAM, has two SSD slots, an ample battery and Killer WiFI and Ethernet.

It competes with the Gigabyte Aero 15X and Asus RG Zephyrus GM501.

 

Not that I know of, though the MSI back up app pops up once or twice a session and then causes and error and closes for some reason.

 

Got my GS65 today (1070 BB model)... I'm having some trouble getting the CPU to stay under 91-92 degrees under gaming benchmarks, even with undervolting to -.150. GPU temp hasn't gone above 75 though so that's good. Trying to find the right combination of undervolt and fan profile. :/

 

I am interested too. As I found on reddit, there are two different sizes of pads - 0.5 and 1mm (to get 1mm you can simply stack few 0.5 ones). Also wonna someone confirm this information here + I am intrested will it be enough to get one package containing 60x50x0.5 pad to complete full pad reapplying?

 

What is the framerate? Consider using a frame limiter to reduce the CPU / GPU load - usually limiting to display refresh is enough, but with these 144hz / 120hz displays... it might not be reduction enough. Running at 100hz / 100FPS works well.

Are you still at stock multipliers? If XTU / TS will allow tuning the CPU / Cache multiplier you can reduce the cache multiplier to reduce temps but not affect performance - stop reducing when it does.

Weighting the CPU cores for high multiplier on Cores 0 / 1 and reducing multiplier as you go through the cores can help, and not affect FPS / performance noticeably while reigning in temps.

Think of the tuning more broadly to have more knobs to twiddle to get the performance and temperatures you want without pulling it apart to re-paste - which doesn't always end well or reduce temps enough more to make it worth while.

Keep software tuning, and please let us know what the details of the tunings you found to work for your needs.

 

That seems too high, but then again maybe it doesn't offload processing to the interface and does it in the laptop CPU.

Is there a systray app to let you see the configuration and features? See if there is filtering or prioritization setup that can take CPU to process.

Perhaps get into the ethernet hardware device configuration to see what the options are and how they are set up. See if there are any "offload" options and try enabling them to see if that reduces CPU load.

Are you running an encrypted disk?

With ethernet running / downloading faster than Wifi (does it?) it might produce more load for all these features.

You could open a ticket on your laptop with the maker and ask them, don't be shy, they are there to help - try asking single questions with enough description to get your point across but brief enough so they don't get distracted.

Also google is your friend, give a bit of time to search terms that express the issue(s) and see what you find. Try limiting to results in the last year - should improve result value - and 1 month, 1 week sometimes varying the range and terms can pop up new threads with pertinent info.

 

Allright, so I've been using this machine for almost a week now. Havn't put alot of time into it but I'll give you my first two cents.
First of all, it's a really nice machine. I'm using the GTX1060, 16 gb ram and 256 gb hd. And yes, there are some flex while pressing down and it doesn't feel that "solid" when lifting it with one hand (coming from a macbook pro). But while typing or gaming it's really a non issue, I can't feel the flex at all, not even on the palm rest! THe keyboard is acctually nice even tho I'd like little more "click". Same goes for the trackpad, it's good just a little stiff but you can use the tactile. The only issue I find with the tackpad is that it somethimes "right click" instead of scrolling while using two fingers (either i'm not use to windows trackpad or I should turn off tactile). I like the screen, sometimes I wish it was a little brigher, but usually I'm really pleased with it (haven't dug into the settings of the screen yet..)

I've been looking at alot of reviews, Gigabyte Aero, Razer Blade 15 and this. Seems like Razer Blade got the same issue with temps as MSI does which have been my biggest concern.

I've undervolted the CPU (see picture below). I don't own any good benchmark programs but I tried the Intel XTU benchmark.


For some reason I can't tell if the undervolting acctually is working or not. The difference in temperature was negligible. Might be that the fans didn't pick up speed until a max temp was reached. Anyway
I tried playing Smite for three hours today and these are my results (with undervolting active).


This is one game of Smite:



So the CPU temperature is hovering around 70°c which is really nice. I know that Smite isn't an intense game but still. The GPU hardly crosses the 70°c mark, like never.
These are my fan settings and it's working fine. I've been playing for three hours with speakers and the sound of the vents was imho negligible. These are the settings;




As for stresstest; Hardly crossing the 80°c line. With no throttling at all.


Conclusion is that it's proabably possible to undervolt it more, haven't noticed any instability yet.
Since I'm a newbie, I'm not really sure that I've done undervolting right, but I guess it's okay.
Should add that it's currently hotter weather than normal here =)

 

Might think about disabling it, bnet in particular seems very sensitive to other notifications. Also if you have anything that syncs with a mobile device, disable that too.

 

Delete - wrong forum ...

 

You're probably not going to see a difference in temperature as much as you'll see a difference in throttling. I still hit the 90s after undervolting but I no longer throttle. If you want to reduce temps, try repasting or turning 6x Corr clocks down to 3.5ghz. you need throttlestop for that though.

 

do any of you think you could strengthen the area around the palm rest from flexing with like fujipoly thermal pads or something?

 

In my opinion that's a good idea, even about the heatpipe zone.

Here it is a nice video review that shows how much the lid tends to flex (not so much IMHO), and the noise of the fans at full speed:

 

So this is about the best I can get it seems. Undervolted -134mv and turbo boost multipler bumped down to 36. I was hitting 92*C, and and now 88*C. This is with the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark. I think I'm still gonna repaste with some MX4 or NT-H1 just because I'm OCD and want to get a little extra out of it.

 

Repasting helps a lot on these thin laptops. I have Grizzly Conductonaut on the CPU and GPU with -.125 undervolt and only see the low 80’s when stress testing. Gaming puts me around the low to mid 70’s. I’ve never used MX4 or NT-H1.

 

This is my setting:



I did this in order to keep the wattage usage under 45.9W when running at 3.6GHz.

As long it is under 45.9W no throttling will occur.

At stock voltage it would run at 3.3GHz for 45W.

So with this I regain 300MHz for the turbo boost effect.

And yes it is -950.2mV on the core and -125mV on the cache.

There was no freezing or anything.

Using Thermal Grizzly Krynaut, temp is around 85C @3.6GHz.

 

if you're brave enough to unlock your bios menus, you can run it at up to 90W without throttling.
I posted a how-to guide somewhere, I forgot where. Was in one of the MSI threads though. Maybe this one or the GT75 thread.

 

What scores are you getting with firestrike?

 

Reposting this here.

DO NOT BLAME ME IF YOU BRICK YOUR LAPTOP BY DOING THIS.
this is at your own risk!! EXPERIENCED USERS ONLY.

The purpose of this is to 1) bypass 45W TDP limit on your CPU permanently to avoid any power limit throttling, 2) disable MSI "overvolting" by setting core IA AC DC Loadline to "1".
THIS HAS BEEN TESTED BY SEVERAL PEOPLE SUCCESSFULLY ON GT75 TITAN. (same basic instructions work on the older "VR" series, but a different version of FPTW64 may be rquired). No one has tested this on GS65, but MSI uses the same bios structure in their laptops and same basic type of EC code so it should work.

DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

==================

First, please uninstall Dragon Center.
Dragon Center adds hidden throttling options to your Bios that the normal end users has NO access to. if you want fan control, use "MSI Silent Option".
You can do EVERYTHING Dragon Center does, by using :

1) MSI Afterburner.
2) Throttlestop 8.60.
3) MSI Silent Option.
4) MSI SCM for hotkeys.

THERE IS ZERO REASON TO USE DRAGON CENTER. ZERO. ZERO. ZILCH. IT JUST THROTTLES YOUR LAPTOP.


Ok boys. at your own risk:

1) UNLOCK YOUR BIOS.
2) Set CPU power and performance->CPU VR Settings->Core I/A Domain ->IA AC / DC loadline, = 1
**THIS SETTING DISABLES MSI AUTOMATIC OVERVOLTING WHEN THE CPU IS AT HEAVY LOAD**. When setting this to "1", you must **NOT** undervolt your processor anymore!

3) Set VR Current Limit to 800 (this will prevent "EDP Other" or CPU Current throttling.
4) make sure TDC is DISABLED and value is set to 0. MSI Dragon center messes with this option behind your back.

5) brownie points: if you want to never, ever, ever, EVER EVER EVER reach "power Limit" throttling of 45W, set IMON SLOPE to 50, IMON OFFSET to 31999 and IMON OFFSET PREFIX TO NEGATIVE. Yes, negative. Then you can draw 100W of power and the CPU will only report about 35W. VERIFIED AND TESTED.

To unlock your bios follow the instructions here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-cmos-and-prevent-common-issues.812372/page-8

Get the INTEL CSME SYSTEM TOOLS V12.
https://www.win-raid.com/t596f39-Intel-Management-Engine-Drivers-Firmware-amp-System-Tools.html

For older GT73VR and GT75VR, v11 works, but if you get an ERROR on your GT75 Titan, that 'unsupported platform" with v11, use v12. IT WILL WORK.

Run FPTW64 as administrator: FPTW64.exe -d MSIcancerbiosbackup.com -bios
Download UEFITool and Universal IFR extractor from Paloesco's post I inked above.
Download RU from the website as the one paloesco had previously linked in his tools had BUGS which would cause your entire laptop to shut off on "UEFI Variables".

http://ruexe.blogspot.com/

Make a backup copy of your bios dump you made. Save it somewhere.

Download AMIBCP 5.0.2 from https://forums.tweaktown.com/gigaby...-info-benchmarking-stability-tools-print.html

somewhere over there. 5.0.2 works on the older VR series also so it is safe. Note: USING 5.0.1 will CORRUPT THE APTIO BIOS CAPSULE ON THE GT75 and GS65 series !!!

Now, first things first.
Run UEFITOOL on your bios backup that you made. Open image file click the backup you made.
Click FILE->SEARCH->Text Enter "Bios Lock" in the text search.

At the bottom you should see "bios lock found at pe32 something". double click that.
A menu tree will appear at the top with a PE32 field already highlighted. RIGHT CLICK THAT AND choose extract as is. Name it whatever, like "extractedfield.bin" or something.

Close UEFItool and open universal ifr extractor. open the file you just extracted. . the words UEFI should be in GREEN. If so, good. click extract. And save it as the suggested txt file name. Should be no errors.

Now open that new text file in windows notepad.
Edit->Find, search for BIOS LOCK
You should see it, then some HEXADECIMAL variable.
WRITE THIS VARIABLE DOWN ON PAPER. Example: 0x8AA. Ignore the part in brackets.

Now, follow paloesco's instructions on making a boot disk with RU
Once you make a flash drive boot disk with RU, you need to disable secure boot, boot to your disk and boot into RU.

In RU, you then need to follow the instructions shown by Paloesco and go to UEFI variables. And look for "setup."
there should be two. A small one and a large one. The small one is wrong. You want the large one.
Once you go to the large one you need to page down (i forgot if its control page down or not) through all the HEXADECIMAL OFFSETS on the left, until you get to the PROPER HEXADECIMAL OFFSET FOR BIOS LOCK.. Example: if yours was 0x8AA, then you would look for 08AA (leading zeros are basically placeholers.

Press enter on that hex offset and change the "01" there to a "00". Should be pictures and more info in paloesco's thread.
Click write value (forgot the key, might be control W). It will say its written successfully.

use the next menu to exit RU and restart your laptop.

Now:
Boot to windows, Open AMIBCP 5.0.2, open that bios backup you originally made with FPTW64. Click on Advanced and change everything that you want unhidden to "SUPERVISOR".
You also need to change each and every submenu and option that you want unhidden as well. Most boring thing you will ever do in your life.

DO NOT USE AMIBCP 5.0.1 on anything newer than the GT73VR (GT75VR "may" be safe for this also), YOU WILL CORRUPT THE BIOS CAPSULE !

Once that's done, save your settings, flash your bios capsule back with FPTW64.exe -f msicancerbiosbackup.bin -bios
Shut off the laptop, wait 10 seconds, power it on, go in your bios and have fun.

BETTER HAVE A SPI PROGRAMMER (SKYPRO RECOMMENDED) available to flash your bios chip if something goes wrong. The Bios chip is SPI Bus isolated, meaning it is SAFE to read and flash with a programmer, as long as AC power and battery connector are all DISCONNECTED.
Note that the thunderbolt 3 chip is NOT SPI ISOLATED. Doing a read on this without desoldering the chip can DAMAGE The chip.

On the MSI GT73VR, the bios chip is under MXM video card (crappy area, but at least there's no confusion.
On the GT75VR and GT75 Titan, the bios chip has been moved by the fan location for the GPU. There is ANOTHER CHIP next to the bios chip. And I do NOT know which chip is which! if someone here knows, please post--it will be helpful to some people.

This unlock method HAS BEEN ALREADY TESTED as working by another user here on his GT75 Titan.

Doing this on the GS65 stealth is UNTESTED. It SHOULD work, but it has only been confirmed on the Titan. Finding the actual correct bios chip will be harder than following instructions to unlock your bios menus.

 

I installed MSI Silent option. It says Incompatible Device when I try to launch it. How can I fix this? Disregard. I installed an old version by mistake.

 

Are you using the skylake version?
There were two versions. One for previous series and a "beta" for skylake (which also worked on kaby lake).

One user already said that the skylake worked on the GT75.
I do not know however if it works on the GS Stealth series. I apologize if it doesn't.

 

Yea I was using an older version. I downloaded the skylake version and it works perfectly.

 

Thank you Falkentyne, a great guide you posted!

CPU multiplier 38/38/37/37/36/36, GPU stock clock
Temp:CPU 73C max/ GPU 68C max
Link: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/26878084?

CPU multiplier 38/38/37/37/36/36, GPU core+200 Vram+300
Temp:CPU 73C max/ GPU 69C max
Link: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/26878160?

 

Hello everyone.
I'm currently in the GS43 Owners Club section of the forums and I'm about to make the jump to a GS65 w/1070. I'm pretty excited to get my hands "dirty" again with this notebook in the next month.

I have a couple questions for everyone:
1 - If there are previous GS43 7RE owners here, how was your jump to the GS65?
2 - I'm looking for a vendor to purchase this laptop from. After looking around, XoticPC, GentechPC and HIDevolution are the frontrunners. With the exact same parts, they cost the same. However, the kicker is Xotic does not charge sales tax when shipping to California. Although that saves me ~$200, it's now a matter of who has better customer service and support. If anyone has experience with them, please PM me directly with your thoughts.

I look forward to joining the group in a month! =)

 

I think you don't need MSI Silent Option, as its functions are already integrated into MSI Control Panel (custom fan speeds and profiles). edit: WRONG

Thank you @Falkentyne , can I add your guide into the 1st post of the topic? (With credits, of course)

 

Go ahead if you wish. Just keep in mind this unlock was only field tested with the GT75 Titan, so YMMV.

MSI "Dragon Center" installs HIDDEN CPU THROTTLING on the 6 core laptops (mainly, messing with the VR Current Limit and TDC limits, which normal users have no access to).
Even on the 4 core laptops, it still messes with the VR Current Limit setting (one user had to do a full CMOS clear before this option started even working even after removing Dragon Center).

MSI Silent Option just controls the fans. No bloatwares.

tl;dr: Dragon Center is garbage. Don't use it.

 

If you unlock the BIOS and then go up to 90W, do you need a bigger PSU (as the stock PSU for the GS65 is 180W) ?

 

I'm not getting into that.