***The Official MSI GT72 Dominator Pro (GTX-980M) Owner?s Lounge***

Was the case for me with ATI GPU, but for NVidia I was mostly installing them over, no troubles met.

 

Laptop's own cooling is the most decent I've seen so far (but this is probably subject to longer observation for fan wearing out, dust accumulation, etc).
Although, I had to turn on the fan boost feature recently, when playing BF4 in a warm room.

 

The cooling on mine has been great! The best of all the laptops I've owned. With that being said it doesn't hurt to have a cooling pad. I like using the Notepal U3, it has 3 of the movable fans on it that you where thinking. And a speed controller. I use it with the fan on their slowest setting. The height that the cooling pad just makes the angle of the keyboard great for me. (This result may vary from person to person as well as temperatures) But it does help. Just make sure that no matter what cooling pad you use or even if you don't use one, check under the laptop weekly, as for me it gets dusty under there.

Also if anyone wants to know I went with the MSI over Asus or any other's because it was the first available with the 980M (at least I would get it the soonest.) I also went with it for the mux button as I've really gotten to despise Enduro on my AMD laptop and while Nvidia's Optimus is a better of 2 evils I prefer the full control, even if it means a reboot on the laptop. With an SSD the reboot is nothing to me.

One last thing, my laptop looks like it may come back from it's RMA today instead of on January 2nd! It's in Lancaster, Ohio which is only about 20 mins from me (it's the closest large city.) So I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed that when I come home from work it's waiting for me or that the tracking data says it's out for delivery. UPS usually doesn't deliver until around 5pm in my area, which I'm off at 4 and home around 4:30ish. Here's hoping it comes back safe and sound and the spacebar has been fixed! *fingers crossed*

 

Update: After draining the battery, it started ...this time. I need to borrow a camera, register & make a recovery disc. Then?


I turned on my GT72 and I have just the left white light going and no screen, kb is dead atm. can't do anything but let the battery drain.

I didn't even register or make a recovery disc, that was the plan for today.

Does the GT72 have a dedicated physical kill switch? I already set the power button and closing the lid to "do nothing" as I always have.

Can't easily pull the battery on this one.

 

I have two options. Buy the GT72 without any ssds preinstalled and buy 2 ssds seperately, or buy the GT72 with one ssd installed and buy 1 ssd seperately (i get a headset with this model too). I plan to have 2x ssd in raid0 then 1tb for storage. I know there is a model that comes with this, but it's too expensive (when I can just buy ssds and install them myself for a lot less). Which one would you pick? How do I get windows on the ssds? If I get the model with 1 ssd, and get another 1 for raid0, do I have to reinstall windows for it to work?

 

Hello peole ..
has anybody running Quad RAID 0 on your machines ?? check below

 

Yes GalaxySII, I have been enjoying SuperRAID 3 since the notebook's release. The chart above indicates more theoretical speeds, and your mileage will vary, depending on the M.2 SSD's used. See THIS POST to get an idea of speeds delivered from the Toshiba M.2's.

 

weird... looks like super raid 3 is useless no diff. btw super raid 2 !
thought Quad RAID 0 will be 2000MB/s

 

Yes, the difference between SuperRAID 2 and SuperRAID 3 is appreciable. Again, your mileage will vary depending on the SSD hardware. Here is an example of SuperRAID 2 using the Plextor M5M's.



Breaking the 2000MB/s barrier will come soon, as we see advancements in mobile PCIe and next gen chipsets.

 

Hi all!
I just got a new GT72 2QD and so far it´s been a great experience. I knew about the great cooling of this one but it has surprised me.

However, there is this issue that I had had three times already. When turning it on and after the windows 8.1 loading screen, the screen of the gt72 switches off never to turn on again. Normally it should switch off and then after a second it switches on and the windows account screen appears, but sometimes it remains off. I have to force the laptop to shut down and then switch it on again (not really a fan of doing this)

Has this problem happened to anyone before? I have the latest nvidia driver (347.09 beta, installed from the GeForce Experience application) and installed the rest of the drivers included in the drivers partition.

 

i dont think so as all SSDs are nowadays same speed.. +- 30-50MB difference
I was thinking why is HUGE diff from one SSD and you add second and it is twice as one ..? so if one is near 450-500MB 4 should be near 1800 1900MB ..

So you have 3x Plextor M5M ? hmm expected faster ..
I have purchased 2x M5M 256GB Plextor mSATA and 2x M6M LiteON 256GB ..
So will see how sped will be in Quad RAID 0

 

Yay my gt72 is out for delivery today! I can't wait for it to return!

 

I have the same problem.

 

No, again, your mileage will vary depending upon the SSD hardware used. Performance cannot necessarily be measured by the specs a manufacturer assigns to their SSD product..... and let's not forget, we are talking about actual RAID performance here, as shown in the benchmarks. Also, the SSD's size/capacity can make a difference, and the larger capacities generally outperform smaller capacities.

We can see another good example of this looking at the GT72 itself. The GT72 has been released using both Kingston and Toshiba M.2 SSD's..... and though the GT72's are equally spec'ed, both SuperRAID 3, the Toshiba's outperform the Kingston SSD's by 20 to 30% in RAID. Also, take care not to confuse theoretical performance, with actual performance.

 

Well 20-30% is quite lot ..
so how would you rank SSDs Plextor ,LiteON ,Toshiba , Kingston , ?

 

It's hard to say, as the M.2 market is evolving, and depending on capacity, choices are still somewhat limited. Right now, unless you seeking to increase primary storage capacity, rather than upgrade, I would recommend folks stick with the stock Toshiba's equipped in the GT72. This opinion could change of course, as other M.2's become available...... especially as we soon see advancements in PCIe and mobile chipsets. By then, most likely I will be recommending an entirely different notebook too.

 

The included ones are pretty decent and are good on the power consumption front.

 

415US shipped... Oh my oh my. Someone hold me.

Goodbye 8800gts. Soon to be retired. You did well for the last seven years!

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

 

Will my GT72 is back, for some reason the RMA note states they replaced both the keyboard and LCD display. Maybe whoever was working on it accidently broke the display when taking the old keyboard out. Everything works great now though I had one issue, my cpu temps where pushing 70C+ degrees while the laptop was just sitting idle! I had already decided on restoring to factory once it came back and that's what I did. Now temps on the cpu while playing music in WMP and downloading steam games is 40-47C within a 22C ambient room. I don't know what that was about but it seems it was fixed when I restored so I'm not going to worry about it right now. So happy to have my GT72 back!

 

Next week im ordering mine

 

Anything on this? I updated the nVidia driver to the non beta 347.09 but there is still the same issue. Can it be a BIOS problem, has anyone have any idea how to solve it? I mean, the second time I turn it on (after a forced shut down) it works well, and it has to be the graphic card as it does not happen if I turn it on with integrated graphic card mode.Any idea would be useful!

 

You won't regret it. Despite the small setback of the spacebar sticking, this laptop is pretty dang powerful and I honestly don't see any upgrades in my future (except maybe maxing the ram and maybe maxing the SSD's out someday. I'm not all about getting the best scores and stuff but do want something to last, I think I found that in this laptop for sure, for starters the 2-year warranty is a good thing for making it last. haha. But the specs are really good and it stays pretty cool. Honestly it doesn't need a cooling pad, but the bottom of the laptop is just perfect for putting a cooling pad under it. I do it just to rise the laptop up a little more and to just aid the primary cooling.

 

In my MSI it happens on booth cards.

 

Do you use an external USB sound card for 7.1 for gaming on headphones or the built in AMP is fine?

 

I just use the built in Amp most of the time as I don't own a decent TRUE set of 5.1/7.1 headphones or sound system. I do have a Logitech G930 7.1 Wireless surround sound headset I use if I need something for chatting or to tone out the outside world more. (No active noise canceling but the ear cushioning is really good), I know it's not true 7.1 or anything and I usually keep it on the 2-channel setting, but it's not for lack of the Amp on the laptop. Heck the speakers on the laptop in my opinion are great and don't sound tiny. (I've had a Sager, Alienware, Lenovo (Lenovo and Sager are in my sig) In my opinion none of those sound as good as this laptop! It can be loud, but not distorting and still carries a decent range of sound compared to others.

 

Oh man, 25ms response time. That can't even keep up properly! Won't that cause a lot of ghosting?

 

Hello everyone, was about to pull the trigger on the GT72 Dominator pro (reading this thread made me 99% sure I wanted this laptop). Upon reading reviews and comparisons, I came across this:

Clevo P377SM-A with dual gtx980m-sli

I'm looking at spending around $3000 give or take a few hundred and both fit the bill. My last gaming laptop was a lenovo y500 which just crapped out on me but has served me well the last 3yrs or so. If I went with the gt72, it will be spec'd out mostly with storage and memory super raid-0 and all, but if I went with the P377sm-a I'll sacrifice memory/storage for the gtx980sli. Yes, I could always add storage later (probably much cheaper by the time I need to, also have windows 8.1pro still sitting in the box). I do travel a lot and will be using the laptop for 80% gaming 20% everything else (video edit and such). Saw the msi gt80 and thought it was just too big and bulky for travel so thats out of the picture.

Soooo... should I still go with the GT72 or Clevo P377SM-A? Any thoughts would be much appreciated!!

 

Maybe it is just me, I've noticed a vast improvement of a sound quality over my previous laptops... Maybe it's because of SoundBlaster software?

 

I never reinstalled the audio softwares when I downgraded (heh, upgraded?) to Win7, only the drivers.. The sound quality is still an amazing improvement over my previous machines :thumbsup:

 

I was actually thinking that the laptop soundcard is not Realtek. But it says 'Realtek HD' in the device manager

 

:O i dont know about you guys, but i came from an asus g75 with the horrible VIA audio plagued with issues. Safe to say my socks were blown off when i upgraded havent heard of many laptops with a better sound system than the gt72

 

I hear you there man! lol.

On a side note, I just upgraded to nvidia game ready driver 347.09 and my firestrike scores have dropped by a good 400 points. I also noticed on the Extreme test with the combined test the gpu was only sitting at like 542mhz! WTH! I was running the stock Nvidia driver (for me, I'll have to see which version that was) and it seemed to do better. Despite 3dmark saying the driver wasn't valid. Thoughts?

Edit: I just loaded up a game that I know pushed the gpu to it's fullest speed (no boost) and it was doing 540MHZ as well!

These readings where using MSI Afterburner's OSD and no OC's where done.

Edit 2: NVM I just realized that I had installed the driver update late just before going to bed and forgot to reboot. *facepalms* It's all good now with points being either -100 or +100 over my previous ones. The -100 was on just Firestrike, Extreme and Ultra actually went up about 50. I know these scores can vary and things, but when the gpu wasn't running at it's full speed something wasn't right. Turns out it was operator error. Just goes to show, AT LEAST restart your computer after updating drivers and if unsure, restart anyways.

 

Dear MSI brothers, do you notice any ghosting?
Anyone?

 

Hi guys,

I am planning to buy the MSI GT72 Pro with a 980M this month. I am also willing to wait 5-6 more months if a new iteration or new mobile GPU/CPU models are planned for launch.

Is there anything planned in the pipeline or is it going to be a long wait before the next models?

 

Hey I just got (Last Wednesday) the GT72 Dominator Pro - 444 Specs are (I7 4980HQ, 32GB Ram, GeForce GTX980M 8GB, 17" IPS, 512 in Super Raid 3, plus 1GB 7200RPM ), so far this a monster, everything that I throw to it handle with no problems at all, I use the computer for heavy 3D work plus compositing mostly (Maya + Vray + nuke) and is super quick, I would need to make some test with my computer at work which is powerful as well, but Im pretty sure this is as quick or quicker. I've also play some games at full rez all in high settings and not hiccup. I would highly recommended, there's one more version of the GT72 that the only difference wasis the 1GB HDD in Super Raid 3, everything else was exactly the same, price was 500 more bucks. Hopefully this helps some.

 

How is the screen? Do you notice a lot of ghosting?

 

I havent play that much yet but so far not at all... is an awesome screen.

 

Hey guys,

New GT72 2QE owner here. I've got some performance woes and maybe you guys can help me out here.

I play 2 games mainly -- Infestation and Arma 3. Infestation - If I look in the direction of a larger city I get a significant fps drop from 60+ to 30ish. This happens no matter if I'm running Ultra settings or Low settings. My fellow desktop users don't have this issue -- I really hoped to avoid any FPS drop issues with the GT72 as my previous Asus G75vw also suffered in the FPS area but with lower specs.

Arma 3 - I get about 40 fps average on " medium " settings " I feel this unit should be landing 60+ easily. In order to get the solid 60fps I have to turn everything down to minimum settings just as the Asus G75 did thus making me wonder why I even bothered upgrading !


Alright so I have high hopes that perhaps its a driver issue or something of the sort. here is my PC specs.

Windows 7 64bit - I heard a rumor that this might be the stem of my woes and that this units drivers don't perform well with Windows 7?
i7 4720HQ 2.6ghz
GTX 980M - Latest Nvidia 347 driver ( perhaps the old 333 driver from MSI would work better? I heard there were issues with the 244 driver but I assume those were solved in the 347 release )
8gb ram
no SSD


I just don't imagine I'm expecting too much from this laptop. Perhaps I am? Who knows.


Thanks guys !

 

One thing that comes to mind is those games may be heavy on hard drive loading. I'm assuming you didn't have an SSD in your old laptop? Arma should be able to play on "High" at least without issues and Infestation should be no issues either. This laptop is a beast. I just notice that you don't have an SSD in the new laptop and wonder if that has anything to do with it. Your 8GB of ram should do fine for a decent bit as really you don't need more than that unless you do photo or video editing or are a heavy multitasker. Another issue is your gpu may be bad. Hope not but it could be. I used MSI's Afterburner to find out that my gpu wasn't clocking up as it should, though I forgot to restart the laptop after the driver update. OOPS! The other potential issue is Windows 7 as it looks like you may have heard, yes that could be an issue as well. I would try to get Windows 8.1 on there. I HATED 8 in general for the longest time, but now, I want to put 8 on all my computers. I just gave it time, it's not that much different from 7 really.

 

You are right, Infestation and Arma shouldn't have any issues. There is no doubt that the performance has increased but not such a massive amount that I would jump in joy. I'm actually returning the laptop tomorrow from where I bought it -- due to a keyboard issue. They are giving me a brand new one as a replacement and it will be preloaded with windows 8.1 again and this time I will test it out. As for the SSD -- I had the feeling this could help but from what I read it only helps with loading into the game etc and wouldn't help with FPS or " sluggish " game play.

If the GPU is bad hopefully the replacement unit will solve that. The last thing I thought I would be doing is making a post about my new laptop having FPS issues lol.


In Arma 3 - If I lower the video settings the FPS woes disappear
In Infestation - If I lower the video settings I still have the FPS issue. I don't know if this could be caused by the CPU?

 

re:
Hey I just got (Last Wednesday) the GT72 Dominator Pro - 444
there's one more version of the GT72 that the only difference wasis[sic.] the 1GB HDD in Super Raid 3, everything else was exactly the same, price was 500 more bucks


The 444 is the model that costs $500 more.
If, as you say, you already have the top-of-line 444 (cheaper one is 445) - and it has the smaller SSD configuration - you should ask for a refund.

 

He probably just got the two mixed up, usually higher numbers mean higher end models but MSI does it in reverse within each mini "series".

 

Your have to let us know how that goes. I had ordered mine on Amazon and pretty much once that "Warranty Void" sticker was broke Amazon wasn't willing to do anything. MSI was though and did replace my keyboard. Also for some reason they replaced my LCD panel. The CPU could be an issue, but the speed of the cpu shouldn't be an issue either as the games in question require an i5 or quad-core 2.4GHz. The i7 in our laptops is pretty much right there. Plus it shouldn't limit fps. Chances are it MAY have been the GPU. Hopefully your exchange will be a good one.

 

According to the regular NVIDIA routine you should get a refresh of the GPU announced in (very) late spring that shoud be availlable in MSI Notebooks in september/october.

Hi I had no porblems with ghosting but that is with the regular panel.

Yet I have a question in return: I have/had some BSOD issues from time to time - probably in connection to some network driver ( http://www.eightforums.com/bsod-cra...-gt72pro-notebook-please-help.html#post460484)

Best regards

phila

 

I have the regular screen and not noticed any ghosting.

Sorry I would have replied sooner, but since you where asking about IPS panels I thought I wouldn't. On a later change of my mind I figured I would clarify that at least with a regular panel there has been no notice of ghosting.

I don't get the IPS vs. Regular panel. Every laptop I've owned never had an IPS and I couldn't complain about it. (Other than if it where a glossy screen *shudders*)

On another related note, before my laptop was sent in for keyboard repair I've had a couple of times woken up to find it off. (I download updates and Steam game updates overnight) I would turn it back on only to have it greet me with a BSOD notification, upon looking that up (curiosity, you know?) the BSOD was from the primary drive (SSD) not responding. This had only happened a couple of times and once turned back on was fine. I tried messing with power settings for HDD stuff in the Windows Power settings but it did it a second time. Haven't had it back long enough to see if it would happen again. I will report if this happens again. But so far I've not had any issues with the wifi or wired network causing a BSOD.

 

yep sorry I have the 445 not the 444 my bad, but as I said the only difference in just the disk space.

 

Thanks, but I already expected that, I researched and the CHI-MEI has an 8ms response time which should cause no ghosting at all like you describe.

I was actually wondering about the IPS panel now there's only IPS models being shipped to the Netherlands for some reason (Yes! even on the 4710hq models without raid0). There seems to be multiple brands of panels on the models being shipped to the Netherlands.

(after asking the store where they sell them this was their answer: We hebben het een-en-ander voor je nagekeken. Helaas gebruikt de fabrikant verschillende panelen. Welk paneel je krijgt, is onbekend.

Which translates to: We have looked at a couple of different things. But sadly the fabricator told us that he or she uses multiple different panels. Which panel you are going to get, is unknown.)

But here I've seen multiple people post that it was the "LG LP173WF4-SPF1", which has a response time of a whopping 25 ms! (source: LG Display LP173WF4-SPF1 Overview - Panelook.com ) That is almost two frames for a 60hz panel (1000ms÷60fps=every frame lasts 16.7ms) . The ghosting should be incredibly bad compared to the 8ms TN panel. I was wondering if this might be different for IPS panels for this computer because I can't imagine MSI putting a panel in with ghosting that bad in a gaming rig.

The panellook site notes that a (tr+td) response time. I don't know what this means, but that might mean that it's less bad than that it seems on paper?
Also, how is the soundcard in this notebook? Is it fast? I'm also looking to do music production on it so a nice built in soundcard would be a bonus.

Note: I was waiting for the 4710hq the IPS models at first, but after finding this ridiculous response time I actually want the no-longer available TN model again unless this isn't a problem.

Wouldn't you be able to replace it with a glossy screen if you preferred them?

 

I've get a GT72 with IPS Panel and Play for Example Metro Last Light and cannot see any ghosting.

 

Arma 3 is is poorly optimized when it comes to multithreading, some user report arma 3 only use 1 cores effectivitely. The reason why your friends doesn't have it is because their cpu is higher clocked most likely and is faster singlethreaded. You will be limited here compared to desktop counterpart unless you take the 4980HQ version.
Low CPU utilization & Low FPS - Page 374

I have the NL version with ips and i didn't notice any ghosting at all. Though it seem abit sluggish on 60hz like i was playing on 50fps with small latency on mouse but i was able to compensate that for overclocking the monitor to 90hz. I play quake arena mostly where it's crucial and very noticeable.

 

Thanks for the reply Smochi. I think it may be too late for me to go for the 4980HQ unfortunately as the retailers call this a " special order " and don't stock it in store -- their return policies are completely void. Besides isn't the 4980HQ only 2.8ghz? My 4720HQ is 2.6 ghz -- not sure the extra clock speed would make too much difference in this area? Maybe I'm wrong.