Dspr_02's MSI GX640-098US Review

The reason I ask about the weight is because I am unsure if the GX640 would be too heavy for me as a University laptop in addition to my gaming needs.

Would the weight of the GX640 (along with the battery) be bearable as a Gaming/University laptop?

Sorry for all these questions, it's my first time getting a laptop.

 

Its more than bearable.

Like catacylsm said;

So, one must be really wimpy/skinny or have never in one's life lifted something heavier than 4 pounds, a small dog or a carrying bag if one comes to think that a 7lb laptop is unbearable, or too heavy.

 

Well considering I'd say the GX640 is around the weight of a hard cover textbook it's nothing close to unbearable

 

Some can be that heavy, but most aren't.

 

the 17' club: m17x, sager, asus?

 

I was talking about the textbooks, actually.

 

Yeah they're like a pile of textbooks haha

 

Well I finally have my gx640 up and running! I don't know what program to use for cpu monitoring, but the GPU idles at 59-63C and never went above 75C while playing Dragon Age: Origins on max settings. The frame rate for the Dragon Age and these settings was all over the place, ranging from 30-60fps depending one what was going on, but never dropped below that and never lagged.

EDIT: Ambient temp is 21C and I was using GPU-Z for temps and Fraps for FPS.

 

I hadn't realised Dragon Age was so demanding. Then again, I've gotten framerates like that on Deus Ex, which is 10 years old now - but I was using a third-party DirectX 9 shader with bloom effects shoehorned in .

Sounds like your GX640 is very nice indeed, probably cooler than average. Personally, I use GPU-Z and RealTemp because I can get them to make log files (I even made a nice script to automatically generate graphs from them). However, HWiNFO32 is a very nice tool for getting both CPU and GPU temps.

 

Yeah, overall it isn't a very taxing game but some of the effects in the game really seem to tax the system a little more (fire, some of the magic effects, the blur effect in the fade). Quite frankly I never noticed any difference in the game from 30fps to 60fps, but it isn't an FPS where that sort of this makes an enormous difference.

Thanks for the info on the programs. What do you guys use to manually downclock the GPU? I could see that fan cycling becoming really annoying when in the library or something.

 

We've got so many GX640 threads now that we should probably attempt to keep the discussion for various things in the right ones. There's a thread for temps here, and my latest post in that thread has a link to a summary on underclocking the GX640.

There's also the Owners' Thread, which is probably the best place for general discussion.

 

Should make a sticky with every solutions/problems, and keep it up to date...

 

It'd be the best idea, then i'd contact a rep to sticky it for us (Or the original MSI guy if hes still around.)

 

Does Dspr still update this review?

 

He just uploaded pics of the 640's internals... other than that its been a cold shoulder for the games waiting to be benchmarked...

 

the game's a comin...sorry for delays, I have school, a social life, work and family to tend to...aka being nagged into doing things.....

more coming soon....probably tomorrow ~ 1 or 2 pm my time (PST).

 

*gasp*!! I dont believe you could still have a life, if you possess such a fun-machine I'd give up on at least one of those things you listed, just to play SC2 on lagless graphics. Speaking of which, anything to share with regard to SC2 ?

 

^ lol , I am not a big RTS fan so I do not really enjoy games like SC1, 2, WC3 and DotA....

yes I know, god smite my soul and all still working on it...

 

Pretty funny hahaha. Oh yea, whats the most hours of battery time you've achieved so far, Dspr?

 

Around 2 hrs 20 something minutes with WiFi on, max brightness doing job hunting/ couch surfing/ youtube.

Around 3 hrs something with WiFi off and brightness on lowest doing spreadsheets and database building....

This is after I followed this one simple tip that you can get for 399,999,999 easy payments of $1. Cheque or money order accepted.

What I did was charge it to 100%, unplug it and leave it run on Furmark till it died. I rinsed and repeated over and over, doing it around 15 - 20 times. (it surprisingly took very little time / )

I think that the initial battery times are terrible due to it being a new battery.

 

So as long as I break in the new battery, and run it to like 2% each time before charging it again, I will achieve maximum battery life in the long run? Sounds good. Especially if it lasts 2+ hours, thats great for grad school!

 

My understanding is that completely discharging the battery is a good thing to do initially so that the OS is able to accurately determine the capacity of the battery and display the correct time remaining. However, repeated discharging and recharging is not good for the life of battery. Ideally, you want the charge level to remain close to 50-70%. In fact I think some of the newer notebooks from ASUS allow you to customize the power range your battery reports for being empty and full so as to maximize the life of your battery.

 

Hmmm.. I always thought it was the other way around: Completely depleting the battery before charging it would ensure longevity??? Hmmmm..

 

I believe that this is an old belief from back in the days of alkaline batteries. As far as I am aware this is not the case for Lithium Ion batteries.

 

I remember hearing this apply to cell phone batteries, as well as the NiCD batteries I used in my r/c cars. Well, I shouldnt expect more than 3 hours out of the GX though, right? (Which would be perfectly fine).

 

meh...either way this thing gained me longer battery life. I was also told that leaving your laptop plugged in with the battery while its at 100% also kills its lifespan.

 

The complete drain/recharge cycle is the normal method of calibrating your battery. I'd be surprized if you got better performance by repeating the procedure numerous times.

 

Yeah, but shouldn't be done all the time or you'l kill the cells,

Mines slowly degrading now still get some good time out of it.

 

Bumping for more updates/reviews from Dspr!

Where's my SC2 videos! You promised !

 

I have had problems acquiring a CD key for SC2.

I also have had a lot of problems (my a*%*%* brother) with the laptop.

He installed a virus on it while trying to hack the neighbors Wireless Network and in doing so, 3/4 of the data I had ready to up to the review was wiped.

I am just finally getting my poop in a group and getting ready to finish the review.

I have also had to get ready for multiple "year end" exams.
I have also been dealing with a dead pc (mobo fried) and trying to get a projector for further "lulz".
Gona get more stuff up soon.

 

Seriously, I run SC2 fine at ultra (granted I've not played much and haven't had a ton of units on screen). It will definitely run SC2 at very, very acceptable levels.

Just buy the laptop and run it yourself (no beta-key ? wait till July 27th, sounds like you're only gonna use it for SC2 anyway) ! if you're not happy with it, just return it.

 

Remember, beta's are often more laggy then full releases .

 

Also remember, dookie will never actually buy a laptop.

 

Tis true, at least until he see's someone review it playing SC 2 on ultra settings while encoding 1080p video at 25C temps.

 

The 30mins I played SC2 all on ultra was smooth as silk. With lots of units on a 1v1 map.. until my gpu called it quits lol.

 

I've been playing LOTS of sc2 with no issues. All Ultra settings do not bog this thing down at all..

I'm usually maxing around 88C when playing longish games (30+ mins) when playing 4v4 where there is a lot going on. I could probably even downclock while playing SC2 just to decrease temps. It has plenty of power.

Now seriously stop asking about SC2.

To restate - the MSI GX640 can play SC2 on all Ultra settings EASILY.

 

its really more of an ongoing joke now. And really until he see's some video/benchmarks i doubt he'd really truly be satisfied lol.

 

I LOL'd...
I also havnt bought anything yet...
My budget's way low ATM...
So I might skip the Sager and go MSI... but I'll have to wait some more, I'm done thinking about temps and stuff...
Or I'm gonna buy a lower end laptop, like one with a 5650 or soemthing..

 

Oh I know. I've seen his posts around..

. . .

 

Heard that, LOL. Anyhoo, I now believe in you, as I just found out that my desktop can run sc2 on low settings fine, without any choppy issues (AMD Athlon 64 3200+, Radeon 9600 Pro 256mb, 1gb ram. So stop poking fun. Truth is, I've got enough saved up, but I'm waiting on the ENVY to release so I know how much it is, cuz I really like its size. If it turns out to be bad, I'm gettin a GX fo sho, and I'll be doing all the benchmarks+videos+reviews for all things SC2 and PS2 (and other consoles) emulation related.

Btw, anyone know what's the program that HDStarcraft or HuskyStarcraft use to capture/stream their videos? (the only indicator is a yellow number for FPS on the top-lefthand side of the screen).

Thanks

 

Prob either fraps or the new one Dxtory.com | Home

 

hi,
i bought the same notebook last week, i played BF Bad Company 2 in their but in medium without lags... did you update vbios, drivers anything more?

mine is like this:

Driver Packaging Version 8.69-091211a-096612C-MSI
Catalyst™ Version 10.7
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.994
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0001
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0723
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.9252
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2010.0706.2128.36662

thanks and sorry for the english....

 

I play it pretty much maxed with the stock drivers/firmware from MSI.

I think I have AA on half of what the maximum is (as of right now) but AF is 16x and HABO and VSYNC are both on....now if only the damn EA servers stopped "losing connection" to my client....

 

until now i only update the Catalyst Control Center to the lastest version
oh man... what will be the reason for my bad perfomance with stock drivers...?

but did you updated the bios? vbios? and drivers? if yes, wich version?

thanks again

 

This Gaming Laptop Is Monster Powerful!! Extreme Ultimate And Solid Performance Guys Check Out My Video At Youtube All Demanding Games To The Maxed Thats Me Pogi2st..enjoy!!!:d :d :d

 

WOAH excellent review +Rep