GT72/GT72S and GT80/GT80S Owners GPU Upgrade Discussion

I was told the same thing by MSI USA Trade-in Team

That MSI USA are running out of their current production laptop allocation (for trade-in's) and after the new year will fulfill with the next production run.

The new production run may or may not be new models - which may or may not have different pricing.

 

How could they be priced differently if they're the same GPUs? When Volta or Pascal 2.0 rolls around, sure, a possible price change makes sense. But when MSI explicitly stated in their e-mails that "[e]ach upgrade cost is the same as if you were to only upgrade the GPU," bumping the price because of a CPU/chipset swap simply doesn't fly, especially when they run out of Skylake stock for the trade-ins.

 

Ask MSI USA / UK if / when it happens, that way you can see the differences and have specifics to discuss. It may be more clear when you have all the information.

We are only passing along what we hear from MSI

 

Well it would seem that the GT72-6 Series is having luck. Nvidia GTX1060 also confirmed working however Driver inf mod is need to install the drivers.

Bloetschkopf over at Techinferno has installed it in both the GT72 Skylake and the GT70.

Here is his benchmarks

So that really make the question to MSI misleading description of why we need this so say Trade-Up (Down) program. So thats now the GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 Confirmed working and by looks of it a EC and VBIOS update would solve the issues current to the pascal upgrades on our GT series notebook.

By the looks of the benchmarks GTX970m to GTX1060 is 2x the performance in benchmark scores.

 

A full 1060 MXM is supposed to draw 100w, so that power use would match that of a laptop with a 980m MXM drawing 100w, while a 970m MXM is 81w so 100w might be too much load as an upgrade.

A full 1070 MXM at 150w and full 1080 MXM at 180w wouldn't be a good fit in a MXM position designed for 100w/81w.

MXM cards vary in power use depending on the vendor and application - even though they are all supposed to be at the same power usage, so there could be variances down/up.

It would take a good mix of tests, with comparisons against original build full power 1060 / 1070 / 1080 new laptops, before we would know whether the MXM only upgrades are working.

The brettsidford 1070 thread didn't provide any temps, power draw, or benchmark results with comparisons after install info, so we don't know if it's running at full performance:

"...Not done much benchmarking if you want me to do something specific let me know and I'll give it a go."

He hasn't posted more results since, maybe after holiday he will return with some test run results with temperatures and power usage info.

Maybe someone with a new MSI 1070 laptop can go there and post some typical results, Heaven with normal settings, Fire Strike base and Ultra, and some other GPU based benchmark that full loads the GPU so we can see temperature and power monitoring results too.

And, then ask brettsidford to run the same tests at the same settings, and provide the test results with accompanying temperature and power draw monitoring results.

Another user, ferz93, over on the MSI forums in that thread has posted he also has put in a 1070, hopefully he will post some test results too:

« Reply #14 on: Yesterday at 09:18:00 »
Hello guys!
I also have 1070 installed on my GT72 6QD, it works fine but doesn’t support GSync, and with 1070 I can’t overclock my monitor, now it's only 70Hz, with 970m it was 103Hz, original frequency is 75hz.
« Last Edit: Yesterday at 16:59:17 by ferz93 »

We really need someone to do the proper tests to see if these upgrades give full performance, and the original cooling under full performance can deliver adequate cooling.

MSI told us that our old laptops would need upgraded Power and Cooling, that would still be true if these upgrades show they don't have enough power for full performance or enough cooling at full performance.

I'll send these new developments over to MSI USA Trade-in Team and cite the MSI Reps here as well and see what they say

@MSI Myco @MSI Natalie @MSIGeno @snallygaster

Merry Xmas everyone MSI, IDK if this is a present or a lump of coal, but please read this response and those posts leading up to it (and after) over the last few pages.

Check out the links you find to the reports of owners of GT laptops upgrading on their own using an MSI 1070 / 1060 MXM card and getting them to work. - What's up with that?? Thanks! - Scott

Update: Sent this post to MSI Trade-in Team asking what they think of this.

 

@hmscott Also the Vbios on the GTX1060 GTX1070 was pre-Gsync enablement which MSI did via use of a Bios update and Vbios update at least on the GT72VR-6RE and GT72VR-6RD so more then likely if the guy that placed a GTX1070 in his GT72-6QD updated the VBIOS Gsync should work again.

So it would seem its more a Lump of coal for MSI right now.

 

If the Pascal MXM upgrades in the old chassis show comparable performance results with newly designed and purpose built upgraded chassis, showing full power and cooling capability, it would prove those upgrades could have been offered without additional hardware upgrades.

We don't know about the cost of those MXM upgrades, since they weren't offered by MSI, and we can only guess the associated cost of installing / upgrading.

MSI mentioned along the way after announcing GPU upgrades that we wouldn't be able to do them ourselves, and that we would be required to send in our laptops to perform the GPU upgrades. So we need to count both parts and labor costs into the total cost.

MSI also didn't say if the upgrade cost would including returning our old MXM GPU's or if they would be kept as part of the upgrade process.

It's sad that MSI didn't prepare better for this whole GPU upgrade, explain the upgrade process reasoning better - more fully - and didn't do a better job of providing all this early - instead of telling us to buy new laptops.

If nothing else, MSI has kept at it, refining the process along the way, but it's not a method that leads to 100% happy satisfied customers.

I'd still like MXM upgrades over the whole laptop swap myself, one of the reasons I've waited.

I do believe and did hope that MSI would provide kits to do an upgrade, upgraded internal hardware, external power, cooling components, and make it a DIY offering.

But, you work with what you have at the time, or you end up arguing the whole time instead of making positive progress toward a workable result.

The Trade-in upgrade path is still good for many - I can understand wanting upgraded laptop hardware to go with the new generation MXM GPU's, and as time goes by that becomes more and more the case - Kaby Lake, Cannon Lake, Coffee Lake, motherboard chipset and CPU upgrades with associated new features and hopefully improved performance, etc.

If MSI can be persuaded to offer both upgrade paths, that would be awesome

MSI has to make a profit on both upgrade paths - they are in business to stay in business so I don't believe in asking MSI to do either path without profit or for free.

I don't think anyone believed the MXM GPU upgrades were going to be cheap, especially for us GT80 owners needing 2 GPU's upgraded.

It's pretty commonly believed that an MXM upgrade instead of a trade-in would be cheaper, but after thinking about it, a MXM GPU upgrade with ancillary support components is going to add to the "just MXM GPU" costs - new power supplies / duplexer, new cooling components, and the labor to swap all these parts. Maybe more of a problem with the GT80 upgrades vs the GT72 upgrades.

Not to mention the support nightmare of getting all those DIY upgraded laptops in for service - after the inexperienced owner muffs a step or two during the upgrade - maybe even nixing a GPU. Very expensive support wise, which would increase costs MSI would need to charge to cover expense and make a profit.

Like I said, I wish MSI had thought this through better from the start, and had a more up front full discussion about the benefits and costs of both upgrade paths, and why MSI went the way they did go with the full laptop trade-in's.

These constructive hacks to apply Pascal GPU's in our vintage hardware are awesome, even promising, but I need more concrete results data before I think they are fully functional without additional hardware upgrades, and are a viable upgrade path as MXM only upgrades.

Happy Holidays to Everyone

 

@hmscott feel the same way.

The GTX800-GTX900 MXM Upgrade Kit was sold under the premise it needed to go to MSI Service Centre to be upgraded, however if the End user was sure that he/she was able to DIY then it was a simple case of agreeing to If you broke something during the upgrade it wasn't covered on warranty.

Which many would be happy with so the cost in time and money wouldn't be that great to be honest as bare in-mind it was only available in select countries where law permitted it.

Also the cost would be slightly cheaper as the P&P would be less for DIY'ers.

 

Not quite. MSI said that users could make the upgrade by themselves and produced a kit they would ship:



This kit is still available to purchase for from here and here.

SKU's for retail MXM upgrade kits for 970M and 980M: 957-178111E-001 and 957-178111E-002.

Merry Christmas one and all.

 

@MiSJAH Thats all the new upgrade kit should be as the GT72VR has the same fans. So it should just be the following.

MXM Card (GTX1060 or GTX1070 due to the MXM slot giving out a max of 125w capped with EC Firmware)
Heatsink (GT72VR-6RE's at least for the GT72 range)
Driver CD
Bios Update
EC Firmware Update

At least for the systems with G-Sync as we already have the EDP that the GPU requires screen wise, however its likely to end up in the modders hand as the Lumps of coal are getting a bit heavy in the Santa Bag for MSI right now.

Even the fans used in the GT72VR are the same as the GT72 same part number.

If MSI gave both paths as an option then the Pro DIY'ers could go the MXM route and the rest could of gone via the Service Centres or Trade up(Down).

Which i did mention to MSI in my e-mails. Even the new GT73 GT83 with skylake are now obsolete due to kaby lake refreshes in 2017.

However MSI went the route they took very much doubt an Offical MXM Card Upgrade path will be made available even with the current news of success.

 

Here is the Heatsink Mod from the GT72 6QE Heatsink to use GTX1060 (old MXM Design) and GTX1070 (new MXM Design)

 

FYI - the new MSI 16L13 15.6" LGA Skylake / Kabylake GTX 1080 model shipping as Eurocom F5 isn't backwards compatible MXM-wise with the previous Eurocom F5 1060 / 1070 / Maxwell models - so no GTX 1080 GPU upgrade will be available.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...cussions-lounge.797128/page-182#post-10419546

"...SO - I am telling you all this, so if you purchased in hopes of upgrading to the 1080 coming out - you will need the new motherboard too, with PSU, heatsinks etc.."

Lots more good detailed info for current and prospective Eurocom F5 (MSI 16L13) owners from @woodzstack in that post and others.

"TL/DR
120HZ in 1 week+.
1080/7700K refresh in 1 week+ (new motherboard, not backwards compatible with previous MXM)
Kaby lake support ready now, m.2 not fully pci-e x4 on new bios. 2 weeks will be perfected. Not yet perfect, and not backwards compatible.
Bad flash - not covered by warranty.
F5 price probably going up."

 

wow, good job. Look at that work, just need to polish it now to keep the microair gaps to a minimum. (affects cooling alot...)

 

Oh wow, thank you for the mention, yeah, would be a shame if everyone anticipated upgrading to 1080 and bought the current version only to be slapped in the face with a "you need new motherboard and 330W PSU and heatsinks, and different bios and case etc.. to upgrade 2 weeks later.
then you attempt to return it, and well, non-faulty returns are 25% restock, so not a very fun time for anyone. Buy what your looking for, and know ahead of time. However - I recommend the current build with a 1070NN and the 7700K (thanks to new bios) and the 120hz display with g-sync !
Trust me, it's like 1,000$ less then it should be in value. Buy now before things increase in price.
If your not sure what you should buy, I'm willing to discuss it on discord or convo me, or ask in these threads, more then 1 person has experience with these.

 

Hold on a sec... Isn't MSI 16L13 15.6"?

Upd.: Yeah, I wish there was a 17.3" version based on GT72VR... that would be great. But seems like no luck so far.

 

15.6" we probably all just overlooked that being written, good catch !

haha he editted it afterwards too

I would do the same :=

 

Hopeful thinking showing through, I want it to be a 17.3" offering too, 15.6" is too small for me.

It's just a typo, ya edit it to fix it for future readers, no sense keeping incorrect information in a post - make it right so others aren't confused.

 

it was wishful thinking

 

It has now been 17 days with no further e-mail contact from MSI. -- Just an update.

So, what news has there been? From what I'm reading, they're out of stock on the single 1070 models? Pricing may be affected by what the restock with if potentially using that opportunity to throw in the new CPU's?

FFS.. I was really hoping for the opportunity to get this sorted by the end of the year, and now I'm hoping to at least hear back at some point..

 

Been over a month for me.

 

I would continue to follow up to their email and see if they have any updates. If anybody who purchased a computer from us is still waiting for an update, reach out to me, and I'll see if I can find out any info on your computer.

 

So I've been working with a MSI representative to do this trade in program but I'm having issues with their fax number where it's been non-stop busy/non-responsive. Has anyone gotten their fax number included with the CC authorization form to work or was given another number to use? The representative I'm working with wants me to email it as a pdf but there's no way in heck I'm going to send it over in a non-encrypted email.

 

if you are sending them a Credit card number why worry about the encryption? I have had a few cards compromised and it is the reason i ONLY use credit cards. It does not matter to me if the info gets stolen. Because its not my money. I pick up the phone and kindly let them know that someone has stolen their money . Please send me a new card.

 

Its mostly the shop owner that loses out, monies come straight from their bank account.
Still I woudnt send any unencrypted card detailsvia email,I guess you coulduse pgp or do it the old fashioned way, over the phone. Its what people used to do, before the internet.

 

Yeah I've already had to go through this a few times due to data breeches and when you're finances are all tied to paying off all your bills with it instead of just paying with a check, it really becomes a huge hassle when you're updating every single account and even more infuriating when when you've found out you've missed one. At any rate, I was just wondering if anyone had gone through the same type of thing, I guess not so snail mail it is.

 

well in my letter they want a direct bank transfer, wire the monies straight to MSI in amsterdam, I guess its safe an easy.
Iwoudnt normaly wire money, but its MSI,not asif they are some darknet scammer.

 

I am a little choked I have had no reply back from MSI since responding to their email Dec 12. I am waiting to hear back on trade up for my MSI GT72 2QE 1666

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

 

[So I've been working with a MSI representative to do this trade in program but I'm having issues with their fax number where it's been non-stop busy/non-responsive. Has anyone gotten their fax number included with the CC authorization form to work or was given another number to use? The representative I'm working with wants me to email it as a pdf but there's no way in heck I'm going to send it over in a non-encrypted email.[/QUOTE]

My wife had to print it, fill it out, scan it and, send and e-mail with it attached.
It worked because it has been added to my credit card.
Although it's on my credit card I have not received any reply from MSI after that. The only reason I know it's on my credit card is I called to see if there was a charge on it.

 

BREAKTHROUGH for Australian customers. After 3 months of waiting, I finally get this email:

Happy Holiday. Thanks for your inquiry.
The Trade-in program in offering now in AU and the deadline of the inquiry will be on 31st Jan.

We will have a discount amount based on the value of your on-hand machine then you will be able to use that discount on the new GTX 10 series GT model you choose.

The value of your laptop will be determined by the SRP at the price you purchase and the age of your notebook. You will be able to use this to trade up to selected MSI Notebooks featuring Nvidia GTX 1070 / GTX 1080.


According to the data you provided to us, your discount amount will be AUD 3,709 based on two evaluations as follows:

1. The original buy price of your on-hand machine MSI GT72S 6QF is AUD 5,299

2. Your invoice date is 2016/4/1; we can accept the machine as long as it’s within two years warranty.


You will be able to use the discount for new GTX 10xx series GT series models. Here is the model list you can choose, but please be noted that the stocks are moving every day,

some models might be out of stocks time by time.

GPU

SPEC

Name

P/N

SRP

SLI GTX 1080, 8GB GDDR5X

IPS/ i7-6920HQ/ 64GB/ SR-512+1TB

GT83VR 6RF Titan SLI -050AU

9S7-181512-072

£ 3,799.00

SLI GTX 1070, 8GB GDDR5

4K/ i7-6820HK/ 32GB/ SR-512+1TB

GT73VR 6RE(Titan SLI 4K)-078AU

9S7-181512-013

£ 3,099.00

GTX 1080, 8GB GDDR5X

IPS/ i7-6820HK/ 32GB/ SR-512+1TB

GT73VR 6RF(Titan Pro)-025AU

9S7-17A111-064

£ 3,099.00

GTX 1070, 8GB GDDR5

IPS/ i7-6820HK/16GB/SR-256+1TB

GT73VR 6RE(Titan)-023AU

9S7-178511-040

£ 2,099.00

GTX 1070, 8GB GDDR5

IPS/ i7 /16GB/SR-256+1TB

GT72VR 6RE(Dominator Pro)-259AU

9S7-178511-249

£ 1,999.00

GTX 1070, 8GB GDDR5

IPS/ i7/ 8GB/ 256+1TB

GT62VR 6RE(Dominator Pro)-003AU

9S7-178511-233

£ 1,999.00


Please read our Terms and Conditions here:

1) This offer is valid ONLY for AU models. Please make sure the model number of your laptop ends with ”AU” Example ” GT83VR 6RF Titan SLI -050AU”

2) The MSI notebook warranty is NOT transferrable. Only the original owner of the laptop will be able to participate in the trade-in program. The laptop will have to be within its two years warranty.

3) Acceptable forms of payment are the bank transfer.

4) We accept no responsibility for loss of data and advise you back up any important files before participating.

5) Once your trade-in is received by us, please allow up to 14 working days for inspection to ensure all OEM parts are present from receiving the unit and that the unit is in satisfactory condition (no physical damage to parts or laptop). PS: Due to the upcoming Xmas holidays in AU, the timeframe you receive the new model would be after 1st Jan. 2017.

6) Please remember to include all of the laptop OEM parts, including but not limited to SSD, RAM, HDD, cables, power supply, etc. Any missing parts will be subject to a full retail price charge. Any OEM defects will not be subject to a charge due to warranty coverage.

7) Once the inspection has been completed, we will inform you of the final upgrade price so that you may decide to participate in or withdraw from the trade-in program.

8) MSI are responsible for collecting the trade-in unit & shipping to our support centre. Please make sure the unit adequately packaged for transit. MSI will not accept responsibility for units that arrive damaged due to insufficient packaging. MSI will be responsible for paying for the shipping the new unit to you.

9) Once you accept the offer of the upgrade program, you will have 2 weeks to arrange the collection. After this period, the offer will no longer be valid.

10) No alternative or cash will be offered. All MSI offers are final.

11) No further trade in program will be offered at a later date.


We will send you the official agreement to sign then start the following steps once you choose the new model and agreed statements above.




Have a great day. Happy New Year.

MSI AU Services team


Is this in keeping with everyone else?

 

How can I press the MSI USA to get an answer/reply?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

 

A breakthrough indeed! That's good news for Australia. And that means that other MSI offices around the world should be able to arrange something like this as well. The only thing that is still ridiculuos is the time frame. I mean 1 month and the rest will be left behind?
I also don't really understand this line: "The laptop will have to be within its two years warranty". It works for laptops with 900 series, I guess, as they were released a bit later... but what about those with 800 series?

 

Why are the Pascal replacement prices listed in £'s sterling?

 

Very good question. That was my exact question on the reply email.

 

Well i finally got an email today and They provided this info . Which is pretty much the same info as they have been providing except the offer they give is for a laptop i do not have . I have GT72S with a 970M and they are offering as i have a 980.

 

I was starting to get worried it was just me. I submitted my original request Oct 27th, received their email on Nov 1st. I replied back on Nov 7th. Crickets after that.

 

Sounds like a typo (can't see photo right now), so I'd report it back to them to correct your entry in their list, resubmitting your questions or counter offer - where did your last email leave it?

Edit: saw image, it looks like they just mixed up the reply to you. It's not the full first reply, but it's just a regular offer - using the wrong laptop instead of yours.

I would recommend the same response, correct their error, remind them of the model you have and restate your last email.

 

I received a Fed Ex stating my wife's trade-in would arrive Wed. Jan. 4. She is very excited. She traded a dominator 970 for a dominator vr 1060 version 32.

 

The respsonse was "Thank you for the update. This is weird. Our record shows you have Item 9S7-178311-059, I guess the tech team must have made an error."

Anyways not sure if there is a point in trying to haggle with them. I do not know of anyone that has been successful with it. I was not expecting a response any time soon so i had bought a 1070 for my desktop (my luck of course). Anyways this model GT73VR TITAN-017 for $1000.00 is the offer i am considering . For what i can tell it is pretty much the same thing as my current GT72s besides it being a 1070 and 120ghz instead of 970m and 60ghz. But i have yet to find a real clarification on the HD slots. I have a 512gb 950 pro NVMe that i want to make sure i can put in it as a secondary drive. Which would mean it would be the 128 nvme that comes with it, the 1tb sata and my current 950 .

 

The 73VR has more than one m.2 port (3 I think ?) so it should be ok for your 950 in addition to the HDD and the stock 128gb. The first 2 SSD will be Nvme and if ever you buy a 3rd one I think it's just sata.
However it's not a 120ghz screen that you will get but a 120Hz ^^

 

Should've kept quiet and taken the incorrect deals.

The GT73VR has 2x MVMe slots, 1x mSATA slot, and 1x 2,5" SATA3 bay.

So yes, your 950 Pro can go in the secondary NVMe slot.

 

That might have worked until he sent in his laptop for inspection, then MSI would have caught it was the incorrect model

 

The GT73VR is one of MSI's best laptop this release, with 2x M.2 NvME, 1x M.2 SATA, and 1 2.5" SATA bay.

Lots of good reviews, and in comparison with the GT73VR against the AW17 1080, the GT73VR 1080 won 12:2:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...cussions-lounge.794968/page-189#post-10421968

That post is in the GT73VR thread, lots of good info in there

 

Thought about it and then i figured they would catch on and then just want more money .

 

@hmscott did you ever get a reply from MSI with your question about aftermarket mxm upgrades working bare in mind that GT60\70 with haswell CPUs are not have issues going to a GtX1060 and some to even a GTX1070.

Sent from my SHIELD Tablet K1 using Tapatalk

 

GT60/70 were also modded to work with maxwell, but unofficial upgrades are just that. Don't expect MSI to make it "official". If they work, that's good news for users of said machines as they have yet a final new upgrade path.

I don't think there are enough users yet that can help all the possible issues get ironed out, but we will get there with time.

I would assume it is safe to say there won't be any official upgrade kits. Only this trade in. If you want to perform aftermarket unofficial upgrades, nothing is stopping you except maybe warranty haha.

 

Yes I know that but there are users with the GT72-2QD and GT72-6QD's also able to upgrade unofficially to GTX1060/1070 which begs the question on what MSI was on when they said it wasn't possible because of this that and the other.

Sent from my SHIELD Tablet K1 using Tapatalk

 

[..]which begs the question.....why did MSI lie?

Profit.

 

The MSI Trade-in Team answer they gave me:

Spoiler

"Hi Scott,

MSI has tested the GPU on the older system before. They were unstable. It’s amazing some of those guys that got it to fit and running. I don’t know how they did it, but it sounds amazing. Did they do a full test? But how did they fit the card in their laptop? Is it properly cooling the VGA?

Why would MSI sell NEW laptop for almost a 1/3 of the prices instead of make profit from sell upgrade kits? It would be easier for MSI to just sell the upgrade kit and get it over without the hassle. There’s a reason why we offer this trade-in offer for almost a 1/3 of its price to the customer.

“Due to unforeseen hardware limitation with the new Nvidia GeForce 10-series graphic card, we were not able to provide this option. If the unit was to change into 10-series graphic card, we had seen issues like can’t wake up after sleep, display flicking or no display sometimes. In that we cannot guaranty the stability and reliability of the user experience.

MSI want to give our user the best experience without any limitation or bugs for long term usage, we would like to make our brand premium and products always to run smooth and have great user experience.

Therefor MSI came out the alternative solution which is a trade in for a brand new laptop with the new Nvidia 10-series graphic card along with new upgrade features of the current models. ”"

Basically they said the same thing(s), you need the additional power and cooling from the new Pascal MXM laptop designs, and you won't get full performance fitting Pascal MXM cards into the old models.

I haven't seen full performance results from a GT72 1070 upgrade, and I haven't seen a 1070 MXM GPU with SLI support for sale either, so that won't help me upgrade a GT80 even if there were enough power available through the BIOS/EC to cobble together my own 1070 SLI powered by 2 x 230w PSU + duplexer.

Maybe for the GT72 980m guys there is a glimmer of hope using a 1060 since it pretty much fits the power and cooling of a 980m, and maybe the GT72 980 might power a 1070 to full performance.

I think for all the other models, upgrading owners are stuck with the trade-in.

For those of us that want a single 1080, or a 1070 / 1080 SLI there isn't going to be an MXM only upgrade that will give us full performance.

 

Not sure about MSI machines, but over in the P870DM thread there's a fellow there who's gotten a 1070 working at full performance with a 980M heatsink. The only "mod" required was a VBIOS change because of some weird graphical glitch involving G-Sync or something. He's even overclocked it a bit with good success. I'm fairly certain that cooling in the GT72/S is every bit as good as the single 980M heatsink in the P870, so I'm fairly confident there wouldn't be any issues.

EDIT: Cooling-wise. There's still the issue of MSI only getting certification on each model for the bare minimum power requirements (and in the 980 SLI case not even that).

 

Because MSI GT72 owners are not the only ones affected by the upgrade program. An already reduced user base of owners, further reduced to specific owners. I suspect only GTX1060 would be the "plug and play" option, while GTX1070 might require more testing but doable. And that's it. GT80 owners would still be screwed. All owners would still be screwed powerlimit wise, as MSI would not remove without testing it. So lets assume they do offer upgrade kits for GTX1060/1070 for GT72 owners only. Then they would still need to offer the trade in for GT80 owners, as they can only do either 1070 or 1080 and the GT80 is power limited, so SLI 1070 do require more than 330w. What if a GT72 user wants instead a trade in for a 1080? we know that one won't work on a GT72, only a GT73. So, MSI will have to also offer the trade in for GT72 while also offer an upgrade kit.

Since MSI is also a business, they will do what they think is more feasible for them. Since all would be required a Trade in option, and only a small subset would have a feasible upgrade kit, the cheaper/faster option is to offer trade in for all and that's what they did. Upgrade kits for such a small userbase would cost way more than upgrade kits for a large userbase. Plus they would probably end up offering them at an even later time than the upgrade. They were probably evaluating all of this and simply decided it was more cost effective to offer the program.