How is the MSI GT72?

http://www.ncix.com/detail/msi-gt72-dominator-pro-i7-2b-109506-1483.htm

Worth getting this?

I am looking for a gaming laptop around the same price point and that has a 980m.

Is the GPU upradable in the future?

Or is it soldered on ?

 

What's important to you? Screen size? If you want a 15" there are better options. How badly do you want GSync? Just for example, if all you want is the power of the graphics card, you can buy a Sager NP8652 for like 1600 dollars.

 

I am actually very hesitant to order laptops online. I prefer purchasing at a shop. I realize Sager is a cheaper buy but I don't think I want to buy from them especially since I live in Canada and I don't want to pay all that hefty shipping and import/custom taxes in USD.

I prefer 17, I want to use as desktop replacement. I had a 17 before and there is no way I can go 15 now.

Gsynch don't really matter to me.

 

Well if you want 17" that's not a bad buy, but mostly because it has Gsync. That's an amazing feature that I have to have on my next desktop build. Otherwise, that's not a bad price, again you can find some Clevo's with the exact same specs that will be cheaper, but idk if that will be easy in Canada. That comes with 2 SSDs and a 5700HQ processor so that's a pretty fair price.

 

What about the GPU, I noticed it is only 4gb where everyone else with this laptop have 8gb?

Does the laptop allow manual switching or optimus?

And I am assuming that that the gpu is not soldered on making it upgradable in the future ?

 

The GT72 has the gpu in a MXM-B module, so it is upgradeable. The 980m 4GB realistically won't be a problem, because any game that uses that much vram the 980m won't be able to get high frame rates on. At 1080p that should never be an issue. I think it must have optimus, as the 5700HQ should come with some integrated graphics.

 

GTA V eats more than 4gb on 1080p.

 

Not if your trying to hit 60fps. My 980m doesn't come anywhere near it on playable settings. I know I can crank all the advanced crap way up but then its like 30fps dropping into the teens in spots. That's why I said it shouldn't be an issue. I play it on very high settings, but I don't mess with the advanced video options as they put a big strain on the card.

 

So you max it out overall including AA?

But leave the advanced options default?

 

AA I'm pretty sure I turn down a bit, again MSAA is quite taxing. Everything else is maxed out for me except for grass quality which is on very high instead of ultra. You can tweak it however you like, but you won't straight up max it out so that the vram becomes an issue, especially if you plan on getting the next gen gpu, I'm sure you can get more vram on that one, and again this year you should not be running into vram limitations. The desktop class 980 seems to manage just fine.

 

Damn, well that sucks. That is the one game I wanted to max out aside from Star Citizen.

 

Star citizen runs okish on my 980m. I have 8GBs of VRAM on it so I can't tell how much its using, but on max its usually around 30-40fps. Also, don't complain about not fully maxing GTA V. It looks absolutely gorgeous on my laptop, it blows the PS4 out of the water. Just because you can't fully max a game doesn't mean it doesn't look amazing.

Edit: Star Citizen used to run quite a bit better, but since its not out the performance changes as each update rolls out.

 

It's an alpha product and should not really be used to judge performance at this point.

 

To answer the previous question, GT72 doesn't use Optimus, instead using a switch requiring a reboot.

Plus side is you don't have any Optimus issues. Downside is it requires a reboot to activate the Intel igpu.

After a few current titles having issues with Optimus and full screen, I think I'd rather have the switch.