MSI GS40 Phantom-001

You can also use the latest driver from the component manufacturer's website, such as Killer.
http://www.killernetworking.com/support/driver-downloads

MSI driver update is recent, but not very up-to-date on each release.

 

The speakers are the worse provided in more than 4 years of tech products. My iphone has more db levels than the ones provided in the GS40. The Nahamic and RealTek do provide great sound when using headphones but the internal speakers should be recalled in my opinion. I have seen multiple complaints on forums like this but no apology or reimbursement from MSI. The speakers are like a child's toy.

 

Thanks for all the replies!

Yeah I had read that the speakers were subpar but I didn't think they were actually this bad lol. I usually use headphones anyways but still want to try and bump up the quality/db level of the speakers with new drivers, etc. Have you tried anything other than updated drivers?

 

I tried all the drivers MSI provided without luck. I recently did a BIOS and FW update. I guess I will try again. There was a moment where I could not get the headphones to work. Has anyone had consistent stability and high sound quality with Nahamic? My old GS60 had great speakers.

 

I prefer to leave the EQ flat, but when playing around with Nahimic, it boosted things well enough and hasn't ever caused problems here or personally.

 

So having a little issue. Every time I start up the laptop, I get a BSOD with this error message:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

And Windows restarts. After restarting, everything works fine. Any idea what the issue might be?

 

^^ Please disregard above post. I updated Windows and it has seemed to resolve the issue.

Was also able to resolve the Wi-Fi cutting in and out (for now). Just installed the newest driver from the Killer website and everything seems to be working great now!

Now If I could do something about the crappy speakers!

 

I just posted for sale a MSI GS40 in the for sale thread if anyone is looking for a like new GS40. Ive enjoyed the limited amount of time Ive spend with the GS40, but Im not utilizing it the way I thought I might.

 

Well never mind this...looks like you need at least 100 posts to sell something.

 

Hello, just got an HTC Vive and have been using it with my GS40 (the one with 970m).

Before going into that, just wanted to say that I've been overall extremely satisfied with the GS40. More than half a year later it still probably is one of the best specced laptops at this size/weight and is extremely fast for gaming and general work. I have had no stupid stability or other problems .. everything has been rock solid.

My original review here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/msi-gs40-phantom-001.782310/page-30#post-10152586

I admit though that it may be true that the speaker may be the ****tiest notebook speaker ever (LOL) .. but I use earphones, so not a problem.

Now .. for using it with a Vive.

I intend to get a top spec (gtx 1080, i7 6700k) gaming pc to pair with my vive, however in the meantime (while a good gtx 1080 is so hard to get) I have been playing using my GS40.

Results are that games such as Audioshield, Space Pirate Trainer work fine. However stuttering may occur sometimes in these games.

I am able to play Elite: Dangerous with no or very little stuttering, but I use VR Low which makes everything in space super pixelly... but together with a HOTAS it is still amazing experience.

As for other more graphically demanding games there as a LOT of stuttering. Reducing the renderTargetMultiplier to 0.5 can make many of them smooth but the graphics are then super pixelly (again).

In addition to having to choose between stuttering or pixelation there are a few other problems.

Because the HDMI is connected directly to the Intel Integrated Graphics, there is no way to enable "Direct Mode" in SteamVR which is supposedly better/more performant. And due to the same reason, apps like Virtual Desktop and Big Screen will not work.

So the bottom line is GS40 can play Vive games at a bare minimum level. You will definitely want a really high end gaming PC for VR.

 

Anyone having issues with the built in mic? Sounds laggy and full of glitches in the sound....

I uninstalled nahimic, can that be the issue?

 

So after having this laptop for 2 months, my touchpad has started clicking randomly by itself.
I have been using it with a mouse most of the time, never infected with a virus, no damage to the laptop whatsoever

Has anyone else experienced this?

One of my suspicions is that the battery might have swelled but i do not want to void the warranty by breaking the seal on one of the screws. Is there any way to check it without opening it?

Edit: okay so I left my laptop off overnight and now the trackpad seems to be functioning properly. (Random ghost incident? lol). But i dont know if it is just me, but the left side of the touchpad feels slightly higher than the right side. But the difference is not visible at all. Can you guys try feeling your touchpads if the left side is really higher than the right?. And the battery also seems to be charging and functioning normally, and only shows 3% wear on HWM.

another update: After using the laptop for a while, the touchpad started acting up again. I removed some screws just to be able to peek at the battery and it looks okay. It must be a defective touchpad.
Is anyone else experiencing this?

 

Word is starting to trickle out about a refresh of the GS40 called the "GS43 Phantom Pro." Thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/msi-gs43.793376/

 

Thanks for this! Interesting to see what happens with either the new GS40 or the "GS43 Phantom Pro". I guess we will just have to wait.......

 

I've had my GS40 for just over a month and half now and I'm running into potential hardware issues. My AC Adapter is plugged in and even Windows battery notification icon shows it's plugged in, but the Dragon Gaming Center does not think it is, so the Shift mode is turned off, and my CPU/GPU speeds are limited to a crawling pace while gaming now. I ran some benchmarks like Fur Test and I went from upper 40s to 18fps, and I can't tweak anything anymore because the MSI software thinks my power isnt plugged in!

Reflashed bios/firmwares and uninstalled/reinstalled softwares and no help. Sigh.

 

Thats very weird! Look for the battery reset button under the notebook (its a little pin sizer hole on the right side IIRC. Turn off the notebook and the power and hold it in for 2 seconds.

On a different note, is anyone having weird artefacting when changing movies, flash videos or html videos from windowed to full screen mode? I get weird colors and lines but it only lasts a second or two. Sometimes some of the artefacts do get stuck and require moving the window around a bit to get rid of them.
It's been like this since new. I've tried reinstalling/different software, drivers, bios, etc... I think its Optimus related. Doesn't happen when plugged in.

 

Hello everyone !

I've got a little question.

I have bought a MSI GS40 last month but I am disappointed with the trackpad, which seems cheap. Indeed, when I tap on the trackpad, it's been a rather unpleasant noise. I wonder if you have the same problem, or if this is an isolated problem because I hesitate to return it to the after sales service

 

Thanks for sharing this. I didn't even know this existed! Unfortunately, it didn't help in my situation. I think I'm going to have to RMA this back to MSI.

I havent used the trackpad too much but I changed the default trackpad settings to pretty much mimic what I had grown accustom to using a Macbook Air for so long. I just use light taps to do left/right clicks now instead of full presses.

 

Anyone recommend me a good version of the Intel HD graphics driver? Should I try the normal one or the beta available @ MSI support? Or look for the latest one?

 

You can use beta driver but if you encounter any issues then you can revert to the latest production driver.

 

I'm considering buying this as a relatively future-proof thin&light gaming laptop (AFAIK it unofficially supports TB3 and eGPUs.)

My biggest concern is battery life. How's battery life under light use? I've heard 4-5 hours of browsing, which would put it about on par with the Razer Blade.

Also, does the latest (GS40 6QE-001) DEFINITELY support TB3? TB3 is really the reason I want this laptop over the competition.

 

Hello,

how did you achieve that? I have grown accustomed to MBA's trackpad, and now that I am back to windows laptop, it's a bit of a pain.
thanks!

Anyhow, I am considering buying this laptop to replace my surface book (too many bugs, and didn't need the touchscreen actually, as taking notes is still worst than on an ipad). I am looking for a powerful but relatively light and small laptop with decent battery life.
It seems the GS40 fits the description perfectly. At some point I was considering waiting for the Alienware 13" OLED but I don't know when it will be available and 14" might also be better for my usage (some games, lots of Excel/matlab, powerpoint and Word, and some light browsing).
Would you recommend this laptop? Are you all happy with it?

thanks for your help!

PS: oh, and 1 final question: I have read that the Razr Blade charger would work with the GS40. IS that true? Has anyone tried it? I will orobably need a 2nd charger to leave at work and the one from Razr looks much slimmer than the one from MSI. Any other suggestions?

 

Yes, there's a BIOS update to enable the TB3.

 

God damnit. Did a factory reset and format and the micro-stuttering and freezes are definately back...
Very noticeable in-game. FPS drop to 3 or 4 during periods no longer than a second.
Tried uninstalling the ELAN Tech driver but it didn't change anything this time.
Have BIOS and EC updated, drivers too, also windows updated.

It's going to MSI this time...

 

Kind of sucks, but that's the way it goes sometimes. At least, if they can reproduce it, you should have a working computer. Even if they can't, they should be able to help; when we couldn't reproduce the same issue on some systems in the past, we replaced some suspect components and voila.

 

So my laptop is officially dead and I can't wait for the new gs40 with the dock anymore.

I am going to grab one with a razer core.
I have read that it works fine from one user here, can anyone confirm it is also working out for you and if the set up is still very buggy?

I am probably not going to move the laptop around too much so most of the time it should stay docked and plugged to external monitor.

I am also debating this and xps15. I think their overall difference isn't so big?

 

You also have the ASUS UX501VW. It's a TB3 laptop that has been confirmed to be compatible with the Core.

 

https://twitter.com/XoticPC/status/763080877714706432

Lil' sneak peek of what's incoming, looks like a 15 incher tho, but that's what we can expect from a 14 inch iteration

 

For those interested, the GS40's successor laptop, the GS43VR Phantom Pro, is now on Amazon for $1766.31, though it's listed as "currently unavailable". Check out specs from the Amazon page in the thread for the GS43VR here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/msi-gs43.793376/#post-10311579

Note that MSI still hasn't officially announced the GS43VR, and the Amazon page is clearly missing a few things (like not mentioning HDMI or DisplayPorts), so these specs aren't complete and might not be 100% accurate, either. That being said, it looks like the GS43VR is the same as the GS40, except that it comes with a GTX 1060 instead of a GeForce 970M, 6GB VRAM instead of 3GB VRAM, and a full-color backlit keyboard instead of a red-only backlit keyboard. The GTX 1060 should make for a nice performance boost.

MSI is announcing its "next generation" of gaming notebooks on August 16th, so we'll probably know for sure the full and accurate specs of the GS43VR then. See MSI's count down clock here: https://gaming.msi.com/promotion/alter-your-reality

 

At the end I had to get a laptop quick and got a razer blade
But what happened to the MSI dock?

 

Good question. The dock-compatible GS40 6QD has only been released in a few markets, and I doubt it'll be released more widely. I really hope that the GS43VR can connect to the dock... we'll probably know for sure when MSI officially announces its new laptops next Tuesday.

 

Running a VR capable GPU in one seemed to be a big influence on people looking for the dock, if this model's name indicates it is VR capable out of the box a dock might lose some of the appeal.

 

XoticPC is no longer selling the GS40: http://www.xoticpc.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=msi+gs40

If for whatever reason you're dying to buy an unused GS40, act fast and get it from another reseller before they stop too. The GS43VR is clearly near though, so might want to just get that instead

True - it's not the reason I'd get it myself, and I think some would like it for future-proofing or just to boost FPS while at home. In my case, I don't plan on gaming-on-the-go, and I'd rather not have the heat of an active dGPU in my laptop and have the option to upgrade the GPU later on the down road without buying a hulking MXM laptop.

Still though, I agree that putting desktop cards into laptops has made eGPUs less helpful for performance reasons, and I'm pretty excited to see the new offerings even they make eGPUs a thing of the past

 

Had a question about setting up dual displays through the single Superport...how does one go about doing this? I've had multiple display set ups before, but that was with a single cable going to each monitor through different video outputs on the laptop (HDMI/VGA/DVI, etc.). How would I be able to set up dual displays through the single "Superport" on the GS40?

 

Edit- Double post

 

It's official - the MSI GS43VR 6RE Phantom Pro is now on sale! MSRP is $1499 USD.

MSI international website: https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GS43VR-6RE-Phantom-Pro.html#hero-overview

MSI U.S. website: https://us.msi.com/Laptop/GS43VR-Phantom-Pro-6th-Gen-GTX-1060.html#hero-overview

It comes with a "mobile desktop" GTX 1060 (no "M"), which is a great boost over the 970M of the GS40 (and even a 980M). No support for the Gaming Dock Mini though, unfortunately. Maybe a future version will support it, or maybe not.

At this time, it appears that the GS43VR 6RE is the only 14" laptop on the market with a new Pascal GPU.

--Link to GS43VR discussion thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/msi-gs43.793376/ (post-announcement discussion starts at top of page 2)

 

Finally got it back from MSI. Got its motherboard replaced and now it seems fine. Have to do some more testing

 

https://www.startech.com/AV/Converters/Video/thunderbolt-3-to-dual-displayport~TB32DP2

I tested it works

 

Just discovered that I have some problem with the HDMI connection. I recently just did the Win10 updates and also updated my bios to the latest one. Then I found that my GS40 cannot detect HDMI audio anymore when connected to the TV. I cannot even find the HDMI audio devices in my playback devices when I plug in my cable. I try reinstalling all the latest sound drivers and Intel/Nvidia drivers but still in vain. It was all fine before the updates. Any suggestions?

 

https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/fix-hdmi-monitor-has-no-sound-after-windows-10-upgrade/

maybe this will help
https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/fix-hdmi-monitor-has-no-sound-after-windows-10-upgrade/

 

That was the first hit from Google, and sorry, it doesn't help. The problem is not the devices are hidden, they are just simply not there at all or detected.

 

Hi guys I want to ask, its possible to upgrade video card in our gs40?
Our 970m is on mxm?
Maybe it will be great to buy 1070 on mxm and plug it in our powermachine

 

Nope, unfortunately the 970M is BGA and soldered onto the motherboard. Some people have had success plugging a Razer Core into the Thunderbolt 3 port though (I don't have personal experience doing that, however.)

 

I would not be bothered to swtich out the GPU chip, even if you could, you would probably need a custom bios to recognise it. At the moment for us GS40 owners, the best option is to buy an external TB3 videocard/case, or simply buy the new GS43.

 

Hey people,

Am I having a dream? What is this?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2IW7XNVOCRQSZ

I made all the plans to go to a local store to buy one. Than I found this on amazon. What do you think it is?

 

hmmm I dunno. this is one of those "too good to be true deals" to wanna take the bite. even with credit card for protection. couldn't come at a worser time. I'm actually waiting for a 15% discount code from dell using my sisters nus card to buy my 1st AW. (but that 1070 dough!)
but I nearly bit on the gs40. only because I cant confirm if the seller is even genuine let a lone that is just stupidly low priced its actually scaring me away.

 

Well yea it's too good to be true. But it's amazon for gods sake. Im thinking like what's the worst can happen

 

Forgot to quote

 

maybe that you wait....and wait....and still waiting. then you want a refund, then you wait...and wait some more for that too.
but if it works out for you just let us know lol.

 

Hahaha you would love that wouldnt you?

I asked the guy why it's so cheap. Maybe he's gonna respond like "I'm just tryna rip people off". Only then Ill be comfortable paying the normal price