MSI GS40 Phantom-001

As stated above, the fans make sure that does not happen

 

Three possibilities for you to look into.
Throttling can be caused by either an insufficient power supply, or overheating GPU, and other cause can be a H/W-based limiting mechanism such as EC firmware.

 

While I do not have a gs40, I recently just purchased the gs60 which has similar specs in a bigger form factor. One thing I noticed was my 970m's clocks (memory clock to be specific) not running at full speed even when the laptop was plugged/charging and it would stay that way for an indefinite period of time, persisting even through reboots. This would drop framerates quite noticeably and was quite frustrating because no amount of fiddling with power options would correct it. The only way I was able to get things to work properly was to do a gpu driver reinstall and making sure I did a clean install.

Just putting this out in case someone encounters a similar issue with the gs40 and thinks its the 970m throttling.

 

There is zero GPU throttling in the GS40! I repeat none! The CPU will start throttling at 88 C in this system. This however would only happen under extreme circumstances (Prime95 + 3D Mark Looping).

At stock settings it maintained its 1037 Mhz boost clock through looping Shadow of Mordor Benchmarks and 3D Mark Looping tests.

I now have a modded bios on my GTX 970M and have it overclocked to 1350 Mhz Core and 5660 Mhz Memory with a minor tick up in voltage. Looping Shadow Of Mordor 7 Times back to back repeatedly saw maximum temps of 84 C CPU and 82C GPU. This is WITHOUT any additional cooling. Pretty fantastic for a thin and light gaming PC IMHO.

I do however have a serious problem with the speakers, they are way to quiet. I hope that MSI can release an update that can increase their max volume, cause they are pathetically quiet.

 

Have you tried updating BIOS & EC as well as updating audio driver?
See if this helps with the audio issue.

 

Just got my GS40 a few days ago. I have to say, I'm very satisfied with the machine. Fan noise or speaker loudness isn't really an issue for me (my old ASUS fan noise is probably louder and I usually use external speakers or earphones). The raw power of the machine inside such a small/lightweight package is something that's not available from any other model (at least where I live). It's quite amazing how thin and small it is.

 

Is the ssd in your gs40 m2 sata or m2 pcie?
Because I am afraid that in Italy, Germany and UK the gs40 has a m2 sata ssd in the m2 pcie slot. And it's not good.

Inviato dal mio LG-D802 utilizzando Tapatalk

 

I couldn't agree more!

 

Got my GS40. The laptop don't see Samsung SSD 950 PRO 512GB
upd: after few reboots it recognize in windows device manager, but nothing more.

GenTechPC, can you give some information about your install expirience? Any tricks or troubles maybe?

Found same problem for gs60, but there no setting in the BIOS from AHCI to RAID in gs40 https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=263388.0

 

m.2 PCI-E SM951 128GB Samsung.

 

Audio Driver is the latest. Bios and EC are on the latest versions.

Did you guys not see sub par audio quality on your review sample?

 

For people that want same power in a much sober laptop the gigabyte p34w could be interesting :
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5708#kf

 

Nowhere I've seen in the UK even has a pre-order for it though, so right now the GS40 is the only thing going in this form factor.

I've just received mine this afternoon. Build quality in my opinion is absolutely fine, if not better than what I actually was expecting. The screen is gorgeous, coming from a 2015 Macbook Air it really is good quality and the viewing angles are great. The keyboard is an absolute gem to type on, the travel is just right and it feels awesome.

Obviously not had time to test the battery life as I'm actually setting it up and downloading stuff. I'm using a mouse, but the trackpad is not going to win any awards I'll be honest, but coming from MBP's and Air's over the last 5 years I knew it wouldn't compare, hence the mouse. Outside of that, audio again isn't breathtaking but it's certainly not bad. I can't imagine I'd want to watch a full length movie with them but I rarely did anyway before and if I did I used headphones.

Can't comment on performance but I expect most people roughly know what you'll get from it and I literally don't own any PC games but I got Syndicate free with the laptop so I'll download it when I get a chance and see, but it won't be any time soon I don't think.

All in all - was it worth the wait? Yes & would I recommend it - absolutely, for £1199 it's a steal for the hardware

Oh and finally, I was skeptical of the badge and red trim etc from pictures, but in real life it's far less intrusive as I thought, the light isn't massively glowing red, it's actually just white behind the dragon and the rest is slightly brighter and the keyboard lights I'm already fine with being red.

 

Great details here! I am curious what issues you are having with the trackpad? One of my big concerns is this, since i use the trackpad when im doing day to day.

 

I wouldn't say there's a specific issue per say, I'm using it now to write this and it's definitely not bad. Compared to office Lenovo's its better, but I think it really does come down to being used to using macbook's for such an extended period of time that I've never needed a mouse. It's definitely not a deal breaker in any way shape or form, it's not going to beat Apple's precision that's all

 

Well there's also the Aorus X3 Plus V5 ( http://www.aorus.com/Product/Features/X3 Plus v5 ), which looks impressive, though I don't think this latest model Aorus X3 is out in the UK yet (the older versions are, though), I've seen it available for pre-order, however. It's quite a lot more expensive, though.

BTW it's worth pointing out that Razer don't sell in the UK, so that 14" gaming laptop isn't available to us, except through grey import

 

BTW can you get the MSI GS40 with a non-glossy screen? That's a bit of a deal-breaker for me...

 

yup! im using a gs40 with matte 1080p screen

 

Yes, our model comes with a matte screen.

 

I wasn't even aware there was a model with glossy screen! Since most MSI machines do come with matte screens I assumed all models did haha.

 

My apologies up front for the long post.

Well - finally received my GS40 last night from Xotic PC. Build quality was fine. Definitely not as solid-feeling as my 3 year old AW M14xR2, but it is also about half the weight - which is welcome. The keyboard is surprisingly good. Took a little while to get used to it coming from the AW, which doesn't have a chiklet-style keyboard, but I found myself flying through an email very quickly with solid tactile feel and response. The font is a little weird, but not disagreeable. Lighting is OK. I probably would have preferred white like the GS30, but the red wasn't too bad.

I agree with the previous reviews of the track pad. It is just OK and not entirely satisfying to use. Should have gone with a Synaptic touchpad with separate buttons, which is not only more responsive, but offers more customization options. I'll take my AW and XPS track pads over this any day. You would think they would spend as much effort on the track pad as they did getting the keyboard right given it is a primary interface.

Fans were surprisingly quiet. Kicked in an out frequently during setup, but weren't intrusive. Given I was only going through the setup process, they did seem to be unnecessarily active, but again - not intrusive. Can't speak to heavy load operation (more on this to follow).

Screen is very nice as others have noted. Excellent viewing angles, color and brightness.

Now to the very disappointing parts --

Going through the initial setup was fine. Still getting used to Windows 10, but things seemed to be working OK (I miss the relative simplicity of Windows 7). It immediately downloaded and began what appeared to be a major update to Windows. OK - fine; not unusual for a new computer. Took about an hour to update. Computer rebooted and it prompted me to create a recovery USB flash drive - which I did. First, it wouldn't recognize my brand new USB flash drive. Several plug/unplugs later, it finally recognized it and I began the process. First attempt took 35 mins and it told me it failed. Nothing was copied to the flash drive. I reformatted the drive and tried again. 60 mins later, it still hadn't finished, but at least files were being copied. BTW - the whole time I had the computer plugged in and it showed 91% with a "plugged in/not charging" indicator. Checked the plug, changed battery settings and nothing resolved the problem. I believe MSI charges to 95% to protect the battery, so it should have been charging. Figured once the recovery drive was completed I'd restart and hopefully everything would be fine. Nope! Here came the BSOD!

The computer rebooted itself 4 times and the BSOD kept coming up. It finally went into recovery mode on its own. I restarted a few times and the same thing. Finally decided to go ahead and see if it would reset. I started reset (keeping all files) and the computer sat at 10% for over a half hour. I finally ended up going to bed. Computer was up and running the next morning. Great. Seemed to be running OK. Received a prompt from Nvidia to update the driver. Wouldn't connect to Nvidia (checked on my AW and no problems. Checked the charging. Nope. OK. Shut down the computer and let it sit for an hour plugged in. Started up and same thing. Plugged in/ not charging and still at 91%.

So - needless to say, I have no confidence in this machine. I didn't even get the chance to check performance or even test the sound since the first 4+ hours of ownership were spent just trying to get the darn thing to run correctly. For this level of investment, I don't want to constantly be wondering what's going to go wrong next. I turned it off, emailed Xotic PC and told them I wanted a RMA. I waited over 2 months to receive this machine and looks like I'm going to have to shop for another option. Too bad there aren't more options in this form factor, because my disappointing experience aside, the size and weight of the GS40 for me is just about perfect.

I'll consider the Gigabyte, but the widely reported throttling issues are concerning. I've also seen some reviews that weren't very good regarding build quality. I see a new P34Wv5 is on Xotic PC's website and supposed to come in January. It is a bit of a price jump from the GS40 and current P34Wv4 though. The AW 13 is an option (go back to what I know), but I know the GTX960M is probably not going to make me happy over the long run and I'm not sure how much use I would get out of the GPU adapter. The Razer Blade is just too expensive even in the more reasonably-priced FHD form, not to mention it has insufficient RAM and HD capacity, which can't be upgraded, and inadequate peripheral ports.

What to do? Bummer!

Update: I ran the computer on battery for a few minutes to 86% then plugged it in and it started charging. This may be a feature to protect the longevity of the battery. Guess I'll keep seeing if the other issues resolve.

 

Do not worry about this, it's a feature with most of the modern laptops, the battery tend to discharge a bit even when plugged in - and to avoid unnecessary charges, the system will not start a charge unless the capacity drops below 90% or so.

 

Update. Everything seems to be running fine now. I managed to get the recovery disc to work although it took about an hour and 15 minutes. Charging system is working normally. I am still curious why I can't access the latest Nvidia driver, but perhaps that is a protection to ensure only manufacture validated drivers are installed. I will contact MSI to find out. Tough start, but seems the issues have resolved. I tend to think it was the massive Windows update that caused my initial problems.

 

Onelap, I had the same problem with trying to connect to Nvidia to get the update, but I just went to their website instead and downloaded it manually. Again, I also noticed that the battery was losing charge as I was gaming on it, but assumed it would be doing it's own thing to work out when it's best to charge in order to preserve battery life.

Outside of that, it does sound like Windows is the root cause for your frustration. I surprisingly didn't have anything to download Windows wise, well not in the foreground anyway, I did restart the machine and it applied an update but seemed to be only minor.

Having had the laptop for a full evening now, gaming on it (albeit it only Wildstar but it's free and I've wanted to play it) the machine's fans do kick into overdrive to cool the machine. Personally I do find it pretty loud, but again I'm used to silence from an Air for a few years so it's going to be more noticeable at first for me. My FPS did seem to fluctuate during this phase as well, but seeing as Wildstar isn't exactly the most optimized game I can't be sure if it's thermal throttling or not. It's also proving challenging to get my in ear headphones to work properly but I know I'm missing something somewhere, just need to get used to Windows 10 changing everything around in control panel.

I've purposely been using the trackpad when not gaming to really see how it get's on, I've enabled 2 finger touch to right click which was how I had it on my mac and it's been a lot easier to use since seeing as right click otherwise isn't the most pleasurable experience on an all in one track pad. My only gripe now is that it's just not as accurate as I'd like it to be, but it's definitely not stopping me from doing anything I need or frustrating me.

Still not had a bad experience though, and it is a beast. Things load instantly, and I'm using the 8GB model. Considering it was between this and the Aorus X3 v5 for me, I don't see the nearly the added benefits of paying nearly £700 more.

 

Today, after Windows updates ( Nvidia ..?), blue screen and can't boot after. I reinstall de laptop and all is fine now...bad MSI master i think...?
I have installed an Samsung 950 Pro 500 Go to replace the Samsung 128 Go and a Samsung EVO 850 500 Go, who replace the 1 To

All is correct now...

 

Continued to set up the computer for several hours today loading various programs and such. Lots of web browsing. So far no further problems and everything is running nicely. It is definitely fast and responsive. Haven't gamed on it yet. Once it fully charged this morning, I unplugged it and with the power setting on balanced mode I'm pushing 4 hours of work with 21% remaining. As long as you're not pushing heavy video or processor intensive programs, seems like the battery life is going to be fairly reasonable for the amount of power this thing has. Working with it and moving around the house today definitely made me appreciate the light weight and just how freakin' heavy my AW is.

ZShaw - thanks for the insights. I too set up the tap/click on the touchpad and am finding it easier to work with. I'm sure once I get used to it, I'll forget about my complaints. One thing I wish I could do is apply momentum/intertia to the regular pointer movement. I like to be able to flick the pointer all of the way across the screen. I understand this was a setting in previous drivers, but for some reason it only applies to scrolling now. Wish ELAN would bring it back. Looking through the ELAN program folder there is even a demonstration video for it. Oh well. So - my impression of the GS40 now is much better than it was last night and early this morning. Now to see how it games.

 

Continued to set up the computer for several hours today loading various programs and such. Lots of web browsing. So far no further problems and everything is running nicely. It is definitely fast and responsive. Haven't gamed on it yet. Once it fully charged this morning, I unplugged it and with the power setting on balanced mode I'm pushing 4 hours of work with 21% remaining. As long as you're not pushing heavy video or processor intensive programs, seems like the battery life is going to be fairly reasonable for the amount of power this thing has. Working with it and moving around the house today definitely made me appreciate the light weight and just how freakin' heavy my AW is.

ZShaw - thanks for the insights. I too set up the tap/click on the touchpad and am finding it easier to work with. I'm sure once I get used to it, I'll forget about my complaints. One thing I wish I could do is apply momentum/intertia to the regular pointer movement. I like to be able to flick the pointer all of the way across the screen. I understand this was a setting in previous drivers, but for some reason it only applies to scrolling now. Wish ELAN would bring it back. Looking through the ELAN program folder there is even a demonstration video for it. Oh well. So - my impression of the GS40 now is much better than it was last night and early this morning. Now to see how it games.

 

I owned the gs60 and I still encountered the Nvidia update issue. Just download it manually! Worked for me also with the Phantom. The track pad is Worlds better than than the ghost IMO. Comparable to the accuracy of my clevo. The most disappointing thing to me are the SPEAKERS. Fml. My cell phone speakers destroy this. Literally. Can this be fixed with software? Please help

 

Just updated GeForce Experience and it updated the new driver with no problems. Feeling much better overall about this machine.

 

onelap, what's your current version of BIOS & EC firmware?
Can you update those if you can? Thanks.

 

Yeah mate 100% agree with you. In fact I've spent a good part of today looking for a way for us to boost the volume. It's so so soooo quiet compared to what I'm used to. I can't understand why it's so difficult to push a louder volume through another program, but any I've tried haven't worked. Does anyone have an idea on what to do?

 

Clevo P640RE. Look it up. There is also a thread for it in the Sager/Clevo subforum here.

 

Just want to update on performance with Assassins Creed Syndicate. I honestly wasn't expecting to be able to run games on Ultra with reasonable performance, but I've been getting lowest 30 fps mainly 35-38 on pretty much maxed out settings apart from AA. The game itself is gorgeous, I've been so used to PS4 graphics I'm shocked at the visible difference and it really looks great on the screen. Really impressed with this machine.

 

The hour plus Windows update is just the new Windows 10 November update that was released by Microsoft recently.

The nVidia Experience app wasn't able to connect to nVidia for me too. Easily fixed it by downloading the experience app and reinstalling it.

 

Yep, the speakers are beyond ridiculous. Going to make a new thread, hopefully the MSI reps notice and report.

 

Been playing Assassin's Creed Syndicate today as well and getting similar FPS. Gorgeous graphics in this game. Fans definitely kick up, but I never noticed any throttling and it ran flawless for several hours continuously. All previous issues are now resolved and I can't help but be very impressed with the performance of this machine.

 

My 3D Mark Fire Strike score

 

anyone got any details regarding the panel quality on the GS40? i tried searching the panel model, LGD046D, and it seems its the same panel installed on the Dell Latitude 14 E7450 and the details mentioned on some reviews are stating figures like average brightness of 304cd/m2 , contrast levels of 570:1 and black levels of 0.53cd/m2. i was expecting the panel to have lower black and higher contrast levels but if these figures holds to be true then its a shame!

 

Don't know about the specific numbers regarding the screen, but subjectively I think the screen looks amazing. Of course, I'm coming from a 3 year old 720p TN panel, so my baseline might be slightly outdated.

 

There are some videos of the unit out there showing the screen so you can get some idea.

 

Can anyone say for sure that this thing has Thunderbolt 3 yet?

 

Here's a longer review/report after a few days of using it for work and some gaming.

(Disclaimer: These are only my views after using it a few days. If you buy it off my review and don't like it please don't hold me responsible.)

Background

I'm coming from a 4 year old 14 inch Asus with i7 2670qm (quad core) upgraded with 12gb and 128gb toshiba sata ssd in addition to 750gb 5400rpm hdd that came with it.

I consider my old machine still very usable as a main workhorse machine. But it was acting up a bit and couldn't charge its batteries anymore, so I thought it would be a good time to upgrade.

I usually use my main laptop as a PC replacement and hook it up with dual external FHD 24 inch Samsung lcds, wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse, and external Creative speakers. Then at night I unhook it and take it upstairs for casual browsing on my bed. I sometimes travel and sometimes need to take it outside so lightness and thinness is a factor.

Choosing the GS40

I used to use 15 inch laptops, but after my first 14 inch (the Asus) I became hooked with the smaller size.

So I started looking for a high performance 14 inch machine and was very excited when MSI announced the GS40. It was exactly what I wanted. The price seems to be cheaper than the GS60 and GS70 too for similar specs (at retailers in my country at least), which makes it a very good deal.

I waited and waited for its release and finally got it from an online order. First time I bought a laptop online because I was so tired of waiting!

Look and Feel (Physical Properties)

I'm very happy with how it looks. Every time I pick it up I'm still amazed how such a powerful machine be so thin and light.

It is thinner, smaller and lighter than my old 14inch Asus while being a lot more powerful. So even compared to other 14inch machines (at least older ones) it is on the small/light side.

The build quality is very fine for me. The thing which I think gets to people is that since it is so small and light compared to its power and cost, it might feel somewhat "fragile" compared to other laptops which might be heavier and so give a more "solid" feeling. But lighter is actually better and I don't think it isn't actually more fragile than other notebooks. If you look past the lightness it actually feels pretty solid to me.

Time will tell whether it will be durable in terms of physical wear and tear, but for now it looks like it will be fine.

I don't have any problem with the red msi logo/badge. I think the whole back panel has a very nice finish and the logo makes it look cool.

Display

The screen is amazing. Full HD on this small size screen feels almost Retina-like. I know its a lot less dpi but to me its still surprisingly sharp. Viewing photos on it gives almost 3D effect because of the resolution and vivid colors. The viewing angle is also very good.

I usually use mine with external dual monitors and am very happy that I can use the hdmi and mini displayport ports to get digital signal to both monitors. Previously I had only one hdmi and one analog vga on my Asus. So this was another nice thing for me. If I understand correctly the usb-c port can also drive another display for 3 digital displays.

Keyboard

I agree with the love for the keyboard. It feels so good to type on. I usually use a full size wireless logitech keyboard with it though because more keys. The nice typing feeling makes me want to get one of those expensive mechanical keyboards to replace my logitech.

The key lighting is cool, but I usually have it turned off as I'm either plugged in to external monitor/keyboard so no need for it or I'm using it on battery so I turn it off to save battery power.

Using the SteelSeries engine software you can set macros for each key. You can adjust the brightness level for the key lighting. You can't set it to turn on lights for some keys and keep them off for others though (or I haven't found the way).

My only gripe with the keyboard is it doesn't have dedicated home/end/pageup/pagedown buttons. But I knew already before buying it by looking at the screenshots. It is somewhat easy to adjust to Fn+left/right for home/end and Fn+up/down for pageup/pagedown though and it is kind of similiar to what you'd do on a mac.

Trackpad

I don't use it much. It is usable if you need to use it, nothing more to say for me.

SDD and HDD

Mine also came with a 128GB Samsung SM951 SSD. If I remember correctly it came with about 90GB or 100GB free on the SSD with windows 10 installed. That is a nice enough amount to work with. I try to install most software on the HDD, just important stuff on the SSD.

The HDD is 7200 RPM which is nice and I think it does feel faster than 5400 RPM. Haven't done any benchmarks though.

The 1TB HDD D: drive came completely empty so you will have a lot of space to work with.

Fans & Temperature

Ususally when doing light office work the GS40 is pretty quiet. The fans will kick in from time to time, but when idle it quickly turns back off. No problems with the fans starting and never turning back off for me which I read people having in GS60 thread I think.

When gaming, the fans will go into overdrive. The fan volume is loud but is what I expected and is similar to my old ASUS. With so much CPU/GPU power being used it is reasonable to keep the temperature at a safe level.

My machine's normal temp is about 50 C while gaming temp it is at 75 C (for both GPU and CPU) which is a lot better than my old i7 ASUS which idles at 70 C.

Speakers

I read a lot about speakers not being loud enough. I usually use a pair of external Creative T20 speakers at my desk or earphones when I'm not at my desk so I wasn't worried about it.

After trying out the built-in speakers in GS40, they are fine for me for "notebook speakers" and the overall sound is better than my old Asus. OK it is nowhere near as good as my external speakers so don't expect much from it.

Battery Life

Battery life is better than expected for me. I always go for high performance laptops so I usually got no more than 2 hours in the past for typical office work. With the GS40 with battery saving settings it looks like 4 hours is possible for light web browsing use.

Performance & Gaming

The machine starts up very fast. I usually hibernate mine and it hibernates and wakes up surprisingly fast. In general usage, it is fast as expected.

One surprising thing for me is webpages load noticeably faster than my Asus. When my internet connection is good it seems pages load instantly. This is probably due to faster CPU and maybe also the Killer wireless network adapter.

I played a few rounds of League of Legends Blind Pick and ARAM on it (and won every round - maybe luck). It was very smooth with no hiccups on the default highest settings. The smoothness really helped my gameplay and made me have less misplays than on my ASUS which stutters sometimes.

Tried Assassin's Creed Syndicate and it was very smooth and beautiful.

Conclusion

A lot to like and not much to hate. Very happy overall with the GS40 and think it should last me many years.

 

It doesn't, max 10 Gbps.

 

Is that a gpu oc'ed score? That's a really good score, much higher than what I get with my gs60

 

The thing is that its a bit hard to judge the panel quality just by watching a couple of videos, usually its a subjective matter however i was looking for some measurements if someone have any!

 

Must be. This is almost GTX 980M performance.

Virtually all notebooks with GTX 970M get very similar performance: ~7,500-7,600 points in 3dmark firestrike graphics:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-970M.126694.0.html

Though somehow curiously latest GS60 (Skylake version) also got higher score of 8,216 points.

Makes me wonder if MSI didn't start to factory overclock their Skylake models (as they should have more thermal headroom vs Haswell/Broadwell models)?

 

That's exactly what I get too (around 7600 for the gpu)

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/6658479

Makes me curious how well this would oc. Never thought of doing it due to the thing being a laptop

 

Yep, 1350 core and 1415 memory

 

How much performance gain does the OC roughly translate into Daeyx? I've never considered OC'ing in general as I never bother to change thermal pastes etc.. Using the stock build in the GS40 would you still recommend doing it?

 

Just to give you an idea, I ran two built in ingame benchmarks in Tomb Raider and Shadow of Mordor and ran each two times, taking the scores from the second run in both, once Stock and the other Overclocked to show you the frame rate differences.

Tomb Raider

Stock

Min: 40
Max: 70
Avg: 55

Overclocked

Min: 50
Max: 88
Avg: 67

Average is 21.8% faster Overclocked vs Stock


Shadow of Mordor

Stock

Min: 31
Max: 67
Avg: 48

Overclocked

Min: 34
Max: 98
Avg: 58

Average is 20.8% faster Overclocked vs Stock


So yes, to me its worth it. However, you are increasing the stress and heat on the stock components by doing this, so do so at your own risk. With an unlocked Vbios, the absolute highest temp while overclocked and some additional voltage I saw continuously looping a 3D Mark Demo was 90 C. If I throw it on my laptop cooler, this drops by about 10 C.

I have yet to take apart the laptop and reapply MX-4 as of yet. I will do so when my Intel 7260 AC arrives. (The 1525 Killer drops connections randomly sometimes).