MSI GS60 Ghost/ Ghost Pro Thread

wow thanks alot! you know i think you've nearly sold me on forking over an extra 100 to get the pro version. i'm really quiet happy to hear this!
could you also measure the battery life? I,m wondering how long it lasts compared to the non pro version while not gaming
hopefully its similar or close enough at 25-75% brightness and browsing on wifi.

 

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I got my GS60 from newegg today and I have to say - your answer about the screen is spot-on! It is a gorgeous screen. Definitely an IPS or Samsung equivalent. Colors are bright and vivid. Night and day difference from the GS70 I have next to it.

 

Sell me one!!

 

I'm having a hard time making a choice between the Aorus X7, GS60 Pro, and GS70 Pro... Yes I know different sizes. The GS60 Pro meets almost everything I want, the X7 has the power I'd want but the weight and even size are a little big and I haven't heard enough on feedback of it yet. Besides then having to deal with SLI and probably a bigger power brick. The biggest drawback to the GS60 Pro is the temps, though I don't know if it is truly a concern considering how my current Sager with a 485M gets super hot. It is great that we are finally at a point where I can get substantially better graphics in a smaller and lighter laptop without having to sacrifice power or a good screen. It does lose the benefits of being easily upgradable though.

 

The best part for me was that the fans were consistant, and didn't have that high pitched whine, more just a steady fan sound sound. There have been a few laptops that bothered me, but this one doesn't. Its worth giving it a shot, and if it does bother you amazon or newegg both have great return policies.

I will test the battery asap, but also want to play games lol. My mixture of gaming (metro 2033 and borderlands 2), web browsing and Netflix, did run down the battery pretty quick. That was mainly the gaming though, I'm sure the 870 was meant to game plugged in.

Gaming looks like it would have drained the battery in a bit over an hour? Either way I'm certain that when not gaming, the pro should last as long as the GS60 with the 860m as neither NVidia card would be in use with light activity.

 

I will say this - if you care about the quality of the screen at all, you want a GS60 vs a GS70. I have both right now before I take the GS70 back to Microcenter. The GS60's screen is significantly nicer to look at - clear, sharp bright colors with amazing viewing angles - compared to GS70's washed out colors, bad angles and graininess. I'm a bit of a screen fanatic and I'm liking the GS60's screen a lot!

 

I agree, the GS60 screen is fantastic. Also, the 870M is a beast of a card. Not quite an 880M, but nearly matches the 780M in some areas, and none of the hassle from SLI cards. Also of note is that SLI doesn't work with Optimus last I checked, so battery life will suffer greatly on a SLI system.

 

You don't mean the new GS70, do you? The GS70 Stealth Pro? I thought that screen was the top of the line IPS-equivalent too.

 

Here are some benchmark results from the GS60 Ghost Pro with GTX 870M 3GB
3DMark Vantage


3DMark 11

 

Yes, the GS70 Stealth Pro with the 870M - Absolutely neither IPS nor top of the line. Plain old TN CMO1720 screen. Probably not horrible as far as TN panels go, but I'm done with TN panels.

N

 

Thanks. No, not really, but yeah. That is extremely upsetting because I was aiming for the GS70 Stealth Pro. I thought it had the good screen too. Well, this completely f*ks up my decision.

 

I'm very interested in this laptop but I have a few concerns:

1. Heating/cooling
2. Build quality
3. Wifi card dropping signal under heat

Can anyone (owners preferred) address these concerns? Thank you

 

I am currently testing the Asus n550jk and because I like the quiet fan on idle - office tasks, I use right now Notebook Fancontrol (asus n550jv config) and have the fan off. Temp on idle kept between 48-52 noiseless.
Is it possible to do the same for MSI GS60 ghost Seeing as they have the same procesor? NOTE test it at your own risk
Someone experienced can even try to undervol it with Intel xtu

 

The temps was expected on GS60 with GTX870M, the chassis is just too thin. Maybe consider GT60 instead if you are worry about the temps.

The GS60 screen looks completely different than the TN screen on the GS70. On the GS60 the Samsung screen looks identical to the 15.6" LG IPS screen and I don't see the graniness.

 

I would really like to know in comparison to the gs60 860 - 870 whats the real heat difference? from what i have read the 860 is sitting comfortably at 80c while the 870 is getting to the high 90's? could someone please post up a comparison video.

 

Do you have the temps after that 3dmark11 run?

Want to see if it is similar to what gentechpc got.

 

The thing is, there are resellers that allow for screen upgrades. I'm sure it won't be as great as the GS60 screen, I think that is the same higher end panel I currently have actually in a 15", but it would be better than bottom of the barrel.

 

Ha ha. I take it you're not old enough to remember passive matrix screens? Those were the norm back in the day when TN was the creme de la creme. Have you ever wondered what's the purpose of the "pointer trails" option in your mouse settings? The passive matrix screens (early 1990s) had such a slow pixel refresh rate that when you moved the mouse, the pointer would literally disappear because the screen couldn't refresh fast enough to display it in the brief moment it was over any given pixel. The pointer trails kept the mouse pointer "lit" on a pixel long enough for the screen to display it.

IPS is nice.

 

Dude, I remember monochrome and CGA screens Make me appreciate IPS all the more

N

 

I need a little clarification.. The GS60 Screen is the same or not the same screen as the GS60 Pro? I'm not talking about the 3k model. I thought they are the same and I also thought the GS70 and GS60 had the same screen. What about the Apache models?

 

Hey acefspade, from what i have read the gs70 still uses a TN display.

 

from where you bought the gs60 pro with 870m? I'm eager to buy one.

 

newegg has them; its where I got mine...

 

Yes, newegg for mine. Shipped same day with next day delivery.

 

Can someone please tell me if these computers are throttling and running too hot? I am ready to pull the trigger but I need to know how their quality and cooling system is.

 

Yes I do but the memory card was left at work. I'll grab some screen shots of the video and post in the morning. They were pretty high, if I remember right 94C GPU according to MSI Afterburner, and 81-84C CPU according to HWMonitor.

 

Are those temps on auto fan? Does the system have a turbo fan feature?

 

oh, wow. that is not sounding good for the longevity of this machine.

 

Hello guys,

What do you think about the Newegg exclusive GS60? It's $100 cheaper but has 12GB of ram instead of 16GB and has 750GB space instead of 1TB? Neither seems to be a big loss. Would there be a considerable speed difference in terms of memory set up? (Lack of dual channel?)

Thanks,
Yenal

 

pulled the trigger on the gs60 860m, 16gb ram, 2X128ssd + 1tb hdd..... couldn't wait as i do need this for uni next week and it seems like the 870m heat issues aren't worth the extra 20% performance bump and price. I guess, I don't expect to be hard core gaming on this as its mainly for casual starcraft, dota and a few future new release titles like witcher, star-citizen if i'm down to grind a full mmo.

Hope i don't regret it , i'll post up my feed back on the unit when it comes this Saturday! looking forward to using this badboy..

 

weird how the gpu on the gs70 pro comes with 6gb of graphics memory but the 870 on the gs60 pro only comes with 3gb :\

 

It was auto when I was testing it.

GTX870M has both 3GB and 6GB VRAM on their GT70 Dominator too.

 

Hello, is there a significant difference between the i5-4200H and i7-4700HQ? I am thinking to get the cheap version msi gs60 ghost 2pci581 with i5 and upgrade it with extra 8gb of ram and a m2.sata.

Thanks for sharing

 

The i7s which end in a Q are quad cores. The mobile i5s are dual cores. The mobile i5s actually aren't much better than an i3. The only major feature they have over the mobile i3 is Turbo Boost. So their clock speed is a bit faster than what their specs say.

 

Im so dissappointed that MSI didn't use Maxwell for their 860M. Seems like there's always a compromise... Go MSI, get great build quality and get a Kepler... or go Gigabyte, get a Maxwell and have inferior build quality.

 

This means you recommend to buy the version with the i7, because there is a significant difference in power? If you compare 4 and 2 cores, does it mean that the i7 got doubled power and is two times faster than the i5?

 

Not two times faster, the difference depends on the task.

 

There isn't a turbo fan option like the GT series has.

 

Just some info about the GS60 Ghost Pro screen: SAMSUNG 156HL01-102 which is reported to be a PLS screen, so it is the IPS type technology.

 

I am mostly a lurker but figured I would add some content here. I have had my GS60 GhostPro-052 (870m model) for 2 days now, and I figured I would post a quick mini review. I will provide additional detail after I have used it for a longer period of time.

Fit and Finish: The packaging was well done, and gave a nice impression when first opening the laptop. It has that premium feel to it. The build quality is quite good aside from the flex in the screen to keep it light. The materials feel high quality and nice to the touch. The chassis itself is solid and has very little flex to it. The in your face gamer design is truly at a minimum with this laptop, and even the wife thought it was a "really nice looking laptop".

Keyboard: The keyboard is quite good, and easily my favorite thing on the laptop. I am incredibly picky when it comes to keyboards, and this is very close in quality to some of the older Thinkpad keyboards. It has very little flex, and seems quite solid. The back-lighting is relatively even, and the colors can be set to something not so atrocious. I do have some dimness around the F9-F10 keys, but this really doesn't bother me at all.

Touchpad: I am sure this will get me flamed, but it is worth mentioning it anyways. As someone who frequently uses Mac's, this is one of the most disappointing aspects for me. In comparison, it feels like you are moving your finger through mud instead of smooth glass on the Mac touchpads. The difference is night and day even after spending 30 minutes or so tweaking the settings in the touchpad control panel. On the plus side, most of the multi-touch mouse actions seem to work okay. With that said, this isn't a laptop I can see myself using without a bluetooth or usb mouse.

Speakers: The speakers are fairly standard fare, and provide decent sound up to the 80% mark. After that, they start to distort. They do not get very loud at all, and I would consider them only slightly louder than my Note 3's (a cell phone) speaker overall. For example, I don't think you could watch a movie in the car using the speakers and realistically have more than one person hear it well enough unless you are in a luxury vehicle. For a laptop, it is passable but not a selling point. I did expect a bit more from it considering the price point and I would just recommend that you never leave your headphones behind.

Screen: I am a screen snob so this was a biggy for me. For a TN panel, this is a fantastic offering and truly shows the leaps and bounds TN has made in recent years. It has very little if any motion blur, and the colors pop quite nicely. The viewing angles are great and very un-tn like. I will calibrate with my i1 Display Pro this weekend to give you guys more details on the screen. Needless to say, I don't think you will be too disappointed even if you are coming from an IPS panel.

Noise: This computer is noisy - no other way to say it. It will always be making some noise. Even at idle, the fan has a noticeable hum to it around 2800 rpm. Once you increase the workload, it quickly increases to a very noticeable pitch. This is loud enough to be disruptive in a meeting or classroom, but not loud enough to cause any issues with someone watching a show in the same room with you. My wife said that she noticed it, but didn't consider it bothersome as she had no problem hearing the TV. I won't be using this in any setting where the noise may be a problem so I don't think this is a deal breaker for me. With that said, this is the largest negative that this laptop has. Unfortunately, I don't have a Razer Blade to compare the noise profile to as I imagine that would be better.

Heat: I was honestly expecting heat to be an issue going into this. I have had some laptop mini nuclear furnaces before, and was expecting similar results. During gaming, I actually found it reasonably tolerable. The noise ramps up, but the laptop never felt uncomfortable to use. The chassis doesn't get nearly as warm as some of the previous generation Macbook Pro 15 inch models. Some examples:

• Guild Wars 2: Fan ramped up to max - 72C on the GPU - 71C on the CPU
• BF4: Fan ramped up to max and the GPU got to 84C (not sure on CPU)

I monitored GPU usage and clocks in MSI Afterburner and didn't notice any throttling, but I didn't game for more than 30 minutes at a time. I will have more information once I have had the chance to game on it more.

Battery: I only have two cycles through the battery, but I can tell you that the performance is not great. You can expect less than 45 minutes while gaming and 2.5-3 hours in regular usage. I would just expect to always have to carry the AC Adapter with you. I anticipated this unfortunately, and hopefully I will have some better news once I get into the 20-30 cycle range.

Network: I didn't notice any issues with wireless so far. It never dropped connection or signal quality for me in general use or during gaming. I never saw my ping unexpectedly increase or saw any disconnects yet. The wired connection worked quite well, and I managed to fully cap my gigabit connection while transferring games from my server.

Conclusion: This laptop is a good step forward for MSI in the thin and light gaming sector. The build quality, materials, screen, keyboard, and cooling system are quite good and provide a compelling reason to purchase this laptop. The touchpad is poor compared to Macs, but acceptable quality when compared to other Windows offerings. The speakers - well they put out sound but don't expect to be blown away. The battery and noise are the big concerns for me. These two things have me considering the extra money towards the Blade. If the Blade was 15" I would absolutely pay the extra money without question. I think this laptop is actually a pretty good value, but those two things are fairly important to me. I plan to extensively use this for the next 30 days during my return window before I decide if I am keeping it or returning it.

 

@Fleat Thanks for the quick review!

This is unfortunate as my Sager has AWESOME speakers for a laptop and they go louder than I'd ever need and stay clear with the THX software.

Great to hear all these plusses on the screen.

I do wish I could get 16GB of faster RAM, even if it is a minor difference for a high cost. Running the same speed RAM when I'm spending thousands on a new computer (old laptop is a 3 year old Sager with 16GB of 1600).

The options for the harddrives are meh... I'd rather run 2 standard size SSDs than deal with the m.2 stuff but I know that is more of a space issue what can you expect in an amazingly slim package.

My only real concern now is I thought I could get Killer wireless with this, after hearing issues with the Intel wireless and having run through issues on other laptops I'd really like to get Killer wireless, any resellers know if this will be an option in the near future?

 

@fleat; have no fear of getting flamed we're here to see what's the great and not so great of the gs60 and gs60 pro your input is highly valued and a great addition to our thread. There is no one better than an actual owner to tell you how day to day experience on a laptop could be. Thank you!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk

 

Great review! Cooling system noise under load is my most important check box as well.

 

Thanks for the kind words all, glad you appreciated the mini review.

The speakers are a bit of a crap shoot in laptops. I have personally used laptops of the exact same brand / model that had vastly different speaker quality so I wouldn't say my experience is a guarantee of what you might see. I also didn't get a lot of time to play with the Creative Sound Blaster panel settings which might have some sort of boost options like the Sound Blaster cards do.

I transitioned from a laptop that was basically silent at all times so the change was quite jarring for me. It should be interesting to see if I get used to the noise level after a few weeks.

 

It was 94C after 3DMark 11. Slightly better at 89C after 3DMark Vantage.

CPU temps were the same with both 81-84C.

That is with all stock settings on Performance mode.

 

The panel in the GS60 is a Samsung PLS display, as opposed to a TN panel.

 

and stock thermal paste?

 

Yes stock thermal paste, so something better could result in lower temps.

 

Hm, hopefully GPU temps can be tamed after a repaste and some undervolting. Strange that is people are getting lower gaming temperatures than in 3dmark11 though.