MSI GS60 Ghost/ Ghost Pro Thread

Yup, you are right, since you are already going to invest that much amount of dollars, why not just go for the latest.

 

Do you know if the standard Ghost Pro will have the upgrade or just the 3k version?

 

This is what I can see, click below link.
MSI Notebook Official Website

 

Yeah that's what I could see too. I imagine it'll be a month or so if it's going to come out on the standard model. They'll have to get rid of current stock.

 

Got my gs60 pro today and been playing with it. One of the things I've been messing with is undervolting via XTU, and for me, -85mV seems to crash near the end of a 30min stress test, but that's with the multipliers maxed out at 36,35,34,34. Did you raise your multipliers or leave them at stock in your -85mV undervolt, and what kind of stress testing did you do?

Extremely happy with this laptop atm.

 

Unfortunately not all chips will perform the same. Some will take more or less volts to achieve the same over or unclock. Try stock clocks and see if it's stable then reduce the undervolt and try with the overclock. Find the speeds and the voltages that work for you. You then have to decide on temps or performance ;-)

 

This was after 20-30 minutes of playing Battlefield 4 with 860m with IC Diamond. I mailed it back to Xotic yesterday. Wonder why the temps were so high on mine... Really hope the new one will have better temps.

 

Those temps actually look pretty fine to me...

As Sen7enal has said the GPU will OC as high as it can until it hits a threshold which you didn't even hit. On a gaming laptop 83 C for a MAX GPU is fine, especially this form factor. Now yes that is hot and it may make the fans louder than you want. But I don't think it will be much cooler. The best things you could do would be to undervolt it or set a static clock speed. B4 is a pretty demanding game, and yeah the CPU temps feel on the higher end but I think that's par the course.

 

Were you able to run the game at max settings with the re-pasted 860m, and what frame rates were you getting?

 

Those temps are consistent with our review and all pretty much all the others we've seen. Keep in mind this model is very thin for the hardware it has which will result in slightly higher temps. It is designed for portability while providing gaming capabilities but not for the best cooling in notebooks. If you want lower temps consider a thicker model which will have better cooling like the GT series.

 

I just expected IC Diamond to help lower the temperatures by at least 4-5 degrees, otherwise I don't know why one would pay extra money for it.
Below is the first time i did the test. I really don't think the temps on it is normal. Looks higher than stock paste.

 

Your temps look fine. Keep in mind that your temps will also depend on other factors, such as the ambient temperature.

Battlefield is also much more intensive than a 3dmark 11 run, if that's what your comparing against.

 

I guess that's the nice thing about xotic, they don't charge a restocking fee.

 

We smell nice too!

 

Oh I know
I've done many tests with various voltages, and first I just do a 10min stress test (even a 95mV passed that), and then I push it to 30min stress test. Upon failure/success I change it minus/plus 5mV until I'm happy. Once I find the 'max' stable undervolt, I bump the voltage down another couple mv 'just in case.' Mainly, I was just curious what methodology Sen7inel used, and if he changed the multipliers or not.

For those interested, -85mV seems very stable (passed 30min stress test, plus benchmark loops) with multipliers maxed. The temps maxed at 80/81C, and the fans were not really going hard (the temps usually set around ~79C). I think as soon as it hit the ~80C mark, the fans sped up a tad and the temp dropped back down to ~76C (unfortunately, I don't remember the fan temp curves, but I know someone posted them). Gentech did repaste my cpu/gpu.

Also, out of the box (nothing oced/undervolted) when I ran 3dmark11, it hit 7011 (did not pay attention to temps). I'm currently running single channel (12GB), waiting for a decent RAM sale so I can bump it up to the max 16GB; also waiting for the 256GB m550 to come out (at least for newegg/amazon to start to carry them; oddly enough newegg has the 128 and 512 only) so I can raid 0 those.

Still going to play with undervolting the gpu and messing with the fan profiles. FYI, I did not think the laptop's fans were loud. The keyboard if phenomenal, the trackpad could use some work. Screen is awesome, though the bezel is a bit large for my liking...but I knew that and it's not a big deal. Speakers work well when paired with the included software. No issues at all with wifi (45Mb/s up/down) or ethernet (300Mb/s up/down).

Oh, on a side note, I ran a 10min cpu stress test with the -85mV while just sitting on my zallman nc1000 cooler, and another 10min stress test with the cooler running at max and there didn't seem to be any difference in the temps. Note that the temps were already pretty good at max 80C, and no gpu usage. And I guess this makes some sense since the intake is on top and not on bottom. I'll update this further once I get to do some game (gpu+cpu) benchmarks since that should make things hotter and there is a bigger chance for an improvement thanks to the cooler.

 

Yes that's why I'm glad I purchased from Xotic. The main reason I returned the laptop because the bottom right corner of the screen feels loose and moves when i squeeze it. I would have kept it wit the temperatures especially now knowing B4 temps should be higher than mark 11. Thank you guys.

 

I was wondering if someone tried to use it closed and connected to an external screen. The air intake is on top, I know, but there are a couple of grids on the bottom, dunno if they are for vents or just passive cooling.
I think that the most challenging task I am going to do with it will be some over hd after effects stuff, does anyone tried to use it to encode or ram prewiev a comp with after? Thx

 

I picked one up a couple days ago (860m version) for a "test drive".

The fan noise isn't obnoxiously loud like I've heard on some gaming laptops. The noise at idle is not very loud, but it's definitely audible and it's always there. For reference, when I was using it in the dining room and the refrigerator compressor kicked in, the refrigerator about 20 ft away was louder than the laptop fan right in front of me. And the refrigerator is something I hardly ever notice. But when I'm working in the den or bedroom where it's quiet, the idle fan noise is definitely always there. I can see how that can be annoying to some people; it's actually a little annoying for me as well.

During gaming they ramp up and are audible during the game, but at a fairly reasonable level I think. You can turn up the game sounds scary loud (see speakers below) to drown them out, but as always if you want pristine sound you're gonna have to use headphones.

The keyboard has a nice feel. Not mushy like most chicklet keyboards, yet not clicky like a regular keyboard. It's a nice in between. The font takes some getting used to. I knew the Windows key was moved to the right and was prepared for that. But the space bar and left alt are shifted slightly to the left, which throws off some of my alt-key combos. I frequently switch between a regular keyboard and my laptop, so I'm not sure this is something I'll be able to get used to. I keep hitting space instead of alt. I'm gonna try it a few more days, but this issue is big enough for my work productivity that I may end up returning it.

I haven't had problems with the trackpad, but I almost never do. Guess I have good fingers for the capacitive sensors or something. I did try pairing a bluetooth mouse with it and it would always stop working within a couple minutes. I dug around, found the power save option for bluetooth, and turned it off. It's worked fine ever since. Though I do worry that someone who didn't know this option existed could waste days trying to figure out why their BT devices keep dropping out.

The screen is really, really nice. It is close to or hits 100% sRGB; compares well with my old Sony laptop whose screen nearly covered Adobe RGB. And the matte surface... I've been forced to use glossy screens for so long I'd forgotten how nice matte screens were. I'm running it at about 40% brightness in the office, bump it up to 50%-70% when gaming. So it's plenty bright. 10% is usable on battery, though 20% is a more comfortable minimum (0% is not off like most laptops I've used - AFAIK there is no way to manually turn the backlight off).

The speakers are really, really good for laptop speakers. I've read a few complaints about them here so I felt I had to comment. The volume is just fine. I usually run them at around 22% loudness. In a quiet room I'll drop them to about 16% else it feels too loud (but then fan noise starts to become an issue). The complaint I'd read that they could barely hear a movie at 100% over the fan noise was probably because the movie was improperly encoded. When you rip a DVD or Blu-ray, the default soundtrack is 5.1. You have to re-encode it properly for stereo speakers. If you don't, it ends up too quiet because most of the sound is being sent to speakers which don't exist. With a properly encoded video, I could watch movies on this all day with the speakers at 20%-30%, maybe 50%-70% if a bunch of us were watching. 100% is loud enough it's actually uncomfortable if I'm sitting in front of the laptop using it.

This is the first laptop I've used where I feel the Creative sound field software really works. I'm gaming and it really does sound like some of the sounds are coming from off to the left or right outside the laptop, not just where the left or right speakers are within the laptop. The enhanced left/right separation really helps me locate things in the game based on where the sound is coming from. Previously, I could only get that when using headphones.

Wifi... it works reasonably well nearby my router (in my living room). But I took the laptop up to the bedroom last night (opposite corner of the house), and the wifi reception began to get flaky. Signal strength was reported as 3 bars while connecting, 5 bars while connected. But (1) it couldn't detect the 5 GHz band, (2) refused to connect at n and would only connect at g, (3) g speeds would fluctuate between 33 Mbps to 1 Mbps. Yes, 1 Mbps. When it worked, it worked; but when it didn't it was unusable. I happen to have a repeater upstairs for my TV antenna (hooked up to a HD Homerun, which wasn't being used at the time so wasn't transmitting), and I was forced to connect to that. It happily gave me 130 Mbps n speeds despite the double-hop. But this is definitely weaker wifi performance than my old laptop.

I have not tried the wifi patch yet, nor played with undervolting or changing the fan profiles. I'm still undecided if I'm going to keep this, and don't want to mess with anything that affects how the hardware works. I pretty much love most of the things about the laptop. The only minor minuses are the idle noise and wifi flakiness. But the left-alt being offset may be a deal breaker for me.

 

Hello,

I got my GS60 (i5 and gtx860m) today. Design is really nice (after solving the fan problem I will write a short Review), but the fan noise (idle) is a shame!!! I need some help in reducing the fan speed.
Temperatures in idle are arround 39-42 degree celcius.

What are my possibilities to reduce the fan noise/speed in idle? Which Software should I use?

/edit: Can someone explain the fan control software by pherein?
-> what is the max temp for Setting fan to 0? 47 degree of celcius?
-> when temp is just for 1s higher than 47 degree of celcius fan is kicked on for just 1 to 5 seconds, that is really annoying! Maybe someone can help me with this.

 

You have two choices that are both discussed extensively in the previous pages; use the software method that ti20n came up with:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/742589-msi-gs60-ghost-ghost-pro-thread-133.html#post9643753
It's free, and he put a lot of work figuring this method out, but it does requires more work on your end and doesn't "stick" permanently, so you'll need to reapply regularly as he discusses in follow up posts. (ti20n, correct me if I misspoke here)

Or, I used this method with great success:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/742589-msi-gs60-ghost-ghost-pro-thread-104.html#post9633835
Advantages are it's very simple using Svet's tool, and it always works as desired, ie it's permanent and sticks until you decide to reflash the EC. This is the set it and forget it option, but it does require a $20 donation to Svet to access this tool he developed.

Good luck whichever way you go, I've been very pleased with the lower fan speed.

 

I think if you do Step 8 you dont have to reapply the fan settings

 

Based on his post here after using his method a bit, he added:

"Sorry I was wrong. Another difference is that the EC has 3 fan profiles -- each of them gets pulled live whenever the Windows power profile changes (plugged, unplugged, and a 3rd one). So using software means you have to remember to apply the EXE again if you happen to plug or unplug. Otherwise EC defaults just get restored. "

http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/742589-msi-gs60-ghost-ghost-pro-thread-137.html#post9645663

The only way for the fan speeds to "stick" I'm aware of is to flash the EC with your desired settings in my second link. If you notice in my pics I posted, when you modify the EC table using Svet's tool, you are changing all three tables ti20n is referring to.

Not taking anything away from ti20n's method, it's a fine option, it just isn't a simple set and forget thing using his software approach.

 

Thanks!

MSI - That is a shame! If you spend more than 1200€, you expect a really nice notebook without fan problems. My fans are spinning in idle every 60 seconds for about 2-5s (out of the box), that's such a shame!!! I really hope to find a solution, otherwise I will return the gs60.

 

Ah, damn, yeah resetting it all the time would get real annoying.
I tried following your second link but it led me to some post saying that his tool doesnt support the 870m yet. which doesnt make sense.. maybe I went to the wrong place

 

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4700HQ,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-16H2 is there a mod for the bios? or am i just doing something wrong compared to other people o.o

 

The fans are not a "problem". They are designed to keep such a high speed and high performance computer cool. Also it is such a fast machine in a super thin chassis, the fans have to run to keep it cool. I can sit in a hotel room and at idle the fans are hardly audible over ambient noise.

 

You can get the info for his tool here:
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=148273.0

It's a dual purpose tool, it will both modify vBIOS and EC files... since the 860/870m's are so new, it doesn't support them yet, but it does already support modifying the EC file that controls both the CPU and GPU fans. I've talked to him about support for out GPU's and he is investigating, feel free to drop him a line over on the link above, I'm sure the more interest he sees in adding support for our vBIOS the quicker he will work on it.

At the moment though, to be clear, his tool does not support modifying our GPU settings, only modifying our EC file that controls both fan speeds/temps.

 

I completely agree they aren't a "problem", but they also don't need to run anywhere near as fast as they do out of the box when doing basic desktop/office activity. When gaming, absolutely, let them run and keep everything cool, but when sitting in a meeting or in a quiet office, they shouldn't be as loud as they are as the CPU doesn't need to run in the 30C's.

Luckily, for those that are bothered by the idle/low use fan speeds, there are simple solutions.

 

Really thinking of getting the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro-052 (stock configuration). I'm wondering how long it'll ship after payment is processed? What's the best place to buy a MSI? I'm considering XoticPC. Anyone know how long they take without any customizations to your order?

 

So I received my new GS60 Pro last night and I was having intermitied backlight flickering and black horizontal lines flicker randomly on my screen. Very sad I did get a video of it and started the SLOW rma process. Well today after work I still have the laptop because my my retailer is really slow and i can't ship it back yet. I had left it in my car all day because i thought i could ship it back today and well using the laptop after work the screen has not given me any issues. My car is Black on Black and it was quite hot out today so my car basicly became a oven. So after a light bake it seemed to correct the issue?!? Do you think i should continue the SLOW rma process and be with out this awesome rig for a bit, or sould i be safe now???

 

I would wait it out. You have a year long warranty at least. You're more likely to wait for a replacement now than in a few months time as MSI is prioritising on backlogging requested orders. Only send it back if the problem persists.

 

I am with-in a 15 day exachage period that would probally take 2 weeks to get thou. sorry forgot to menchan that i am doing this thou where I bought the laptop. Which hasen't been a pleasent exprenice so far

 

regarding these temps... I just bought my gs60 ghost with the same specs. What do you guys think the lifetime of the laptop will be if I play demanding games like bf4, crysis, etc on a regular basis. Not like 24/7, but intend to game heavily on the go. I need it to last me like 4-5 years through college. Will this laptop survive that long under these stressful temps? I need to know cause I dont wanna put down around 1800 bucks only for it to die out on me after a couple years. Also, thanks a ton to this forum, it has helped me so much regarding my decision to buy this laptop

 

It'll survive but don't expect it to run modern games on max in two years. Gaming laptops tend to be bad price/performance but hopefully made up for by accessibility.

 

You should discuss it with your the store you bought it from. Find out how long the process takes, how many they have in stock and base your decision on that.

 

I'd go ahead and swap it out now for a new one from the place of purchase... if it's broken, it's broken and the problem will resurface. Might as well do it now instead of having to deal with MSI directly in the future, which can be hit or miss on service/time.

 

Great! As long as I can run future games decently well (i.e medium) and at a higher res than the console peasants I'll be fine ha. As long as it can survive lol. Thanks again.

 

Has anyone had success getting the wireless card to do over 5mbit download? After playing with every settings imaginable, nothing helps it go higher only lower.
Plugging in a USB card immediately shows 25mbit.

Unless I am missing something this card is complete garbage.

 

Are you referring to something like speedtest.net or actual download speed? I get 30Mbps+ on Speedtest.net, and when downloading from Steam I average 3.8-4.0 MB/S.

My internet connection is a 30Mb plan from Time Warner Cable.

I'd check your router if you aren't getting proper speeds. I'm using the wifi card as it's setup out of the box, simply entered my network details. I get similar internet speeds on both 2.4 and 5.0 ghz networks.... it reports the connection to wifi router at 866.7 Mbps when connected to [email protected].

 

Does that go for the 870 model too? I still haven't decided but luckily the shop agreed to hold the machine for me a couple of days longer. I have seen it in person now and like the feel and looks of it (the keyboard seems to be a bit gimmicky with its funky font). However, I'm still debating if heat (and thus general lifetime) and fan noise are a deal breaker. Problem is, that once I buy it I can't return it to the shop, ifthe fan noise bothers me for instance. They have a you buy it, you keep it policy, unless there's something seriously broken.
This dilemma's killling me...

 

I was referring to speedtest.net and have you failed to read "Plugging in a USB card immediately shows 25mbit." ?
It obviously has nothing to do with the router.

 

bump

Anyone ??

 

Not sure if this would be relevant at all since I ordered an AW 18 from them yesterday but without customization I'm looking at 4 weeks.

 

When I spoke with A-Gear notebooks, they said a stock system should usually ship out within 2-3 days. I'm only reordering with XoticPC since I already paid for a Sager that I'm now returning under RMA and the 30 day return/refund policy. Wonder why XPC takes so long!

 

Yes, I can confirm that the fan issues disappear if you use either method to either set the fan to 44% (down from 48%), or even 0% at idle (with increased hysteresis to space out the fan On vs Off periods).

Cons of the software approach: requires applying the fan control at boot and every time you plug/unplug the power cord. For boot i use Startup folder, but haven't figured out a way to automate the latter.

Cons of the EC flashing approach: needs to be redone whenever upgrading to a newer EC, costs $, and does not support increasing hysteresis yet (I notified Svet to add that register).

 

I'm still in the same considerations like you
This device definitely has its attractiveness and charm.

May i ask, why you aren't given the right of return?
Don't know where you are from, but in germany (and i'm sure in most other countries as well) you have the right of rescission.
So i don't know if it's even legal to deny you the possibility of return...?
In my opinion you should consider to change the shop and going for a seller, who guarantees you your right of return!

If you are really interested in this notebook, i think there is nothing to be said against buying it.
You did your homework with researching and asking questions about this laptop and watching reviews.
There is nothing more that you can do. So i would say, just go for it and test it out.
If you take good care of the device and have the willing to keep it, unless these issues still make you worry after testing it yourself, it's legitimate to make demands on your right of rescission.

Of course, it would be very appreciated if you would share your results out of the box and for comparison your results with undervolting (without underclocking) on the gpu and cpu, if you intend to do those optimizations.

 

If you're buying stock, why not just go with newegg, b&h our another big shop? They'll probably have it in stock and ship faster. I'd think the advantage of xotic, hidevolution, gentech are their customizations (that are covered by warranty) = e.g. RAID 0 SSDs, pasting, etc. IMO, xotic has a better return policy (no restocking fee), whereas the other 2 charge 15%. On the other hand, I know xotic is out of stock of 052s, not to mention their payment processing is incredibly, painfully slow (took me 3 business days + 2 weekend days to process a payment that takes 2 seconds on Amazon!!!) Also, I think gentech has them in stock.

 

And obviously you haven't done much research on the AC 7260; there are multiple posts in this thread and multiple threads over in the networking section of this site with people having problems with this card and certain routers and/or driver versions.

Just because whatever "USB card" you are "plugging in and immediately show 25mbit" works well with your router doesn't mean there isn't an issue with your router and the AC 7260.

You asked "Has anyone had success getting the wireless card to do over 5mbit download?" The answer is yes, and it didn't require any special settings.

The Intel AC 7260 is unfortunately known to be a bit picky with routers, that's why I suggested investigate there. Also, try these beta drivers for the card MSI released:

MSI Global GS60 2PC Ghost

 

These models are in pretty high demand and from what I understand sold out everywhere you go. Just shot you an email not too long ago letting you know we got a shipment the other day that knocked out the mass majority of our waitlist and pending our next delivery which should be arriving soon. Just waiting on your Sager credit for the time being before we can get more steadfast information for your particular timeframe.

 

ordered from xoticPC on april 11th, - they charged my card on the 17th, they just got it in stock for me 3 weeks later (with an est 2-3 weeks before shipping). If you're going to buy from them, get the rushed production - otherwise the rushed production people will cut in front of your place in line since they only get about 25 machines/shipment.

In their defense, it's pretty much sold out wherever you look (including newegg)