MSI GS60 Ghost/ Ghost Pro Thread

Any good/bad experiences with Excalibur PC? They are offering this on Amazon for 2049$. I see Newegg offering for 1999$ but they have a hefty restocking fee. Excalibur website says 15% if it is returned. I would love to buy it from Amazon directly they have the BEST return policy but they do not offer this yet.

 

1) Subscribe to Newegg Premier for $50 (You might qualify for their free 30 day trial)
2) Order laptop
3)....
4) Profit! (Or send it back with free return shipping and waived restocking fee)
5) Get a year of free shipping and waived restocking fees to abuse.

I did this before I ordered a Y510P and was glad I did because I couldn't send it back fast enough.

 

Ok guys, I'm going to edit my first post to add the useful links like mods and download links. Please Copy/ Paste those links for me and I will get right to it. Thanks.

 

HTML:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCcQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnet.com%2Fproducts%2Fmsi-gs60-2pe-ghost-pro-4k-edition%2F&ei=YxyPU53bKOis7QaQiYDYAw&usg=AFQjCNFIUW5etdZiVk9eFnNFwTS6DcQ-9Q&sig2=YS_3ZBKGxprQSCo0ftT6NQ&bvm=bv.68235269,d.ZGU

Interested to see how the 870m will be able to handle this at native. Just cancelled my pre-order for the 3k version

 

Update on wifi issues.
I've installed a a Netgear WN2000RPT, a wifi N range extender previously owned and it works well enough for the moment with my Linksys modem router.

For anybody looking for an MSI product in Italy I suggest asking to AK Informatica, they're really one of the best hardware supplier I've ever met, the owner was on holyday but he found the time to answer my emails and even opening a assistance ticket directly with MSI taiwan to ask them if thy're working on this problem.

 

I have fios, I should be getting my gs60 this week. I'll test it and let you know when it comes.

 

Gaming at 3k vs 1920x1080 with a 870m drops fps by x amount (i forget what x is exacly) im guessing gaming at 4k vs 3k will have a similar fps loss. So it games like bf4 you might be able to do low settings..... Though.. If they put in this fabled 6gb 870m then itll do way better. But as of now in my opinion the 870m isnt strong enought to game in 4k.

 

3 more gigs of vram aint gone help the 870m much if you wana game in 4k

 

What VRAM is needed for maximum settings and 4K? - Overclockers UK Forums

Here's some pretty good benchmarks, this guy is monitoring the vram usage while 4k gaming.. Some games draw over 4gigs so it's better to have more than 2-3gigs. I'm not sure what the performance hit would be though if you only have 3gigs.

 

talking about the 870m with a 4k display (very specific) else it might help if you have a better gpu and stuff

 

At the rate MSI is updating these GS60's, I'm getting excited for a Maxwell/Broadwell/4K refresh in a few months!! :thumbsup:

Only a matter of time! I'll definitely upgrade for that.

 

Man, I don't even have my gs60 yet, the thought of upgrading again blows my mind.

 

by the way whats the max stable undervolt on CPU someone has reached with stock clock?

 

Anyone figure out how to set the keyboard backlighting to always stay on a custom setting? Mine always boots to the Steelseries rainbow default and I need to manually set the keyboard lighting on each boot.

 

Have you tried saving your changes to your own profile? It should default to that profile on start.

 

Not sure I follow. I open the steelseries software, change the default to reflect what I want, press save, and it creates a new custom color scheme. It then boots to the original default each time. I do not see a steelseries option in my windows profiles settings.

 

New 17.0.3 driver is now out here
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/De...1, 64-bit*&DownloadType=Software Applications

dont get excited though I've installed and getting 10Mb (which is better than some speeds i've been getting). However i happen to have a BT dual band USB dongle lying around from when i got the new BT homehub 5 so plugged that in and gave it a whirl. Guess what USB gave me 30Mb, went back to built in card and it dropped back to 10Mb. This is repeatable, going to log with MSI tomorrow

 

Thanks be77solo. Always very helpful!

 

I'm about 20 feet from the router - I get nearly full strength signal. I've tried switching all of those settings, as well as the newest beta and regular drivers, but no luck. I switched my router to LEGACY mode and that gives me a stable (albeit slow and still some lag spikes) connection. Anything else and I'm disconnected while gaming every 10 mins or so, especially once it heats up.

 

Hi everybody!

Since v 506 EC firmware has been released by MSI, I updated my work for it for those interested.
Values are the exact same as before since I'am still currently pretty happy with.
Find the zip as attachment (this time, I included directly the modded EC into zip which contains original MSI files, so you just have to flash it using integrated winflash and as always don't forget to reset PIN hole!).

Enjoy! :thumbsup:

 

I'm thinking of buying a GS60 with the 3K screen but after reading some/many pages of this post I'm concerned about the overheating situation.
Any thoughts? Is this really a problem with this model?

Thanks!

 

Installed the modified EC and -75 downvolt vBIOS mod from Sen7inel and still getting 93 degrees and throttling. Any suggestions?

 

What's happening is the laptop runs hot and on some games that really push the laptop like bf4 it gets hot to the point where it "throttles" the performance. If you dont play games like bf4 you'd probably be fine and wouldn't notice it. Even when it throttles I'm unsure if it's that big of a deal. Then there is the question of what will happen in the future, like when the paste wears down or you get dust in the fans and it makes it run hotter. If you're really worried about heat it's best to go with the 860m

 

Since the topic came up again, I hope this is the right place to ask. I decided on the gs60 ghost pro but have been stuck on the option of getting the 3k version or not.

Im purchasing through xoticpc and after a 16GB ram upgrade, its just 70 buck more to get the 3k version and not have them crack the laptop open.

I wouldn't say im a hardcore gamer. Im likely to play games a couple years old than current. (Fallout, skyrim, RTS) All Gaming would be done at home on a cooling pad. I also don't see too much of a hassle scaling down to 1080. Did I see some people recommend that and a little anti-aliasing?

Its my school laptop and will be used for engineering (but not 3D design), so being able to fit more boxes of a spreadsheet with some added clarity is appealing to me.

It would also be my primary media hub. Generally I plug into my TV, but I spend a lot of time away from home.

For 70 bucks is the 3k worth it? Ive never had a matte display but I have heard wonderful things abkut the "ISP" display for the standard models.

 

It's pretty hard to say yes or no. A lot has to do with your eyesight. I know I personally wouldn't be able to handle a 3k display on a 15 machine, but if you turn the resolution down a bit below native I could see it being alright for number crunching. The catch is that scaling doesn't work so well currently and so even when doing so, you won't necessarily get the clarity you're looking for. If it's not going to stretch your means any, I'd say try to find a store that has one and test it out. Or you can take the plunge and get it, try it out, and if you like it then keep it. If not, that's what return policies are for.

 

Well I'm on backorder for the 3k version and now I'm strongly considering canceling to wait out the 4k version... Or even a 4k version with 6 gigs or more of vram, Maxwell, etc Might be a few months but I get the feeling I'm upgrading at a time when the laptop tech (especially thin gaming) is just coming into its own, particularly with the new uhd screens. It feels like a little patience right now might pay off big. Anyone feel similarly? Am I off base? Being silly?

 

Yeah, I know exactly how you feel, higher resolutions are deff coming in big this year. The way I see it though, It's so new it's going to take a year or 2 before we really get the tech to be able to really use those resolutions, especially for gaming.. Early adopting is always a pain in the ... hell we're already early adopting with getting ultrabook thin gaming laptops... One early adoption at a time is probably a safer way to go

 

True. I guess I'm torn because I'm one of those guys who only upgrades every six years or so, but when I do I prefer it to be to the cutting edge and with no big advances just on the horizon. I don't get that feeling right now. We went from almost nothing but fhd screens and one ultra thin company, to greater than fhd, to 4k screens with at least half a dozen brands strongly competing the ultra thin gaming laptop scene... In what, 18 months? I smell market disruption and it makes me hesitant to buy...

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

If you want to be on the cutting edge, yeah you deff want 4k, but then there is maxwell that is coming sometime and new broadwell processors coming at the end of the year so.. I wish I could wait a year..
And who knows by the end of the year they could say that 3d 4k monitors are coming soon.
There is always something new and exciting to wait for.

 

Haha true. Slippery slope. I think I'm backing of the ledge and I'll go through with the 3k. If within a year or two I regret it I'll just upgrade and sell. If my current laptop weren't literally falling apart I might not, but it is. 3k should still look brilliant and it has the advantage of probably being something the gpu can actually generally handle. So there's that.

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

I saw about 12 pages back or so, someone posted a picture of the bottom of their laptop, and it had a different material near the fans. Instead of being the magnesium it was more like a plastic, any details on that? Like doing the new us models come with that. I also read someone asking about getting the 4710 processor soon. I'm wondering what are the details on that. Will we be getting that or is that for something else?

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You pretty much nailed the current tech scenario exactly regarding slim gaming laptops... we are at the very end of the current Kepler GPU architecture as well as the end of Haswell for CPU's. By your post, if you truly wait six years between upgrades, I'd recommend waiting. Broadwell CPU's and the next generation Maxwell GPU's are both nice improvements (Maxwell much more so for gaming machines), and both will run cooler, faster, and use less power. 3K screens are now out with 4K available soon, but unfortunately the hardware just can't run everything on them fluently now, and definitely not a couple years down the road. Also, as posted above, Windows scaling still needs improvement on these new high res screens, as well as developers improving their own interfaces for software.

I upgrade machines basically once a year (it's a sick addiction ), so I jumped all over the GS60 back at the end of March and love it, but I did so knowing I'd only be using the machine for a year or so before I traded it in.... If my plan was to use 6 years and wanted any kind of hope of keeping up with modern games, I doubt I'd have jumped on board so quickly. It comes down to if you need a new machine or just want one at this time. We all know the revision with the next Maxwell GPU's/Broadwell CPU's/4K screen is a year or less away. Depends how patient you want to be Me, I'm not so good at it

 

This will be my third laptop and my first was in 2003. The first lasted a solid six but my current one dealt with constant trips, movement and rugged conditions, so it is looking at 5.5 right now. As a result bezel is falling off, much of the paneling has fallen off, the glue keeping the screen back attached to the back of the lcd panel wore ou and it flops freely, it takes several minutes to close it carefully enough to avoid breaking the hinges or smashing a piece of bezel between the screen and keys, corners are banged and dented.... It's a miracle that it runs.

I play only one game and it's the same game I've played for seven years: Dota/Dota 2. The game maxes out graphics fairly easily by today's standards (although my current laptop can't come close). As a result, the only other way to improve the visual experience is through screen quality. This is the reason I'm tempted to wait. If we are a stones throw from the next gen screen tech, should I just wait it out with my junktop a few months so that I can have the "new" standard for the only game I play for years to come... It's a tough call.

 

So is it safe to assume the GS60 is maxwell. I'm gonna order this today if it is. MSI GS Series GS60 Ghost Pro 3K-097 Gaming Notebook Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) 16GB Memory 1TB HDD 128GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M 3GB GDDR5 15.6" Windows 8.1 64-Bit - Newegg.com

 

No, all versions of the GS60 with either the 860 or 870 are the Kepler versions as documented numerous times in this 254 page thread.

 

Okay thank you. I should have looked more thoroughly.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Hi guys,

I received my GS60 3K-095 from NewEgg on Monday (after ordering it on Saturday night), but I was out of town until this morning so I had to wait to open it. Anyway, after spending most of the day getting it set up and configured, I thought to plug it into my Logitech Z-5500 system, except...unless I'm blind (and/or stupid)...there's no SPDIF port?!?

0_o

I'm coming from an Alienware m17xR3 and I was looking for an upgrade. But if the Ghost doesn't have an SPDIF port, that may very well be a deal breaker for me.

 

It isn't. It never has

Sent from my XT1058 using Tapatalk

 

So now its my internal debate on Lenovo Y50 or MSI GS60 with 860 or 870. Save a little money or not. I'm kind of concerned about heat though. I read its warm but not bad.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Actually, let me elaborate a bit. I've opened the Sound settings from within the Control Panel, and I see the Realtek Digital Output, but it's grayed out and says "not plugged in", despite having the SPDIF optical (with adapter) cable plugged into the laptop; it goes into the headphone jack, right?

My Alienware has 4 audio jacks; SPDIF, Mic and 2 Headphones. So I'm a little confused that there isn't at least one dedicated SPDIF port on the GS60. In cases like that, the headphone port usually supports both analog and optical, right?


I've also gone into the Realtek HD Audio Manager, and I see the "digital" button on the right, but I can't do anything with the button. I can just hover over it and see that it says "SPDIF-Out". Seems like there is some setting which needs to be enabled...somewhere?

 

The digital is likely for the audio that is passed through the HDMI port. They to make splitters to be able to split the audio off the HDMI port to an SPDIF connection, but it's probably not worth the effort. Viewhd Premium HDMI to HDMI RCA L R Toslink Audio Extractor Converter 2013 | eBay

 

Thank you for your reply. Everyone else is speaking on the same grounds I was debating with.

Im a 4-5 year person myself, and Ive never been one to look high end notebooks (over 800 bucks)
I have a galaxy note which has a 3k, which I think looks amazing with great depth, but at the same time, I have never had anything with 1080

If we were talking about 200 buck difference, then ya, hands down to the FHD Matte display, but were talking 70 bucks so everything becomes more enticing. Plus the 3K doesnt need to have any extra work as it already has the 16GB of RAM im looking at.

There is such a lack of information on the 3k variant (haven't even started looking though the few hundred pages of this forum alone)

Unfortunately I havent been able to find anywhere near me in Sacramento that has a 3k display. I was able to see the GS60 Ghost. and though the red MSI background looked great, but defiantly didn't have that "pop" of a glossy display.

The sub 2000 range is good for me, so im not too concerned with another update, as it will likely cost more. My only desire would be the updated GPU architecture, but I dont think its worth waiting several more months. Im coming from a 1st gen i5 with a 335M, so ill likely not even see a difference in the update.

Not to generate flame for not yet looking through all the pages, but does anyone have the 3k and care to share about it?

Thanks everyone!

 

Hello everyone, I'm a prospective buyer/user of the GS60 and I'm hoping I might have some of my questions answered to solidify my decision.

There were a lot of fuss about the 7260 wireless chips; do the issues still exist? Or have they been fixed by the latest firmware?

Also, the build quality: some end users have reported that, within weeks, their GS60 models have begun to break apart. How consistent are their accounts with respect to the greater pppulation of end users? I thought this thread may be an appropriate place to ask.

So many and countless thanks in advance

 

Not the case, but I appreciate the thought!


However...EUREKA!

Alright, so after scouring hundreds of links which were less than helpful, I finally came across the following:

SPDIF Port on My Laptop - Page 2 - [H]ard|Forum


"Realtek HD Audio Manager from the Control Panel.

There's a small folder icon in the top right. Click it and you can you are prompted with a single check box that, when checked, creates a popup when you plug something into one of the audio ports. I checked the box and next time I plugged in the mini Toslink cable, I was prompted to indicate what type of cable it was. I clicked SPDIF and bam, red light turns on. "

As soon as the pop up prompt came on, sure enough, the Realtek Digital Output in the Sound settings of the Control Panel was no longer grayed out.
Also, in the Realtek Audio Manager, I now have a tab at the top for Digital Output.

Suffice it to say, all is working. So far...

Now, to finish installing my games through Origin and Steam and see what this 3K screen can really do. Thanks guys.

 

Anyone else have their Ghost/GhostPro have the Blue/Red light flash constantly? Doesn't that mean the graphics cards are constantly switching? This is happening during regular, non-graphics demanding situations.

 

Why has msi used a kepler gpu on ghost series whereas they used maxwell for GE60 and 70. Shouldnt the ghost series better than Ge? It supposed to be like thin version of gt series.

Sent from my HTCSensation using Tapatalk

 

Have you got afterburner or any overclocking software running? That keeps the GPU awake.

Define better? The 870m is more powerful. The motherboard sports Kepler so the 860 or 870 can be used. I guess it's a different pin layout for for Maxwell. I'm not bothered though the 870m is brilliant!

 

Noo of course 870 is amazing. It is better than 860 maxwell but what about ghost laptops which use 860m? They could have put maxwell 860 and it would draw much less power and generate less heat and better than 860 kepler overall.

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It's due to the motherboard. They are soldered on and if one was kepler and one maxwell they'd have needed to do two different motherboards layouts.
Next year's gs60 will have maxwell and will be a monster I'm sure. All I can say is after some tweaking I've got no regrets and I love the laptop. Even the Mrs approves (but not at the amount of gaming I've done recently haha).

 

Hey guys,
I have an odd problem.

Untill a week ago or so I've used a bluetooth mouse without any issues. Then I switched to a cabled one. Now I'm trying to switch back to the bluetooth however the notebook's bluetooth is not working. Actually it's not good to say it's not working it simply doesn't exist. I cant find bluetooth under Settings/change pc settings/Pc and devices. In the device manager there is no such thing as bluetooth. When I customze the taskbar I can see a setting to show the bluetooth icon but ıt says it will be shown when it's on and now it isn't. The bluetooth light is off but when I start MSI SCM the light turns on(but still doesn't work). If I toglle it off from SCM I can't toggle it back on.

I tried reinstalling the Intel bluetooth driver didn't change anything. There is also something called chicony bluetooth here: MSI Global - Computer, Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Motherboard, Graphics and more 64 I tried installing that but it gives an error:" Confirm that bluetooth is enabled on your system. Plug your device and click ok."

I tried making an EC update but I doubt I was successful because I still can use the fan profile program that is given before on this thread.

Also under device manager, under "Universal serial bus controllers" I see "unknown usb device.(Device descriptor failed)" don't know if it can be related.

I hope it's not hardware related. What do you think it can be?