MSI GS60 Ghost/ Ghost Pro Thread

http://imgur.com/ycwmSlR

That's mainly about it.

 

Has anyone tried updating their drivers using the 2QE drivers on a 8XX nvidia version? I'm wondering about the SCM, Dragon Center? I just wonder if I should go to the latest or if I should stay iwth the one that they have listed as supporting the 2PE version on 8.1 64.

http://www.msi.com/support/nb/GS60-2PE-Ghost-Pro.html#down-utility&Win8.1 64
http://www.msi.com/support/nb/GS60-6QE-Ghost-Pro.html#down-utility&Win10 64

 

Has anyone received the Skylake model of this unit yet?

I have been wanting to get either this unit or the Gigabyte P35X when it gets refreshed with Skylake. I really like the MSI unit more, but I had decided on the P35X because the MSI had abysmal battery life for simple word/excel/email/web browsing. But I just saw this new review on the Skylake model showing comparable battery life in a range that I find acceptable: http://www.kitguru.net/laptops/zardon/msi-gs60-6qe-ghost-pro-4k-laptop-review/20/

If you look at the last reviews that the site did for older GS60's, the battery life is just as reported by other sites:

http://www.kitguru.net/laptops/zardon/msi-gs60-2pe-ghost-pro-15-6-inch-laptop-review/20/
http://www.kitguru.net/laptops/zardon/msi-gs60-ghost-pro-3k-2qe-review-gold-w-gtx970m/19/

Can Skylake really be that much bigger of an improvement to DOUBLE the battery life even though the capacity has been cut by 10%? The engineer side of me says that this is to good to be true and this guy borked the tests but the salivating-over-a-sexy-laptop side of me wants to believe this and not wait for the P35X refresh.

Anyone with a Skylake model able to attest to such battery performance?

 

Yeah, the GS60 is not made to be off the grid for any amount of time. It's just a convenient modular COOL running workstation on demand. There's nothing like it in quality, performance, cool temps, and reliability. Anything else is unacceptable. Good luck on your purchase based on battery time! The combination of all the other variables blow battery time in the garbage. I'd look at portable batteries before I'd consider a compromise, but everyone has their own constraints.

 

He reports 2 hour gaming, 3.5 multimedia and 5.5 business use no?
How's that double, was it less before?!

I'm still wondering about this or the new XPS.
New XPS has similar battery (slightly better) if you opt for 2.5 inch bay.
If you go for no 2.5 inch bay then its battery is much larger.

960M - but should help with cooling? And eGPUs should finally be coming out.

Far better display?

Is this still using the much derided Samsung panel with mustard yellows?

 

Yea I realize its not made for crazy off the grid usage, I know that any sort of horsepower will require to get to an outlet but I was hoping to be able to use it 4 hours or so for light work like office applications and web browsing. That's why P35X seems like the best blend of what I am looking for.

The business figure is what I am looking at as it is in line for what usage type I am hoping the battery will last for a decent time under. If you read any past reviews of the GS60 line on that review site, they show about 2.2 hours on battery under their "Business" load. For the Skylake model this has jumped to 5.5. Which is why I am questioning. That's the perfect battery life I'd be looking for under productivity tasks but its also double what last generation for a 10% smaller battery which is highly unbelievable.

 

2.2 hours for business load :|

Man that's bad.

I'd say 5.5 is believable.

I didn't check the past reviews, sorry.

Here's a review of the old model I read:
http://www.ultrabookreview.com/7942-msi-gs60-ghost-pro-4k-review/

Oh yeah, that's also staggeringly low.

Skylake is more efficient I believe, but yeah, perhaps that's a mistake.

I think I'm going to get the new XPS.

eGPUs will be available next year I think, making the lack of 970M in the XPS less of a deal breaker.

Yeah I think your concern with that review is right. Too positive really.
And they never picked up on the display issue?

 

I'll believe 5.5 hours when I see it. Haswell and Broadwell got about 3 hours for me and were heavily influenced by the screen used(4k vs FHD vs 3k). The reality is it's a quad core processor and a "small" battery so unless they changed either, the battery life isn't going to be all that much improved. The CPU model they chose has a TDP of 45 Watts, just like the previous generations, and has no cTDP down option. From that fact alone, I just don't see how battery life is supposed to nearly double. Gaming processors just aren't built for battery savings - they're built for power.

 

Hi all! I've been following this thread for a couple of weeks, and finally decided to sign up after I got my hands on the 4K Skylake GS60 6QE today.

Having read about the issues with the previous 4K panels, I wasn't too keen on buying one, until I read that the new version supports 60Hz instead of 48Hz.

This is correct. The model I received worked at 60Hz and the screen looked pretty good. It wasn't until I loaded up Skype that I noticed the emoticons were a really gross looking mustard instead of the correct yellow. The only way to fix this was to change the colour settings to the "office" mode, which then makes everything else look too blue.

I also found out that the model I received had a 3GB 970m instead of the 6GB one that it was advertised with. Apparently the 6GB version is not available yet (at least from the UK site I purchased from anyway).

Because of these two issues I've sent it back and ordered the FHD version (also using the 3GB 970m), as I actually like the rest of the laptop. Having had a play with the display settings I think that 4K on a 15.6" screen is overkill anyway, so I'm not sure why MSI would bother to use the same rubbish panels again instead of using lower resolution panels with better colours.

I was still impressed by the gaming performance, both The Witcher 3 and MGSV: The Phantom Pain looked great and ran pretty well, though expect to have to run medium/low settings to get a solid 60fps@1080p with the Witcher.

Build quality seems good, the only exception being that the plastic running along the back doesn't look as good as the rest of the machine, but nothing I'm too bothered about as it's only something you notice when the machine is not in use.

One last thing to mention was that while I was just on the desktop the CPU fan was running around 2800rpm most of the time, however it would occasionally stop, even when the processor was in use and heating up, then it would suddenly start at 3500-4000rpm before slowing down again. I have not idea what was causing this and changing the "shift" profiles didn't seem to make any difference.

 

Hi Ap0plexy, thanks for chiming in! What sort of battery life were you getting for productivity work?

I'm thinking of getting the FHD version if I can get 4-5 hours on that for browsing/productivity work.

 

I didn't get a chance to do any work on it, so I can't really answer that one I'm afraid.

I'll be getting the FHD version soon, so I'll be able to give you a rough idea about battery life in the next few days.

 

I'll update my post on how the 6th Gen GS60 is, but where should I download all the drivers for this laptop? I remember reading here that I shouldn't download them from the MSI site or something?

 

Maybe not the nvidia driver because it's usually out of date. The rest should be fine.

 

Awesome, thanks for replying quick too.

 

My 4k -053 should be here tomorrow. Pretty stoked, wish Fallout 4 would be out then, too!

 

Hi, I just bought the new gs60 ghost pro 4K with i7 6th generation and gtx 970m 6gb
I was playing csgo with 720p resolution, settings in medium, disabled vsync and I'm not getting even 200 fps (using net_graph to check it)
Does any one knows if it's normal?
Does anyone plays csgo with nice fps (I was expecting 250/300 fps) can share the configuration?

Thank you!

 

Have you updated the Nvidia driver to the latest version?
You should be able to get 100+ easily.
Additionally, be sure to turn off VSync and any fps limiting factors.

 

It's already updated, I turned off everything including vsync and change the power mode to maximum performance :/

 

What is the fps you were getting?

 

I get 180 but the fps constantly drops to 130.

Do you think that all MSI stuffs that runs to keyboard for example could be coursing that ?

My Intel graphics card crashed in my first usage and my pc restarted and when I press on the side of the display it makes a noise like it's not properly sealed. I was thinking in replace it but I don't know.

 

Update BIOS, and EC first because they may have impact.
Also, update the Intel HD Graphics driver to the latest too.

 

Anyone know how to get the Bluetooth on the GS60 Skylake to work? I downloaded the drivers and it can detect my Xperia everytime, but it cant detect my headphones..which is starting to annoy me.
I don't want to system restore it because I JUST finished installing everything i needed...what do i do.

EDIT: Factory Reset it & nothing. Still doesn't detect my headset... I can use a bluetooth dongle but that's annoying seeing as how the laptop already has bluetooth

 

Here's the latest BT Win10 driver (10.0.0.128), please try it.
http://rivetnetworks-public.sharepoint.com/SiteAssets/K1525-BT_10.0.0.128_Win10.zip

 

I did, still not working. I'll just use a wire for it. It doesnt seem to pick up my headset. Thanks anyway

 

Have you tried pairing it with your phone instead?

 

Howdy all.

So what was the final opinion on this. I'm about to do a windows 10 clean install on my GS60 2QE (4th Gen Haswell). I'm thinking I'll go ahead and use the windows 10 drivers from the GS60 2QE (5th Gen Broadwell) page.

 

They've already released Win10 drivers for 2QE, see below.
http://www.msi.com/support/nb/GS60-2QE-Ghost-Pro-4K-5.html#down-driver&Win10 64

 

Anyone with a 970 using dual monitors? I play on my laptop screen and watch netflix/youtube/twitch on a TV (1080p res) but this causes some stuttering on my games (windowed and fullscreened). I'm using an hdmi connection.

I can handle lower FPS but it's the stuttering that kills the experience. I've tried a variety of different settings and googled a lot but so far nothing seems to work. Is there a specific configuration or particular driver I should be using?

 

Could be the cable

 

Do you mean you play at the same time as watching videos on the second screen?

In such case some performance degradation should be expected (e.g. stuttering can indicate memory swapping due to not enough available VRAM).

Even "cheap" 2D things like video playback take GPU resources (VRAM and bandwidth), so then "expensive" things like 3D game has less to work with. Even simply just having extra screen connected with nothing else than Windows desktop takes extra resources.

If you want to minimize impact of extra screen, try doing things in a way that minimize impact on GPU use:

• use smaller resolution of screen (both primary and secondary)
• use smaller resolution of videos
• use hardware decoding whenever possible (if you watch videos in browser, try using other browsers, different browsers may request videos with different codecs from exactly the same website; if you watch videos in native media player application, try finding in setting how to use Nvidia / Intel hardware decoders, often these are not used by default)
• if you use browser / media player, try setting it to run on Intel GPU or Nvidia GPU to see if it makes any difference
• make sure not to have too many things running at once (close everything except your game + whatever you do on that second monitor)
• sometimes reboot can help too, some programs may not clean up after themselves properly so they keep taking resources even after they get closed

 

Please help! I bought the skylake version of this laptop, when I try to game with the power plugged in the wifi drops out, however if I game with the power out it's fine (ofc the in game performance is not the same).

I have tried changing power management settings etc and nothing helps, I'm thinking that it's a power routing problem, when it's plugged in the increased power consumption of the gpu, cooling etc causes the wireless card to power down and become unstable ?

 

I would either contact msi for tech support or exchange it. I seriously doubt it's a design glitch considering this design is close to two years old

 

Those are for the 5th Generation, still nothing for the 4th Generation. Chipset etc seem different.

 

Yeah it pairs with my phone, and now my headset. It works now xD.
Does anyone's GS60 skylake have fan noise for no reason? It seems that only one fan is running on mine and making noise the moment it turns on.. I pressed the Dragon Gaming Center thing and it shows only one fan running constantly. It wasnt like that when I first bought it.

Also Is there also anyway that MSI can detect what drivers or BIOS updates i need? My XPS was a lot easier in that sense and it was easy to update everything.. I factory reset it and havent done much with it since

 

Correct, but most of the drivers will still work, and chipset driver contains Skylake INFs.

Code:

<!-- Source: production\W2K12R2-x64\skylakeSystem.inf\skylakeSystem.inf -->
<PCIInfo deviceID="1900" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="1901" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="1905" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="1909" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="190F" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="1910" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="1911" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="191F" vendorID="8086"/>
-<Image version="10.1.1.8" type="DRVR">
<file>production\W2K12R2-x64\skylakeSystem.inf\skylakeSystem.inf</file>
<file>production\W2K12R2-x64\skylakeSystem.inf\Skylake.cat</file>
</Image>
</Device>
-<Device componentID="5907">
<!-- Source: production\W2K12R2-x86\skylakeSystem.inf\skylakeSystem.inf -->
<PCIInfo deviceID="1900" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="1901" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="1905" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="1909" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="190F" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="1910" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="1911" vendorID="8086"/>
<PCIInfo deviceID="191F" vendorID="8086"/>
-<Image version="10.1.1.8" type="DRVR">
<file>production\W2K12R2-x86\skylakeSystem.inf\skylakeSystem.inf</file>
<file>production\W2K12R2-x86\skylakeSystem.inf\Skylake.cat</file>

 

Does this model uses Hybrid Power as the GE62?

 

So is their more than one model number (other than GS60 6QE) for the Skylake Ghost Pros? I am looking for one for sale in the US, but the laptops available on XoticPC, Amazon, etc have different model numbers. I just want to make sure that one that I pick up is equivalent to the one reviewed by Kitguru here: http://www.kitguru.net/laptops/zardon/msi-gs60-6qe-ghost-pro-4k-laptop-review/

It sounds like a lot of the issues with the previous generation GS60s (4K screen quality, heat, and noise) have been eliminated. Can any owners of the Skylake models confirm this?

 

There's only one 4K model for the US region, see below.
GS60 Ghost Pro 4K-053
http://us.msi.com/product/nb/GS60-Ghost-Pro-4K-6th-Gen-GTX-970M.html

 

Great, thanks for clearing that up. Does this model use the updated 60hz 4K panel, or is it 48hz one used in the previous generation?

EDIT: One more question: is the USB 3.1 port on the new GS60 Thunderbolt 3? If not, what is the difference? Thanks.

 

Thunderbolt 3 = USB- C.

 

Should be 60hz on the new GS60 4k 053. Previous models were 48hz

 

The panel is the same as before, but they got it working at 60Hz this time.
It has 1x USB 3.1 (type-C) port but not Thunderbolt.

 

Are you absolutely sure about that? My Skylake GS60 came with the Thunderbolt software already installed, so I assumed it did.

 

Well then what is the difference? Does vanilla USB 3.1 have the same transfer rate? Really my only concern here is future eGPU viability.

Regarding the panel, every review I have read of the new GS60 4K says the screen is MUCH better, so whatever Samsung (or MSI) did to straighten things out clearly worked. Now if only they could do something about that dragon logo...

 

There were already two owners of new Skylake MSI GS60 with 4K screens confirming that it still has yellow issues:

So far it seems it's the same screen as before, just now clocked at 60 Hz instead of 48 Hz. Somebody else mentioned MSI just solved issue that was preventing higher refresh rate, not exchanged the screen.

There are better 4K screens out there but they are more expensive so MSI is still just cheaping it out (e.g. some Clevo resellers had options for selecting those better non-PenTile screens for extra charge).

 

That is disappointing. The Kitguru review had a discussion in the comments where someone asked about the screen yellowing, and the reviewer replied saying that he did not notice any color accuracy issues. Guess he just didn't look close enough

 

Yup, I have seen that discussion. Maybe it's a subjective thing - some people are bothered, some don't notice.

There were color perception tests flying around the web, different people can see colors quite differently. Especially quite a lot of men are color blind and some are not even aware of it (~8% males are colorblind, probably more with subtler color perception deficiencies).

 

I've ordered my GS60 6QE with 2k screen from America (located in China atm.) but the more I read about this new version the more worried I get.

It's good it has the new features like the Super Port and stuff but MSI is seriously cutting costs on build quality.

What I can see from pictures and videos from the internet the keyboard in the 6QE version has seriously been downgraded to cheap clear plastic keys without the nice curve the old ones had. They decided we needed more christmas lights, and found a way to decrease building costs at the same time. They reviews about the keyboard went from one of the best keyboards in the market to an above average one.. why MSI.. WHY?

And what about the bottom plate? In previous models it was made from magnesium if I'm not mistaken. Why did they make it plastic? this takes away the luxury feel of it bigtime.

And last but not least, why did they remove one m.2 slot? The previous versions all got 2 slots. The full HD version only comes with a 128GB SSD which is obviously not enough.. hello it's 2015.. a modern game is at least 50-60gb in size.. So now I have to replace this 128GB and I can't really sell it yet.. because almost nobody has use for it yet since there is really no need to upgrade to Skylake really.. so no Z170 or X99 chipset means no NVME.. no market.

Things where very good as they where for the 2k version,, just needed the last Intel update..


I think these choices are quite foolish for a $1700 costing laptop..

Can anyone comment on these things that has the 6QE version him or herself?

 

I think there is also an issue of expectation. If you know there is a problem, it will be glaringly obvious to you, but if you are not looking for it, you may never notice. I had an HP Envy 15 years ago with a similar screen-yellowing issue. Had I not known about it prior to purchasing, I probably would have gone a long time before I picked up on it. Instead, it would bug me every time even a small icon's color looked off. Really tainted the experience for me. I'd like to avoid that issue again if I could...