Msi Gt680 & Gx680

Intel hasn't helped the situation with their chipsets not supporting the IGP. It was understandable to leave out the IGP when it was on the chipset, and it was excusable when the first i7's didn't have an IGP, but to continue offering chipsets without IGP for a Sandy Bridge platform is just unreasonable.


That said, and given the current choices, I hope it is a P67 chipset in the GT680, since it increases the odds that there's also a P67 in the GT780, and that increases the chances of a dual GPU machine.

 

Whats the main difference between GT & GX? Which series will be more expensive? The starting price versions, will they have i7 or i5?

 

OooHHH---good suggestion! I hope that they bring the 3820TG cooling system to the 4820TG. Better yet, I hope they refresh the 3820TG and make it available to us Yanks.

Agreed. I wouldn't mind picking up an MSI if they decide to offer a switchable graphics solution

GT = Nvidia GPUs, GX = ATI GPUs. Fellow forumers, correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyhoo, either way, you can't go wrong. It all comes down to price and preference for brand, as most games do fine with either gpu brand. It's the CPU that we're really paying for in this case, imo (which should be fine to handle anything that the average consumer needs, especially since I've felt this way since the first-gen "core-I5/I7" cpu's came out.

 

Anyone know the release date for the GX680 or the GT680?

 

The GT680 should be next week, the GX680 nothing yet.

 

By the way, my review of the MSI GT680R is already online.

 

Now give an ETA for the G X780....and confirm it's got dual-GPU.

 

Looks good. Thanks for the information! Too bad it might not have Optimus though

 

Is there anyone who know what the price is gonna be? (Im mostly interested in the nvidia model though)

 

I've seen a pre-order base price of $1499.00 US on one of the notebook retailer sites.

 

Can't believe they kept the nVidia 460m in it...yuk.

 

Can you please explain to me why this is bad? Also would you guys say the ATI would preform better?

 

While it's a very good card, the 460m is older tech. There's talk of Radeon 69xx and 68xx and nVidia 5xx cards, so putting a 460m inside of a Sandy Bridge notebooks seems kind of blah.

 

While i dont disagree that would be ideal to have new hardware all around, the GTX460 does really well, specially in games like SC2 it really is more than enough, i can see in more demanding games it might struggle, but in most does fairly well, besides still no sign of 6970/6950 so manufacturers still need to sell their new laptops, i bet we will see refreshes with ATI new gpus.

I have a feeling that we might see GTX560m, Nvidia is preparing the release of their GTX560ti for january 25th, so after that i think nvidia is done with desktops for some time, and we might see new stuff coming for laptops, again just my guess, but im hopping to see a GTX560m in the near future.

 

Supposedly GT uses nVidia graphics, GX runs on ATI graphics.
That's what I heard.

 

What happened to the ExpressCard slot?
On MSI's website, the picture shows it has an ExpressCard.
But the specs say N/A.
http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GT680.html

Then drfelip's review say otherwise.

But other sites claim it has ExpressCard/54.

 

I now realize the picture of the left side I used in the review is not optimal to show that zone, but I have other pictures on my HD and the ExpressCard slot definitely is not there. But maybe it's going to be there in the final, commercial models.

 

thanks very much drfelip for the review... +1 rep!

In your review you mention that the keyboard flex is not too bad... that's something i was looking for as most of the previous MSI models had a good deal of keyboard flex in them.. is it improved over the GX660R or would you say its the same?

 

I saw that your review states a HM57 chipset, which supports the Sandy Bridge IGP. Hopefully MSI will come to their senses and offer Optimus.

 

I haven't tested any GX660/GT660, so I can¡t really compare... My guess is that the GT680R is using the same keyboard, but it's hard to tell. My hands aren't big and my style of typing is not particularly strong, so I'm probably quite tollerant with keyboard flex. It's quite subjective.

 

The guys at Notebookcheck have updated their review of the GX660, it seems the keyboard in the production units is quite good:

Review Update: MSI GX660R Gaming Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

Hey, is this actually true, the GT680 being shipped this week?
Also does anybody have an idea in what price range would this be sold in standard spec (i7 2630qm, GTX 460M ..) in Europe ?
Been eyeballing this particular model for a month now and it's killing me

 

Don't think there is any official confirmation yet but I would assume around the same as the entry of the GX660 ~1500.

 

MSI is stating approximately the 26th they will be in.

 

Any official release date for the US market?

 

The release date is now around the 2nd week of February for the GT680.

 

GT680R is already here today .

 

And it is already sold out.

Check out:

MSI Notebook Official Website

 

Not bad numbers, Ken.

How well does it overclock?

By the way, I'm looking at those temperatures. 11 minutes of Furmark and only 75C? Are you using the turbo fan?

 

Didn't know the GTX 460M was that weak...

 

That's true even after 1 h of Furmark + Prime95. I never saw the GPU go over 77ºC (I posted the link to my review earlier in the thread).

 

Haven't start to overclock yet but will try some games tonight.

I tried both with and without turbo fan the temperature was about the same.

 

anyone got the GT680 yet? whats the battery life on normal use and the price range?

 

I got 3 h and 16 min of light use (Internet and so) wit Balanced profile.

 

This is GPU overclocked score, I can go up to 864/1728/1481 running stable:

 

I have gotten the impresion that the 460m card isnt very good? How much better will the ATI card preform and will the ATI be the same price? and would it be worth the wait?

 

Hi drfelip / Ken, hows the display, is it good? (brightness/contrast) . Any improvement over the previous GX660R?

Thanks!

 

The laptop I had was a preproduction unit and the display was a pretty standard 1366x768 one. It's better that somebody with a commercial unit anwers that question.

 

Yeah those scores are pretty bad. Most ATI can OC to around 9k GPU score.

 

I managed to get my 5870 to about 8992 GPU score.

The 460m is by no means a bad card, though. If the laptop has features you want "but" it has a 460m, go for it.

 

The screen on GT680R is the same as GX660R, the AUO15ED and it has been review by Ryzeki already:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/515624-ryzekis-msi-gx660r-review.html

 

Hi Ken, can you please confirm if it has an ExpressCard Slot or not?

Cheers

 

I just checked it does not have ExpressCard slot, it was there on GX660R.

 

Ahhh nuts, that was a deal breaker for me since I need one for Audio Production. Thanks for having a look for me!

I wonder why they phased it out of this model...

 

So when's the GT680 supposed to be released? Some people already have them, some are saying the 26th, and some are saying mid-February...

I was at the MSI press conference at CES and I immediately wanted to ditch my MacBook Pro in favor for the GT680. My 9600M GT also gets a 6.5 in WEI (just thought I could throw that out there). The benchmarks on the GTX 460M kick the crap out of my 9600M GT. I WANT MY GT680 .

 

Someone posted a link to the product page that had the GT680. At first, it said out of stock. I refreshed the page about 10 minutes later and it said ADD TO CART. I immediately ordered it. Hopefully they really have it available.

 

It seems MSI does not have a customize function, otherwise I would really want to change the CPU to a 2720 instead.

 

I would've done the same, but oh well. I sure I'll be satisfied. Mine has already shipped .

 

And it looks like the GT680 is officially out, as it's on a number of websites (including Newegg). Looks like I paid more for mine (straight from MSI).

 

I think I'm going to wait for the gx680...
The hd5870 was already slightly better than the 460m, so the 6780 should be even more better... Right?
But will the gx680 be sold at the same price?

Atm I can buy a MSI gx 660 with an i7-740qm, 500 gb hdd + 128 gb ssd, hd5870 and 4 gb Ram for 1400 euro...
Should I wait for the gx680 or buy this one?

Thanks!