Official MSI GX640 Owner's Thread

@Gamma, could you tell me how much you had to pay /brokerage fee/tax/duty/ etc (and maybe in which province it was shipped)
Thx

 

My review continued.

Screen: The Envy's screen, after modified with JJB's ICS color profile, displayed colors more vividly. Pictures seemed to "jump" out at you and grab your attention. The Envy's screen had a really glossy coating which also contributed to the rich, vivid colors, whereas the Gx640's screen has a semi-glossy coating. To be fair, I have not found a color profile for the GX640 or adjusted my colors yet. However, I believe that even after having done so, the Envy's screen would still come out ahead with respect to displaying vibrant images and colors.

Reading the GX640 specs, I see that it has a "Non-Glare Type" screen, which would help explain my observations. HP also offered an Envy with an anti-glare screen. From most accounts, that screen was horrible and displayed colors that were washed out. Fortunately, the GX640 does not suffer from that malady.

I found text easier to read on the GX640 than the Envy. As addressed earlier, colors are displayed better by the Envy. Both share wonderfully detailed resolutions, as I can pick out the same sharp details on my rotation of wallpaper pics (landscapes from across the Earth). I believe the really glossy screen of the Envy helped with the vivid colors displayed, but to the detriment of reading text.

With respect to viewing angles, the Envy also had a slightly wider range of suitable viewing angles in both the X-axis (horizontal) and Y-axis (vertical). The Envy's advantage of slightly wider range of viewing angles is tempered by the fact that the Envy's screen had a fixed limitation regarding how wide you could open the lid (I believe someone measured it to be 110* or so). The GX640 can open its lid almost 180*. Personally, I prefer the unrestricted lid-opening that the GX640 enjoys to the slightly wider viewing angles of the Envy.

Finally, the GX640's screen is much easier to see in outdoor and well-lit conditions (sunlight, partly sunny, bright desk lamp, etc.) than the Envy. The Envy's really glossy screen, while great for displaying images indoors, serves to only reflect the user's visage back to him. The GX640's semi-glossy screen makes it the better laptop to use outdoors or in brightly lit rooms. The reflections that you see on the Envy's glossy screen will make reading more difficult than that of the GX640's screen.

The Envy had a brighter screen when brightness was fully maxed out vs. the GX640. I believe someone earlier posted the nit levels for both laptops, with the Envy having a higher nit level.

To summarize, if I were primarily concerned about seeing images displayed in vivid colors, I would go with the Envy's screen. If I were primarily concerned with just about everything else, I would go with the GX640. And as I alluded to in an earlier post, the 16:10 aspect ratio of the GX640 is so much more useful and practical (with the exception of watching movies perhaps, though that could be debated) than that of the Envy's 16:9 aspect ratio.

 

@bankergolfer:
play some dam* games already!

 

I will in good time, my friend! I'm just going through the steps methodically, as I did when I got my Envy 15 2nd Gen laptop. My first game tested will be Battlefield Bad Company 2, of course!

Currently running 3DMark06 and 3DMark Vantage, as well as measuring temps. Will report on those shortly.

 

Sure, total came to $1,330 including shipping and the thermal paste. Little more then what I would of liked to spend but other vendors like NCIX were out of stock/didn't offer thermal paste and wouldn't accept my US credit card.

The UPS Expedited shipping is the way to go by the way, you completely avoid brokerage fees. I haven't been charged GST yet (im in Nova Scotia) but id expect it in the mail I gather...

 

Does anyone know what the stock clock speeds are for the GX640's ATI HD 5850 GPU? Thanks.

 

I'm pretty sure it's 625/1000.

 

Thank you.

 

anyone got plastic red plastic sticking through to the exit vent

 

mdsniper7, you really need a proper photo to make it clear what the problem is (or if there even is a problem).

 

there really is I can't get a photo my camera isn't making them clear, I took pics before and put them on here and noone could see it was too blurry. Thats why I am trying to explain it, I mean if you look at the exit vent, which is where the hot air comes out, and u look between the chasis and the silver heatsink I have a piece of my red trim chasis poking through. Thats 2 in a row from amazon, so someone has to have this.

 

Honestly, based on your description that might not even be a defect. Why does it matter?

 

because it touches the heatsink and I am afiarid when it gets hot it could melt the plastic into the mobo

 

You could just get it replaced under warranty when and if that happens. However, I seriously doubt the GX640 would get hot enough to melt the plastic anyway.

 

here is a pic from my cell

 

I see what you mean now.

Regrettably, no, I don't have that problem. Looks like you got a laptop with a little sloppy workmanship there.

Sorry.

 

The slight protrusion in the upper middle of the picture?
You can be almost certain the melting point for that plastic will be above 100 degrees Celsius, and if your laptop is running above 100C you've got more to worry about than melting plastic...

 

i knew it the first one went all the way through to the heatsink it was bent out the side, also on the top is your lcd peeling, man I am unlucky

 

yea but cheese wouldn't u be mad if everyone else is getting great looking lappys and yours has bad workmanship, I mean I am paying 1100 bucks you know. Also my lcd screen isn't flush and its already kinda chipping away, its weird.

 

I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find a flaw in any laptop.
In any case, I ended up ordering from Amazon instead of Provantage on Friday because the Provantage order didn't go through (not their fault, though). When I get mine tomorrow we'll see if it's Amazon getting dodgy GX640s or just bad luck on your part.

 

maybe but it makes me wonder if that is flawed and I can see it what can't i see hmmmm. What to do amazon will exchange it but 2 in a row is scary, the first time it was really bad, I wonder if they got a bad batch

 

Well, I'll find out tomorrow if Amazon really has gotten a bad batch. If that's the case, though, I'd just return it and get one from a different store.

 

let me know lack and thanx

 

We should feel sorry for our friends who bought the Lenovo Y460. Their CPU and GPU temps under load are up in that range and higher.

 

I don't have any of those defects. If it were my laptop, I'd return that lemon for an unblemished one. We deserve better.

 

For those of you interested in extending the battery life of their GX640, this post over in the ASUS subforums might be of interest. If he's getting almost 3 hours on the G73JH's 75Wh 8-cell with the i7-720QM, I'm thinking 4 hours wouldn't be out of the question with the GX640's 85Wh 9-cell and the i5-430M.

 

Well i get 2:30 to 3 hours on the 9 cell with the q9000 and 4850 on minmal brightness + powersaver and wifi on,

Someone give it a shot because 4 hours seems quite nice, although the 4850 runs relatively low clocked when idling anyway.

 

How do you get your 3DMark Vantage scores to show up in the blue background graphical user interface? When I run Vantage, my results are viewable on the Futuremark website only.

 

Finally got around to running 3DMark Vantage.

Stock clocks and system (625/1000); PCIe x16
3DMark P 6957
CPU 7304
GPU 6848
GPU temps: 78*C

I have no idea if these scores are good or bad (had a better feel with
3DMark06). Perhaps someone could let me know if these are good or bad.

And I also ran 3DMark06:
3DM 11301
SM2 4851
SM3 5545
CPU 2598
GPU temps: 78*C

These scores are better than the 3DMark06 scores that I got for the Envy 15 2nd Gen:
Stock clocks (500/800):
3DM 7947
SM2 3097
SM3 3413
CPU 2807
GPU temps: 43*C

Next step is to re-run these tests after a clean Windows 7 install.

 

The Vantage score looks exactly like it ought to be to me - around 7k for both the GPU and CPU scores. For reference, the HD 5870 gets around 8k, which is what you would expect given the 700MHz vs 625MHz clock speed.

 

Does anyone know how many antenna connectors the GX640 has? I've read some bad things about the stock wireless adapter that comes with the GX640 (Intel 5100) and I'm thinking about upgrading it myself.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I know the resellers are offering the Intel 6200 as an upgrade. Does it have the same number of antennas as the Intel 5100?

Are there any other better alternatives out there? Thanks.

 

So it sounds like my GX640 is basically average and run of the mill. I was hoping I'd have a laptop that was above-average in performance.

I was told on the Envy 15 owners boards that some laptops luck out in getting better grades of CPUs and GPUs than others. This in turn leads to a differing of performance scores among the line of laptop models.

 

Honestly, I doubt such performance differences would be enough to notice. Performance at stock clocks would be affected much more by drivers and a variety of operating conditions than hardware differences. The only area where the "grade" of the component would really matter is overclockability.

bankergolfer

buff-daddy

Molius

NotEnoughMinerals:
GPU Score: 6891
CPU Score: 11006 (he has an i7-820QM, so that obviously makes a big difference)
P7601

 

Excellent points, Lackofcheese. Thank you.

It still is a little disappointing that my GPU score is the lowest of the bunch.

 

So, I'd be better off NOT getting the GX640?

 

I read that my stock Intel 5100 isn't so great when it comes to WLAN cards. Can someone confirm that the Intel 5100 is worth replacing?

Popped open the back. Confirmed that there's space for only a half height card.

As I was looking around the innards of my laptop, I discovered that my 4 GB of RAM are 1333 speed, even though my specs called for 1066 speed. That's a nice little, unexpected bonus there.

 

You should get the GX640. My disappointment relates to the fact that among those of us who have run benchmarks on our GX640s, it looks like mine is an "average" one with regards to performance.

When compared to other laptops (like the Envy 15 I used to own), I love my GX640.

 

Well, it seems that I am the only one trying On this moment, there is no way he is making 2 and half hours. We need to find a way to clock that GPU totally down for that, it's producing a LOT of heat still in idle, (even @ 100/1000 or 625/500) Are some people also trying this side? Everybody looks upon the top of this game beast, but am I the only one more interested in the underclock part, for having a nice laptop that's quiet during normal work, and lasts longer then 3 hours. Both can be accomplished by clocking down to 100/500... or even lower if possible. But I have tried several hours accomplishinh that via many tools, but hardly any one works!! Getting me crazy.

Is MSI known for giving out new BIOS frequently? How is their support in general, or how fast are they acting on these "heat" issues?

 

I will also try to downclock and minimize power consumption to keep fan quiet. Right now graphics card is idling at 61 C. I don't need that kind of performance while browsing web or typing in word.
The best solution would be a program with customizable easily switchable profiles (like eco mode profiles but with downclocking gpu also). Any suggestions? I'd really loved to see this 9 cell battery to live 3 hours or more - it's a 9-cell afterall. After 2 years of usage I managed to get 2 hours 35 minutes of 6 cell battery on my previous 15-incher LG S1 so I expect nothing less from 9-celler.
I will update my luck in underclocking.
BTW, how about undervolting processor? How well this i5 reacts to undervolting? This solved heat issues with my previous notebook drastically - from 80 to 57-60 C while on load. I also expect good results in this GX640. (also, this helps to reduce power consumption and increase overall utility)

Less voltage on processor > Less power drawn from PSU > Less heat generated > Heatsink dissipates less heat > Fan can reduce Revs (saving power).

 

Why doesn't it work? It have all the hardware it need to switch graphics.

 

No, it doesn't, because even if the chipset is HM55 it still doesn't have a hardware multiplexer to select which output (IGP or HD 5850) goes to the display. Nor does ATI have an equivalent to Nvidia's Optimus, so switching without a multiplexer can't happen.

 

How can I tell whether I'm using the Win 7 graphics driver vs. the ATI driver vs. the MSI graphics driver? Thanks.

 

All 3 of them are windows 7 drivers.

Since you got your lappie , have you updated the driver ? If not then you using the Stock 8.69 (9.7 driver) from msi ..

10.3 is 8.71

the one from windows update is 8.69 too and crappy for gaming

 

Hi there,

Since there are more and more owners, How is the GX640? Would you guys recommend it? I have been trying to decide between GX640 and NP8690.


Thank you

 

When I restart my GX640, the WiFI defaults to "off". How can I get it to default to "on"? Thanks.

 

Thanks for the reply.
Doesn't upgrading to 10.3 result in problems like sleep, coming out of sleep, PCIe at x1?

I thought the stock driver 8.69/9.7 kept the PCIe at x16.

 

Haven't figured it out myself yet. Probably bios issue? dunno about the setting in there.

I'm still concerned about the multimedia touch panel above keyboard and especially the speaker cover grill. I believe it is not tightened enough and this causes my problems with sound (as the grill (or whole panel) vibrates and this causes poor sound quality (blurping)). I wonder if I could open the case and inspect it myself and maybe add some double sided tape to remove vibrations. Would it void my warranty? Cause it's my only issue and it's a bit annoying - and I don't want to send it to warranty service, because if it's fixable - I could do it in an hour, with warranty it would take probably few weeks:/

 

You need to press the icon for it on the touch panel.

10.3 brings better gaming performances , 10.3b fixes some flickering/black screen in BC2.

Disabling powerplay solves the 16x "issue"

 

Thanks.
Where can I get 10.3b?

 

I can frankly recommend this notebook for ultimate performance/mobility/price combination. Sager is a pure desktop replacement. It's battery performance is very poor. It all depends on your needs: if you want a notebook for all-around use (taking it outside, to lectures, to travels while retaining gaming capability), I recommend MSI, because it's lighter and you can use it without power outlef for up to 3 hours (I believe) while with sager you'll get an hour an a half at max.
Also, price range is a bit different.

Yet, if you want a stationary desktop replacement and you want to travel very rarely, you can consider buying 17" notebook.