Official MSI GX640 Owner's Thread

You're welcome. Glad to help out.

I paid a little over $1000 (shipping/handling, no tax) for my i5-430M GX640.

If you're going to pay $1440, you should consider the ASUS G73 laptop. It's heavier (8.5 lbs), but a really nice gaming rig.

 

lol. he doesn't want it.

 

I can vouch for you there, but remember your enviroment ambient temperature, each machines level of paste/pad fitting can be different, there are so many factors, maybe the machine wants prompting up a bit?

 

Yours is looking a lot like mine for temps. Mine also stays at around 54C when underclocked - at stock clocks it's idling around 63C.

What kind of temps were you getting under load? The highest mine has been so far is around 86C. I reckon it would go significantly higher with both the CPU and GPU under full load, though.

This morning it booted cool and it's hovering at 51C right now, but I think that if I put the GPU under load it wouldn't go back down so low.


Today I'll probably play some Trine and some Portal, so I'll report on my temps for those. Does anyone know of a nice temperature reporting tool that does both CPU and GPU and also does graphing?

 

I expected better with IC Diamond...

So, stock thermal paste will deliver the SAME results?

 

Temps will vary from user to location regardless of ICD7. Get yourself a very good cooler or mod the bottom cover to lower the temps ..

 

So I'm screwed with Honduras' climate...
:'(

 

what are some good cheap coolers? targus?

 

I'm not familiar with coolers for laptops. What do you suggest (that's not too expensive)?

Thanks in advance.

 

Damn ! Pretty much so What's the average temperature at the mo ? (Honduras)

NZXT Cryo LX , have a look at it.
I know , little bit pricey for a cooler but it's the best out there ...

 

ZALMAN NC-1000 probably

 

Average temp ranges from 30 ~ 35 C
:'(
Oh well...
I had an XPS m1530 that idled at 60/65C, but during games, it never went above 85...

Until the 8600mGT started to go kaputz ...
then when replaced, it was the same... 60/65, and under 85 gaming (for a large amount of time)...

Btw, the cooling in the m1530 was NOT good...

 

Buy an air conditioner
In all seriousness, though, with ambient temps up to 35C your GX640 might get up to the high 90s, so you'll probably want a laptop cooler. I don't think the GX640 really needs one in general, but if ambient temps are high or you want to overclock it would probably be a good idea.

 

Lulz, I have an air conditioner, but economy here sucks as heck...
So, turning on the A/C for whenever I want to pop some zombie heads would not be a good idea... and frankly playing every once a week when i turn on the A/C is not what I'm gonna buy this for

 

Ran some Furmark.. seemed to level out at 93C. Yikes.

 

93C, thats actually really good i'd say

 

yea, for furmark 93 is pretty good, as long as ur not getting close to breaking the century mark ur ok

 

I'll try Furmark myself soon. From the looks of things, csinth's GX640 is similar to mine.
Furmark only stresses the GPU, though, and not the CPU, right? I still feel it might get close to 100C if you stress both.

csinth, what was the ambient temperature, and how long did you run Furmark?

 

Well furmark is also more taxing than any game you're going to play.

They normally use wprime on cpu.

I suppose you could run both simultaneously although i advise against it in any notebook

 

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't do it. It's possible some games might stress both the CPU and GPU enough to cause some trouble, but overall I'll be happy if Furmark stays in the low 90s.

 

If your budget is a bit tight and you want a cooler look at the Cooler Master Notepal U2. I have one and it'll beat the hell out of anything you can get for under $50 (it costs $20), mostly because you can customize fan placement.

 

Whoah!
Looks nice!
I think I can get a cooler at a local PC store...
Its not incredibly hot...
its just that, after 3 years of Dell Hell, One becomes traumatized with heat issues... (8600mGT to be specific)...

I'll keep that NotepalU2 in mind, it looks awesome
Thank you!

 

Hi I'm interested in buying this laptop.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152191

MSI GX640-098US NoteBook Intel Core i5 430M(2.26GHz) 15.4" Wide SXGA+ 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850

It says DDR5, not GDDR5. Is this correct?
How does this graphics card compare to the geforce 360m

how are the gpu and cpu temps ingame and idle?

thanks guys

 

No, it's definitely GDDR5. DDR5 doesn't exist yet. As for performance, the HD 5850 is comparable to the GTX 285M overall, perhaps faster, so it has a big advantage over the GTS 360M - the HD 5850 is 11% slower than the HD 5870, which happens to be the single fastest laptop card.

In 3DMark Vantage, I got 81C max on the CPU and 84C max on the GPU (it hit 86C in '06, though), which seems acceptable to me. At its stock clocks of 625/1000, the card idles at around 63C, but underclocking it has dropped this to 53C for me; my CPU cores idle at 48C and 42C. Note that this was all at an ambient temperature of 23C.

 

I'm debating on buying from NCIX/PCCanada or Xotic (I'm in Canada/Ontario).

The main reason I'd want to order from Xotic is so I can upgrade the thermal compound. Seems important for these type of laptops.

But my question is would it be better for me to buy from Canada, avoid the shipping price, and just buy a good notebook cooler (for around $50)?

 

wow that sounds great. were you playing new games that are somewhat demanding?
my old g51jx gpu would be like 94 degrees when playing GTA IV.

the main problem with my g51 was that the exhaust was on the left side, and the place where u rest your hands would heat up and would make my hand feel all messed up after like a hour of playing. was pretty bad.

it looks like the gx640 has exhaust on the right which might solve that problem


edit: also, what is the main difference between the i7-720 and the i5-430. is the i7 much faster? or is it just able to take on a bigger load? would there be any notice found in gaming?
honestly ive never seen the i7-720 i had go above 50% usage. so is it really necessary?

thx alot guys

 

Just playing some Mass Effect 2 at 1680x1050 and full settings.. ran like butter. So smooth. Temps only got up to 83 I think.

Gotta watch out though.. the vent is a beast. Put objects like 8 inches away.

 

Some pages back there were comparisons of IC diamond temps vs stock paste temps, and there didn't really seem to be a difference (1-3c is easily negated by environment). Seems that both asus and msi have stepped up their g series and used decent thermal compounds off the bat.

 

this laptop is starting to sound better and better, how long did you play?

 

I think you've answered your own question.

Hmm, well, because GTA IV is demanding on the CPU as well as the GPU, it might be a good test for the GX640 given the single fan/heatsink/vent solution.

 

So, if i play right next to an Alienware m15x, using a i5, 260m, playing crysis warhead high settings, no aa @ 720p, getting 35 fps...

How much would I be getting? (considering i'm using the gx640, i5-420, 5850 @ 720p, high, no aa...)

Would the Alienware user be jealous of my machine?

 

well every game I played was typically at the same temperature on the g51jx (Heroes of Newerth, and Metro2033 or GTAIV).

 

I bet, if you told them how much you paid for your machine.

 

Well, my GPU hit 101 degrees when I ran FurMark for 8 minutes or so (Full screen, 1680x1050, 0xMSAA (I think FurMark actually runs hotter without MSAA)). Nonetheless, FurMark isn't exactly a typical usage scenario for my laptop, so I'm not too worried, and nothing dramatic happened. I don't intend to run it again, however. I did a quick Google for comparison, and people with G73's seem to hit near 100C as well, so it's not abnormal for a high-end laptop. Strangely enough, I don't think the card downclocked itself, though.

Even at that temperature, the right palm rest wasn't uncomfortable.

One interesting thing I noticed was that when the temperature went up to 101, the fan would kick in at an even higher speed. It's a little strange to me that the fan would only choose to spin up to what is presumably the maximum setting past 100 degrees Celsius, though.

 

100 seems very high
do you have any games like gta4, crysis, hon? if so what do the gpu temps hit on that?

 

FurMark is far from a typical test, so I wouldn't be too worried. Typical gaming temps are much more reasonable, around 86C at most.

 

Here's a thought: could this laptop be the one with the greatest power-to-weight ratio (in terms of gaming power) of any laptop out there?

 

hmmm envy might edge it out... just because weight is 3/4 of a pound lighter . But I do think it is the best price/performance laptop out there, even more so if you're using coupons for the Envy

 

so the sleep/hibernate has been resolved by turning off ATI powerplay?

What does powerplay do anyways?

 

Hey Banker , i was wondering about the same thing, because I received my GX640 yesterday. If anybody has any information on the warranty that would be great .

 

Hmm, I think the GX640 still wins, as it's only around 15% heavier than the HP Envy 15, but I think the gap in GPU speed is more than that.

I guess if laptops were cars, the GX640 would be the fastest ^_~

 

Yes it is definitely is faster, whats the vantage gpu score on the 5830?

 

Another competitor would be the Sony VAIO Z with its astonishing 3.07lb weight, but I think the 5850 is more than twice as fast as the 330M.

Also in the running would be the GX740, but it weighs 18.5% more so the GX640 would probably win.

 

The vaio z is definitely a competitor and faster if you consider the SSD (depends what you are evaluating fast based on), then again the GX640 is almost a grand cheaper

 

Considering the price difference, you could just put an SSD in the GX640 as well and still come out ahead. In fact, I intend to do just that at some point in time, though I'll need an external drive for other data.

The criterion I was looking at was gaming performance in particular.

Also in the running would be the Acer TimelineX 3820TG, with an HD 5650 at 3.8lbs.

 

Actually I weighed my GX640 with extended battery: it came in at 6.9 lbs. I can't imagine that it'd be 5.9lbs with 6-cell battery that MSI claims.

 

I think it'd come close, the 9 cell in comparison to 6 for me is actually quite heavier.

 

That's good to hear! I'd definitely switch to a 6-cell if it's noticeably lighter. How's the battery life on the 6-cell?

 

about 2/3 of a nice cell

depends on the mAh

 

Yes, I'm glad I definitely didn't pay for the thermal paste upgrade. Besides, if I needed it, I'd just do it myself with the leftover paste provided by my Prolimatech Meganehalems CPU cooler.

Yes, I recall reading on the G73 Owner's Thread that they hit 100C on Furmark, and that's with its 2-fan innovative cooling system.

I think our laptops have an emergency fan speed that kicks in when the 100C temp is breached. That's nice to know. Even so, I believe our GPUs can last indefinitely at 100C+, although I wouldn't recommend getting up that high for non-benchmarking use.

I believe it's one of the top ones out there so far, if not the best one regarding power-to-weight ratio. While the Envy 15 and other laptops are certainly lighter, they're less powerful (GPU-wise) too. Stock clocks for my Envy 15 gave me a 3DMark06 score of 7700. Even OCd, the best I got was 9900. Regrettably, I didn't run Vantage. Plus, unlike the other gaming laptops out there, the GX640 comes with a full range of ports. The Envy 15 and ASUS G73 don't have ExpressCard, IEEE Firewire, or fax modem (this isn't quite a big of a deal, but it's still nice to have when you're doing business like me).

I'm still waiting for someone to chime in on this. This GX640 is definitely a keeper. No regrets returning the Envy 15 2nd Gen (which I got for a little over $1000) for this laptop.