Official MSI GX640 Owner's Thread

Notebookcheck's big mistake there is that they ought to have two separate listings for the 5850 with GDDR3 and GDDR5, since performance is extremely different.

Their review of the GX640 is actually reasonably useful if you concentrate on the facts rather than the opinions, though.

 

And thats really the crux of it. Some of their reviewers cant get past their own biases and just state facts. And it kills their credibility.

 

Thanks for all your comments. Looks like I will get a stock gx640, though I am waiting through computex in case something else might get released. I will try (maybe) to review it in case anyone wants.

 

Sorry for the double post, but should I get an upgraded cpu? It is quite expensive but even my current laptop is at 2.53. Any opinions? Thanks in advance.

 

If you're talking about the places that are charging $200+ for CPU upgrades, it's definitely not worth it.

 

I would advise against the cpu upgrades that some retailers are offering. They are way overpriced (e.g., ~$300 for a 720qm). Just get the stock unit and actually use it! If you decide that you really "need" the upgrade, then get a cpu off e-bay and sell your old one so you can get some of your money back. I wonder if these retailers that upgrade your cpu actually give you the original cpu back to you. I doubt it.

 

Hi everyone,
I would like to ask you about one thing. What is this mistical place for?







PS there is a Polish forum that you can find interesting (there is many info that you do not find in this thread). Just use google translator or something... here is a link:

http://www.nhl.pl/index.php?showtopic=28080&view=findpost&p=314159

 

Looks like a layout for a SIM card adapter.

 

I thought so, but didn't want to suggest anything
Just tell me how to solder it there

There is also one empty miniPCI-Express slot so I could buy a 3G modem

 

Is the gx740 available for purchase yet? Is it any cooler or better than the gx640? It is only a lil bit bigger and seems decent. I just can't find anywhere selling it. Thanks in advance.

 

The 740 is available now. Newegg has them in stock.

 

Anywhere besides newegg? I have to pay tax with them and at that point I can just get a supped up gx640 from a retailer.

Any reviews as well?

 

Provantage also has them in stock. That's where I got my 640.

EDIT: My bad...they don't have them in stock. RK computers does though.

 

LOTS of places have the gx740... it's the e7405 that's not in stock lol NCIX has them for sure and so do a lot of other places like pcanada, grey tech, anitec, etc.

 

I've updated the vbios, drivers, CCC, and set the AMD GPU Clock tool to set my clocks on startup, but..

I still cannot resume from sleep!!!

Any other suggestions?

 

did you update the bios or vbios?

 

vbios. To the beta.

 

I read somewhere it is a driver issue, I just hope I don't get this problem as well. Try reverting to the MSI drivers on the website, I read a forum that said reverting back solved the problems.

 

Hmm. In my experience the GPU Clock Tool overrides PowerPlay (that's with the old vBIOS and 10.5 drivers).

If you want to make sure sleep works, you should probably monitor your clock speeds first; in particular, what the clock speed is when you turn off your screen.

 

How do I check the clock speed when I turn off my screen?

 

Plug in an external monitor.

 

That's more difficult than it needs to be.
GPU-Z has a graph of clock speed over time, for a start. It's not the nicest graph I've seen (other tools like MSI Afterburner have prettier graphs, and you can make much nicer graphs if you log the data and use my graphing tool), but it will do the job.

However, if you want to graph clock speeds over a longer period of time, you'll want a better tool, though.

 

That still won't help, though, because I will have no way in saving the graph after I enter sleep mode.

After entering sleep mode, my laptop has never came back under any circumstances. In most cases I am forced to remove the battery, as holding the power button for many seconds does nothing.

 

Sure, but as I said before turning off the screen should do the same thing to the clock speeds that sleep mode does.

Actually, some tools, GPU-Z included, can log data to a file. The problem is that the data is probably buffered and may not be written to the hard drive before your laptop sleeps.

In most other peoples' experience with this laptop, the issue with sleep is because the laptop automatically downclocks to 100/1000, and if the laptop doesn't go to these speeds then sleep mode works fine.

If you tell us what's happening to your clock speeds, we can work out if that's the issue or if it's something else entirely.

 

Ok I'll report that later, since I'm actually doing some work now

But just a summary of everytihng else. I've updated the vbios, updated drivers to 10.5, updated CCC to 10.5, set the AMD GPU Clock tool to auto-downclock to 300/400 on startup. Disabled powerplay (although it always comes back on). And I think that's about it.

Thanks for the help

 

did you set the battery settings to Max performance rather then balance? I heard sometimes that brings Powerplay back if i recall.

 

Just my experience :
With the new VBIOS, there's no need to use AMD GPU Tool !
What I'm doing is :
- edit 2 power plan in Windows 7 : balanced and high performance
For balanced, I set ATI PowerPlay Settings to "Maximize Battery Life" (even when plugged in, to cool the PC)
For High Perf, I set everything at max settings.

For everyday use, I'm using Balanced mode, and I'm getting nearly 3 H of battery life (PowerPlay downclocks the video card to 300/400).
When I want to play --> High Performance, and everything is alright !

Hope that helps.

 

Right but do you have issues being able to come back from sleep mode? Thats really what is the issue here.

 

Hey I've got a question !
It seems a good place to ask it here ^^.

I want to upgrade my Ram (5.9 in Windows Experience Index is not that good compared to 6.7 and 7.2 for CPU and HD 5850).
I see that most gaming notebook score between 6.5 and 7.3 in memory.

Do you know which high performance memory is compatible with this laptop ? Can you tell me some advices ?

Thanks in advance,
Luke.

 

No issue at all.
I just wanted to say that PowerPlay is not in cause here.
Maybe it's the new VBIOS (beta), maybe it's another problem...

 

your RAM is just fine, it's that way because your cpu is downclocking it. You actually have 1333MHz RAM in there. With my 820qm my WEI score for RAM is 7.4 with the stock stuff

 

Anyone having problems with periodic keyboard/touchpad freezing? This happens to me every couple of days. It happens sporadically no matter what app I am running. The system itself is still up and running because my hotkeys still function, just the keyboard and mouse lock up. I usually have to put it into standby and resume to get them working again. I think this started happening after the vbios beta flash. Anyone else?

 

The... Wait... Is... Killing... Me... My order was confirmed May 20th.

 

welcome to the big leagues.....lol

 

get some sleep folks

 

Who'd you order from?

 

I can somewhat deal with the waiting, but it was the decision that was "killing" me.

 

Haha the decision was another story. I had to decide what info was just and what wasn't. I ordered from Xotic. I payed with an eCheck because of Xotic's discount, and I upgraded to a Bluray drive. Hopefully it won't take the full 7 days (that only leaves 2 days for them to ship haha).

 

No issue here.
You say your keyboard freezes, and you have to put the PC into standby, but how can you do this with the whole keyboard freezed ?

 

OK ! Thanks a lot
I knew I had 1333 Mhz memory, but I didn't think it was THAT downclocked !!!
5.9 to 7.4 is not a litte bit of a upgrade, so I'm definitely considering buying an i7 CPU...

 

Well remember the windows experience index really isnt something you should take to seriously lol. Its not very accurate really. one persons 5.9 is not really the same as another persons 5.9.

 

OK but we've got the same laptop, except CPU and memory speed... so it's a very true upgrade from 5.9 tp 7.4.
And BTW in some games, like Riddick (2009), I've got some frame drop sometimes, and the video card isn't 100 % used (I've got GPU-Z in background).
Maybe the CPU is in cause, maybe it's the memory. In either way, upgrading to an i7 will give me better memory and better CPU, so...

 

Just for WEI ?

FYI , no game will use your GPU 100% (apart from GTA or crysis if i remember correctly .. only a selected few) and 4gb @ whatever speed it's running is more than enough.

Assault on dark athena runs fluently at max on my 725. I think you just looking for an excuse to spend money

 

I hope you're right. I'm not looking for an excuse to spend money, I just want to have a good gaming PC.
And presently, I can run Assault on Dark Athena at max in 1680*1050 with no AntiAliasing, and in 1280*720 with AA 2x.
Otherwise, I can't get 60 fps (and it's not an awesome looking game).
Also, with Doom 3 -everything highest-, it comes down to 30 fps when there's smoke of whatever. Maybe it's normal, I don't know well.
I just want to get some confirmation/advices, as I'm not a real PC gamer (I've got an Xbox 360). On console you rarely get frame drop (but I know it's almolst everytime 30 fps). It's fluent, that's it.

Hope I've explained myself

 

And another question for you guys. I've searched on the internet but diidn't find an answer.
What if I get an Intel WiFi 6300 card ? Will I get extra range (with the 3rd antenna) ? Because I don't find the WiFi to go really far. When I'm in my underground, internet is not that fast, compared to my old laptop.

Thanks.

 

Just got mine in today. Didn't update drivers or anything, seems to be running fine. Disabled powerplay, closed lid, went to sleep and booted right back up. The temperatures are just about the same category posted in the 'temp' thread. Will update after some benchmarks, running down the battery atm.

Edit: Is the fan supposed at some points supposed to get loud and quiet, then vice versa? It does this for a few seconds.

 

Yes. It's because at idle the GPU temperatures are often right around 54-55 degrees celsius. When it drops below 55C the fan slows, but with the slower fan it heats back up to 55C so the fan turns back on.. it's a vicious cycle.

If you underclock or use other methods to reduce the temperatures by a bit you can effectively prevent the fan cycling on/off.

 

Can anyone direct me to any information about undervolting the GPU?

I've underclocked and done some other stuff which have greatly reduced temps, but I'd like to save more power too.

Undervolting seems to be the way to go.

Nothing I've done trying to undervolt has worked. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Go to http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/476342-gx640-pci-e-x16-x1-problem-other-driver-problems-12.html post #116. Tell me how it goes. I want to underclock/undervolt too. I'm just wondering if i keep switching between underclock/undervolt and stock settings, will it be really bad for my notebook?

 

I tried that already. It had no effect.

I've read that changing clocks has NO detrimental affects to the GPU/notebook.

What was stated was that the GPU (and CPU) already automatically adjusts itself based on conditions, so it is a totally normal thing. Underclocking for basic tasks and overclocking for gaming on a very regular basis should cause no problems. It's what I do.