Official MSI GX640 Owner's Thread

my bad, good catch cheese. I've been looking at these numbers for months, they start to meld after a while

 

On a hot day a few days ago (maybe ~30 degrees Celsius), the Turbo Boost turned off on the i5-430M in my stock GX640 while playing Mass Effect, and for a short period of time it throttled to 1.2GHz. I guess I'm the first to observe throttling on the GX640. Unfortunately, I don't have graphs of that period of time, but I remember that the GPU hit ~100 degrees and the CPU was in the mid-90s.

Unsurprisingly, the problem disappeared when I turned on the air conditioning.

 

Mass Effect 1 creates serious heat! Worse than Mass Effect 2 actually.. Stock clocks, i was reaching 92C after about an hour of play.

I underclocked to 400/650 or something and the temps dropped to a more reasonable 85C - with no noticeable drop in framerate.

 

Does anyone know how much more battery life I will get out of the 620M compared to the 720QM? Are we talking a few minutes?

Also, does anyone know how much more battery life I will get out of the i5 450m compared to the 620M?

I just want to know if the power is worth it, compared to how much longer my battery will last if I get the cheapest processor in it.

Thanks!

 

I think better downvolt videocard via vbios editor and have the same framerate and lower temperature

 

I've noticed that the cooling system on this laptop is not that great, so here is my big question: How long will this laptop last? I'm going to college next year and I want a sturdy laptop to work and game on, so I don't want to blow 1200 bucks on a laptop that will breakdown in like a year. Even with the 3 year warranty its durability still worries me due to the excessively high temperatures it runs at.

 

Some readers have posted replys stating that the 260 model has a "Newly customized heat sink" Is this true? If yes, does anyone know if it's better than the previous setup found in the 098 model (where 2 heat-pipes are connected to one heat sink with only 1 fan)?

 

Where did you hear that? I though this model was still in pre-order. I would like to know this as well if it's true, although I doubt that with the limited space inside the chassis that much can be done. The only thing I can think of them addressing is the gap between the GPU die and heatsink.

 

MSI has shipped out very small amounts of the 260US revision to certain resellers; I'm getting mine next week. The product isn't officially released, though. The official release date is mid-July.

I'll take glorious HD pictures of the innards once I have the notebook.

 

awesome dude

 

I think he got mixed up that I ordered the mirror finish heatsink upgrade off of rk computers. While the 260 may have an updated heatsink, this is just an upgrade performed by rk computers.

 

Does the switchable graphic work ?

 

No it does not work.

 

Technically, the HM55 chipset should allow for switchable graphics, so why is it not an option?

 

Anyone know if the GX640 supports SDHC or SDXC?

 

Technically it should work, but it doesn't. Most highend laptops don't have switchable even though they could. Underclock and undervolt if you dare the 5850 and you can get really good battery life.

Also, what is everyone who ordered from rk computers building stage?

 

that would really help, thanks alot!

 

Additional hardware is still required; e.g. The Optimus Copy Engine inside Nvidia's 40nm GPUs, or multiplexers in the motherboard, plus the drivers required to make it work. Without something like Optimus, MSI would've had to do some work to get switchable graphics in the GX640, and I guess they decided it wasn't worth it.

 

Well I chose to pay via money order and they haven't received it yet...so they can't even build it yet hahaha.
I'm just hoping that when they receive my money order, they will process it quickly. I tried ordering a notebook from xoticpc before, and after six days of their receiving my check, they still didn't cash it in.

And can you tell me, as soon as you are able to, how long it takes them to build your notebook? Because we both pretty much got the same upgrades, and I want a rough estimate of when my gx640 will come.

 

Ah, thanks for the technical explanation. I thought that all that stuff was integrated in the CPU. Perhaps it will be, in the future.

 

It's not something I'd expect to be integrated into the CPU.

The core issue is that you have two graphics chips which both need to output information to the same screen/HDMI port/etc. How does one do this? The traditional solution was to connect both to the same outputs via multiplexers, but this requires some kind of switching to switch from one to the other, and that switching requires additional drivers to interface with software.

On the other hand, Nvidia's trick is to let everything be output from the IGP, but, when the discrete GPU is in use, to copy the card's frame data over to the IGP. This is technically possible in any system with both an IGP and a discrete GPU, but there are some big issues with this approach:
1) The video output needs to be physically wired to the integrated GPU.
2) The discrete GPU needs to be set up to copy its data to the IGP, which requires extra code in the drivers.
3) Copying the data to system memory would require the GPU to wait for the rather slow access to system memory every frame. This would have a severe negative impact on performance; without this problem, something like Optimus would have taken much longer to appear. This is why Nvidia has the Optimus Copy Engine as additional GPU hardware - it can copy the frames without holding up the rendering.

 

I, for one, am glad the GX640 doesn't have switchable graphics. My older laptop used AMD's puma platform that allowed switching between ATI's 3200 IGP and MR 3650. It worked great for the first few months. Upgrading drivers was possible with Mobility Modder until catalyst 9.2. After that you could still install the newer drivers but the ability to switch was gone. And so, I was stuck with the 3650 which defeated the entire point of switchable graphics.

Installing Win 7 offered a workaround to switch through the winkey+P projector shortcut. But even that stopped working after catalyst 9.9. Recently, ATI started releasing laptop specific drivers, and they were great because switching worked again! .....if you could overlook the fact that the 3650 would only output through the HDMI port! LCD and VGA output only offered a black screen.

ASUS's and AMD's failure to support the platform was a big disappointment to me. The only time I would ever by a laptop with switchable graphics again is if they allow the ability to install independently the drivers for the discreet and integrated GPUs.

 

So I noticed that when I run things like SuperPI my CPU speed as reported by CPU-Z and other monitoring software seems to be locked at about 1.2 ghz, and does not dynamically throttle. I tried all power profiles including high performance. What's wrong?

 

Use RealTemp, and report back.

 

The outside casing is NOT I repeat NOT made out of Aluminum, But instead pieces of plastic with special Brushed Metal Coating. The screen is descent, I'd expect it to be as good if not superior to the envy.

 

If they placed the exhaust at the back, it would of added another inch to the thickness. Placing it on the left side will burn your fingers when you play games, and pointing it towards you will dehydrate you faster than the Nevada Desert. So that leaves only the right side of the laptop.

Solution: move your hand down by 2 inches

 

The 450 runs 133mhz faster than the 430, so the difference wont be noticeable. MSI just shoved the 450 in there because it's the same price as the 430 and it looks better on the specs sheet.

 

Well thats a little disapointing. Just a little, but still.

Either way I'm excited. RK has informed me they sent it out tonight. With any luck it'll get here friday.

Question. I have a full copy for Win 7 Pro to put on it.

Is the Win 7 Home installed already activated? Could I sell the CD key if not? Is that against the EULA?

I don't need it and it seems like a waste of both my money and a good copy someone could use.

 

Yes I would think it is against the EULA to resell your key since you are not a legal distributor of the windows OS with approval from microsoft.

 

FOR REAL? Are you telling the truth, or are you just saying this cuz you're an MSI spy? If this is indeed true, I might go back to wanting the GX instead of looking at a 14incher in the E14 Got enough saved up already.

 

If you set GPU voltages to something too low to properly boot the system, resulting in the bsod, what do you do to fix it?

 

The metal parts are aluminum...not sure what he's talking about. The chassis is primarily plastic but the palmrest and lcd lid are accented with brushed aluminum. It's not like a Macbook but it's still aluminum.

 

No no. I was talking about how he said the screen is as good or better than ENVY's. IS. THIS. TRUE? I don't believe it...

 

OEM Windows shipped with a new computer is pre-activated by the OEM. Big OEMs like MSI, Dell, et al., have unique installation keys given to them by Microsoft and are linked to the BIOS on their motherboards. You can use an MSI Windows key on a non-MSI computer, but the activation will fail. If
you install the GX640 version of Windows on another MSI laptop however, you will most likely not need to activate it.

Technically, according to Microsoft, OEM windows lives and dies with the machine it is installed on and any other use of that key on another machine is a violation of the EULA. Same goes for any OEM version of their software.

 

I used my FREE Win 7 prem upgrade (upgrade from vista/xps16) disc from Dell on my MSI 1727, fresh virgin install and activated, NP.

Don't go online and activate, you might be able to use it on another machine instead.

 

Wow, Tyrant, when did you order? Also, did you do any upgrades? Mines been processing for 3 or 4 days now though I got a couple upgrades which likely take time. Least shipping will only take 1 day.

 

Hi all, thanks to all of you (most of you ) who provided such great input on this laptop. I've been monitoring this conversation for sometime before I decided to buy the MSI last week. Looks like I'll be wait one or two for the 260US to get to JR.
My contribution: I am, and you may consider using JR and Bing Cashback to save 5% off the cost of the lappy. Bing cashback will end with July.
My question: Anyone tried using one of these lappys to run a 3d movie to a 3d ready HDTV? I'm pretty sure the refresh will be too slow to run on the MSI, but with that HDMI out I'm not seeing any reason why 3d couldnt be run to a big screen 3dtv. Any stories of success, failure, or other comments appreciated.
Again thanks alot.
PCW

 

I'm pretty sure that 3D requires a 1.4 HDMI interface to work. The GX640 has a regular 1.3 HDMI port. It'll take a while for the 1.4 standard to catch on because very few people actually care about the new features at the moment (4k, 3D, ethernet, etc). Heck, the GX640 doesn't even have USB 3.0 ports.

 

So im having issues now. The girlfriend shut down my laptop last night and this morning it seems too be having the come back from sleep issue. Except i did the system restore and now my desktop loads but then the screen goes away or artifacts with line across the screen. Boots fine into safe mode, So im assuming its a driver issue. But any advice?

 

That's what I was looking for, thanks. That doesn't sound sturdy enough to last. Guess I keep looking elsewhere.

 

I think same time as you. I ordered a stock unit thou, so less time to swap out parts and test. But it seems when I picked 2 day shipping it didn't stick. Its being shipped ground. Not a big deal since I'm away this weekend anyways.

 

Don't think that's true. Ps3 and the 360 can do 3d over their older HDMI. It might be true that no current cards support it that aren't 1.3 compliant, but that's a different issue.

 

Well it means that rk has the laptops which is good news. I got ground as well but checking the ups ground shipping map, it says it only takes 1 day with ground to get to my house.

 

The PS3 is 1.4 compliant. 1.1vs1.2vs1.3vs1.4 etc is mostly about software/firmware/etc and not hardware.

 

Can anyone comment on what type of battery power I would get if I went with the 720QM over the default CPU, or the 620M

People in the HP forums are saying that you would loose 50% of the battery life with the 720QM over the other i5's and 620M because of the power it takes and because it doesn't have an integrated graphics card. (For the HP envy 14) Would this laptop's CPU even use the integrated graphics card?

I am deciding if I should sacrifice power if it really does use that much more power.

Thanks!

 

No it wouldnt use the integrated graphics card... The laptop does not have the hardware to make use of it.

 

I don't think it will use 50% more, but it will create a significant amount more heat and will use more battery for sure.

You aren't really sacrificing power... the stock cpu is very powerful. The others are just a boost up.

 

Well, there it is. No new heatsink for the 260US.

HDMI 1.4 requires a hardware update. PS3 and Xbox 360 are able to send a 3D signal to a compatible monitor but at a lower resolution in games and a lower framerate in videos/movies. Neither console is compliant with the HDMI 1.4 standard. Their 3D implementation are work-arounds.

 

How long did your gx640's stay in processing? Mine is going to be here next week probably with the upgrades. I'll try to see how well the heatsink upgrade works and how nice the keyboard upgrade is.

 

Yup, everything in my previous comment is indeed factual. But you should take the cooling system into consideration when purchasing a MSI GX640 Series: MSI's gaming laptops are known for their inadequate cooling.