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    Presenting the All-New Intel 10th Gen MSI "GE66"!

    Discussion in 'MSI' started by -=$tR|k3r=-, Apr 2, 2020.

  1. G46VW

    G46VW Notebook Consultant

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    does anyone has there units shipped?
     
  2. Kildar

    Kildar Notebook Enthusiast

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    I ordered one from Xotic PC. Last update I received was they expect to receive them from MSI on 5/25. The original date I received was end of April, then it was May 8.

    I spoke to Best Buy today about the one on their site, and it's not in stock and they don't know when it will be.
     
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  3. G46VW

    G46VW Notebook Consultant

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    damn , long waits....
     
  4. captaincranium

    captaincranium Notebook Consultant

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    yeah i ordered the one from Best Buy back on April 23rd and its been on hold. Then Best Buy just upped and canceled my order completely because they didn't know when they would receive it. i told them not to cancel it and just keep it on "hold/delay" and they canceled it anyway. So who knows when they are supposed to be in if Best Buy is canceling their own orders even against the customers wishes that have paid for it already. I get alot of stuff from them and they have never done that before...
     
  5. senso

    senso Notebook Deity

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    There is a global pandemic going on, kinda not so surprising that things take longer to be shipped around.
     
  6. eurodj101

    eurodj101 Notebook Evangelist

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    We just gotta sit tight and hope for the best!!
     
  7. captaincranium

    captaincranium Notebook Consultant

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    Yeah that I what I was trying to tell the Best Buy customer service...i had no problem waiting for it to arrive and didn't want them to cancel my order. The rep, who clearly was reading from a "book", said it was their policy that after two weeks they automatically cancel your order if they don't have it in stock. That is the strangest "customer service" i have dealt with in awhile. Why not just fulfill the order when it arrives?

    Customer: Look! I want this laptop and have paid you for it! I can wait its no problem I understand.
    Best Buy: Sorry, we are canceling your order and not taking your money
    Customer: Then why do you have it still for sale on your web site where someone can order it (like i had already done and paid for it) when you are going to cancel a paying customer for the same item? I don't want my order canceled and that makes no sense since you are still showing it for sale and letting people purchase it
    Best Buy: You are a great customer! Hold on while i put you on hold to talk to my manager (meaning they have no idea what they are doing when they have to go "off script".
    Best Buy: I am back you are a great customer and we want you to know that! and thank you for doing business with us! And we are canceling your order as its company policy
    Me: Whaaaaa????

    And i go on Best Buy immediately after this and can "purchase" this exact same laptop still and be put in another waiting cue....horrible business practice
     
  8. senso

    senso Notebook Deity

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    Maybe they just auto return the money after X amount of time so they dont have to deal with the costumers that aren't as nice as you are to them.
    Given that there is lots of frivolous lawsuits so they just play safe.
     
  9. G46VW

    G46VW Notebook Consultant

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    I smell alot of fail here...
     
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  10. Kildar

    Kildar Notebook Enthusiast

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    Was just told the latest ETA is "June." No specific date. May cancel the order and try again later. I haven't decided yet....
     
  11. captaincranium

    captaincranium Notebook Consultant

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    Was your order through Best Buy as well? if so, when did you place your order?
     
  12. Kildar

    Kildar Notebook Enthusiast

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    No, I ordered from Xotic PC the middle of last month.
     
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  13. donotwant

    donotwant Notebook Geek

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  14. JRey

    JRey Notebook Evangelist

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    If anyone has their 2080 Super MQ model, please send me the vBIOS, I'd like to try flashing it into the GS66 while I still have the review unit.
     
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  15. hackness

    hackness Notebook Virtuoso

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    I've watched the video, the default TDP of the 2080 Super Max-Q in the GE66 is 90W.

    However, dynamic boost is working in the GE66, with CPU's TDP limited to 45W, the TDP of the 2080 super Max-Q will raise to 105W.


    Looks like GE66 vbios ranges from 90W~105W depending on the CPU's TDP usage, worth a shot.
     
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  16. JRey

    JRey Notebook Evangelist

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    Can you help me find a 90w BIOS? I still have the GS66 and I’d like to try flashing it.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  17. hackness

    hackness Notebook Virtuoso

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    Unfortunately currently I don't have anyone that I knew that has a GE66, however once you have found the vbios, I'm guessing you can probably trick the system using IMON trick and makes it think the CPU is still under 45W and the GPU might really go to 105W.
     
  18. JRey

    JRey Notebook Evangelist

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    That’s the plan. But I’m also gonna force the processor to be below max turbo speeds since it pulls 135w.
    That’s potentially 240w pulled from the laptop at full load, not including the other parts sucking up power.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  19. hackness

    hackness Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yep that amount of wattage is just crazy, I saw somewhere saying the brick runs hot too, don't know if the RTX2070 Super version's 280W brick has the same connector tip as this model, worth a look. And indeed, 10750H is probably more suitable in the GS66 like your review says.
     
  20. JRey

    JRey Notebook Evangelist

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    Yea. My 230W brick got really friggin hot after the IMON slope tweaks and what not. It made me pretty nervous.
    I’m supposed to get a GE66 next month for review. If I can’t flash the GS66, I can at least reverse flash the GE66 and see if dynamic boost will work. That will at least confirm that the vBIOS’s are compatible between the systems.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
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  21. seanwee

    seanwee Father of laptop shunt modding

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    The 280w brick has a thicker barrel than the 230w brick so you can't use it without a converter.

    And yes, it will run hot but will still be about 50°C which is not too bad.

    And when it goes to power draws like those you'd better be running LM on the cpu and gpu to make the most out of the cooling system, you'll need all the cooling you can get.

    With an imon slope tweaked i9 and a 105w gpu it's very likely that you'll trigger the EC power cap and the laptop will switch between battery and AC (EC power limit behavior)
     
  22. G46VW

    G46VW Notebook Consultant

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    any new news, anyone get there unit?
     
  23. Kildar

    Kildar Notebook Enthusiast

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    When I spoke to Xoticpc last week, they were hoping to receive them this week from MSI. Figure I'll ask them again tomorrow what's going on, but no news yet for mine.
     
  24. Kildar

    Kildar Notebook Enthusiast

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    Just got off the phone with Xoticpc. Their shipment of GE66's has been delayed again. Now they're saying sometime in June.

    I just cancelled my order. Figure I'll get the money back and try again later in the year when they finally show up.
     
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  25. G46VW

    G46VW Notebook Consultant

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    Interesting...
     
  26. eurodj101

    eurodj101 Notebook Evangelist

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    Its already June......anyways all vendors are under the same condition....I chaged my order...but the ge66 seems like a winner sans that light bad up front
     
  27. Kildar

    Kildar Notebook Enthusiast

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    Right. I'm paying for something I don't have with no real date as to when I would get it. I've spoken to them pretty much every Friday for the last four weeks. The date they are going to get them has been pushed back one to two weeks every time I speak to them. Yesterday, I was told the new date was mid-June. Last Friday, I was told it was pretty certain they would receive them yesterday. Seems like they really don't know.

    I'm not upset with them, it's not their fault. I would just like some honesty in the answer. If you really don't know, then say that. They're not the only one with no stock. Looks like outside of Ebay, no on has them yet. I'll just wait to they show them in stock and place the order again when there's a little more certainty.
     
  28. eurodj101

    eurodj101 Notebook Evangelist

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    im thinking bout buying a ge66 and return it just to compare it to my gs66, that 115w 2070 super is mighty interesting....i gather the gaming performance on it must be real nice
     
  29. eurodj101

    eurodj101 Notebook Evangelist

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    did u see any advantages of doing the imon slope moe cause i got mine capped at 55w in TS
     
  30. JRey

    JRey Notebook Evangelist

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    IMON slope will not power throttle at all. So if you set it to 4.3 or 4.4ghz all core, the system will always stay PL2.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  31. eurodj101

    eurodj101 Notebook Evangelist

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    but will TS read the correct wattage to tweak from there?
     
  32. seanwee

    seanwee Father of laptop shunt modding

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    No
     
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  33. eurodj101

    eurodj101 Notebook Evangelist

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    i sure am tempted at trying out a ge66 now...hahaha
     
  34. eurodj101

    eurodj101 Notebook Evangelist

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    Anyone gottent heir unit yet? Interested in some input....i changed my order to a gs cause i was tired of waiting but gonna sell the gs65 so might till hop on board
     
  35. captaincranium

    captaincranium Notebook Consultant

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    I just finally received my best Buy notice that i should be getting mine this Thursday. Received a tracking number for UPS so hopefully this time its legit. Its this one:
    MSI - GE66 10SFS 15.6" Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 32GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER - 1TB SSD - Aluminum Black

    Best Buy canceled my original order from April in this even when I asked them not too and had since found out they were supposed to have just extended it instead so they gave me a sweet discount on my reorder. Got it for $1865.00 out the door! Pretty close to a $400 discount!

    So crossing fingers I might have something to report on by this weekend. I of course will have to repaste it and everything but initially going to just run some benchmarks, etc with stock and see how it does...
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2020
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  36. G46VW

    G46VW Notebook Consultant

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    been waiting a long time for a good review on this, I went for a new Area51m with 2080 instead of this but after gawking at this for so long it will be exciting to finally get to read a review.
     
  37. Kevin

    Kevin Egregious

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    Has there yet been a review of a laptop with a 2070 Super Max-P?

    Seems they are all delayed.
     
  38. captaincranium

    captaincranium Notebook Consultant

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    The one I am hopefully getting soon from Best Buy is suppose to be the full fledged 2070 Super Max P version....so crossing fingers...if not its going right back
     
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  39. eurodj101

    eurodj101 Notebook Evangelist

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    keep us posted
     
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  40. G46VW

    G46VW Notebook Consultant

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    I second that!
     
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  41. captaincranium

    captaincranium Notebook Consultant

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    Quick question as usually my laptops have been straight versions of the graphics cards and have never owned a "Max" version graphics card on a laptop before....what is the best way to verify the 2070 Super is the full blown Max P version and not the Max Q when it comes in?
     
  42. eurodj101

    eurodj101 Notebook Evangelist

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    Hwinfo.....run unigen heaven in window mode ..do not minimize...scheck gpu package power in hardware info it should be around 115w
     
  43. Kevin

    Kevin Egregious

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    Well, "Max-P" is an unofficial descriptor that doesn't actually exist; it's a made up name that caught on, to differentiate the regular cards from the Max-Q variants.

    The 2070 Super in the GE66 is not a Max-Q card, that much is already a certainty, as it would be advertised "with Max-Q design" it if weren't the full powered card.
     
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  44. eurodj101

    eurodj101 Notebook Evangelist

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    right on...ust like some 2060 machines dont say mq but as we found out there are many iterations of that card 80-115w 65w is mq on 2060
     
  45. Kildar

    Kildar Notebook Enthusiast

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    So things have suddenly taken a big turn.

    As I posted previously on here, I had ordered an MSI GE66 10SF-045 from Xotic PC. I recently cancelled my order, because I was paying for something I didn’t have and there was not a date that I was going to receive. It’s no fault of theirs that the date they were receiving the machines kept changing.

    While cruising the internet recently, I came upon the MSI GE66 10SFS-048 that was in stock at Best Buy. So I bought one.

    The specs for this machine are:

    Intel Core i7 10750H
    RTX 2070 Super
    1tb SSD
    32GB RAM
    240hz display


    This is pretty similar to what I had originally ordered, except the 10SF-045 comes with the regular RTX 2070, 16GB RAM, and the non-super RTX 2070. With the changes I had originally made at Xotic, the two machines are pretty similar, except for the RTX 2070 Super.

    The machine this is replacing is a nearly five year old MSI GT-72 that has an Intel Core i7 4710HQ, GTX 980m, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD + 1TB HDD. Yes I know I am replacing a 17’ laptop with a smaller one. I travel a lot, and it was getting tiresome lugging around the GT72. I decided I wanted to go with something a little smaller and not nearly as heavy.

    So far, I haven’t had much of a chance to try the new Raider gaming. I have spent most of the time doing Windows updates, removing programs that I don’t want/need/won’t use, and installing some of the programs that I do want.

    Overall, I like the new laptop so far. The build quality seems pretty good so far. The light bar on the front is not as bright and overwhelming as what it appeared to me to be in some of the videos that I watched.

    While the keyboard is smaller than what I was using on the GT72, and there’s no number pad, it feels firm with no flex, unless I press in the middle pretty firmly. The keys have a slight click when depressed. I haven’t played with the RGB setting yet, but the keys are brightly lit and easy to see.

    The screen looks nice, and is also brightly lit. So far, I have not noticed any black light bleed anywhere on the screen. The only game I have tried so far is Lord of the Rings Online. With everything set to its’ highest setting in game, the lowest FPS I saw as 125. Generally, it was 180+ all the time. However, I haven’t spent a lot of time trying that or any other game so far, so we’ll see what happens as I get more things downloaded and updated.

    I did download a couple free benchmarking tools to see what it would show. These results are done with the latest Nvidia drivers, 446.14.

    Geek Bench 5:

    Compute OpenCL Score: 82004
    CPU Score: Single Core 1092 Multi Core 5402
    CUDA Score: 97360
    Vulkan Score: 61511

    3D Mark Skydiver benchmark for laptops:

    Overall Score: 40712
    Graphic Test 1: 307 fps
    Graphic Test 2: 350 fps
    Overall Graphic test score: 71607 Physics score: 14583 Overall score: 26298

    The highest GPU temp I saw during the benchmark was 70c for a brief moment. It ranged between 65-69c for most of the test. Dragon Center was set to extreme performance and gaming mode. The fans spun up and down, depending on the demand made of the GPU. While the fans did get loud, it was not too bad, and not nearly as loud as my GT72 with the fans set to max. I do miss having the fan button that was on my GT72. There are various profiles in Dragon Center, including an ability to set the fan speed to high. I haven’t experimented with all the different settings yet.

    I’ve saved what I think is the worst part of this laptop to the end, and that’s the sound. To me, the sound is huge let down. The speakers on the GE66 don’t seem to be nearly as good as what was on the GT72. The sound seems distant, has very little bass, and seems somewhat washed out. I have been messing with Nahimic and other settings trying to find something I like. I haven’t tried headphones or a headset yet, but hopefully that will be an improvement. I’ve managed to find something that is mostly acceptable, but it’s not great. I will continue to try and find some better settings that make the sound better.

    Overall, in about 24 hours of use, I like this laptop. Even though it is smaller, it is significantly lighter than my GT 72. It performs really well so far. In the few games I’ve tried, I get higher FPS with the same, or better, settings than what I got on the GT72. In the next few days, I do plan on adding a second 1TB SSD, and I may change out the stock thermal paste for something else. I haven’t decided about that yet though. I may wait and see what the temps do once I have the time to try some gaming.
     
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  46. captaincranium

    captaincranium Notebook Consultant

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    Just wanted to give an update myself. UPS just dropped mine off as well. I am swamped the rest of this weekend but will probably post something beginning of next week. I will just say this is a sexy beast so far! lol

    Everything Kildar has said above is true. Very solid build. Little to no flex on keyboard. Great screen on first impression. The laptop i am coming from is a MSI GT63VR Titan 15' Inch with a GTX 1080, intel 8750H, 32gb ram, etc etc in it and a Liquid Metal paste job by HIDevolution (which i will be selling if this GE66 becomes my new "keeper"). So i should be able to make some direct comparisons.

    I can tell you right now i love the new design over the older design. It is very sleek and smaller footprint than the MSI 15 GT63 Titan but same size screen and losing the num pad is no big deal to me. The GE66 has a much more "modern" look and you can turn off the light bar. The light bar when off blends in really nice with the black underside and side panels so it only really stands out if you have the lights going. The unit itself is also more of metallic grey/silver in color in person.

    LOVE it so far....first impressions with tests will be stock and see how that goes. Will then, if needed, repaste with some Gelid Extreme. Would have like to get a 17' model this time but they kept the old design for whatever reason on the 17' update which i think was a huge mistake by MSI. But this 15' GE66 is very nice so far....will update more later....
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2020
  47. eurodj101

    eurodj101 Notebook Evangelist

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    So u guys both got the 2070 one?? Also stress test it if u can and show temps for us..the one i want is the sfs
     
  48. Kildar

    Kildar Notebook Enthusiast

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    Mine is the 2070 Super. I didn't do any stress testing, but during the benchmarks I ran, the temp for the GPU ranged from 65-70. It hit 70c once, for a few seconds and went down. All of that was on stock thermal paste.

    The one I have is the GE66 10SFS-048.
     
  49. eurodj101

    eurodj101 Notebook Evangelist

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    Yeah that the one.....u mind helping a guy out.....imma dm u if its ok
     
  50. Kevin

    Kevin Egregious

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    A Firestrike run would be much appreciated, if you can find the time.


    Welcome to one of the compromises of thinner 15" laptops. Can't fit beefy speakers in there, especially with a 99Whr battery taking up so much space.
     
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