***The MSI GT72 Dominator Pro (GTX-880M) Owner's Lounge***

anyway I've been reading that nvidia is not going to take the 800m series with Maxwell but it jumping once the 900m series with all the Maxwell line, something strange when it just goes out the line GTX 800, but according to some articles it is not to confuse two lines 800m a kepler and maxwell another.

 

Just had a thought..... It's not uncommon for new Li-ion batteries to take 3 to 4 discharge/charge cycles, before they fully charge to 100%. Has anyone done this yet, I haven't? I don't suppose someone will run MSI's Battery Calibration Tool a few cycles? Time consuming, but it will be interesting to see if this helps.

 

I have done this several times, like 5 or 6 discharge/charge cycles in total.
Battery wear is still at ~30%.
I was able to decrease it by just 1% though.

 

Ok, thanks...... and that was complete cycles?

 

yes they were. I ran battery eater twice to see if the uptime changes, but theres no big difference.
1 hour and 7 minutes on the second run.

 

Ok..... I have passed this info on as well.

 

Hi again! I just found out this on GT72 user manual:
Batt type 9-cell This battery is equipped with automatic Under Voltage Protection (UVP) mechanism, keeping its Full Charge Capacity (FCC) at 4900~6000mAh (54.3~66.6Wh) to sustain a system full loading workload. The physical capacity of this battery is 7500mAh / 83.25Wh.
Does this mean that this battery never runs at full capacity??
I am not an expert in batteries but i have never read this before.

 

weird is I have the manual in English and German but they translated it differently.
In the german manual it says " please keep the Full Charge Capacity (FCC) at 4900~6000mAh (54.3~66.6Wh) to sustain a system full loading workload"
Which means that you have to take care of the battery and don't let it wear out.
Older MSI Notebooks needed the battery to provide full performance of the components like CPU and GPU, because they only had a 180W or less power supply. It's called Hybrid Power.
Good thing the GT72 is not using Hybrid Power anymore since they ship 220W PSUs, but the thing is still there in Gaming Center, just not being used.

But if the english translation is correct then it probably means what you were be afraid of.

 

So i do not understand why MSI put this batt on a high end gaming laptop, i don't get it.

 

I am not going to second guess anything here, choosing to wait to hear something from MSI. As far as gaming notebooks, most are not efficient, are not really known for their mobility, and none game well unplugged. It would be nice to have some semblance of mobility though..... at least a couple hours unplugged, doing light task on IGP. This will improve as more efficient tech is introduced, and Maxwell will be a small step in the right direction.

 

It seems 30% of the battery is reserved? Huh, if the manual says that, then indeed it is meant to be this way. We need MSI to clarify this! If it's made as a safety measure, it could prolong the average lifetime of the battery I guess.

 

60% is close to the optimal amount of energy to store in a battery to extend its life, and is probably why they chose this percentage. Storm in a teacup me thinks.

 

It's a battery quality issue, not necessarily defective but just inferior production quality which resulted in a lower yield.
But with 30% fixed, if it's the same for everyone, then it must be the Under Voltage Protection (UVP) that they had implemented.

 

It would be appreciated if someone could run some battery test with nvidia and intel graphics cards and post the results.

 

Okay striker, I don't know who are your inside sources in MSI, but please ask them if they had got any maxwell gpus to play with by NVidia to use in upcoming notebooks. If they are tinkering with the new cards, we can expect a maxwell refreshed GT72 by October or else...... I can wait

 

Why run battery life test with the NVidia GPU? When unplugged, optimal battery life will be achieved with the IGP.

Please see my post #499, HERE.



Also, Svet has updated his VBIOS & EC Tuner Tool, and version 2.86e now supports the GTX-880M. Thanks Svet!

Changes:

* Add support for GTX 880M, supported features:
-Support voltage adjust for P0, P1,P5, P8
-Support higher clock's voltage adjust
-Support memory clock adjust for P0, P1, P5, P8
-Support Maximum Boost Frequency adjust [Auto adjust for P0, P1]
-Support Boost table Frequency adjust
-Support Essential Domain 1 Frequency adjust
-Support Essential Domain 2 Frequency adjust
-Support Essential Domain 3 Frequency adjust
-Support Software GPU core OC Limit removal
-Support GPU Boost logic Enable/Disable
-Support P-State Terminator [ability to Disable/Enable desired P-state(P0,P1,P5,P8)]
-Support for power control modifications
Update GTX770:
- Add support for new vbios type
Update MSI EC-FW Editor:
- Add support for WT70-2OK GT60-2OK WORKSTATION 3K IPS EDITION
- Add support for WT70-2OK
- Add support for WT70-2OL
- Add support for WT60-2OK 3K IPS EDITION
- Add support for WT60-2OJ
- Add support for WS60 2OJ (3K IPS EDITION)
- Add support for WS60 2OJ

Enjoy!

 

Great Information on this forum so far, it really help me decided to buy the GT72 -010. I had the Asus G750-JS71 before, and was having major issues with it (had to exchange 3 times before returning it for good.)

I’m just hoping that MSI takes better care of its customers, Asus ROG use to be great, but now they are getting too big and forgot what made then great in the first place.

Anyway my laptop will be here on Friday; just looking for some information on what should I do first with it

1) Has anybody update their video drivers and have not had any issues, and which drivers did you upgrade to?
2) What software’s would you recommend me installing on this new laptop?
3) How much junk did you need to remove from laptop on day 1?
4) I will keep monitoring the battery issues, but I did notify my vendor in case I need a new RMA for battery
5) Anything else that you guys think it will help me about this laptop, please let me know

Thank you for all the feedback, and I will start adding mine as well.

 

I meant any battery test under normal circumstances like browsing, listening music, etc on. With th igp would do it, i still can not believe why msi put an inferior batt on it's new flagship laptop.

 

Actually, I think all the concern over the battery, will turn out to be a lot of fuss, over nothing. The video driver is fine, and don't bother trying to update it right now, because NVidia has yet added this 880M HW ID to the driver package..... soon though, in one of the next driver releases.



Also, if you can handle the monotony, I've added a GT72 disassembly video to the thread's lead post. ("REMOVE SCREW......")



@Tarwater,

Inferior battery? We do not know a battery issue even exist. Yes, we would all like more battery-life time, but it is a GAMING FLAGSHIP notebook. If mobility is your priority, I suggest you consider any notebook that IS NOT a gaming flagship.

 

Thank you!!!

 

I have not said i want a mobility laptop, have i? I only meant buying a 2200eur laptop with 31% batt wear level is not right, regardless of the batt life, i sold my Gigabyte P35K to buy this one.

 

Look Tarwater, we do not know why reporting software indicates a 31% wear level. We do not know a problem even exist. We do not know enough about the reference design. There have been several possible explanations proposed, but you do not seem to have the patience for a reply from MSI. Your insistence there is a problem, when we do not know there is a problem, is really starting to sound like whining, like Chicken Little, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!" Let's examine this:

And then, there are your other post to other forums, like:

Overclockers UK Forums - View Single Post - MSI GT72 Dominator Pro 31% battery wear level!

You do not own the notebook, yet you seem to be the most concerned here. YOU have been the single greatest proponent, that a problem does exist. Even if a problem did exist, MSI will correct the problem. Anyhow, can you please be patient. I expect to hear something on this soon.

 

Well that was a bit too much i think, and btw i already have paid for this laptop. Thank you

 

OKkkkkkkkkkk, and coincidentally, this just in:

MSI has looked into the concerns, and there does not appear to be a battery problem at all. The reason we see software reporting 30% wear levels, is a newly added design feature called, "Rush Current Protection", or "RCP". As most know and understand, gaming systems should not be used with the dedicated graphics card, while on battery power alone. The design concept of RCP is to provide sufficient battery power, similar to Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), and it's purpose is to prevent any operating system crash or battery fuse burn-out, should AC power be cut-off suddenly. In other words, in the event of accidental AC power loss, with low-battery while heavy-load gaming, RCP should allow a momentary AC recovery time..... without causing a system or game crash. All GT72 batteries are brand-new, fully tested, none are refurbished, and there is no supply related issues.

 

I see, and after reading the manual and more over voltage protection and now MSI response, it makes sense. My GT60 would power the @#$#@$ down as soon as I was gaming on full power and I lost my AC. This happened when forcing full performance from the dedicated GPU. On stock, it would simply throttle down.

I guess it has that % reserved and it becomes a matter of wait if it recovers AC, or drain your battery and die

 

Since it is not touching that 30% part of the battery, software might report it as wear level.

 

Does the system come with a recover feature where I can restore it to factory settings or do I need to install disks? Thanks! I'm asking because lot sure if I need to purchase the disks or not.

 

Ryzeki, I think you hit the nail right on the head. I think most are unaware of the enormous power draw of these high-end graphics cards.

Yes, there is a recovery partition, and you can also create recovery disk.

 

It'll come with a recovery partition assuming you're getting it with the stock OS and stock drives, if not then those aren't carried over as builders are not allowed to do so.

 

Thank you for the replies! I will be getting it with the stock OS.

 

Great news!

 

I see.
So without RCP and low battery the system would crash when there is a sudden AC power loss?
I've unplugged AC on my GT70 once while gaming while the battery was at like 40%, but there was no crash. The game did just stutter because the GPU throttled down.

 

It can crash or shut down when the battery gets a massive spike like that.

 

Yes, as I explained, when I unlocked my GT60's 780m for full power with custom vbios (no throttling, no boost or anything, full performance always) it would insta-shutdown if I lost AC power. On stock with no mods, it simply throttles down, precisely because it can't handle the demand of the full system on battery. Just as it happened to you.

This also happened to me on my GT70 with 680m unlocked. I distinctively remember furmark autokilling it on battery, my mistake as If forgot to plug it in before running the software.

 

I just did another test of battery eater but at full brightness this time and this is what I got, if someone is interested..
So theres the fact that they really reduced the usable capacity.

 

(Just when I thought we were done with this battery thing........ )

Ok, so let me see if I have this straight...... by "THEY", you mean the battery manufacturer, and by "REDUCED USABLE CAPACITY', you mean the reserved capacity, used by RCP, which enables it to act as a UPS. Does that sound about right?

 

Seems legit since you had asked. :thumbsup:

 

I connect MSI customer service about the battery issue and this was their response

 

Fwiw, I like the idea of the reserved battery space - UPS-like feature. Good stuff.

Ordered my GT72 Dominator 047 today, Ken (Think it was Ken?) was very helpful with the plethora of questions I had. Ordered it with 32gigs of RAM and 3 ssd's in a raid, should be a little upgrade from my IBM Thinkpad (made by IBM, before "Lenova" existed, heh. 1.6ghz pentium 4, first generation, 256 megs of ram, 10 gig hdd... mmmyah, that beast still works tho).

Thanks again for the help, gentech and helpful people from this forum. Looking forward to joining the club. Cheers.

- Dave

 

Hi sayro, and thanks for confirming this info.

Hi Dave, and Welcome To The Party! Man O' Man, are you in for a treat..... Good times ahead!

 

So, so, so tempted to pull the trigger on the GTX880M GT72. But deep down I know I should wait for the Maxwell refresh (this is becoming a real test of willpower to be honest).

 

you're welcome

I have question can I add another 2.5 hdd to the system? I can see there is empty bay, if so what tools do I need like cable and part

 

I haven't installed another drive (no need), so I am uncertain if an HDD caddy will be needed, but the drive should easily plug-in without need of a cable. I am sure one of our resellers will answer you shortly though.

Edit: Just reviewed video, and it looks like the bay will require an adapter or cable.

Kevin? Ken?

 

1x 2.5", 1x optical and 4x m.2 is what you get connector wise.

I think the space next to the m.2 drives is for future options where the m.2 adapter is not included (the m.2 adapter bay uses less space than a 2.5" drive needs)

 

you need a sata adapter that replaces the m.2 ssd adapter, but you will lose 3 usable ports for just one.
OR you buy a HDD caddy for the DVD bay.

 

then external hard drive will be right choice for me,
thanks

 

I checked the unit again and it's just an empty spot with nothing in there and no connectors. the empty spot does look identical to the 2.5" drive slot.

 

Best to get it right from the initial purchase rather than trying to replace the daughter board after purchase as it can be difficult to obtain the part.

 

hm does someone know when this battery SKU will be available?

 

I'll see if I can find out, but personally, I like the idea of RCP. With RCP, unplugged battery time will be an hour or so, and without RCP, perhaps an hour and a half...... and I feel the benefits of RCP outweighs the small increase in battery time. Again, we would all like to see some semblance of mobility in our gaming notebooks, but for this niche, battery time has never been the priority..... It's about gaming performance..... and size, weight, and limited battery time, generally makes them somewhat impractical for mobile application. Since I have had the GT72, there has not been one occasion (other than testing) that I felt I needed to switch to IGP, or use the notebook solely on battery power. I simply use the notebook on the dedicated GPU, and always plugged-in..... and for my mobile needs, I can do all else with any one of my other devices, such as my smartphone or tablet.

Anyhow, I will try to get some info on these other battery SKU's without RCP, and if I were to take a guess, probably when the next-gen Maxwell GT72's are released. This is somewhat ironic, because the new 20nm process Maxwell will be more energy efficient, and I've seen estimates up to 30% greater efficiency. Regardless what the future brings, personally, I would still opt for the benefits of RCP. Good times ahead!

Daughter board? For clarity, does this require using the M.2 adapter SATA port, and is an HDD caddy needed to utilize the 2nd HDD slot? Thanks!