MSI GT70 Review: GTX 880M Edition
by Jarred Walton on April 16, 2014 6:00 AM ESTMSI GT70 General Performance
I don’t want to dwell on the general performance of the GT70 too much, mostly because the use of a pure HDD storage solution in our test unit means it can feel very sluggish at times. I simply would not want to use a computer – desktop or laptop – that doesn’t have an SSD as the primary storage device. I’ve been “spoiled” over the past few years, and when I go back to conventional storage it can be unbearable. Basically, my usage habits have shifted thanks to SSDs, and so now I “require” one in order to function. PCMark 7 and 8 both have a storage test, and that’s as good a place to start as any:
With storage being such a bottleneck, it’s pretty much pointless to discuss the other PCMark scores as all of them (except for Computation in PCMark 7) place any SSD equipped laptops ahead of the HDD-equipped GT70. The scores are in Mobile Bench, but we won't bother listing them here as they basically just reiterate the point that an SSD scores much better than an HDD in PCMark.
For CPU and GPU testing, we do have a few things we can run, but we’ve covered this ground before and the i7-4800MQ is a known quantity. It’s faster than any other mobile CPU with the exception of the i7-4900MQ and i7-4930MX, just as you’d expect. 3DMarks also illustrate what we’ve already shown with our gaming benchmarks: the GTX 880M is the fastest mobile GPU around right now.
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kishorshack - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link
Again an amazing gaming notebook from MSIOverall Gaming Experience Amazing
but
LCD should have been a bit better
Specially in gaming notebook
Where what you see forms the basis of your overall experience
Meaker10 - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link
There are not that many good 17.3" panels out there if any. The 15.6" version ships with a PLS screen though.lukedaly - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
Well the LCD still isn't any good, it's no where close to matching the top notebooks that are on the market. /Luke from http://www.consumertop.com/best-laptop-guide/phdchristmas - Saturday, April 19, 2014 - link
I bought last years G70 with the GTX 770M. I needed a laptop to play FFXIV:ARR as my ole dependable Z575 wasn't going to cut it.I agree the LCD is poor at best. very uncomfortable viewing angles.
came with CAS 11 memory and 5400 rpm hdd's in a raid0.
And they threw in windows 8, without the bios update to fix a S3 wake error which complicated a lot of things, because the bios update from the MSI website would say "THIS BIOS IS NOT FOR THIS DEVICE" then shutdown. I took it back to the store and they just ended up giving a replacement with the same problems. The way transactions work in this country i couldn't return for a full refund, only store credit.
Ended up gutting it and installing win7 to make it work. Warranty voided, but that was going to happen anyways. The point is that i shouldn't have to apply my technical skills and spend 12+hours to get a damn $1600 gaming laptop to work as intended.
I'll be sure to avoid MSI in the future
kosmokenny - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link
They announced that the GS70 will be available with the 870m, is there any word yet on when that will be arriving?rxzlmn - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link
You can already buy that, depending on where you live. Both GS60 and GS70 with 870M are avalaible (albeit at limited stock) here in Singapore.willis936 - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link
Heavy and loud but that's a lot of hardware. Please review the P34G v2.highbrow - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link
Or maybe Jarrod could finish the full review he promised of the P34G v1? It's only been 6 months.willis936 - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link
I would agree with you but I'm not considering buying a P34G v1 this summer.JarredWalton - Thursday, April 17, 2014 - link
The P34G review had to be canceled -- basically, something died on my test unit during stress testing. Sorry for the lack of an update, but I didn't want to make a big deal about it and it was basically at the point where by the time I could get a replacement it would be too old to worry much about the review. I'm going to try and get one of the newer 800M Gigabyte laptops at some point, but no promises!