MSI have taken the wraps off of their all new notebook lineup featuring the newly released mobile Pascal series of GPU’s at a press event in Taiwan. With the recent news that MSI are the best selling gaming notebook vendor worldwide, we were especially keen to see what they had on offer.
While traditionally, notebook GPU’s have been cut down or severely underclocked compared to their desktop siblings, this generation is notable in that the mobile GPU’s are quite similar to the desktop parts, meaning notebooks equipped with mobile Pascal are very powerful indeed. Kudos needs to be given to Nvidia’s engineers who have managed to bring desktop class parts down to power and thermal levels suitable for notebook products. No doubt the 16nm FinFET process has assisted with this.
Let’s have a look at the specs of the new GPU’s as shown at today’s MSI presentation:
What we immediately see is the the core count for the GTX 1080 and 1060 GPU’s is identical, with the eventual boost clock speeds being identical for the GTX 1080 and just 38Mhz lower for the 1060. This means the mobile GPU’s are basically identical to their desktop counterparts. In fact they are not even referred to with a M suffix anymore.
That brings us to the GTX 1070. Note the red bold shading which tells us the mobile 1070 actually has more cores enabled than the desktop version. We’ll have to wait and see just how this compares to the desktop GTX 1070 in reality, but on paper, it should be around the level of a GTX 980 Ti, which immediately says we are looking at a significant performance improvement over the last generation GTX 980M.
Let’s move onto the new releases MSI has on show for us today.
The event started off with a very colorful presentation!
The top model being released is the insanely powerful GT83VR Titan. This 17.3″ IPS screen monster features no less that GTX 1080 SLI graphics with the ability to drive three external 4K displays at 60Hz, up to 64Gb of RAM, NVMe RAID0 SSD’s, Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1 Type-C, a Steelseries mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches, Dynaudio speaker system driven by ESS Sabre DAC along with AC WiFi, Killer networking and basically every feature you’d see on a top of the line desktop gaming PC.
Next up is the GT73VR Titan SLI. This model comes equipped with GTX 1070 SLI (or a single GTX 1080.) It will appeal to competitive gamers thanks to its optional 120Hz display, which MSI claims is a world first. This panel presents 94% NTSC color range and 100% sRGB color to deliver a smooth and accurate gaming experience. No cheap panels here!
The GT series is also up for a refresh. These are equipped with GTX 1070 or GTX 1060 GPUs while still packing a NVMe SSD, Quality Dynaudio/Audio Boost 2 with Nahimic 2 and their newest cooling solution to keep everything cool. You also get the choice of 120Hz or 4K screens and all the gaming goodies MSI is known for.
MSI’s popular slim GS models also come in for a refresh. The idea of an Ultrabook capable of playing the most demanding games at 1080P with high settings will appeal to many (including this author!) The GS63VR features a Core i7 6700HQ processor and GTX 1060 graphics squeezed into a chassis just 17.7mm thick and weighing just 1.9Kg. A frequently travelling gamer’s dream.
The GS73VR is a slightly larger version at 17″ that features a 4K screen. It has the GTX 1060 GPU, raising some questions about how it will cope with 4K gaming, though you can always dial the resolution down a bit. Perhaps a GP104 GPU is a step too far for this thin class of notebook.
For those preferring a truly mobile and compact model, MSI demonstrated the GS43 Phantom, which comes in a smaller 14″ form factor, yet still packs a GTX 1060M and i7 processor.
It’s not all about high end expensive models though. For the more budget oriented, MSI are refreshing their popular GE series with the new GE72VR and GE62VR. These GTX 1060 equipped notebooks still pack a Steelseries multi backlit keyboard, Nahimic 2 sound system with Dynaudio speakers, Killer LAN along with the new Cooler Boost 4 design with dual fans and 6 heatpipes for effective acoustics and thermals.
MSI showed off their new control center they call the ‘Dragon Center’ which is an all in one monitoring and control tool for the entire system. The interface looks much improved over some of the garish software apps we’ve seen over the years, and integrating controls into a single app is preferable to sometimes having to install multiple apps. Under demonstration the app worked quite well and looks to be a genuine value add to MSI’s new range of notebooks.
As with most product launches and trade shows in Taiwan, it wouldn’t be complete without lovely ladies!
