Meet the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro

[Kevin]

MSI GT72 ultimate gaming laptop coming to SA: pricing, date

This laptop is bad to the bone, with more power than most desktop gaming PCs

 

[DieGrootHammer]

Though I would love one, I've never really understood the concept of heavy hitting powerhouse laptops like this. Yes, it can probably play any game that you want anywhere you want, but can you really? What about the mouse? And will the keyboard be good enough for proper gaming? And then the price. For that price you can get a desktop machine much more powerful. So why? Why would you rather R40k for a gaming laptop than a gaming PC? It doesn't make sense to me

 

[jasong]

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Though I would love one, I've never really understood the concept of heavy hitting powerhouse laptops like this. Yes, it can probably play any game that you want anywhere you want, but can you really? What about the mouse? And will the keyboard be good enough for proper gaming? And then the price. For that price you can get a desktop machine much more powerful. So why? Why would you rather R40k for a gaming laptop than a gaming PC? It doesn't make sense to me

Remember Evetech's R40k model is the totally stacked out edition, with 4x128gb SSDs in Raid0 + 1tb SSD, etc. It's also available at Wootware with 256gb SSD and 16gb ram for R33000:
http://www.wootware.co.za/msi-gt72-...dows-8-1-single-language-64-bit-notebook.html

As for why you'd want this over a PC - well, I guess it comes down to a couple of factors:
How much portability do you need? E.g. do you lan often? Do you move rooms? Do you want to maybe game in bed? <---ME!
How many computers do you require? E.g. will you need a laptop for work or other purposes plus a desktop for gaming? If you would, then why not pay the extra and combine them into 1 function? If the screen size is the issue at home, this model can attach to 3x4k screens in total.

I know it's not for everyone and it's pricier than a standalone gaming desktop but these machines are very popular for a reason. I'll post some more stuff on this laptop in the near future also.

 

[jasong]

Cooler Boost 3 on the MSI GT72 2PE Dominator Pro

I wanted to just show off the improved cooling featured in this laptop, which is obviously one of the main reasons for redesigning the GT70.

The Cooler Boost 3 dual thermal system was designed for next generation extreme performance CPU and graphics. This feature is enabled through an independent launch key on the left side of keyboard, meaning that the user can turn on advanced cooling with just a touch.

Due to its advanced cooling efficiency, Cooler Boost 3 manages to decrease heat and volume while maintaining the same physical area. The heat generated by the core components is transferred to the vents quietly without troubling users, and supports up to Core i7 4710HQ CPU and GTX880M 8GB graphics with lower temperatures than any other gaming laptop. When you enable Cooler Boost 3 with its boosted fan speed, it can decrease the CPU temperature around 7∘C and the GPU temperature around 3∘C, while keeping noise levels below most other gaming notebooks.

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[jasong]

Looks like Kitguru are the first site to have a review of the GT72 over here, and it's a whopper of a review:

http://www.kitguru.net/laptops/zardon/msi-gt72-2pe-dominator-pro-072uk-review/

They scored it 4.6 / 5.

The option to add another three screens (for four in total) to the GT72 2PE Dominator Pro is certainly a welcome feature. It even supports 4K resolutions. We did test with a single 4K ASUS PQ321Q monitor and the MSI GT72 2PE Dominator Pro supported it well. That said, dealing with the latest Direct X games at 3840×2160 will prove too much …. even for Nvidia’s GTX880M.
The combination of powerful Core i7 4710HQ, 32GB of DDR3 memory and Nvidia GTX880M ensures that the MSI GT72 2PE Dominator Pro is unlikely to run out of steam. It broke our previous mobile record in Cinebench R11.5- scoring over 7 points. You could feasibly even rely on the MSI laptop for 3D rendering or video editing in a hotel room.
The adoption of 4x SSD Raid 0 (or ‘Super RAID 3′ as MSI call it) is certainly a talking point. Our results show a maximum performance figure around 1,100MB/s, which this does fall a little short of MSI’s 1,600MB/s claims. It would be bordering on the criminal to have hampered such a powerful desktop replacement with a mere mechanical drive. That said, MSI have found physical space to also include a 1TB 7,200 rpm storage drive as well.
One of the most remarkable selling points for this laptop is actually the way it deals with heat. MSI have opted for a sophisticated dual heatsink/fan cooling system which in the real world works exceptionally well. The hardware is held well within thermal limits and the lack of noise was a real surprise for me. I have tested many desktop replacements over the years and I always expect to deal with a lot of fan noise. The MSI GT72 2PE Dominator Pro at idle is completely silent, and under load the fans spin at modest levels – it is certainly audible, but no louder than a smaller business based laptop when watching a 1080p movie. I consider this a remarkable achievement.

If you are in the market for a large, desktop replacement system to handle the latest games, and have perhaps even more serious 3d rendering or video editing duties then the MSI GT72 2PE Dominator Pro should be right at the top of your shortlist. It is one of the finest laptops money can buy and will cost considerably less than a similarly specified Alienware desktop replacement.

 

[The Joker]

Yeah @ R32 000 + it better be a stonking good laptop.
Although I don't see them selling many of these in SA...

 

[jasong]

Yeah @ R32 000 + it better be a stonking good laptop.
Although I don't see them selling many of these in SA...

Yeah well it's the flagship, and the price is quite equivalent to any other similarly specced machine. Unfortunately of course, we have to pay an enormous premium to get it here :/

 

[jasong]

It seems like this laptop will be on demo at rAge for those attending

Unfortunately I won't be one of the attendees this year though. But if you're there, swing by and see what they've got on. There should be some prizes as well. They'll be standing at the Evetech booth.

 

[jasong]

Anandtech has a performance preview of the GT72 with GTX980m over here:

First, let me just say that the inclusion of the desktop GTX 970 is really something of a high water mark for mobile GPUs to strive for. Granted, it's a $329 part compared to a $2200+ notebook, but high-end gaming notebooks have never been particularly economical. The fact that the GTX 980M can come close to the GTX 970 is pretty impressive, and it also breaks 30FPS in every one of our test games – something no other mobile GPU has ever achieved.

Right now, I have to say that I'm really impressed with the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro. I'd still love to see a slightly higher resolution display, and anything other than a TN panel would be preferable. 2560x1440 would be ideal in my opinion – 3K and 4K are too much right now, but 2560x1440 should be just about right for the 980M. Outside of that complaint and some concerns over the lack of Optimus support, there are really no other flaws with the GT72. It looks so much better than the previous generation GT70 that I suspect it may become difficult for retailers to move any unsold inventory. I've liked the changes that MSI made to the GE and GS lines, and it's great to see the GT series finally get a much needed overhaul. All we need now is a GT62, which could very well be in the works. I'll be back next week with the complete review, but if you can't wait that long this is looking like the gaming notebook to beat.

 

[jasong]

Alright I think it's pretty clear that the 900m cards are a hefty upgrade - one of the biggest mobile graphics upgrades in a long time. They've closed the gap on desktop performance while bringing down noise, heat and power consumption. So for the GT72 one of the key features in its design was the modular MXM design which enables you to swap cards in and out easily. No more need to go out and buy a new laptop to get the latest updates from Nvidia.
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The video here shows in detail how to perform the swap-out at home:
GT72 MXM

MSI is now launching an upgrade program for the GT72. If you own one with a GTX 870M or 880M, you can easily upgrade to the 970M or 980M by just changing the graphics card. This can be done by an MSI service center, or by purchasing a DIY kit, depending on your location. The result is that you no longer have to go through the hassle of changing your full system to get that latest-gen performance boost, saving you money, and efforts to install your games onto an all new system.

 

[jasong]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8619/investigating-nvidias-batteryboost-msi-gt72

Anandtech did an investigation into the improvements in gaming battery life using Nvidia Batteryboost in the GT72 when going to the 980m. It seems like with very conservative settings (30fps target, vsync on), 2 hours of battery gameplay is possible:

The bottom line is that BatteryBoost is certainly improving battery life, though it does so at the cost of frame rates. Considering many console games target 30FPS it's not a horrible solution, but gamers willing to fork out the money for a notebook with a GTX 980M are likely to pack around their AC adapter so that they can get every ounce of performance possible out of their notebook. At some point, I still want to see a gaming notebook that can deliver a decent gaming experience at 60FPS and high quality for more than two hours – and once we reach that level, I'll want to see three or four hours of gaming battery life, I'm sure. It's the great thing about technology: there's always some further milestone to try to achieve.

 

[jasong]

MSI has developed a feature called SHIFT for the GT72. Even though the GT72 barely doesn’t run particularly hot, you might come across some scenarios where you might approach the thermal limits of the hardware, such as gaming outside or in offices without air conditioning in hot countries. Maybe you just don’t need all that performance, and want to limit the heat output, for comfort reasons? You can make sure you’ll stay inside thermal limits, both your own as well as the system’s with a simple key combo, completely independent of your operating system’s power profiles.

In short, you have three modes to choose from, when running on AC power:
Sport Mode: Overclocking of both CPU and GPU. Also activates Cooler Boost
Comfort Mode: CPU turbo is enabled, but GPU frequency is prohibited from ramping up into boost frequencies.
Green Mode: CPU turbo disabled, lower frequencies/voltage on both CPU and GPU. Lower revving fans.

The switch between SHIFT profiles is simple, done by pressing the Fn + F7 key combo, or via Dragon Gaming Center. As you’d expect, Sport Mode delivers the maximum potential of the hardware and the highest scores, while Comfort and Green Mode are a bit slower, but lowers the temperatures by a lot. Below, you can see the performance difference between the different profiles in 3DMark Fire Strike on the GT72.

The largest gains are in GPU temperatures though – by changing from Sport to Green Mode, you’ll see an 11°C drop in temperature and a full 14°C drop in CPU temperature.

SHIFT, therefore, is a handy tool which helps you control power consumption and heat output. If you don’t need all the power, for example during lighter game loads, why not make sure the system runs quieter and cooler?

SHIFT is available on NVIDIA GTX 900M-series equipped GS60/70 as well as the GT72.

 

[jasong]

I saw Nag Magazine gave the GT72 9/10 in the latest issue:

Seems our Neo's a fan . I see he only reviewed the 880m model here though.

 

[jasong]

The GT72 comes with a much improved dual-fan cooling solution compared to its predecessors. Thanks to advanced thermal engineering and features such as the thermal bridge (the heatpipe connecting the CPU cooling block to the VGA exhaust fins), the GT72 has a world-class cooling system. Anyone can keep a system cool by blasting the fans on max RPM, but the dual-fan Cooler Boost 3 solution also manages to keep the revs and thereby the noise levels down.

As we already touched on a couple of weeks ago, we know that the temperatures never reach above 80°C, even with a grossly overclocked GTX 980M – the Cooler Boost 3 design you see above is the reason for this.

 

[jasong]

Anandtech finally got around to reviewing the 980m version of the GT72 and they seem thoroughly impressed:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8694/msi-gt72-dominator-pro-review

That means that with one fell swoop, MSI has gone from being one of the least attractive high-end gaming notebooks in my book to the one that others have to beat. It took longer than I’d like to get here, but I won’t argue with the end result!

Considering the substantial overhaul to the industrial design, not to mention the excellent performance and great feature set, I’m pleased to award MSI’s GT72 Dominator Pro with our Silver Editors’ Choice award. This is an expensive piece of hardware, but gaming notebook fans should be happy for at least a few years with the GT72. It’s fast, it looks great, it’s built reasonably well, and for now it’s the gaming notebook to beat. If we could get an IPS display (and potentially High DPI) in all of the models this would be a Gold award instead, and hopefully we'll see that with the next cycle of hardware (e.g. in early 2015 when high performance Broadwell CPUs launch).

Congratulations to MSI for providing a gaming notebook that truly impresses; they certainly deserve commendations for the most improved notebook design I can ever recall seeing. Other than Broadwell and an IPS display, I’m not sure what they can do for an encore, but this is a design that could easily carry MSI through several years of upgrades without getting stale. If you’re not in the market for a hefty gaming notebook, there’s nothing here that’s likely to change your mind, but for notebook gamers this is as good as it gets.

 

[jasong]

Q4 2014 Bundles

Nowadays, when you buy a gaming notebook from MSI, chances are you’ll end up with a little something on the side, apart from the notebook and the usual accessories. The tricky bit is that what extras you get vary quite wildly from region to region, making it close to impossible to summarize what’s bundled where, and for you as an end-user, even harder to know what you’re getting.
(not me in pic)

Recognizing this little dilemma, we decided to take a look at a selection of things you will find bundled in a little video presentation of the Q4 2014 bundles, including plushies, mouse pads and backpacks. The video is found on Youtube:

 

[jasong]

Audio Boost 2 – theory and practice
Audio Boost and Audio Boost 2 are just one of many MSI-exclusive features on the G-series notebooks, but most importantly, it’s one of few audio related. Audio Boost 2 enhances your sound experience, whether you’re using a headset or the built-in Dynaudio speakers.

GT72 is currently the only MSI notebook to feature Audio Boost 2 – which is a collective name for the use of triple amplifiers, an isolated audio jack PCB, gold-plated audio jacks and the use of Sound Blaster Cinema 2. The point of this article is to explain to you what this all really is.

Triple amplifiers is a pretty self-explanatory name – it’s got three separate amplifiers. The GT72 with Audio Boost 2 amp is capable of delivering a full 15W to the 1” speakers, another 15W to the built-in 36mm woofer, as well as also utilizing a dedicated headset amplifier.

The isolated audio jack PCB is again what it says. Electrically separated from the rest of the motherboard for signal separation, it comes with gold-plated jacks and is optimized for headsets with 32-48 ohm impedance.

Additionally, the GT72 employs a superior audio codec compared to the competition – with full 7.1 output, the ALC892 beats the likes of ALC668 and ALC282 used by others.

Sound Blaster Cinema 2 is also part of the Audio Boost 2 package, letting you fiddle around with your sound settings for optimum gaming sound. Another software feature is Ear Protection, which lets you set a maximum sound level, to guard your ears against any sudden bursts of loud noises, potentially preventing hearing damage.