Review: MSI GT 780 Gaming Notebook
Category : Notebooks / Tablets
Published by Marc Büchel on 12.09.11
With the GT 780 MSI has a gaming notebook in its portfolio that comes with a GTX 560M GPU as well as a SSD as system disk. Therefore it will offer very good and balanced overall performance. Furthermore CHF 2'500.- (est. EUR 2100.-) is a reasonable pricing. 
On the following pages we will show you the strenghts and weaknesses of the GT 780 Gaming Notebook gaming notebook from MSI.
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Preview
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Specifications / Chassis
| CPU | Intel Core i7-2630QM (2.0 GHz Standard, 2.9 GHz Turbo) |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
| Chipset | Intel HM67 Express Chipset |
| Memory | DDR3 1333 MHz, 2 x SODIMM, 8 GByte Total |
| Display | 15.6'' Full HD 3D LED 120Hz, 1920 x 1080 |
| Graphics card | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M (3D Vision), 1.5 Gigabyte GDDR3 |
| Hard drive / Drive | 1 x 120 Gigabyte Intel
SSD 1 x Blu-ray and DVD Burner |
| Video Camera | Web Camera 720p@30fps |
| Connectors | Gigabit LAN WLAN b/g/n Bluetooth 3.0 1 x VGA 1 x HDMI 1.4 3 x USB 2.0 2 x USB 3.0 1 x eSATA 1 x Mic-out 1 x Line-in 1 x Line-out |
| Audio | Built-in Speakers and
Microphone Dynaudio 2.1 Speaker System |
| Battery | 78 Wh 9 cell |
| Dimensions | 428 x 288 x 55 mm (W x D x H) |
| Weight | 3.90 kg |
Chassis / Design / Build quality
As soon as you take the GT 780 out of its box, you'll notice that MSI has found a good compromise concerning the weight which this powerful gaming notebook has. Taking a closer look at this portable gaming machine with the lid closed you see that MSI put an aluminium plate into the LCDs back panel which provides some more stability and it also give the notebook a classy finish. Opening the lid reveals the input peripherals weheras the keyboard comes from a cooperation with SteeSeries. Furthermore the GT 780 also features back-lit status LEDs which start shimmering as soon as the notebook is powered up. Generally the build quality is on a reasonable level and because of the aluminium plate behind the display panel it is well protected.
MSI equips the GT 780, which weighs 3.9 kilogram with an Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU, 16 gigabyte memory, an Intel 120 Gigabyte SSD (Intel SSD 320) as well as a 750 Gigabyte hard drive, a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M graphics chips with 1'536 Megabyte graphics memory as well as a 17.3 inch display. The CPU features four cores with a total of eight threads which come with a standard clock frequency of 2.0 GHz and a turbo clock of 2.9 GHz. Unter load conditions the GT 780 produces a noise level which is adequate for a gaming notebook. Although the built-in fans are well audible there is no disturbing high frequency noise.
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Display / Input Devices
Display
MSI equipped the GT 780 with 17.3 inch display that has a matt finish. Furthermore the display featutes a 1920 x 1080 FullHD resolution and also comes with LED backlight. The antireflection has been done very well. It almost can't be any better and therefore there is no scenario in which you'll see reflections of environment objects. With 258 Candela per squaremeter the brightness is also above average. Furthermore the contrast ratio is very well and even the black level is superb. In general: the display is very good a definitely perfect for gaming.
Input Devices
Concerning the development of input peripherals for the GT 780 MSI teamed up with SteelSeries to deliver a good result. The keyboard therefore got comfortably big keys which measure 15 x 15 mm. Writing texts as well as gaming is convenient. The only thing that might have the potential to bother people is the noise the key strokes make. A neat feature for gamers concerns the keyboards background light. Thanks to an intuitive software it can be set to a lot of different colors. Furthermore SteelSeries and MSI decided to remove the left Windows key. Gamer like this because in this case they wont accidentally hit it and therefore the wont be redirected to the desktop when in a gaming.
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Test setup
Regarding our notebook reviews we use a practical approach. To get a detailed impresson of the device the tester uses it to work with. In case of gaming notebooks it replaces the testers gaming PC during the time of the test. These methods allow us to provide detailed user experience to you.Regarding performance benchmarks - which are listed below - we don't go very deep. What we do, is that we use benchmarking software which over the years have established as standards for reviewing purposes. Furthermore the specific game benchmarks give insight to the playability of recent games.
Benchmarkprogramme
- Futuremark PCMark 7
- Total Score
- Video playback and transcoding / Video playback Score
- Video playback and transcoding / Video transcoding - downscaling Score
- System storage - gaming / System storage - gaming Score
- Graphics - DirectX 9 / Graphics - DirectX 9 Score
- Image manipulation / Image manipulation Score
- System storage - importing pictures / System storage - importing pictures Score
- Web browsing and decrypting / Web browsing Score
- Web browsing and decrypting / Data decrypting Score
- System storage - Windows Defender / System storage - Windows Defender Score
- Total Score
- Futuremark 3DMark 11
- Total
- CPU
- Physics
- Futuremark 3DMark Vantage
- Total
- Grafik
- CPU
- Unigine Heaven
- High / Extreme / 16x AF / 8x AA / Max Resolution
- Resident Evil 5
- High / 16x AF / 8x AA / Max Resolution
- Far Cry 2
- High / 16x AF / 8x AA / Max Resolution
- Battery Eater
- Classic
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PCMark 7 - Video Playback / Downscaling / Transcoding / Storage
PCMark 7 is a benchmark suite which consists of 20 different workloads. The following results reflect the PCMark 7's standard selection, which provides a good insight regarding overall system performance. For a comfortable presentation we chose to split the results onto three different sites.| Futuremark PCMark 7 | Punkte |
| MSI GT 780 | 3'805 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 3'074 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 3'015 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 2'966 |
| ASUS G74SX | 2'500 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 2'261 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 1'693 |
| Video playback and transcoding / Video playback | fps |
| MSI GT 780 | 23.14 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 23.13 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 23.11 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 23.10 |
| ASUS G74SX | 23.04 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 23.01 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 22.62 |
| Video playback and transcoding / Video transcoding - downscaling | KByte/s |
| MSI GT 780 | 4'905 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 5'285 |
| ASUS G74SX | 5'251 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 4'948 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 4'923 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 4'870 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 2'472 |
| System storage - gaming / System storage - gaming | MByte/s |
| MSI GT 780 | 14.4 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 7.93 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 7.21 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 7.09 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 4.46 |
| ASUS G74SX | 4.34 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 3.23 |
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DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures
| Graphics - DirectX 9 / Graphics - DirectX 9 | fps |
| MSI GT 780 | 50.55 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 50.37 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 47.51 |
| ASUS G74SX | 48.96 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 32.92 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 30.67 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 16.51 |
| Image manipulation / Image manipulation | Mpx/s |
| MSI GT 780 | 9.04 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 8.88 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 8.86 |
| ASUS G74SX | 8.80 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 8.72 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 8.72 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 8.66 |
| System storage - importing pictures / System storage - importing pictures | MByte/s |
| MSI GT 780 | 21.06 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 11.08 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 9.75 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 9.55 |
| ASUS G74SX | 6.30 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 5.96 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 4.74 |
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Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
| Web browsing and decrypting / Web browsing | Pages/s |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 14.82 |
| MSI GT 780 | 14.08 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 13.36 |
| ASUS G74SX | 10.66 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 10.63 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 9.8 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 7.3 |
| Web browsing and decrypting / Data decryption | MByte/s |
| ASUS G74SX | 55.94 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 54.14 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 47.63 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 47.22 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 47.20 |
| MSI GT 780 | 46.27 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 40.32 |
| System storage - Windows Defender / System storage - Windows Defender | MByte/s |
| MSI GT 780 | 5.12 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 3.29 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 3.22 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 3.11 |
| ASUS G74SX | 1.40 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 1.20 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 0.99 |
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Futuremark
| 3DMark 11 Total | Punkte |
| MSI GT 780 | 2'025 |
| ASUS G74SX | 1'980 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 1'971 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 1'781 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 1'032 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 997 |
| 3DMark 11 GPU | Punkte |
| MSI GT 780 | 1'814 |
| ASUS G74SX | 1'773 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 1'766 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 1'593 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 910 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 879 |
| 3DMark 11 Physics | Punkte |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 6'318 |
| MSI GT 780 | 6'253 |
| ASUS G74SX | 6'208 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 6'093 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 6'006 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 5'941 |
| 3DMark Vantage Total | Punkte |
| MSI GT 780 | 9'316 |
| ASUS G74SX | 9'029 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 8'834 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 8'134 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 4'516 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 4'405 |
| 3DMark Vantage GPU | Punkte |
| MSI GT 780 | 8'055 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 7'781 |
| ASUS G74SX | 7'770 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 6'904 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 3'620 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 3'527 |
| 3DMark Vantage CPU | Punkte |
| ASUS G74SX | 17'575 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 17'573 |
| MSI GT 780 | 17'560 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 17'482 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 17'473 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 17'367 |
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Gaming Benchmarks
| Unigine Heaven Benchmark | fps |
| MSI GT 780 | 10.3 |
| ASUS G74SX | 10.0 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 9.8 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 9.0 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 4.9 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 4.8 |
| Resident Evil 5 | fps |
| MSI GT 780 | 51.3 |
| ASUS G74SX | 51.0 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 47.1 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 44.4 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 24.2 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 22.9 |
| Far Cry 2 | fps |
| MSI GT 780 | 39.83 |
| ASUS G74SX | 39.07 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 37.99 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 34.48 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 19.10 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 18.72 |
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Battery Eater / Power Consumption
| Battery Eater Classic | min |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 2 h 20 min |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 2 h 16 min |
| ASUS G74SX | 1 h 33 min |
| MSI GT 780 | 1 h 29 min |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 1 h 25 min |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 1 h 22 min |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 1 h 19 min |
| Power Consumption Load | Watt |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 81 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 116 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 128 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 139 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 143 |
| ASUS G74SX | 145 |
| MSI GT 780 | 148 |
| Power Consumption Idle | Watt |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 12 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 20 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 37 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 40 |
| ASUS G74SX | 42 |
| MSI GT 780 | 46 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 55 |
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Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| With the GT 780, MSI has a very well built gaming notebook in its portfolio which is also able to convince from the performance perspective. For an attractive price you even get a SSD standard which gives this device a well deserved performance boost. Especially desktop taks will be accelerated but also games will load faster. | - Performance | ||
| Display / Input devices | + | - | |
| We very much liked the high quality 17.3
inch display. An excellent contrast ration, a superb black level and
good brightness are three key factors for a very good panel. Especially
for gaming purposes the display simply is perfect. Also the keyboard is
very good. In our opinion it has been a good descision to team up with
SteelSeries. The keyobard is very well built and allows convenient
typing and gaming even if the sessions take several hours. Furthermore
the background color can be changed via an intuitive software. Unfortunately the touchpanel isn't that good. The responsiveness is quite bad and the acceleration unpredictable. |
-
Display - Keyboard |
- Touchpad | |
| Performance | + | - | |
| Equipped with a Core i7-2630QM quad core CPU that has eight threads, clocked at 2.0 GHz and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M mobile graphics chip, there is plenty of performance for a gaming notebook. One can even play games at high resolutions. Compared with the other notebooks we've tested so far the GT 780 has been able to take the lead. As always with gaming notebooks it doens't take a long time until the Battery Eater in classic mode empties the cells. In this case it took 89 minutes which isn't bad for a gaming notebook. | -
Gaming-Performance - Desktop-Performance - SSD |
||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| If you should be looking for a gaming notebook which offer quite a lot of performance and even comes with a SSD will do everything right when choosing the MSI GT 780 | - Gaming Notebook - Mutlimedia Notebook - Dekstop-replacement |
||
| Rating | |||
| We give the MSI GT 780 good four out of five stars. | |||
| Das MSI GT 780 wird es bei den folgenden drei Shops zu kaufen geben: | |||
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