MSI GE70 Gaming Notebook Review
Category : Notebooks / Tablets
Published by Marc Büchel on 11.02.13
Throughout the past years, MSI has been able to build a solid reputation for their gaming notebooks. Next to an attractive design those devices always offered plenty of performance to run recent games smoothly. With the GE70 MSI has now a gaming notebook in its portfolio which features an unusually sleek design and only weighs a mere 2.7 kilogram.



  Article in English   Artikel in Deutsch   Article en français   Articolo in Italiano




On the following pages we will show you the strenghts and weaknesses of the GE70 Gaming Notebook from MSI.

Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

Preview

   


   


   


   



Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

Specifications / Chassis

CPU Intel Core i7-3630QM, 2.40 GHz Standard, 3.40 GHz Turbo
Operating System Windows 8 Multi-Language
Chipset Intel HM76 Express Chipset
Memory DDR3 1333 MHz, 2 x SODIMM, 8 GB (2 x 4 GB)
Display 17.3'' Full HD, 1920 x 1080, Anti-Glare
Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M, 2 GByte GDDR5
Hard drive 128 GB SSD (mSATA)
750 GB HDD (2.5'')
Network 1 x Gigabit LAN
1 x WLAN 802.11n
Video Camera HD Web Camera
Connectors 1 x Microphone-in jack
1 x Headphone-out jack
2 x USB 3.0
2 x USB 2.0
1 x RJ45 LAN jack
1 x HDMI
1 x VGA
Audio Built-in Speakers with Subwoofer and Microphone
Battery 4400 mAh, 49 Wh
Dimensions 418 x 269 x 39 mm (W x D x H)
Weight 2.7 kg

Châssis / Design / Build Quality

   


As soon as we were holding the box in our hands in which the GE70 from MSI is being shipped, we were thinking that maybe there will be a gaming notebook inside that features a smaller than usual form factor. Usually the boxes for gaming notebooks is substantially bigger than the one we've seen in this case. Our assumption get support by the specifications, which say, that this gaming notebook only weighs 2.7 kilogram. Nevertheless, looking at the hardware inside you get quite a lot: There is a 128 Gigaybte mSATA SSD, a 750 Gigabyte hard drive, a high-end notebook GPU, a quad core CPU with eight Thread, 8 Gigabyte memory, a 17.3 inch display as well as a tricky cooling system. Since the hardware in this notebook is able to produce up to 100 Watts in heat, there is to be quite a powerful cooling system otherwise users would end up with a device, that is constantly throttling CPU as well as GPU. The CPU is located in the center of the device and there is one heatpipe removing the heat and transporting it to a radial fan, which can be found in the upper, right hand corner of the notebook. As for the GPU, which is place almost next to the fan, there are two heatpipes. Regarding the radial fan we have to say, that the small radial fan has to rotate at quite high speeds already, when the GE70 is in idle. Therefore one can always hear a well audible noise of high frequency.

A closer look at the materials show that this notebook is made from plastic entirely and MSI chose a design that is, in our opinion, well suitable for a gaming notebook. Regarding the colors they chose mainly black and there are also some red stripes. As we've already mentioned the notebooks comes with an unusual sleek form factor and the maximum height is a - for gaming notebooks mere 39 millimeter.





Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

Display / Input Devices

Display

 


MSI equipped the GE70 with a 17.3'' display that features Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution. Furthermore the display comes with LED backlight. We liked that it wasn't a glare type display which is why there are no reflections when your in a brightly lit room. Really good were the colors and the contrast ratio. Also the brightness is on a very good level with an average of more than 250 Candela per square meter. But not only brightness and contrast are very good, the display also offers very good viewing angle stability. Even if many people stand around this notebook everybody will be able to read or see content of any kind.

   



Input Devices

   


The GE70 Gaming Notebook comes with a full-size keyboard and a number pad next to it. Basically the keyboard is much like an Apple keyboard. The key drop is well chosen and the pressure point leaves a good impression. Unfortunately the keyboard is bending a bit while typing. The keys themselves come with a smooth surface. This is another indicator for a high build quality. Since this is a gaming notebook we would have loved to see the arrow key place separately between the keyboard and the number pad.

Centered, below the keyboard you can find the touchpad. It has been integrated into the material of this case and offers a left and a right key. The touchpad also offers scrolling functionality which does a good job. We have to say, except from the buttons the touchpad is good. Unfortunately it takes quite a lot of force until the buttons release.

Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

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.

Benchmarking Suite


Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

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 Score
MSI GE70 5'166
Medion Erazer X7817 4'448
ASUS UX21E 3'450
Toshiba Portégé Z830 3'297
MSI GT 780 3'805
HP EliteBook 8760w 3'720
ASUS G75V 3'109
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 3'074
HP Folio 13 3'072
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 GE70 23.40
ASUS UX21E 23.17
HP Folio 13 23.13
Medion Erazer X7817 23.12
Toshiba Portégé Z830 23.08
MSI GT 780 23.14
Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L 23.13
HP EliteBook 8760w 23.12
ASUS Lamborghini VX7 23.11
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 23.10
ASUS G74SX 23.04
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 23.01
ASUS G75V 22.86
Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW 22.62
   
Video playback and transcoding / Video transcoding - downscaling KByte/s
Toshiba Portégé Z830 16'353
ASUS UX21E 15'227
HP Folio 13 11'258
MSI GE70 6'963
ASUS G75V 6'265
Medion Erazer X7817 5'942
Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L 5'285
ASUS G74SX 5'251
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 4'948
HP EliteBook 8760w 4'912
MSI GT 780 4'905
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 GE70 16.61
ASUS UX21E 16.51
Medion Erazer X7817 14.85
HP Folio 13 13.35
Toshiba Portégé Z830 12.56
MSI GT 780 14.40
HP EliteBook 8760w 13.83
ASUS Lamborghini VX7 7.93
Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L 7.21
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 7.09
ASUS G75V 4.80
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 4.46
ASUS G74SX 4.34
Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW 3.23
 


Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures

Graphics - DirectX 9 / Graphics - DirectX 9 fps
ASUS G75V 72.61
Medion Erazer X7817 70.75
MSI GE70 61.22
MSI GT 780 50.55
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 50.37
HP EliteBook 8760w 49.74
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
ASUS UX21E 14.00
Toshiba Portégé Z830 12.61
HP Folio 13 11.96
   
Image manipulation / Image manipulation Mpx/s
MSI GE70 21.71
ASUS G75V 10.59
Medion Erazer X7817 10.35
HP EliteBook 8760w 9.13
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
Toshiba Portégé Z830 8.19
ASUS UX21E 6.63
HP Folio 13 5.07
   
System storage - importing pictures / System storage - importing pictures MByte/s
MSI GE70 29.53
ASUS UX21E 29.39
Medion Erazer X7817 18.97
Toshiba Portégé Z830 10.50
HP EliteBook 8760w 23.94
HP Folio 13 21.98
MSI GT 780 21.06
ASUS Lamborghini VX7 11.08
Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L 9.75
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 9.55
ASUS G75V 6.58
ASUS G74SX 6.30
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 5.96
Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW 4.74
 


Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender

Web browsing and decrypting / Web browsing Pages/s
Medion Erazer X7817 15.65
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 14.82
MSI GE70 14.74
MSI GT 780 14.08
ASUS G75V 13.37
Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L 13.36
ASUS G74SX 10.66
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 10.63
HP EliteBook 8760w 10.26
Toshiba Portégé Z830 10.21
ASUS Lamborghini VX7 9.80
HP Folio 13 8.33
ASUS UX21E 7.94
Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW 7.30
   
Web browsing and decrypting / Data decryption MByte/s
MSI GE70 155.24
ASUS G75V 127.44
Medion Erazer X7817 125.13
Toshiba Portégé Z830 59.06
ASUS G74SX 55.94
Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L 54.14
HP EliteBook 8760w 48.14
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
HP Folio 13 39.58
ASUS UX21E 31.34
   
System storage - Windows Defender / System storage - Windows Defender MByte/s
MSI GE70 5.52
ASUS UX21E 5.38
Medion Erazer X7817 5.16
MSI GT 780 5.12
HP EliteBook 8760w 5.06
HP Folio 13 4.99
Toshiba Portégé Z830 4.65
ASUS Lamborghini VX7 3.29
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 3.22
Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L 3.11
ASUS G75V 1.43
ASUS G74SX 1.40
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 1.20
Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW 0.99
 


Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

Cinebench R10

1 CPU sec
Intel Core i7 2600K 145
MSI GE70 150
ASUS G75V 156
Medion Erazer X7817 159
Intel Core i7 990X 170
Intel Core i5 2410M 195
HP EliteBook 8760w, Core i7 2630QM 193
Intel Core i7 2630QM 199
Toshiba Portégé Z830 205
ASUS UX21E 246
HP Folio 13 253
   
X CPU sec
Intel Core i7 990X 30
Intel Core i7 2600K 37
MSI GE70 40
Medion Erazer X7817 41
ASUS G75V 41
Intel Core i5 2410M 94
HP EliteBook 8760w, Core i7 2630QM 52
Intel Core i7 2630QM 52
Toshiba Portégé Z830 105
ASUS UX21E 121
HP Folio 13 123


WinRAR

Integer Test KByte/sec
MSI GE70 4'486
ASUS G75V 4'156
Intel Core i7 990X 4'131
Intel Core i7 2600K 4'108
Medion Erazer X7817 4'097
Intel Core i7 2630QM 3'656
HP EliteBook 8760w, Core i7 2630QM 3'638
Intel Core i5 2410M 2'318
Toshiba Portégé Z830 2'152
HP Folio 13 1'981
ASUS UX21E 1'907



Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


Discuss this article in the forums[pagebreak]

Futuremark

3DMark 11 Total Score
Medion Erazer X7817 3'092
ASUS G75V 3'025
MSI GE70 2'356
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 Score
Medion Erazer X7817 2'766
ASUS G75V 2'730
MSI GE70 2'129
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 Score
ASUS G75V 7'771
Medion Erazer X7817 7'587
MSI GE70 7'559
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


Unigine Heaven

Unigine Heaven Benchmark fps
ASUS G75V 18.3
Medion Erazer X7817 15.5
MSI GE70 14.7
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



Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

Battery Life / Power Consumption

Battery life in load Time
HP Folio 13 2h 48min
ASUS UX21E 2h 26min
Toshiba Portégé Z830 2h 03min
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 1h 50min
ASUS Lamborghini VX7 1h 48min
Medion Erazer X7817 1h 19min
MSI GT 780 1h 04min
ASUS G74SX 1h 02min
HP EliteBook 8760w 1h 02min
Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW 1h 01min
ASUS G75V 0h 59min
MSI GE70 0h 45min
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 0h 37min
   
Battery life browsing web on the WLAN [en]Time
Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW 5h 19min
HP Folio 13 5h 14min
Toshiba Portégé Z830 4h 32min
ASUS UX21E 3h 41min
Medion Erazer X7817 3h 32min
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 3h 11min
MSI GT 780 2h 46min
ASUS Lamborghini VX7 2h 24min
ASUS G75V 2h 19min
ASUS G74SX 2h 12min
HP EliteBook 8760w 2h 08min
MSI GE70 2h 04min
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 1h 39min
   
Battery life when idle Time
HP Folio 13 9h 42min
Toshiba Portégé Z830 9h 17min
Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW 8h 46min
ASUS UX21E 6h 40min
MSI GT 780 5h 26min
Medion Erazer X7817 4h 42min
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 4h 33min
MSI GE70 4h 14min
ASUS Lamborghini VX7 3h 35min
ASUS G74SX 3h 33min
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 2h 51min
ASUS G75V 2h 48min
HP EliteBook 8760w 2h 13min
   
Power Consumption Load Watt
HP Folio 13 39
ASUS UX21E 64
Toshiba Portégé Z830 76
Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW 81
Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L 116
MSI GE70 124
ASUS Lamborghini VX7 128
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 139
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 143
ASUS G74SX 145
MSI GT 780 148
HP EliteBook 8760w 150
Medion Erazer X7817 159
ASUS G75V 185
   
Power Consumption Idle Watt
Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW 12
HP Folio 13 14
Toshiba Portégé Z830 17
ASUS UX21E 19
Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L 20
MSI GE70 21
Medion Erazer X7817 30
HP EliteBook 8760w 30
ASUS Lamborghini VX7 37
ASUS G75V 39
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 40
ASUS G74SX 42
MSI GT 780 46
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 55
 


Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

Noise Level

Load dBa
ASUS G74SX 39.2 dBa
Toshiba Portégé Z830 40.0 dBa
ASUS Lamborghini VX7 40.1 dBa
HP Folio 13 40.9 dBa
MSI GT 780 41.0 dBa
ASUS G75V 41.4 dBa
Medion Erazer X7817 41.9 dBa
ASUS UX21E 43.6 dBa
MSI GE70 44.0 dBa
HP EliteBook 8760w 44.1 dBa
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 45.3 dBa
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 45.9 dBa
Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW 49.0 dBa
 
Idle dBa
ASUS UX21E 31.7 dBa
MSI GT 780 31.9 dBa
HP Folio 13 32.6 dBa
Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B 33.2 dBa
Toshiba Portégé Z830 33.4 dBa
Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW 33.5 dBa
Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 34.0 dBa
Medion Erazer X7817 34.4 dBa
ASUS G75V 34.5 dBa
ASUS Lamborghini VX7 35.3 dBa
HP EliteBook 8760w 35.4 dBa
ASUS G74SX 36.4 dBa
MSI GE70 39.9 dBa



Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

Conclusion

General   + -
Generally the MSI GE70 leaves a good impression and it is a solid gaming notebook. We especially liked the big display with the very good colors as well as brightness. Additionally you get a gaming notebook which features an unusually sleek form factor and is therefore much more comfortable to carry around. Furthermore we like that MSI equips this device with a quick mSATA SSD, which, when compared to a standard hard drive, improves usability, by quite a margin. There is only one thing we would like to see different: when it comes to the cooling system we think that this configuration requires two heatpipes on the CPU and three on the GPU as well as a bigger radial fan. With these changes this device would be substantially more silent under idle conditions.   - Display - Form factor  -Cooling
       
Display / Input devices   + -
MSI equipped the GE70 with a very good 17.3 inch display. The colors and contrast ratio as well as the brightness were able to convince us. Altogether it is simply perfect for a gaming notebook.
The keyboard could be of higher quality. We would have loved to see it not bending while typing. Furthermore there is the touchpad which is not perfect. We like it's accuracy and the fact that multitouch functions have been well implemented but it takes to much force until the two buttons release.
  - Display size - Readability - Colors - 3D - Touchpad Buttons
       
Performance   + -
Equipped with a Core i7-3630QM quad core CPU that features eitght threads clocked at 2.4 GHz there is plenty of performance slumbering under the bonnet. Combined with the new NVIDIA mobile GTX 660M this notebook quite easily keeps up with the fastest models in our comparison lists, when it comes to 3D performance. But also regarding 2D performance there is plenty of performance thanks to the Ivy Bridge CPU.   - Gaming Performance  
       
Recommendation   + -
If you should be looking for a gaming notebook that comes with a sleek design, a very good and big display and offers enough performance for gaming then the GE70 will definitely be a good choice. You should be aware that the fan is always well audible.   - Gaming Notebook - Desktop Replacement  
 
Rating
The MSI GE70 Gaming Notebook receives good four out of five stars.
 
Buy at:
  • MSI GE70, Core i7 3630QM, 17.3'' Full HD, GTX 660M at Steg Computer
  • MSI GE70, Core i7 3630QM, 17.3'' Full HD, GTX 660M at Digitec





  • Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
    Page 2 - Preview Page 9 - Cinebench / WinRAR
    Page 3 - Specifications / Chassis Page 10 - 3D Mark 11 / Unigine Heaven
    Page 4 - Display / Keyboard Page 10 - Battery Eater / Power Consumption
    Page 5 - Test Setup Page 11 - Noise Level
    Page 6 - Video Playback / Downscaling Transcoding / Storage Page 12 - Conclusion
    Page 7 - DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures  


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