1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:06,879 The GTX 980 when in a laptop is an entirely different beast depending on 2 00:00:04,720 --> 00:00:11,200 how it happens to be implemented. And this comes down to power and thermal 3 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:14,320 constraints placed upon it. In this video, we're going to give a little bit 4 00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:17,759 of a deeper look into MSI's implementation on their 5 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:22,720 GT72S6QF Dominator Pro G. Not only in 6 00:00:21,039 --> 00:00:29,240 normal operating mode, plugged into the wall, but also overclocked plugged into 7 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:36,079 the wall and stock, but on battery. 8 00:00:36,079 --> 00:00:41,680 Fresh Books is the super simple invoicing solution that lets you get 9 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:45,840 organized, save time, and get paid faster. Click now to try it for free. 10 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:49,760 First off, let's take a look at its overall physical features. This probably 11 00:00:48,079 --> 00:00:55,680 out of your budget level expensive machine features an SD card reader, four 12 00:00:52,239 --> 00:00:57,920 3.5 mm audio jacks, and four USB 3.0 13 00:00:55,680 --> 00:01:04,159 ports on the lefth hand side. On the back, there's a Killer E2400 Ethernet 14 00:01:00,239 --> 00:01:06,640 jack, one power in, one USB 3.1 type-C 15 00:01:04,159 --> 00:01:10,720 super port, and one mini DisplayPort. On the right hand side, you have your 16 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:15,600 last two USB 3.0 ports, and a Blu-ray writer. On the top of this unit that it 17 00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:19,840 has a chiclet based keyboard with zoned lighting controls. There's also some 18 00:01:17,439 --> 00:01:24,240 buttons uh for power on and off, a graphics switch between the iGPU and 19 00:01:21,759 --> 00:01:28,320 discrete GPU for power saving reasons or performance reasons, a cooler boost 20 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:33,759 button which massively ramps up your fan speed, a dedicated XSplit game cer or 21 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:37,119 userdefined application button, and a dedicated button to launch the Steel 22 00:01:35,439 --> 00:01:41,600 Series engine for keyboard, lighting, and macro control. It also features a 23 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:45,520 pretty nice touchpad with dedicated buttons, which I actually do prefer on 24 00:01:43,439 --> 00:01:49,840 something like a gaming laptop. But one thing that I don't like, well, it's good 25 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:53,600 aesthetically, is that they outlined the touchpad with an LED, but for physical 26 00:01:52,399 --> 00:01:57,759 reasons, I'm not going to be looking down at my touchpad. So, it's not actually really going to help me. And 27 00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:03,439 I'd like to be able to know where the edge of the touchpad is. For a screen, 28 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,360 it features a 17.3 in anti-glare wide 29 00:02:03,439 --> 00:02:09,599 view 1080p screen, which doesn't feature 30 00:02:07,439 --> 00:02:14,160 G-Sync. I thought all MSI Dominator Pro G laptops feature G-Sync, hence the 31 00:02:11,920 --> 00:02:17,840 whole ProG thing, but I can't find it anywhere in the NVIDIA control panel or 32 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:22,239 on the box or on the laptop itself physically on a sticker. So, I don't 33 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:28,959 know. We're awaiting comment from MSI. Moving on to the internals, there's an 34 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:31,680 i76920HQ processor running at 3.8 8 GHz 35 00:02:28,959 --> 00:02:38,640 with turbo boost engaged, 32 gigs of DDR4 memory, two PCI Expressbased NVMe 36 00:02:34,959 --> 00:02:41,920 SSDs in RAID zero totaling 512 gigs, and 37 00:02:38,640 --> 00:02:45,360 a single 7200 RPM 1 TB hard drive, 38 00:02:41,920 --> 00:02:49,599 Bluetooth version 4.1, Killer N 1535 39 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:52,319 combo 2x2 AC wireless, and finally the 40 00:02:49,599 --> 00:02:57,840 pista resistance, the full desktop grade GTX 980. So that's a lot of hardware and 41 00:02:55,599 --> 00:03:02,560 a lot of money. Let's see how it performs. We tested our laptop in three 42 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:06,159 different scenarios. Running on AC power, running on AC power but 43 00:03:04,239 --> 00:03:11,920 overclocked, and running on battery power at stock. We used a 500 MHz 44 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:16,800 overclock on our CPUs and a 100 MHz overclock on our GPUs, which were both 45 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:22,879 stable even without giving the chips any extra voltage. Our goal was not only to 46 00:03:19,599 --> 00:03:25,360 get an idea of the MSI GT72's 47 00:03:22,879 --> 00:03:30,080 performance, but also to contrast the different approaches that MSI and Seager 48 00:03:27,519 --> 00:03:34,720 took with their respective desktop GTX 980s. We recently reviewed the Seager 49 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:41,480 NP9870UGG, which features not only a desktop GTX 980, but a desktop Intel 50 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:46,000 Skylake i76700 K as opposed to the laptop 51 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:50,720 specific Skylake we have in our MSI notebook. meaning these two units will 52 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:54,720 have to approach power management quite differently. With that in mind, let's 53 00:03:52,720 --> 00:04:00,000 start off by looking at power draw and thermals in our Crisis 3 Skybox load 54 00:03:56,959 --> 00:04:02,239 test. Not surprisingly, the MSI drew 47 55 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:06,400 watts lower than the Sega with the ladder essentially trying to cram an 56 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:11,680 entire desktop rig into a laptop chassis. The MSI though ran hotter under 57 00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:18,280 load with the GPU getting up to 83 degrees C and the CPU getting up to 78 58 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:20,959 degrees at stock speed and 87 when 59 00:04:18,280 --> 00:04:25,440 overclocked. But to be fair to MSI, the Seager has a much louder and more 60 00:04:23,199 --> 00:04:29,840 aggressive default cooling profile. The affformentioned cooler boost button on 61 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:33,520 the MSI really cranks up the fans and would undoubtedly result in lower 62 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:38,479 temperatures. In any event though, the MSI ran quite a bit cooler on battery 63 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:44,320 thanks to throttling to save power. We also saw a difference in GPU boost with 64 00:04:40,639 --> 00:04:46,960 the MSI GTX 980 ending up 26 MHz lower 65 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:51,680 than the Seager at stock. The MSI CPU also didn't overclock as well as 66 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:57,360 applying a 100 MHz offset only resulted in an actual clock speed increase of 65 67 00:04:54,960 --> 00:05:01,440 MHz. But where the MSI really struggled was when we unplugged it and ran the 68 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:09,160 load test on battery power. Here, the GTX 980 maxed out at only 69 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:11,840 256 MHz, way lower than the Sega's 70 00:05:09,160 --> 00:05:15,360 734. Here, we can see the differences in design philosophy between the two 71 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:19,440 models. While Seager designed theirs to be a true replacement for your high-end 72 00:05:17,199 --> 00:05:23,280 desktop rig, MSI seems to be more focused on building the 980 into a more 73 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:27,919 traditional, conservative mobile platform, which resulted in it being 74 00:05:25,199 --> 00:05:31,600 lighter, smaller, and quieter, but not as great in the performance department. 75 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:36,080 With that said, you'd probably think that the MSI would give us more 76 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:41,120 longevity due to a lower power processor and more aggressive throttling on the 77 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:43,440 GPU. But sadly, this was not the case. 78 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:47,919 Our benchmarks added up to roughly 16 minutes of gameplay time, which drained 79 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:52,560 both the MSI and the Seager by a whopping 39% each, meaning you'll be 80 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:58,080 hardressed to get an hour of gameplay time out of either model. However, the 81 00:05:55,199 --> 00:06:03,600 MSI was only able to manage 25 FPS in Crisis 3, 32 in Tomb Raider, and 35 in 82 00:06:01,840 --> 00:06:09,120 Battlefront with the settings cranked up at 1080p. When you consider that the 83 00:06:05,840 --> 00:06:11,759 Seagga achieved frame rates of 45, 65, 84 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:15,680 and 67, respectively for the same percentage of battery drain. However, 85 00:06:13,840 --> 00:06:19,440 the experience was much more positive when we plugged it in where it managed 86 00:06:17,840 --> 00:06:24,639 frame rates that took full advantage of the screen's 75 Hz refresh rate and were 87 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:30,160 only slightly lower than the Sagers, possibly due to MSI's notebook class 88 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:32,400 CPU. Overclocking our CPU and GPU gave 89 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:36,800 us a nice little bump of four to five frames per second. Squarespace is a 90 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:40,560 simple platform for building powerful and beautiful websites. Starting at only 91 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:45,199 eight bucks a month and with a free domain, if you sign up for a year, you 92 00:06:42,479 --> 00:06:49,280 get 247 live chat and email support for your website. Whether you're going for 93 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:54,400 one of their larger awesome templates or even one of their like cover page 94 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:56,639 designs, more focused on well, a single 95 00:06:54,400 --> 00:07:00,960 page. They also have support for things like commerce if you intend to sell 96 00:06:58,840 --> 00:07:05,199 products. And they have responsive design so your website can be seen 97 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:09,120 optimally on all screen sizes. Start a trial with no credit card required and 98 00:07:07,199 --> 00:07:15,199 start building today. Also, be sure to use offer code Linus to get 10% off of 99 00:07:11,919 --> 00:07:15,960 your first purchase. Squarespace. Build 100 00:07:15,199 --> 00:07:20,000 it beautiful. Thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do. 101 00:07:18,880 --> 00:07:24,639 But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit the like button, or even consider supporting us directly by using our 102 00:07:22,639 --> 00:07:27,360 Amazon affiliate code to buy stuff or by contributing on the forum. Also, check 103 00:07:25,919 --> 00:07:32,440 out this video up here, which uh looks at the Sega laptop that we compared in this video. Thanks. Bye.