WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:06.879 The GTX 980 when in a laptop is an entirely different beast depending on 00:00:04.720 --> 00:00:11.200 how it happens to be implemented. And this comes down to power and thermal 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:14.320 constraints placed upon it. In this video, we're going to give a little bit 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:17.759 of a deeper look into MSI's implementation on their 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:22.720 GT72S6QF Dominator Pro G. Not only in 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:29.240 normal operating mode, plugged into the wall, but also overclocked plugged into 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:36.079 the wall and stock, but on battery. 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:41.680 Fresh Books is the super simple invoicing solution that lets you get 00:00:39.440 --> 00:00:45.840 organized, save time, and get paid faster. Click now to try it for free. 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:49.760 First off, let's take a look at its overall physical features. This probably 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:55.680 out of your budget level expensive machine features an SD card reader, four 00:00:52.239 --> 00:00:57.920 3.5 mm audio jacks, and four USB 3.0 00:00:55.680 --> 00:01:04.159 ports on the lefth hand side. On the back, there's a Killer E2400 Ethernet 00:01:00.239 --> 00:01:06.640 jack, one power in, one USB 3.1 type-C 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:10.720 super port, and one mini DisplayPort. On the right hand side, you have your 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 00:01:13.360 --> 00:01:19.840 has a chiclet based keyboard with zoned lighting controls. There's also some 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:24.240 buttons uh for power on and off, a graphics switch between the iGPU and 00:01:21.759 --> 00:01:28.320 discrete GPU for power saving reasons or performance reasons, a cooler boost 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:33.759 button which massively ramps up your fan speed, a dedicated XSplit game cer or 00:01:31.600 --> 00:01:37.119 userdefined application button, and a dedicated button to launch the Steel 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:41.600 Series engine for keyboard, lighting, and macro control. It also features a 00:01:39.520 --> 00:01:45.520 pretty nice touchpad with dedicated buttons, which I actually do prefer on 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 00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:53.600 aesthetically, is that they outlined the touchpad with an LED, but for physical 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 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, 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.360 it features a 17.3 in anti-glare wide 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:09.599 view 1080p screen, which doesn't feature 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:14.160 G-Sync. I thought all MSI Dominator Pro G laptops feature G-Sync, hence the 00:02:11.920 --> 00:02:17.840 whole ProG thing, but I can't find it anywhere in the NVIDIA control panel or 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:22.239 on the box or on the laptop itself physically on a sticker. So, I don't 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:28.959 know. We're awaiting comment from MSI. Moving on to the internals, there's an 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:31.680 i76920HQ processor running at 3.8 8 GHz 00:02:28.959 --> 00:02:38.640 with turbo boost engaged, 32 gigs of DDR4 memory, two PCI Expressbased NVMe 00:02:34.959 --> 00:02:41.920 SSDs in RAID zero totaling 512 gigs, and 00:02:38.640 --> 00:02:45.360 a single 7200 RPM 1 TB hard drive, 00:02:41.920 --> 00:02:49.599 Bluetooth version 4.1, Killer N 1535 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:52.319 combo 2x2 AC wireless, and finally the 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:57.840 pista resistance, the full desktop grade GTX 980. So that's a lot of hardware and 00:02:55.599 --> 00:03:02.560 a lot of money. Let's see how it performs. We tested our laptop in three 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:06.159 different scenarios. Running on AC power, running on AC power but 00:03:04.239 --> 00:03:11.920 overclocked, and running on battery power at stock. We used a 500 MHz 00:03:09.200 --> 00:03:16.800 overclock on our CPUs and a 100 MHz overclock on our GPUs, which were both 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:22.879 stable even without giving the chips any extra voltage. Our goal was not only to 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:25.360 get an idea of the MSI GT72's 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:30.080 performance, but also to contrast the different approaches that MSI and Seager 00:03:27.519 --> 00:03:34.720 took with their respective desktop GTX 980s. We recently reviewed the Seager 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:41.480 NP9870UGG, which features not only a desktop GTX 980, but a desktop Intel 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:46.000 Skylake i76700 K as opposed to the laptop 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:50.720 specific Skylake we have in our MSI notebook. meaning these two units will 00:03:48.480 --> 00:03:54.720 have to approach power management quite differently. With that in mind, let's 00:03:52.720 --> 00:04:00.000 start off by looking at power draw and thermals in our Crisis 3 Skybox load 00:03:56.959 --> 00:04:02.239 test. Not surprisingly, the MSI drew 47 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:06.400 watts lower than the Sega with the ladder essentially trying to cram an 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:11.680 entire desktop rig into a laptop chassis. The MSI though ran hotter under 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 00:04:14.480 --> 00:04:20.959 degrees at stock speed and 87 when 00:04:18.280 --> 00:04:25.440 overclocked. But to be fair to MSI, the Seager has a much louder and more 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:29.840 aggressive default cooling profile. The affformentioned cooler boost button on 00:04:27.520 --> 00:04:33.520 the MSI really cranks up the fans and would undoubtedly result in lower 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:38.479 temperatures. In any event though, the MSI ran quite a bit cooler on battery 00:04:36.080 --> 00:04:44.320 thanks to throttling to save power. We also saw a difference in GPU boost with 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:46.960 the MSI GTX 980 ending up 26 MHz lower 00:04:44.320 --> 00:04:51.680 than the Seager at stock. The MSI CPU also didn't overclock as well as 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:57.360 applying a 100 MHz offset only resulted in an actual clock speed increase of 65 00:04:54.960 --> 00:05:01.440 MHz. But where the MSI really struggled was when we unplugged it and ran the 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:09.160 load test on battery power. Here, the GTX 980 maxed out at only 00:05:04.440 --> 00:05:11.840 256 MHz, way lower than the Sega's 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:15.360 734. Here, we can see the differences in design philosophy between the two 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:19.440 models. While Seager designed theirs to be a true replacement for your high-end 00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:23.280 desktop rig, MSI seems to be more focused on building the 980 into a more 00:05:21.440 --> 00:05:27.919 traditional, conservative mobile platform, which resulted in it being 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:31.600 lighter, smaller, and quieter, but not as great in the performance department. 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:36.080 With that said, you'd probably think that the MSI would give us more 00:05:33.440 --> 00:05:41.120 longevity due to a lower power processor and more aggressive throttling on the 00:05:37.960 --> 00:05:43.440 GPU. But sadly, this was not the case. 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:47.919 Our benchmarks added up to roughly 16 minutes of gameplay time, which drained 00:05:45.520 --> 00:05:52.560 both the MSI and the Seager by a whopping 39% each, meaning you'll be 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:58.080 hardressed to get an hour of gameplay time out of either model. However, the 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 00:06:01.840 --> 00:06:09.120 Battlefront with the settings cranked up at 1080p. When you consider that the 00:06:05.840 --> 00:06:11.759 Seagga achieved frame rates of 45, 65, 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:15.680 and 67, respectively for the same percentage of battery drain. However, 00:06:13.840 --> 00:06:19.440 the experience was much more positive when we plugged it in where it managed 00:06:17.840 --> 00:06:24.639 frame rates that took full advantage of the screen's 75 Hz refresh rate and were 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:30.160 only slightly lower than the Sagers, possibly due to MSI's notebook class 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:32.400 CPU. Overclocking our CPU and GPU gave 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:36.800 us a nice little bump of four to five frames per second. Squarespace is a 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:40.560 simple platform for building powerful and beautiful websites. 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If this video sucked, you know what to do. 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 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:27.360 Amazon affiliate code to buy stuff or by contributing on the forum. Also, check 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.