Review MSI GE70-i765M287 Notebook

MSI and glossy surfaces are like bees and honey - just inseparable. The GE70 does not have many similarities with the high-end GT series in terms of shape and design. The top of the display cover appears in a glossy black that is crossed by red lines at the sides and the silver MSI branding is in the center.

The display frame however is matte black and creates no annoying reflections under direct sunlight. The palm rest - contrary to the display frame - attracts fingerprints and is made of plastic, just like the rest of the base unit. Around the case and similar to the display cover is a red stripe. notebooksbilliger.de sent us a retail unit so we could not open the maintenance cover because we would have damaged the warranty seal. 

Based on our experiences with the GE70-i547W7H you can upgrade the system memory with an additional module. Both cases are very similar so we expect that the accessibility of the components is similar as well. The fan is in the left top corner above the hard drive and the memory slots are next to it.  

Rubberized elements in the display ensure that you can easily close the notebook without any protruding elements at the corners. The display stays in position well due to the firm hinges. The quality of the case is also decent, although the plastic is not as pressure resistant as an aluminum case. Contrary to MSI GT notebooks, the dimensions are still okay for a gaming notebook; the GE70 with a height of around 4 cm is quite thin compared to the 6 cm of the GT60-i789W7H.

Communication

A Realtek RTL8723AE module handles all wireless connections and supports n-networks. The quality of the connection was convincing; we got five bars with a distance of around 10-15 meters (~33 to 49 feet) from the router. Web browsing was fast and reliable; we reached download speeds of around 700 Kbit/s with a 32 Mbit connection - a good result. 

The real highlight however, especially for gamers, is the Qualcomm Killer 2200 network controller. You can assign priorities and choose if a certain application gets more bandwidth than another one. This should improve the latency of online gaming when you are downloading anything in the background. All the settings are combined in the provided software, which is very easy to use. The integrated webcam with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels handles high definition video calls.  

Software

MSI preinstalls some useful tools. Besides some important applications for the internal control of the network controller and sound card, MSI also puts a digital version of Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 in the box. Microsoft Office 365 is also preinstalled as a 30-day trial version and you will have to purchase it if you want to continue using it. Unfortunately, MSI also ships numerous bloatware; subjectively they slow down the system (at least right after the boot up) but you can improve the situation by deleting the unnecessary software. 

Accessories

Nowadays it is a common practice to provide almost no accessories at all. The GE70 follows this trend and there is only some user information, a Gaming-Series sticker and a driver DVD; recovery media or cleaning cloths are not in the box. You either have to create the recovery DVD's by yourself or you can use the according Recovery-Menu; the user information points out that you have to press the F3 key during booting.

Warranty

The warranty period is 24 months and can be extended for another year; the additional charge is 139 Euros (~$184). 

The Intel Core i7-4700MQ is the successor of the Core i7-3630QM. Both processors have the same core and turbo clock. Cinebench R11.5 Multi Core Test indicates a 5% advantage of the new Haswell processor (6.63 points) compared to the Core i7-3630QM (6.37 points @ HP dv7-7202eg). The situation is similar in the Cinebench Single Core Test; the performance of the Core i7-4700MQ (1.50 points) is once again around 5% ahead of the Core i7-3630QM.

It is unfortunate that the GE70 does not offer its full performance on battery power. The processor clock fluctuates during Cinebench R11.5, which results in 4.21 points. The turbo clock is raised to a maximum of 2.9 GHz but is eventually reduced to 800 MHz. 

All configurations within the GE70 series are exclusively equipped with conventional hard drives; the manufacturer does not offer an SSD. The performance of the integrated Hitachi HTS72757 is just average in our benchmark list. HD Tune determines a minimum transfer rate of 56.7 MB/s. The maximum value of 129.4 MB/s is 6% ahead of the similar hard drive in the MSI GE70-i789W7H but the difference is within the measurement tolerance. 

Graphics of the GE70 are usually handled by the Intel HD Graphics 4600. Nvidia's Optimus technology automatically switches to the dedicated GeForce GTX 765M in more demanding scenarios.

The Intel HD 4600 supports DirectX11 and offers sufficient performance for light gaming. Our benchmarks show that the Intel graphics can keep up with entry-level dedicated graphics cards.

If you need more performance you can use the high-end GeForce GTX 765M. Compared to the GeForce GTX 760M it has a higher clock and therefore a slightly better performance in games. The chip with the designation GK106 is manufactured in 28 nm by TSMC. It can raise its core clock and increase the performance via GPU-Boost 2.0. Our stress test with FurMark and Prime95 shows that the chip is clocked at 980 MHz for a short time before it levels off at 901 MHz after 10 minutes. The reason for that is the massive heat development of the GPU; it cannot keep its maximum clock for long periods with a core temperature of around 92 degrees Celsius (197.6 °F).

3DMark 11 shows that the performance of the GeForce GTX 765M can be compared with two GeForce GTX 560M cards (SLI) and it is often more than 15% ahead of notebooks with a GeForce GTX 670MX. The rival Asus G75VX-T4020H, which is equipped with an Intel Core i7-3630QM and a GeForce GTX 670MX, was able to beat our review unit by 8%.

We already measured very high temperatures with the smaller MSI barebones (DevilTech Fire DT14) and the GE70 is no exception. The surface around the fan exhausts warms up to 50 °C (122 °F) under continuous load (stress test), which is tolerable but right at the edge of being unpleasant. The bottom is even worse with 59 °C (138.2 °F) - a very high result. 

The palm rest is still bearable with 46 °C (114.8 °F) and only gets inconvenient with higher room or ambient temperatures. The situation for the GE70 is better during idle, where the surface temperature of the palm rest levels off at around 31 °C (87.8 °F).
You can also feel a noticeably warming around the WSAD-keys during gaming. It does not get uncomfortable but it is always perceptible; the palm rest stays lukewarm in this scenario. 

Under full load (stress test with FurMark and Prime95) the Core i7-4700MQ cannot keep its nominal clock. Despite a lowered clock of 900 MHz the temperature rises to 89 °C (192.2 °F) and the GPU reaches 85 °C (185 °F) with a clock of 901 MHz.

MSI equips the GE70 with a simulated surround system with four speakers that are located at the front and at the back of the notebook. A sound technology from Creative is supposed to improve the sound quality even more. 

The speakers are sufficient for some music or movie playback alongside some work but there is obviously no real home cinema feeling. The speakers sound very tinny with the maximum volume setting and background noises are often lost; a rock song, for instance, is reduced to some noises with singing. 

The sound system also lacks bass, it does not matter if you are listening to Metal, Hip Hop or Electro - there is no dynamic or saturation. The provided software cannot really improve the situation. The bass can be regulated with the Sound Blaster Cinema application but the result is very similar.

We are not really dealing with a very mobile gaming notebook considering the small 49 Wh battery. We were able to squeeze 2:23 hours out of the GE70 with deactivated wireless modules and minimum display brightness. A gaming session lasts for 57 minutes and even DVD playback is limited due to the small battery; we only managed 1:25 hours before the battery died. All results were determined without the keyboard illumination. Because of the limited runtimes we think that all tests used the dedicated graphics card. Switching between the graphics solutions did not improve the results; we cannot determine if the dedicated graphics card shows the same behavior in other devices. 

You need the right device for your gaming sessions. MSI shows a well-balanced notebook with the GE70-i765M287 that offers solid gaming performance. We want to start with the high contrast and bright display. With its Full HD resolution and the anti-reflective surface the display is a real highlight, only IPS panels in higher priced devices are superior. 

You also get sufficient application and gaming performance. As you would expect, the GeForce GTX 765M enables smooth frame rates with high details even in current games. But where there is light, there is also shadow. 

The keyboard layout is very strange, some key positions and the available space cause criticism. Some gamers will have problems with the narrow keys at the beginning.

The case surface warms up to almost 60 °C (140 °F) at some spots and the processor once again cannot maintain its clock during the stress test and throttles just after a couple of minutes. Better ventilation would have been beneficial for the GE70, just like a fast SSD. 

Nevertheless, the GE70 is a good overall package.