MSI GS30 Series

Processor: Intel Core i7 4870HQ
Graphics Adapter: Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
Display: 13.30 inch
Weight: 1.2kg, 1.3kg
Price: 1500, 1840 euro
price: 80%, performance: 94%, features: 75%, display: 89%, mobility: 84%, workmanship: 80%, ergonomy: 85%, emissions: 61%

 

MSI GS30 2M-016UK

MSI has been coming up with amazing gaming laptops over the years. The MSI GS30 2M 016UK is second to none in its range with the nVidiaGeforce GTX 980, 4 GB GDDR5 graphics card which is on the supplied MSI Gaming Dock. This graphic card can handle the latest date graphically demanding games on at least high quality. The gaming laptop is powered by the Intel Core i7-4870HQ quad core processor, which has an integrated Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 and is adequate to play games at medium settings while being mobile. The 13.3" Full HD display is suitable to play games while on the go. The storage on-board is a 512 GB SSD and a 16 GB DDR3 RAM to effectively handle multi-tasking. The light weight laptop of 1.2 kg ships with pre-installed Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit. In terms of connectivity, there are two USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI port. There is also a card reader, however there is no optical drive as this gaming laptop was meant to be thin and light. The battery life is rated to be 4 hours with power management switched on. Finally the included Gaming Dock features the mentioned GTX 980 Desktop Graphics card, an additional four USB 3.0 and two HDMI ports. There is also the 2.1 audio system and various other features.

Specifications

Notebook: MSI GS30 2M-016UK
Processor: Intel Core i7 4870HQ
Graphics Adapter: Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200
Display: 13.30 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 1.2kg
Price: 1500 euro
Links: MSI homepage
 MSI notebook section
 GS30 2M-016UK (Model)

Pricecompare

Average Score: 82.5% - good

 

Reviews

Foreign Reviews

 

MSI GS30 Shadow

The MSI GS30 Shadow is laptop with GamingDock, which can turn the device into powerful gaming machine. The GamingDock can house any GPU in order to improve the GS30's performance and allows to run most if not all the hottest games in the market now at highest graphic details. The Shadow is designed to be small and light since it doesn't have a discreet graphics card. It has a 13.3 inch matte anti-glare display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels . It runs on the Intel Core i7 processor with a maximum of 16GB of DDR3 RAM. The GamingDock is the size of a small printer and was designed to hold a full-sized desktop graphics card. It connects to the gaming laptop with a 16-pin PCI Express connector and requires a self-owned GPU to be fitted in, in order to acquire the best performance of this extremely powerful combination. The GamingDock also features a sound system with a 2.1 speaker setup, a 450-watt power supply, and an extra 3.5 inch compartment for an extra hard drive. Additionally, it also has an Ethernet port and four USB 3.0 ports adding on to the laptop's own two USB 3.0 ports.

Specifications

Notebook: MSI GS30 Shadow
Processor: Intel Core i7 4870HQ
Graphics Adapter: Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200
Display: 13.30 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 1.3kg
Price: 1840 euro
Links: MSI homepage
 MSI notebook section

Pricecompare

Average Score: 70.5% - average

 

Reviews

Foreign Reviews

 

MSI GS30 2M-034PL

Specifications

Notebook: MSI GS30 2M-034PL
Processor: Intel Core i7 4870HQ
Graphics Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
Display: 13.30 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 1.2kg
Links: MSI homepage
 MSI notebook section

Pricecompare

 

Reviews

Foreign Reviews

 

Comment

MSI: Micro-Star International (MSI) was founded in 1986 in Taiwan. MSI is especially known as a manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards for PCs, but also offers computer accessories, complete systems, motherboards, graphics cards, laptops, desktop PCs, monitors and other components. However, the Microstar brand name in Germany belongs to the Medion company. MSI is known for its gaming products and has developed a wide range of gaming laptops and desktop PCs. The company is also active in workstations, servers and industrial automation. MSI has offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

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Modern games should be playable with these graphics cards at low settings and resolutions. Casual gamers may be happy with these cards.

Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200:

Integrated graphics (GT3 + eDRAM) as found on certain Haswell CPUs. It is the fastest version in its family.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M:

Second fastest high-end graphics card based on the Maxwell GM204 chip from the GeForce GTX 900M series.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.

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Intel Core i7: The Intel Core i7 for laptops is based on the LG1156 Core i5/i7 CPU for desktops. The base clock speed of the CPUs is relatively low, but because of a huge Turbo mode, the cores can dynamically overclock to up to 3.2 GHz (920XM). Therefore, the CPU can be as fast as high clocked dual-core CPUs (using single threaded applications) but still offer the advantage of 4 cores. Because of the large TDP of 45 W / 55 W, the CPU is only intended for large laptops.  

4870HQ: Haswell-based quad-core processor clocked at 2.5 GHz with Turbo Boost support up to 3.7 GHz. Offers an integrated Iris Pro Graphics 5200 GPU and a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.

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» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.

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No weight comment found (one expected)!

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75.57%: This rating is not earth-shattering. This rating must actually be seen as average, since there are about as many devices with worse ratings as better ones. A purchase recommendation can only be seen with a lot of goodwill, unless it is about websites that generally rate strictly.

» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

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