MSI GT62VR 6RE Dominator Pro Notebook Review

After the 2014 model of the GT60 still had a very bulky chassis, MSI now uses a much nobler design for the GT62VR, which is based on the GE-series. There is not much to criticize in terms of quality. The bottom of the base unit is made of plastic, but both the palm rest as well as the lid are made of metal (brushed aluminum). The stability of the 15-inch device is decent. While you can twist the lid quite a bit, even a lot of pressure is no problem for the base unit. One reason is the lack of an optical drive. The hinges are pretty unspectacular, and it is no problem to open the lid with just one hand.

Size and weight are neither above nor below average. At 2.9 kg and a height of 4.0 centimeters, the GT62VR is right between the GE62 (2.4 kg, 2.9 cm) and the old GT60 (3.3 kg, 5.5 cm). The build quality meets the price tag. Almost all surfaces and elements are seamlessly integrated. The design of MSI's notebook is pretty conventional and the gaming notebook appears to be quite restrained except for the dragon logo, two red stripes on the cover and red fan exhausts at the bottom. It gets more colorful when you use the illuminated chiclet keyboard with its three configurable zones.

There is obviously a card reader as well. Compared to 15-inch rivals, the GT62VR manages much higher transfer rates. We were able to record between 140 (copying pictures) and 190 MB/s (seq. read) in combination with our reference card Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II. Besides the Acer Predator 15, both the Schenker XMG P506 and the Gigabyte P55W v5 only manage transfer rates below100 MB/s.

All communication is handled by modules from Qualcomm/Atheros. Wired networks are handled by the Killer E2400 Gigabit-Ethernet Controller, while wireless connections can be established via Killer Wireless-n/a/ac 1435 adapter. The latter does not only support all common WLAN standards, but also Bluetooth 4.1. There were no surprising results in our recently introduced and standardized WLAN test. The test model managed 559-630 Mbps on average at a distance of one meter – a good result.

The maintainability of the GT62VR deserves respect as well. MSI implements a huge bottom panel, which is secured by six screws. After you loosen them and then remove the panel (which requires quite some force), you get access to the internals. This includes the storage solution, the wireless module or the secondary memory slots, which are still free at our test model. The cooling system consists of two fans and a total of six heat pipes. MSI put one heat pipe above the processor and the graphics card to optimize the heat management.

A lot of space is required by the battery, which is – contrary to the GT60 – not accessible from the outside. We cannot quite understand that there is just one M.2 slot inside the GT62VR. There would be sufficient space for a second or even a third slot. MSI reserves this feature for the 17 and 18-inch models (like the GT73 & GT83). Note: It should be no problem to break the warranty sticker in Germany, as long as maintenance works or upgrades are performed by experts.

The provided accessories are limited to a quick-start guide, a warranty brochure, a recovery guide as well as a cleaning cloth. The bulky power adapter tips the scale at 780 grams, is 17 x 8 x 3.5 centimeters and has a nominal power output of 230 Watts.

The warranty period is 24 months (Pickup & Return service).

The slightly depressed touchpad gets a high mark as well. MSI waives a click pad for the GT62VR and equips the 15-inch device with a conventional mouse replacement with dedicated buttons. The work great, but are pretty loud in return.

The feedback benefits from a subtle structure. Despite the roughened surface, we liked the gliding capabilities. It is a similar situation with the size. 11 x 6 centimeters are more than decent for a 15-inch device. We were slightly surprised by the fact that a part of the supported gestures, more precisely scrolling, have to be activated manually in the touchpad driver (Synaptics V7.5) first. Zooming and turning with two fingers worked by default.

As expected for a modern high-end gaming notebook, the GT62VR is G-Sync certified. Nvidia's display technology synchronizes the refresh rate of the panel with the GeForce GPU to avoid line shifts and minimize stutters as well as latencies. MSI also advertises the 15-inch gamer as VR-ready, although you will obviously require additional hardware for that (e. g. Oculus Rift).

We determine 84 % sRGB and 55 % AdobeRGB coverage, which is completely sufficient for gamers. Our test model did not show annoying backlight bleeding at the edges. Attention 4K fans: The GT62VR will also be released with an UHD panel.

Quad-core CPU and high-end GPU? Check. 16 GB DDR4-RAM? Check. Solid State Drive? Check. The MSI GT62VR offers plenty of performance for all scenarios starting with office, multimedia and web all the way up to triple-AAA gaming. This configuration of the 15-inch notebook should not have any performance problems in the next 1 or 2 years.

As usual, we check the clocks and the performance with the Cinebench benchmarks. While the majority of notebooks behaves pretty inconspicuous, the GT62VR was a bit puzzling at first. The single-core scores were much lower than we expect from the i7-6700HQ, despite good clocks. The CPU sometimes even dropped to the level of the ULV model Core i5-6200U. The clock was also always stuck at 3.1 GHz according to HWiNFO and Intel's Turbo Boost monitor.

After we talked to MSI, the Dragon Center software turned out to be the problem, so we received a second test device with updates. The Shift function still uses 3.1 GHz in the modes "Sport", "Comfort" and "Eco" (so the feature does not make much sense), but the user modes "Presentation", "Movie", "Gaming", and "Office" have a clear effect on the clocks, so we were now able to perform correct idle measurements. All corresponding values have already been replaced. The overall rating is still 85 % though.

When the Core i7-6700HQ can utilize its full potential, the results are on par with the competition. 143 points in the Cinebench R15 Single-Core test and 673 points in the Multi-Core test are similar to the Gigabyte P55W v5.

The system performance can completely meet our expectations. 5926 points in PCMark 7 are typical for a high-end notebook powered by a SATA-III-SSD. This result positions the MSI GT62VR between the review configurations of the Alienware 15 R2 (5846 points) and Acer Predator 15 (5974 points).

Even though the M.2 slot supports PCIe/NVMe Solid State Drives, MSI – as mentioned before – only uses a SATA-III model, so the transfer rates are limited at around 500 MB/s. Inside the test model is a 256 GB drive from Toshiba, which manages a total score of 915 points in the AS SSD benchmark. For comparison: The NVMe SSD in the Schenker XMG P506 manages 2716 points (+ 200 %).

You will hardly notice a difference in practice though, where the performance with small files is much more important than sequential read and write operations. MSI also equips the GT62VR with a 2.5-inch HDD to avoid storage problems. The HGST Travelstar 7K1000 has a storage capacity of 1000 GB and runs at 7200 rpm.

The test model was shipped with the ForceWare 368.79, but it did not really leave a finished impression. There were no blue screens or graphics errors, but in some titles we were under the impression that the performance could be higher. In the best case, the GTX 1070 will be on par with its desktop counterparts, and it drops below the GTX 980(M) in the worst case. Dirt Rally, Just Cause 3, and Mad Max also did not launch on our 4K monitor (freeze or crash, respectively).

Since we retested the idle measurements (as mentioned above), we also installed the official launch driver 372.53 and quickly checked the benchmarks Unigine Heaven 4.0 as well as 3DMark 11. The result: The performance did not change.

The GT62VR shows an impressive performance in the synthetic benchmarks, which are limited by the GPU. A graphics score of 17066 points for the GTX 1070 in the current 3DMark Fire Strike test is 124 % faster than a GTX 970M (7624 points @Acer Predator 15) and 76 % faster than a GTX 980M (9671 points @Schenker XMG P506). Even the former top model GTX 980, which was only used for 17 and 18-inch devices, is beaten by 34 % (12691 points @Schenker XMG U716). The advantage over the desktop GTX 1060 is also more than 30 %. Only a GTX 980 Ti can compete with the mobile GTX 1070. In short: Nvidia did a great job with the Pascal architecture. Thanks to 8 GB GDDR5-VRAM and a 256-bit memory interface, the high-end model is also very future-proof.

We start with the best message: As one of the few notebook GPUs, the GeForce GTX 1070 can handle almost all games in 3840 x 2160 pixels properly (35+ fps @High). The graphics cards from the Maxwell series often produce stutters in this case. Every title can be enjoyed with the highest details and multiple anti-aliasing in the native resolution of the GT62VR. Even very demanding titles like Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Anno 2205 are no problem for the system.

If you take our 4K/High and FHD/Ultra benchmark results, the GTX 1070 is 10 % ahead of the GTX 980, 14 % ahead of the desktop GTX 1060 and impressive 60 % ahead of the GTX 980M. The performance of the GTX 970M is even beaten by 100 %, so the Pascal successor is twice as fast. Such a performance jump was rare in the past, so it makes sense to purchase a new laptop now.