Xotic PC MSI GS60 6QE 002US Notebook Review

Communication

WLAN is provided by a removable Killer wireless-ac 1525 M.2 module with integrated Bluetooth 4.1. The dual-band (2x2) card is capable of transfer rates of up to a theoretical 867 Mbps - not quite Gigabit speeds. We experienced no connectivity or latency issues while connected to a standard home network.

Accessories

Included extras are the Drivers and Utilities disc, Quick Start Guide, and System Recovery guide. Printed factory records of stress testing and benchmarks specific to the unit are also included.

Maintenance

The bottom panel can be easily removed with a standard Philips screwdriver to reveal both system fans, the 2.5-inch SATA III bay, and integrated Li-Ion battery. Further disassembly is required for direct access to the M.2 SSD, 2x RAM slots, CPU, and GPU. This makes upgrading a bit more involved than we would have liked. The CPU and GPU are both soldered as well. We recommend checking out the disassembly guide at myfixguide.com for the full teardown.

Warranty

Xotic PC offers 24-month coverage as standard whereas many other manufacturers cover for just the first year only. The reseller also throws in accidental damage protection free-of-charge for those who register online. 

Keyboard

The SteelSeries keyboard remains unchanged aside from the new translucent aesthetic, so we refer to our previous GS60 reviews for our impressions. In short, we find the keys to be very comfortable with their short travel but very firm feedback when pressed. The quiet keys easily outperform those on Ultrabooks and are comparable to newer Clevo systems, though travel is not quite as deep as on the Gigabyte P55. The cloudy-white edges and corners better highlight the multi-colored LEDs compared to the older GS60 models.

While the core QWERTY keys are excellent, it's a shame that there are no dedicated Macro keys for the GS60. Competing models tend to offer such auxiliary keys for quicker access to special functions.

Touchpad

The touchpad is again identical down to its chrome-lined perimeter and dimensions (10.5 x 7 cm). MSI is certainly using as much space as possible here as it is just 3 mm away from touching the front edge. This is slightly larger than on the Gigabyte P55 and Asus G501, but still smaller than on the Alienware 15. The glide is smooth and the integrated mouse keys make for easier multi-touch gestures at the cost of less accurate mouse clicks. The Elan software recognizes up to three fingers simultaneously and allows for automatic disabling when typing. 

The integrated mouse keys are average and can get by for when an external mouse is unavailable. An input produces a satisfying auditory click, but the very short travel means poor tactile feedback.

Color space coverage is a measured 54 percent and 82 percent of the AdobeRGB and sRGB standards, respectively. These are typical values for quality IPS panels and certainly better than budget TN panels as found on the Lenovo Y50 and cheaper mainstream notebooks where sRGB coverage is typically less than 60 percent. The Asus ROG G501 series provides more accurate colors closer to 100 percent sRGB for those who are interested. Otherwise, color accuracy is of little significance when gaming.

Color analyses with an X-Rite spectrophotometer reveal accurate colors and grayscale out-of-the-box. This is comparable to other high-end 15.6-inch gaming notebooks like the Eurocom Shark 4 and Gigabyte P55. Most notably, grayscale and color temperature are very good and become even better after calibration.

Colors become less accurate the higher the saturation level. This suggests a less than perfect sRGB coverage despite MSI's claims of being "close to 100 percent sRGB".

Photosensor measurements show no significant use of pulse-width modulation for brightness control. A pulsing backlight could not be detected as light intensity is simply reduced for each brightness setting.

Response time measurements are standard for an LCD panel - about 8 ms from Black to White and 16 ms from 50 percent Gray to 80 percent Gray.

Outdoor visibility is slightly above average due to the matte panel and sufficiently strong backlight. Use under direct sunlight should still be avoided as the screen is not nearly bright enough for comfortable viewing.

Viewing angles are very good as expected from an IPS panel. This also helps if adjusting display angles outdoors to reduce glare. Apparent brightness decreases noticeably if viewing 45 degrees or more off to the sides.

The i7-6700HQ CPU is roughly on par with the i7-4710HQ in terms of raw performance, but at a much smaller die size (122 mm2 vs. 177 mm2), lower TDP (45 W vs. 47 W), and a more powerful integrated GPU (HD 530 vs. HD 4600). This contradicts MSI's claims that the i7-6700HQ is 20 percent faster than the i7-4720HQ, which is false according to our CineBench data. The Skylake generation emphasizes efficiency over CPU power, so a number of existing Broadwell cores like the i7-5700HQ can still outperform our MSI by single-digit percentages. Extreme CPUs such as the i7-4940MX or the desktop i7-4790K in the Eurocom will outperform the i7-6700HQ by as much as 30 percent.

Performance in single-threaded operations is generally lower than multi-threaded operations for Skylake. Older Intel generations have higher Turbo Boost potential depending on the number of threads while Skylake takes a more streamlined approach to Turbo Boost performance. For gaming, however, this has almost no impact in final frame rates.

For more technical information and benchmarks on the i7-6700HQ, see our dedicated CPU page here.

The final PCMark 7 score of 5548 points places our MSI in the same ballpark as other high-end SSD-based notebooks such as the Dell Precision M2800 workstation and Apple MacBook Pro Retina 15. Our current record holder continues to be the Eurocom P5 Pro Extreme with 7272 points.

Subjectively, we experienced no latency or other OS issues during daily use. Programs launch almost instantaneously as expected from an SSD-based system. For unexplained reasons, the system fans would sometimes run at maximum speed indefinitely until system shutdown regardless of onscreen load. This occurred thrice during our time with the GS60 and may simply be a bug with one of MSI's Performance software.

3DMark results are excellent and come closer to the GTX 980M than most other notebooks with the GTX 970M. For example, final scores are roughly 10 percent ahead of the MSI GT70 equipped with the same GTX 970M GPU. The raw performance lead of the GTX 980M is thus only 10 to 20 percent as opposed to 20 to 30 percent. If branching out further down the spectrum, raw performance is at least 50 percent ahead of the GTX 960M.

Gaming Performance

The raw GPU performance from synthetic benchmarks translates well into real-world gaming. Our MSI is consistently ahead of the Gigabyte P55, which also sports the same GTX 970M GPU. Of course, our Gigabyte is running on an older Nvidia driver, so the performance advantages for the MSI aren't completely due to the better hardware. Nonetheless, frame rates are indubitably higher than the average GTX 970M in our database across all tested titles.

Performance is still shy from the 1080p60 sweet spot. While a good handful of games will run above 60 FPS on Ultra settings, more demanding titles like Thief will instead hover in the low 50s or even lower for GTA V. The GTX 980M is roughly 20 percent faster than our GTX 970M in most cases.

Batman: Arkham Knight refuses to run on our Ultra settings, so no data is provided.

More technical information and benchmarks on the GTX 970M can be found on our dedicated GPU page here.

We stress the notebook with synthetic benchmarks to identify any potential throttling or stability issues.

The CPU operates at a steady 2.7 - 2.9 GHz with Prime95 active, which is slightly above the base 2.6 GHz clock rate. The maximum Turbo Boost of 3.5 GHz is dropped once core temperatures reach the 70 C mark. When only FurMark is active, the Nvidia GPU can be observed running at a steady 835 - 911 MHz range and a maximum core temperature of 84 C. This is below the base speed of 924 MHz, so the GPU experiences very slight throttling under these conditions.

Running both Prime95 and FurMark simultaneously will throttle the CPU down 200 MHz below its base clock rate. Interestingly, the GPU is able to operate within a wider clock range of 873 - 1027 MHz. Core temperatures are higher across the board, but nowhere near the 90 C range as seen on the Aorus X5.

Unigine Heaven stress is more representative of gaming loads. Both the CPU and GPU perform very well and are able to maintain steady Boost speeds throughout the entire run. The CPU runs relatively cool in the 55 - 60 C range while the GPU is much warmer in the mid 80s. This gives us less GPU overclocking headroom than we would like out of the GS60. The high CPU temperature headroom is likely narrower if configuring the GS60 with the more powerful i7-6820HK. Nonetheless, users will not have to worry about throttling when gaming. Running the Metro: Last Light benchmark ten times in succession produces no drop in average frame rates over time.

Running on battery will not only throttle the CPU clock, but also the GPU memory clock from 1252 MHz to 800 MHz. A 3DMark 11 run on batteries results in Physics and Graphics scores of 7371 and 6550 points, respectively, compared to 8542 and 10738 points on mains.

The Dynaudio hardware remains unchanged from the 2QE generation, so users are treated to the exact same speaker setup with two towards the front and two more subwoofers facing the rear. Sound quality is thus identical, which is not a bad thing as we found it to be good for the size on our previous GS60 test models. Bass is still noticeably weaker compared to larger gaming notebooks like the GT72 or Alienware 15 and maximum volume could be higher.

Instead, improvements come from the software side with Nahimic. The solution emphasizes Virtual Surround Sound, voice clarity, and voice recording for an improved gaming experience. Headphones are recommended to take better advantage of these features and the HiFi ESS Sabre DAC hardware.