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MSI GT70 0NC 17.3″ Laptop Review (i7 3610QM / GTX 670M)

MSI supply the GT70 0NC with a large amount software – some of which is needless bloat-ware. The decision to include resource-hogging security software is one that will frustrate many buyers.

A windows score of 7.3 is very respectable. It is disappointing to see that the pair of SanDisk U100 SSDs in RAID 0 configuration scores only 7.6 which is less than the single SSDs in AlienWare's M17x R4 and PC Specialist's Vortex III HD7S.

Intel's 22nm Core i7 3610QM quad core processor which is used in the GT70 utilises 6MB of level 3 cache. MSI uses 16GB of DDR3 1600MHz which operates with timings of 11-11-11-28.

The Core i7 3610QM is clocked at 2.3ghz, with a turbo option to 3.3ghz. More information on the processor is available here.

GPU-Z reports the GTX 670M's default GPU clock speed as 620MHz and shader speed as 1240MHz but these frequencies are only operated when the turbo mode is enabled.

Pressing the ‘Turbo' button engages MSI's turbo mode which increases the GTX 670M's clock speed by 25.2MHz from 594.8MHz. Shader frequency is also increased to 1240MHz from 1195MHz.

The nVidia Control Panel allows you to manually switch between the Intel HD4000 IGP and GTX 670M for use with certain tasks. We found that the tasks were automatically assigned to good effect.

The 128GB SSD configuration leaves plenty of room spare for installing large programs such as Photoshop and some games. A total of 686GB is free on the Western Digital Scorpio Black storage drive.

Unfortunately, MSI leaves the default save location for documents, downloads and the rest of the storage-hogging directories on the SSD rather than moving them to the HDD. The first thing that I would advise you to do is switch some of the save locations to the HDD, otherwise your SSD storage will be depleted within no time at all.

Comparison Systems (for specific synthetic test comparisons):

Software:

  • 3DMark Vantage
  • 3DMark 11
  • PCMark 7
  • SiSoft Sandra
  • Cinebench 11.5 64 bit
  • FRAPS Professional
  • Unigine Heaven Benchmark
  • CrystalDiskMark
  • Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 12
  • Cyberlink MediaEspresso
  • Battlefield 3
  • Battlefield: Bad Company 2
  • Dirt 3

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5 comments

  1. This system exposes a problem with nvidia mobile pricing right now. the 7970m is cheaper than the GTX680m and faster, never mind the 670m.

  2. The only issue with the 7970m is the noise and heat it generates. ive heard several laptops using it and they get very very loud when gaming.

  3. I’m quite sure the one shown is the GT780, not the GT70. The GT70 has a very boring design, and the 0nC/0nD are slim.
    Either way, it is pretty much my dream machine – 17″ and fast enough for games.
    After getting my current 17″, I don’t want to go any smaller, although it’s no good with games.

  4. My bad… I was thinking of the GE range… then again, the GT60’s look like the GE60’s and GE70’s while the GT70 and GT780 look like the GTX683 without the lights. Confusing..

  5. (didnt read the whole article)

    According to a website, the GTX 670M is not a Kepler based GPU, this is still a Fermi graphicscard, bigger DIE, less powerful etc..

    GTX 670M = GTX 570M (Bad MSi!!!)