MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro G (1461UK) G-Sync Gaming Laptop Review

1. Introduction2. MSI GT72 2QE-1461UK (Dominator Pro G)3. Testing Methodology and Configuration4. Tests: System-related5. Tests: Processor-related6. Tests: Processor & Memory related7. Tests: Gaming-related8. Tests: Storage & Connectivity9. Technical: Thermals, Acoustics, Battery Performance10. Closing Thoughts11. View All Pages

MSI ships the GT72 2QE with a substantial amount of pre-installed software. Some of the installs, such as XSplit, are useful. However, other installations, such as Norton (not even with a decent license term), will be considered bloatware that cannot be removed quickly enough.

Shipping with only 60GB of free space, the 128GB boot SSD is going to be filled very quickly. Users hoping to get some of their games onto the SSD should look into adding another solid state drive to the system or simply making do with mechanical storage.

MSI keeps the default documents, videos, music (etc.) storage locations on the 128GB SSD. The small drive will fill quickly – MSI should have put default save locations for media directories on the larger HDD. This is, however, easy to edit manually.

Despite being rated at 2.7GHz, the 47W Broadwell-H CPU spends most of its time at the maximum turbo level of 3.5GHz when AC power is used and Windows power option is set to High Performance.

MSI's excellent cooling system manages to keep the CPU temperatures in check, allowing the chip to remain at its maximum turbo frequency for the majority of usage cases.

The GTX 980M is able to turbo its core clock as high as 1126MHz, although the operating clock speed stays largely constant at 1088MHz after extended loading periods. The 8GB of GDDR5 memory remained clocked at 1253MHz throughout its loading period.

MSI's Dragon Gaming Center is a simple way of tracking basic system information. I quite like the software's layout and the way it fits a decent spread of general information onto a single page.

Tests:

• 3DMark – Fire Strike (System)
• PCMark 8 – Home (System & Battery)
• Cinebench R15 – All-core CPU benchmark (CPU)
• HandBrake – Convert 4.36GB 720P MKV to MP4 (CPU)
• SiSoft Sandra – Processor arithmetic, memory bandwidth (CPU & Memory)
• ATTO – SSD, HDD, USB 3.0 transfer rates (Connectivity)
• Totusoft LAN Speed Test – WiFi speed test, 100MB file transfer between GbE wired ‘server' computer (Connectivity)
• Bioshock Infinite – 1920 x 1080, ultra quality (Gaming)
• Metro: Last Light – 1920 x 1080, high quality (Gaming)
• Tomb Raider – 1920 x 1080, ultimate quality (Gaming)

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