DON'T BUY MSI THEY MIS-SOLD TOP SPEC GT SERIES LAPTOPS with MXM Graphics

[MiSJAH]

MSI overcharging for lack of MXM Graphics upgrade!

Ok, so MSI straight out lied to it's customers.

MSI UK Notebook published on it facebook page the UK Pascal Trade-Upgrade Program, claiming " is available at costs comparable to previous MXM upgrades."

So today some received their offers.....

"According to the data you provided to us, your discount amount will be £*,*** based on 2 evaluations as follows:
1. The original launch price of your on-hand machine GT72 ***UK is £*,***
2. Your invoice date is **/**/****, we can accept the machine as long as it’s within 2years warranty"

Absolutely nowhere near previous MXM upgrades costs whatsoever.





Original post below:
Anyone that owns an MSI GT72/S or GT80/S was sold their notebook with an advertised promise of upgradable MXM GPU's. MSI marketed this and charged a premium for it.

Pascal is released and MSI advise that their loyal customers that own these 'upgradable' notebooks will not be able to upgrade as they cannot make the Pascal technology fit in the existing GT72/S or GT80/S.

MSI rolls out the alternative, the 'Trade in, Upgrade' scheme. This scheme features customers sending their existing notebooks to MSI, MSI asses the resale value of the laptop and then offer a discount towards a new GT series notebook with Pascal GPU. So, MSI offered me a GT73 with GTX1080 (GT73VR 6RF(Titan Pro)-035UK) for £1,424 and my laptop.

Now if the MXM upgrade had been available, the cost to me would be around £500 (£1,000 to buy a MXM GTX1080, available online already, less £500 that I could sell my GTX980m for).

MSI want to charge me nearly a grand for components that I do not need to upgrade because they cannot provide what they advertised.

If you know anyone that is in the market for a gaming laptop I would suggest that they steer clear of MSI for these reasons.

The matter has been presented to the consumer ombudsman.

I will update this post when they feedback or if MSI present an acceptable solution.

If anyone is on reddit feel free to upvote this topic, the more attention this gets the more likely MSI present a comparable solution.

I would like to point out that I have had no issues with overclockers, they sold me a great machine at a stunning price and they will continue to be my preferred etailer for future tech purchases.

Hi,

Is anyone aware of what MSI are doing in regards to offering 2 generations of MXM GPU upgrades with certain notebooks?

The USA has been offered a trade in and upgrade offer....



Any MSI reps able to provide an insight?

Cheers.

 

[MiSJAH]

This is something MSI UK promoted to sell their notebooks:

Firstly quoted here that the GT72 with GTX9** series graphics cards will be upgradable: https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GT72-MXM-Graphics-Upgrade-kit.html#hero-overview

Then confirmed by MSINotebookUK on the bit-tech.net forums here: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=278934

I've emailed MSI's UK support and I will post here when they reply.

If anyone else would like to contact them: [email protected]

Also, loki on these forums is a rep but he is out of the office at Insomnia (lucky git!).

 

[MiSJAH]

Missed this one from last post.



https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GT72-2QE-Dominator-Pro.html#

 

[MiSJAH]

For the amount it would cost it will more than likely be cheaper to sell your current machine and buy a new one.

I wish this were true. Secondhand GT72 with GTX980m are going for £7-900. New GT series MSI laptop with GTX1080 minimum £2,500. The difference being at least £1,600. The MXM upgrade that MSI said would be possible could never cost that much.

More to the point, why would MSI US offer the trade in, upgrade unless they were aware they had made a screw up?

I bought my GT72 with the GTX980m based on MSI stating the MXM graphics would be upgradable to the next generation of graphics cards.

So did a lot of others, if you take a look at MSI's facebook/twitter feeds.

@MSI reps, can we have a direct response to what MSI UK are going to do about this situation?

 

[MiSJAH]

Answer from MSI:

Dear MiSJAH,

We’re after sales service so unfortunately we don’t know about sales/supply details for GPU.



Please check the following link in order to check more details:

https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GT72-MXM-Graphics-Upgrade-kit.html#hero-overview



It’s upgradable.




Niraj Patel

Kind regards,

UK Notebook & AIO Customer Service

They're referring to their own website and telling me that my GTX980m in my GT72 is 'upgradable'.

Come on @Loki @ARJBEAR, what's the official line on this farce?

 

[MiSJAH]

Hi Guys

I have been away at iseries. Looking to get some answers on this for you all ASAP

regards

Thanks Loki.

Thanks Loki.

Would this potentially extend to other ranges (ie GE72) or not?

Only the GT72, GT72S, GT80, and the GT80S were sold with the promise of upgradeable MXM graphics. I believe all the other models have BGA graphics, so soldered to the motherboard.

 

[MiSJAH]

Hi Loki,

Email sent.

Can you clarify a couple of points:

Will the upgrade be on the notebook we send in or will it be replaced? (my data is important to me).

Will the there be options with the upgrade, ie. If MXM upgrade kit were available, I would have gone with the GTX 1080 not the GTX 1070?

Will the price be advised before sending in the notebook?

Will the price be appropriate to the cost of doing the upgrade ourselves had the kit been available, ie. cost of MXM 1080 less the cost of our MXM 980m that we would have sold?

Thanks man.

 

[MiSJAH]

Thanks for the update Loki.

Can you check what the solution to 2nd generation upgrade (Volta) will be? I appreciated the upgrade program above discusses the move from Maxwell to Pascal but doesn't really comment on the 2nd generation upgrade.

There are a lot of naysayers when it comes to extreme gaming notebooks, and one of the biggest complaints is that you end up with an expensive system that can’t be upgraded. MSI is doing their part to at least partially address this shortcoming, as they are now guaranteeing support for at least the next two GPU cycles through select vendors in the US. So the GT80 ships with support for GTX 980M and should be able to run at some future point the “GTX A80M” and “GTX B80M” (whatever they end up being called). To take advantage of the GPU upgradeability, users in the US will have to ship their notebook to one of MSI’s System Integrator partners – MSI mentioned iBUYPOWER, XoticPC, GentechPC, and PowerNotebook as options right now. The SI will perform the upgrade, including swapping out the GPU as well as the cooling module, install driver and firmware updates, and then ship the updated notebook back to the user along with the old GPU(s) and cooling modules. Note that the GPU upgrade option is available for both the GT80 Titan as well as the GT72 Dominator.

Source.

 

[MiSJAH]

Any update as to what the program that will rolled out in the next couple of weeks will consist of yet?

 

[MiSJAH]

I've been looking at the new Pascal GT72 and other than the new graphics it appears to have lost it's mux switch and ability to raid ssds.

I hope MSI shine a light on the solution soon.

Hi Guys

Key Info

- Program to launch for UK customers within next 3 weeks.

Regards

That was on the 1st September, 3 week will be this Thursday 22nd September.

Still nothing?

I live in switzerland.. and I was wondering why MSI Germany called..
anyway.. their Trade-In program is very simple..

I can decide which trade-in Laptop I want..

GT72VR 6RE Dominator Pro 17.3" FHD, Anti-Glare (1920*1080) eDP IPS-Level GeForce®GTX 1070, 8GB GDDR5 Intel HM170 Skylake i7-6700HQ+HM170 DDR IV 8GB*2 256GB SSD +1TB (SATA) 7200rpm BD Writer (9.5mm) Killer N1435 Combo (2*2 a/c)+BT4.1 M.2 type Support Windows10 (High End Devices) 9 cell (GT72) 001785-SKU3

or

GT73VR 6RE Titan (GeForce® GTX 1070, 8GB GDDR5) 17.3" FHD, Anti-Glare (1920*1080) eDP 120Hz Vivid Color 94% (I) GeForce®GTX 1070, 8GB GDDR5 Intel CM236 support super raid Skylake i7-6820HK+CM236 DDR IV 8GB*2 Super Raid 4-512GB NVMe SSD +1TB (SATA) 7200rpm x Killer N1535 Combo (2*2 a/c)+BT4.1 M.2 type Support Windows10 (High End Devices) 8 cell 5225mAH 0017A1-SKU7

for free! they don't Charge any Money..

well.. no..
back to reality..

I have to spend 700 euros + my current gt72s with 980m for the GT72VR
or
I have to spend 1300 euros + my current gt72s with 980m for the GT73VR

unfair trade-in program..

That's a quote from another forum.

So let's do some math. The MXM 1080 module is available to purchase delivered to the UK for ~£1,000, sale of existing GTX980m (there are zero on ebay at the moment, so a good market) ~£500, cost to notebook owner £500.

How can MSI justify asking anyone to pay more for a lesser card, especially in a downgraded chassis?

MSI we await your reasoning.

For those interested; there is still no information forthcoming from MSI in regards to the details of the trade in, trade down, potentially pay more than the cost of a MXM 1080 for a lesser card without the option of selling your existing card to recoup the cost, scheme.

 

[MiSJAH]

N17E-G3 aka GTX1080 - £833 (today's price) + shipping/tax = £956.

This is a generic MXM 1080. But as these cards do not drop into the GT72 it's good for the maths.

I don't think NVIDIA have shown a roadmap showing the upgrade path from 980m to 1070 feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I agree the GT73 is superior to the GT72 both old and new. But the new GT72 is inferior to the old GT72.

All we want is MSI to be fair with us about this.

 

[MiSJAH]

Agreed. 6 series Intel are better than 4 series, ddr4 is better than ddr3, PCIE SSDs are better than sata SSDs. But really a moot point. If I were looking to purchase a new notebook I would consider these as added value. But that's not the situation. My i7-4720, 16gb ddr3 and triple raid0 SSDs are more than sufficient for gaming with a drop in MXM 10** that MSI advertised. I do not require these parts to be upgraded so it's unreasonable for MSI to expect its customers to bear the cost when the issue is caused by their error.

@Meaker, you've been in the notebook game some time, what would you say would be a fair resolution from MSI, because this looks more and more like a bait and switch?

 

[MiSJAH]

I understand the gt72 lost the ability to run on igp right or was there some other major difference I am missing? I have not examined the difference between the new one and old one massively closely and could do with a quick run down.

The new GT72 has optimus as opposed to the MUX switch that the original GT72 that gave the choice of graphics to the end user.

And the new GT72 has no option to raid ssds, many existing owners have multiple sata ssds that they raid0'd on the original GT72.

 

[MiSJAH]

I would say a new machine for the price of a 1070 card would certainly be fair. The upgrade to the gt73 could perhaps be slightly cheaper.

Me too: GTX1070 MXM = £596 today x 1.2 = £715, I shold also get to keep the 980m to resell as you would in a normal MXM upgrade.

What they actually offered:

GT83VR 6RF(Titan SLI)-028UK
Skylake i7-6920HQ
Dual nVidia Geforce GTX1080, 8GB GDDR5X
DDR IV 64GB
512GB PCIE GEN3 NVMe SSD (256GB x2)
1TB (SATA) 7200rpm
18.4" FHD, Anti-Glare (1920*1080) IPS-Level
£3,615

GT83VR 6RE(Titan SLI)-013UK
Skylake i7-6820HK
Dual nVidia Geforce GTX 1070, 8GB GDDR5
DDR IV 32GB
256GB PCIE GEN3 NVMe SSD (128GB x2)
1TB (SATA) 7200rpm
18.4" FHD, Anti-Glare (1920*1080) IPS-Level
£2,315

GT83VR 6RF(Titan SLI)-072UK
Skylake i7-6820HK
Dual nVidia Geforce GTX 1080, 8GB GDDR5X
DDR IV 32GB
512GB PCIE GEN3 NVMe SSD (256GB x2)
1TB (SATA) 7200rpm
18.4" FHD, Anti-Glare (1920*1080) IPS-Level
£3,015

For more information on these models and their new features please see https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GT83VR-6RE-Titan-SLI.html or https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GT83VR-6RF-Titan-SLI.html


GT72VR 6RE(Dominator Pro)-040UK
Skylake i7-6700HQ
nVidia Geforce GTX 1070, 8GB GDDR5
DDR IV 16GB
256GB PCIE GEN3 NVMe SSD
1TB (SATA) 7200rpm
17.3" FHD, Anti-Glare (1920*1080) eDP IPS-Level with G-Sync
£1,315

GT72VR 6RD(Dominator)-037UK
Skylake i7-6700HQ
nVidia Geforce GTX 1060, 6GB GDDR5
DDR IV 16GB
256GB PCIE GEN3 NVMe SSD
1TB (SATA) 7200rpm
17.3" FHD, Anti-Glare (1920*1080) eDP IPS-Level with G-Sync
£1,015

GT72VR 6RE(Dominator Pro)-234UK
Skylake i7-6700HQ
nVidia Geforce GTX 1070, 8GB GDDR5
DDR IV 16GB
128GB SSD PCIE GEN3 NVMe SSD
1TB (SATA) 7200rpm
17.3" FHD, Anti-Glare (1920*1080) eDP IPS-Level with G-Sync
£1,115

These are the prices for the trade in, so I send my laptop with the GTX980m and they knock ~£600 off the price of a new laptop.

Taking the ****, MSI!

 

[MiSJAH]

So, a £700 saving (roughly) but you get the better graphics card you want which is over £715 plus a load of other upgrades, CPU etc I assume?

Am I missing something here, doesn't seem too bad for a trade in scheme to me?

I have a GT72 with a i7-4720, 3 x 128GB sata SSD in RAiD0, and 16GB DDR3. I don't require any of these components to be upgraded.

MSI has provided this scheme to replace the lack of fruition of the advertised promise of upgradable MXM graphics. A replacement MXM 1080 GPU would cost ~£1,000 my existing GPU would sell for around £500, cost to me for, the upgrade ~£500.

Why would I pay more when I do not need to upgrade the other components, and MSI is only upgrading them due to an error on their behalf?

So yes, you are missing something.

If I could upgrade my laptop to the GTX1070, I would then get to sell my graphics card. So the cost of the upgrade drops by the amount I sell my card for. In effect I could upgrade to the GPU MSI want to charge me £1,115 for, for around £200. That is what you, and MSI are missing.

 

[MiSJAH]

Yeah, so the trade in seems fine.

The upgrade for you only is the issue?

So, a few things:

1. Could you not just upgrade it yourself? I mean its advertised as upgradable, so it can be done?

2. The costs you state, is that just the price for the card from abroad?

1. Nope, that's why MSI is running this trade in, they advertised it as having upgradable graphics and charged a premium for it. But it turns out that the new nvidia cards would not work with the existing chassis/power/cooling.

2. Yes, with consideration of import tax and delivery.

 

[MiSJAH]

Ahh sorry, I didn't catch that, so the card in the laptop is not upgradable at all?

On the costs, you know its much more than just VAT, worth keeping that in mind to stay credible. Same as the graphics forum always does with its American vs UK costs crap.

The GTX980m is the strongest available card for the GT72 2QE, so nope nothing to upgrade to at all. Those with GTX970m could upgrade to the 980m.

I have imported GPU's for laptops from the US before, well aware of import charges.

 

[MiSJAH]

I know this isn't what people want but....didn't they make 980 mxm cards? I seem to recall they were mentioned when the initial marketing came out for those.

Yes, it's not the generational upgrade promised. However, I would consider one of those as an upgrade if offered as a very low cost.

 

[MiSJAH]

If a private sale and a repurchase would be a more financially viable option for you I would recommend taking that route.

Taken verbatim from an email from Natalie at MSI.

 

[MiSJAH]

Anyone not happy with MSI's "Upgrade" please complain to the Consumer Ombusman - http://www.consumer-ombudsman.org/



Nothing MSI has done in regards to this matter has been anywhere near acceptable, make your voices heard.

I would like to point out that I have had no issues with overclockers, they sold me a great machine at a stunning price and they will continue to be my preferred etailer for future tech purchases.