I bought a new laptop last week so thought I would give it a little review, after searching on these forums I found a few threads about it including this one http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17917764&highlight=gx620 but no real details.
The Machine
Specifications
Intel®Core2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz
(DDR2 800) 4 GB
15.4" (1680x1050)
nVIDIA Geforce 9600M GT, 512MB DDR3 VRAM
320GB SATA (5400RPM)
DVD Super Multi
2.0M Camera
4-in-1 Card Reader, SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro
Built-in Gigabit Ethernet LAN and Modem Module
Built-in 802.11b/g/n WLAN Card / Bluetooth V2.0+EDR
Graphics Card Output (15-pin, D-Sub) X 1
USB2.0 Port X 2
Mic-in Port X 1
Headphone Output X 1
Modem Port X 1
LAN Port X 1
PCI Express Card X 1
eSATA (USB Combo) X 1
HDMI X 1
90W
9 cell Battery
358(L) X 260(D) X 27~31(H)mm
2.7KG
First Impressions
The machine came well packed with an array of extras opening the box you get a MSI backpack which seems fairly well made in black and metallic red, This was not to my personal taste so was given to a colleague in the office. You get a MSI wired gaming mouse, the mouse is in the style of the logitech G-Series with 5 speed variable track at the touch of a button, the different track speeds are indicated by a change in the colour of the LED in the mouse scroll button. 7 weights are also included to put in the mouse to adjust its weight.
Finally you get the machine and battery, the machine is fairly well built with a brushed aluminium finish over most of it. Red plastic around the edges is very red and feels fairly flimsy in places specifically in the canter above the touch buttons (Ill come onto them later),this could let the machine down in the future but only the test of time will tell.
Let’s move onto the touch buttons, from left to right there are four touch buttons for media, previous track, stop, play/pause and next track all of which work in media player and other apps. There is an eco button which changes the laptops LCD and battery mode for games, cinema, office, projector and battery saving mode.
Now let’s move onto the more interesting button, the “Turbo” button at first was a strange one, it didn’t seem to work, until I plugged the machine in. I should have read the instructions really, anyway this was neither here nor there until I went into the instructions, then onto the MSI website. The best description I could find about this button, taken directly from the MSI Site was this:
“With MSI exclusive Turbo Drive Engine Technology, while the GX620 is in AC mode, just by touching the turbo button above the keyboard, you can simultaneously increase the speed of your CPU, also the computer will run smoother and to the best of its abilities.”
*The test result differs under different testing environment
So that was it, the next thing then was to find out what this button does and try to draw some of my own conclusions. Firstly I took a few cpuid screenshots under basic desktop applications like excel and word. Let’s face it, it’s a simple place to start but with not a lot running what does it do?
Before and after screen shots below:
So the button simply overclocks the FSB from 266 to 308 MHz with a 6 multi, overclocking the cpu under desktop conditions from roughly 1.6 to 1.85GHz, not extreme, but fair play it gives a nice boost when things are getting tough.
Let’s now move onto what this button does when placing both cores under full load with a prime95 small FFT’s stress test.
So what have we got here? A button that on demand overclocks the cpu by 250Mhz under standard desktop conditions, But when things get tough and your either gaming away or maxing the cores out rendering, you get a boost from 2.261 to 2.623GHz. Thats a full 362Mhz overclock along with all the extra memory bandwidth that comes along with it, the extra performance could be the difference of a few frames in some of todays games and that can’t be a bad thing in any laptop.
Finally on the button side of things you’ve got a bluetooth button, a web cam button, wireless button and a programmable button for your favourite apps.
A quick word on the LCD before I go onto benchmarks and alike, the lcd has no dead pixels is crisp and sharp, it scales quite well down resolutions but is noticably blury at lower resolutions. There is a variety of this machine with a 1280x800 screen so there is a choice if you prefer a bigger resolution.
Vista Experience Screenshots
Benchmarks & Gaming Performance
Far Cry 2
Time to see how the GX620 performs at its native resolution of 1680x1050 with the following settings:
Now the DX10 performance, AA performance and performance if I scale down the resolution I am yet to test. I suspect that the DX10 performance of the card won’t be great, I will update later to confirm this but for now I will give you an idea of frames:
Low: 23, Average: 25, high 35
I must say that the above doesn’t sound all that good but after playing for an hour I thought it looked pretty good and played smoothly despite the fps.
CSS
Running CSS at full settings with 2x AA gave pretty good results, on a server with 48 people on maps such as Dust 2, Italy and glass, the machine rarely went lower than 60 fps and generally gave around 80.
Conclusions
I won’t draw a conclusion just yet but let’s say for now that I am suitably impressed with the machine. While typing this however I did find that the keyboard is going to take some getting used to, the ctrl and the function keys at the bottom right of the keyboard are the wrong way around. The “.”, “?” and some other keys are almost half keys, this is to accommodate a number pad to the right of the keyboard but could prove fiddly to hit for touch typists and gamers alike.
My final thought is that if you are looking for a gaming machine at sub £1000 then you can’t go far wrong.
The Machine
Specifications
Intel®Core2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz
(DDR2 800) 4 GB
15.4" (1680x1050)
nVIDIA Geforce 9600M GT, 512MB DDR3 VRAM
320GB SATA (5400RPM)
DVD Super Multi
2.0M Camera
4-in-1 Card Reader, SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro
Built-in Gigabit Ethernet LAN and Modem Module
Built-in 802.11b/g/n WLAN Card / Bluetooth V2.0+EDR
Graphics Card Output (15-pin, D-Sub) X 1
USB2.0 Port X 2
Mic-in Port X 1
Headphone Output X 1
Modem Port X 1
LAN Port X 1
PCI Express Card X 1
eSATA (USB Combo) X 1
HDMI X 1
90W
9 cell Battery
358(L) X 260(D) X 27~31(H)mm
2.7KG
First Impressions
The machine came well packed with an array of extras opening the box you get a MSI backpack which seems fairly well made in black and metallic red, This was not to my personal taste so was given to a colleague in the office. You get a MSI wired gaming mouse, the mouse is in the style of the logitech G-Series with 5 speed variable track at the touch of a button, the different track speeds are indicated by a change in the colour of the LED in the mouse scroll button. 7 weights are also included to put in the mouse to adjust its weight.
Finally you get the machine and battery, the machine is fairly well built with a brushed aluminium finish over most of it. Red plastic around the edges is very red and feels fairly flimsy in places specifically in the canter above the touch buttons (Ill come onto them later),this could let the machine down in the future but only the test of time will tell.
Let’s move onto the touch buttons, from left to right there are four touch buttons for media, previous track, stop, play/pause and next track all of which work in media player and other apps. There is an eco button which changes the laptops LCD and battery mode for games, cinema, office, projector and battery saving mode.
Now let’s move onto the more interesting button, the “Turbo” button at first was a strange one, it didn’t seem to work, until I plugged the machine in. I should have read the instructions really, anyway this was neither here nor there until I went into the instructions, then onto the MSI website. The best description I could find about this button, taken directly from the MSI Site was this:
“With MSI exclusive Turbo Drive Engine Technology, while the GX620 is in AC mode, just by touching the turbo button above the keyboard, you can simultaneously increase the speed of your CPU, also the computer will run smoother and to the best of its abilities.”
*The test result differs under different testing environment
So that was it, the next thing then was to find out what this button does and try to draw some of my own conclusions. Firstly I took a few cpuid screenshots under basic desktop applications like excel and word. Let’s face it, it’s a simple place to start but with not a lot running what does it do?
Before and after screen shots below:
So the button simply overclocks the FSB from 266 to 308 MHz with a 6 multi, overclocking the cpu under desktop conditions from roughly 1.6 to 1.85GHz, not extreme, but fair play it gives a nice boost when things are getting tough.
Let’s now move onto what this button does when placing both cores under full load with a prime95 small FFT’s stress test.
So what have we got here? A button that on demand overclocks the cpu by 250Mhz under standard desktop conditions, But when things get tough and your either gaming away or maxing the cores out rendering, you get a boost from 2.261 to 2.623GHz. Thats a full 362Mhz overclock along with all the extra memory bandwidth that comes along with it, the extra performance could be the difference of a few frames in some of todays games and that can’t be a bad thing in any laptop.
Finally on the button side of things you’ve got a bluetooth button, a web cam button, wireless button and a programmable button for your favourite apps.
A quick word on the LCD before I go onto benchmarks and alike, the lcd has no dead pixels is crisp and sharp, it scales quite well down resolutions but is noticably blury at lower resolutions. There is a variety of this machine with a 1280x800 screen so there is a choice if you prefer a bigger resolution.
Vista Experience Screenshots
Benchmarks & Gaming Performance
Far Cry 2
Time to see how the GX620 performs at its native resolution of 1680x1050 with the following settings:
Now the DX10 performance, AA performance and performance if I scale down the resolution I am yet to test. I suspect that the DX10 performance of the card won’t be great, I will update later to confirm this but for now I will give you an idea of frames:
Low: 23, Average: 25, high 35
I must say that the above doesn’t sound all that good but after playing for an hour I thought it looked pretty good and played smoothly despite the fps.
CSS
Running CSS at full settings with 2x AA gave pretty good results, on a server with 48 people on maps such as Dust 2, Italy and glass, the machine rarely went lower than 60 fps and generally gave around 80.
Conclusions
I won’t draw a conclusion just yet but let’s say for now that I am suitably impressed with the machine. While typing this however I did find that the keyboard is going to take some getting used to, the ctrl and the function keys at the bottom right of the keyboard are the wrong way around. The “.”, “?” and some other keys are almost half keys, this is to accommodate a number pad to the right of the keyboard but could prove fiddly to hit for touch typists and gamers alike.
My final thought is that if you are looking for a gaming machine at sub £1000 then you can’t go far wrong.
