Value is defined by being the best at a given price, and MSI is constantly pushing its value message into motherboard, graphics card and even complete notebook markets. We all like a good value story, and a value saga is certain to get even more of our attention. You see, today’s GT60 2PC started its life as the previous generation GT60 2OC, and look at how far it’s come.

OK, maybe looking isn’t enough. The skinny on this one is that MSI took its $1400 mid-sized gaming notebook and upgraded the CPU from Intel’s Core i7-4700MQ to the current Core i7-4800MQ, and from Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 770M to its newer GeForce GTX 870M, without increasing the price. Its competitors occasionally make similar moves, so that’s par for the course. What really makes this notebook special is that buyers get MSI’s Dominator upgrade without the extra cost you would have paid previously. And that means that when you finally get the GT60 2PC Dominator home, you can connect three external monitors using Nvidia's Surround technology for a more desktop-like experience.

Other new features are part of the GeForce driver package, including Nvidia's Battery Boost frequency-based FPS limiter, ShadowPlay game video capature, a Twitch streaming port for ShadowPlay, and GameStream mode to allow your notebook’s more powerful hardware to serve an Nvidia Shield handheld console. While most of these features could also improve the previous GeForce GTX 770M, Battery Boost is available only with current hardware.
| MSI "Dominator-424" GT60-2PC-424US Component List | |
|---|---|
| Platform | MS-16F4: Intel FCPGA946, HM87 Express, MXM-3 Discrete Graphics |
| CPU | Core i7-4800MQ (Haswell), 2.7 - 3.7 GHz, 6 MB shared L3 cache, 47 W TDP |
| RAM | Kingston MSI16D3LS1KBG/8G (1 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 SO-DIMM, CL11 |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 870M: 941-967 MHz, 3 GB GDDR5-5000 |
| Display | 15.6" FHD 16:9 anti-glare LED backlight LCD, 1920X1080 |
| Webcam | Bison NB Pro 720p webcam |
| Audio | Realtek ALC892 with Creative Sound Blaster Cinema |
| Security | Kensington Security Slot |
| Storage | |
| Hard Drive | HGST Travelstar 7K1000 HTS721010A9E630: 1 TB, SATA 6Gb/s, 32 MB cache |
| Optical Drive | HLDS 8x slim internal DVD Burner model GT90N |
| Media Drive | RTS5227 SD/SDHC/SDXC flash media interface |
| Networking | |
| Wireless LAN | Killer Wireless-N 1202 300 Mb/s (2x2) a/b/g/n Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Combo |
| Wireless PAN | Integrated Bluetooth 4.0 Transceiver on Wireless Combo Card |
| Gigabit Network | Killer E2200 10/100/1000 Mb/s Ethernet |
| IEEE-1394 | None |
| Telephony | None |
| Peripheral Interfaces | |
| USB | 1 x USB 2.0, 3 x USB 3.0 |
| Expansion Card | Not Available |
| HDD | 1x eSATA / USB 3.0 combo port |
| Audio | Headphone, Microphone, Digital Out, Analog In |
| Video | 2 x Mini DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI-I |
| Power & Weight | |
| AC Adapter | 180 W Power Brick, 100-240 V AC to 19.5 V DC |
| Battery | 11.1 V, 7800 mAh (87 Wh) Single |
| Weight | Notebook 6.9 lbs, AC Adapter 1.9 lbs, Total 8.8 pounds |
| Software | |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8.1, OEM |
| Service | |
| Warranty | Two years labor, Two years parts |
| Price | $1400 |
MSI offers its GT60 2PC Dominator in various flavors for different markets. Called the “Dominator-424” by some of MSI’s resellers, the GT60-2PC-424US we're testing includes a capacious 1 TB hard drive, but no SSD. And it only comes with one 8 GB memory module.
The GT60 chassis doesn't change much for the current generation of hardware. In fact, it doesn't change at all if you're comparing the Dominator version of the previous model. Buyers still get a bunch of black-anodized aluminum to gaze upon.

The big change came with last year’s Dominator update, which, like today’s Dominator-based build, adds two mini-DisplayPort connectors. In conjunction with on-board HDMI and two adapters, we were able to run our benchmarks across three HDMI/VGA-equipped monitors using Nvidia's Surround technology.

If not for the brushed-aluminum top panel and a few stickers on the palm rest, it would even be tough to tell the GT60 chassis apart from the previously-reviewed GX60. We did get a lighted image of its SteelSeries keyboard this time, though.

Other main features include three USB 3.0 ports and a card slot on the left edge, plus a USB 2.0 port and four audio jacks on the right edge. Audio line-in and line-out, plus headphones and an external microphone, are all supported simultaneously.

The included optical drive on this unit is an 8x DVD burner by HLDS, though MSI doesn’t specify the manufacturer in its product literature.

The GT60 2PC Dominator ships with mounting hardware for a second hard drive, documentation, a utility CD, a dismounted battery, AC/DC adapter, and power cord. The external brick is fairly large at 6.6” long, 3.3” wide, and 1.6” thick. Moreover, it contributes 1.9 pounds to a combined 8.8 pounds of travel weight.

The included 1 TB hard drive has around 15 GB of separate partitions for Windows recovery. If you’d like to do a clean install, we recommend backing up the factory installation first.

If you’d like to replace, upgrade, or add storage to complement that drive, you’ll need to punch a hole in the tamper-resistant warranty sticker.

Inside, you’ll find two large sinks, a hard drive, an empty 2.5” bay, and two empty DIMM slots. What you won’t find is the mSATA-based RAID adapter featured so prominently in our GX60 review, as this specific GT60 model focuses its entire budget on making your programs run fast, rather than load quickly.
A third empty memory slot is located beneath the keyboard.

The graphics sink comes out first, followed by the CPU sink. Both of these parts are replaceable, with the GeForce GTX 870M using the same MXM 3.0b format as the one in GeForce GTX 880M, 870M, And 860M: Mobile GPUs, Tested.
MSI GX60 Review: Radeon HD 7970M In A $1,200 Notebook! set the standard for discussing MSI’s latest notebook features, but it doesn't leave much for me to add, considering the GT60 is only a slight variation. I really wanted to focus on the differences (internal components) and anything that Stephen might have left out.


There is, for example, MSI’s Steel Series engine. This software allows users to set macros and control lighting colors in three zones.

MSI also includes a notebook-optimized version of its system management software, called Dragon Gaming Center. From here, we find a few monitoring utilities and several shortcuts, including one for a six-month subscription to XSplit Gamecaster (an approximate $30 value).

MSI also adds a SoundBlaster Cinema license to the Realtek audio codec, allowing users to manipulate positional audio, tone, and fidelity to suit their application.

Since the GT60 2PC Dominator has both Killer NIC and Killer Wireless controllers, both are found in an MSI-branded version of its packet-prioritization software.
| Test Hardware Configurations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| MSI GT60-2PC-424US | MSI GT60-2OC-022US | SBM $750 Gaming PC | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-4800MQ, 2.7 - 3.7 GHz | Intel Core i7-4700MQ, 2.4 - 3.4 GHz | Intel Core i3-4130: 3.40 GHz, Two Physical Cores |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 870M: 941-967 MHz, 3 GB GDDR5-5000 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 770M: 706-797 MHz, 3 GB GDDR5-4008 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 770: 1098 MHz, GDDR5-7010 (O/C: 1283 MHz, GDDR5-7610) |
| Memory | 8 GB Kingston DDR3-1600 CAS 11-11-11-28 (single-channel) | 8 GB Kingston DDR3-1600 CAS 11-11-11-28 (single-channel) | 8 GB Adata DDR3-1600 CAS 9-9-9-24 (dual-channel) |
| Motherboard | MS-16F4: Intel FCPGA946, HM87 Express | MS-16F4: Intel FCPGA946, HM87 Express | Asus H81M-K: LGA 1150, Intel H81 Express |
| Case | MSI GT60 | MSI GT60 | Rosewill Line-M |
| CPU Cooler | MSI GT60 | MSI GT60 | Intel Core i3 boxed cooler |
| Hard Drive | HGST HTS721010A9E630: 1 TB, 7200 RPM, 32 MB cache | HGST HTS721010A9E630: 1 TB, 7200 RPM, 32 MB cache | Western Digital WD10EZEX: 1 TB, 7200 RPM, 64 MB cache |
| Power | Delta ADP-180NB: 180 W External | Delta ADP-180NB: 180 W External | Rosewill Capstone-450-M: 450 W Semi-Modular, 80 PLUS Gold |
| Software | |||
| OS | Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 | Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 | Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 |
| Graphics | Nvidia ForceWare 337.5 WHQL | Nvidia ForceWare 337.5 WHQL | Nvidia ForceWare 332.21 WHQL |
| Chipset | Intel INF 9.4.0.1023 | Intel INF 9.4.0.1023 | Intel INF 9.4.0.1017 |
We're comparing the GT60-2PC Dominator to its most closely-matched predecessor in both hardware and price. Intel’s Core i7-4800MQ replaces its earlier Core i7-4700MQ, and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 870M replaces the GeForce GTX 770M. Both models use the same power supply, and both are equipped with the same storage and memory.
Since these are gaming-oriented notebooks, we decided to throw in some tougher titles compared to previous models. But the relatively high-end CPUs also open these up to desktop-like work environments, allowing owners to work and play from the same machine. Our System Builder Marathon benchmark suite targets the same kind of performance flexibility, and using it allows me to include one of our previously-tested machines as another point of reference.
| Benchmark Configuration | |
|---|---|
| 3D Games | |
| Battlefield 4 | Version 1.0.0.1, DirectX 11, 100-sec. Fraps "Tashgar" Test Set 1: High Quality Preset, No AA, 4X AF, SSAO Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 4X MSAA, 16X AF, HBAO |
| Grid 2 | Steam Version, In-Game Test Test Set 1: High Quality Preset, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 8x AA |
| Metro: Last Light | Steam version, Built-In Benchmark, "Frontline" Scene Test Set 1: DX11, Med Quality, 4x AF, Low Blur, No SSAA, No Tesselation, No PhysX Test Set 2: DX11, High Quality, 16x AF, Normal Blur, SSAA, Tesselation Normal, No PhysX |
| Far Cry 3 | V. 1.04, DirectX 11, 50-sec. FRAPS "Amanaki Outpost" Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA, Standard ATC., SSAO Test Set 2: Ultra Quality, 4x MSAA, Enhanced ATC, HDAO |
| Adobe Creative Suite | |
| Adobe After Effects CC | Version 12.0.0.404: Create Video which includes 3 Streams, 210 Frames, Render Multiple Frames Simultaneosly |
| Adobe Photoshop CC | Version 14.0 x64: Filter 15.7 MB TIF Image: Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates |
| Adobe Premeire Pro CC | Version 7.0.0 (342), 6.61 GB MXF Project to H.264 to H.264 Blu-ray, Output 1920x1080, Maximum Quality |
| Audio/Video Encoding | |
| iTunes | Version 11.0.4.4 x64: Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 minutes, default AAC format |
| LAME MP3 | Version 3.98.3: Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.99: Video from Canon Eos 7D (1920x1080, 25 FPS) 1 Minutes 22 Seconds Audio: PCM-S16, 48,000 Hz, two-channel, to Video: AVC1 Audio: AAC (High Profile) |
| TotalCode Studio 2.5 | Version: 2.5.0.10677: MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, two-channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV |
| Productivity | |
| ABBYY FineReader | Version 10.0.102.95: Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages |
| Adobe Acrobat 11 | Version 11.0.0.379: Print PDF from 115 Page PowerPoint, 128-bit RC4 Encryption |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 | Version 15.0 x64: Space Flyby Mentalray, 248 Frames, 1440x1080 |
| Blender | Version: 2.68A, Cycles Engine, Syntax blender -b thg.blend -f 1, 1920x1080, 8x Anti-Aliasing, Render THG.blend frame 1 |
| Visual Studio 2010 | Version 10.0, Compile Google Chrome, Scripted |
| File Compression | |
| WinZip | Version 18.0 Pro: THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to ZIP, command line switches "-a -ez -p -r" |
| WinRAR | Version 5.0: THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to RAR, command line switches "winrar a -r -m3" |
| 7-Zip | Version 9.30 alpha (64-bit): THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5" |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| 3DMark 11 | Version: 1.0.5.0, Benchmark Only |
| 3DMark Professional | Version: 1.2.250.0 (64-bit), Fire Strike Benchmark |
| PCMark 8 | Version: 1.0.0 x64, Full Test |
| SiSoftware Sandra | Version 2014.02.20.10, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / Multimedia / Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth Benchmarks |
Though this appears to be a direct hardware comparison, we really wanted to put Nvidia’s new Battery Boost feature to the test. That means each notebook gets tested twice, once at full performance (plugged in) and once again at reduced performance (unplugged).

3DMark shows a remarkable thing in the GeForce GTX 870M’s relatively small decline in graphics performance between our plugged-in and unplugged runs. Its Battery Boost technology allows continuously variable frequency, rather than the fixed power-reduction programming of its predecessor.

PCMark primarily shows the benefit of Intel’s newer CPU, and appears to apply that benefit to the hard drive as well as other tests.
Sandra tells us much more about individual component performance without necessarily indicating how those differences impact our real-world benchmarks. We do generate the theoretical information to help with our performance analysis, though.

The desktop’s cheap dual-core processor lags far behind in Sandra's Arithmetic module, so it's possible that the notebooks will demonstrate better than expected value in threaded metrics.

Despite fewer cores, the AES-accelerated Encoding/Decoding test looks a lot faster on the $750 System Builder Marathon configuration. That's because Paul Henningsen is meticulous about fully utilizing a platform's features, one of which is a dual-channel memory controller. MSI isn't as careful about this, so it's single DDR3 DIMM cannot feed data to the processor quickly enough. As a consequence of that bandwidth shortage, a faster Core i7-4800MQ barely outpaces the previous -4700MQ.

And here we see the direct correlation. Memory bandwidth is the Achilles heel of MSI’s value-seeking shortcuts. Choosing a single module doesn’t make performance sense in a system that holds four SO-DIMMs and supports dual-channel mode.
Battlefield 4 shows the enormous power of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 870M as the GT60 2PC pushes playable frame rates through 5760x1080 at the game’s medium-quality defaults. It also shows the company's new approach to power, which modulates GPU clock to maintain a constant frame rate (the GeForce Experience software lets you specify a target), rather than burning power on higher performance. Or does it?

The problem with crediting Battery Boost for the 870’s locked-in 30 FPS on battery power is that this appears to be the same point the GeForce GTX 770, left to its own devices, runs out of steam. Since Nvidia doesn't enable Battery Boost on the 770, we need to look at different benchmark settings to quantify Battery Boost’s advantage.

The GT60 2PC’s GeForce GTX 870M can’t push playable performance to a trio of monitors at Battlefield 4’s Ultra defaults, but it does show noticeably higher frame rates than the GT60 2OC’s GeForce GTX 770 at 1920x1080.

A coincidental memory bottleneck again occurs when we look at framerate over time. But this time, it’s the plugged-in GeForce GTX 770M matching the unplugged 870M. We’re getting closer to proof-of-concept, but need yet another set of tests to prove that Battery Boost really works.

The GeForce GTX 870M-powered GT60 2PC Dominator tears through Arma 3’s standard-quality preset with performance to spare, even keeping up with our gaming desktop at 4800x900. It then drops to GeForce Experience's default 30 FPS at all test resolutions when we unplug it.

Because the newer notebook’s Battery Boost technology works to maintain playable frame rates at the lowest possible power consumption, the older unit achieves a higher framerate at 1920x1080.

The GeForce GTX 770M chokes at Arma 3’s Ultra preset and 1920x1080, while the GeForce GTX 870M struggles at less than 30 FPS. Let’s take a closer look to see what Battery Boost is doing.

The GT60 2PC attempts to maintain 30 FPS by keeping its GPU at maximum performance in this strenuous test, even after unplugging the unit. It unfortunately loses that battle, though a 24 FPS minimum might be playable.

Notice also that, even when it’s plugged in, the GT60 2OC’s GeForce GTX 770M can’t keep up with the unplugged GT60 2PC’s GeForce GTX 870M. Battery Boost is doing its job, even when the GPU appears slightly insufficient.
Nvidia's GeForce GTX 870 ducks in just under 30 FPS at 4800x900, with or without Battery Boost enabled. At lower resolutions, the technology effectively modulates performance to save power when the notebook is unplugged. At higher resolutions, the framerates are too low to play anyway. Then again, nobody would bother to plug in three external monitors without also connecting the notebook’s power adapter.

That’s why we’re showing framerate-over-time at a resolution gamers will use while traveling. At 1920x1080, the GT60 2PC’s GeForce GTX 870M is perfectly content to maintain 30 FPS by jumping from low-power to high-frequency settings as needed.

Unfortunately, Far Cry 3’s Ultra Quality preset pushes the graphics load beyond where Battery Boost can help. With framerates generally under 30, you need a faster GPU to crank up the details this high.

Unable to maintain 30 FPS at 1920x1080, even plugged into the wall, the only thing we can say with certainty is that the new notebook pushes higher unplayable frame rates compared to the one it replaces.

These are settings that demand desktop hardware.
Grid 2’s built-in benchmark doesn’t generate its own framerate-over-time chart, so we’re treating it separately from the other gaming benchmarks.

Since we’ve already proven the usefulness of Battery Boost in maintaining playable performance at power-saving clock rates, we'll simply point out that it pegs 30 FPS at all four of our test resolutions in the GeForce GTX 870M-equipped, battery-powered MSI GT60 2PC Dominator.

Of course, Battery Boost can’t make the GPU perform beyond its peak, so we see similar performance at 5760x1080 using the Ultra preset on the plugged-in and unplugged GT60 configurations. Not that anyone would really take the time to plug in three monitors without taking the time to plug in the notebook’s power adapter as well...
Interestingly, we don't lose any performance in iTunes after unplugging the GT60 2PC. Then again, the GT60 2OC lost only a second, suggesting no throttling is going on as a result of switching to battery power.

LAME encoding shows the same phenomenon in the GT60 2PC, even though the GT60 2OC did appear five seconds slower away from an AC power source.

HandBrake indicates that there's very little difference between the Core i7-4800MQ and Core i7-4700MQ, even though the newer CPU should offer a notably higher base clock rate with all four of its cores active.

TotalCode Studio shows the GT60 2PC’s newer CPU enabling a more noticeable benefit.

Adobe After Effects strangely shows the unplugged GT60 2PC performing more-slowly than the unplugged GT60 2OC. Several retests confirmed this finding.

We didn’t expect to see any large changes attributable to OpenCL support moving from the GeForce GTX 770M to the GTX 870M. But Photoshop has a stronger-than-expected preference for the GT60 2PC’s newer graphics module.

The GT60 2PC edges out the 2OC model it replaces in Premiere Pro CS6.

Acrobat is single-threaded, so its performance reflects clock rate and IPC. A single core of the new mobile CPU matches a single core of the cheap desktop CPU.

Unless you spend most of your work life away from the office, you’re probably not going to run 3ds Max on a notebook. Then again, some buyers are mobile as part of their professional lives and can't afford to put up with an Ultrabook's weaker processor. Even though gaming dominates this laptop's marketing focus, MSI can satisfy more workstation-oriented customers, too.

Proof of the GT60 2PC’s multi-faceted performance can easily be seen in 3ds Max, where it handily beats a run-of-the-mill gaming desktop.

Blender also loves the quad-core CPU MSI is using, though the GT60 2OC’s older model is similarly impressive.

ABBYY FineReader takes the largest boost we’ve yet seen out of the GT60 2PC’s newer host processor. Remembering that both notebooks have the same RAM and hard drive, that’s quite a feat!

We again see the new notebook’s noteworthy advantage in Visual Studio’s compilation time for Google Chrome.
7-Zip shows an anomalous reading for the unplugged GT60 2OC, but the difference is so small that it'll get averaged out in our overall performance evaluation.

The GT60 2PC is slightly faster in WinRAR, but not by enough to convince owners of the GT60 2OC to upgrade.

WinZip’s “EZ” command is the second occasion where we’ve seen the old notebook outperform the new when on battery power. Overall, things are looking good for the new unit.

Our power tests require the notebook be plugged in, though that shouldn’t dissuade anyone who might like to calculate unplugged energy draw based on the battery’s watt-hour rating. Certainly the higher-clocked parts in the newer machine need a bit of extra juice to operate at full performance.

Battery Boost’s approach to power savings is to give you all the performance you need to maintain a playable frame rate, and nothing more. That means if your settings are conservative enough to allow ultra-high frame rates while plugged into the wall, the software can drastically reduce GPU frequency (and power consumption) while unplugged to further extend battery life compared to previous, percent-based power reduction methods.

Reading and Working refer to PCMark 8’s benchmarks, which automatically exit at 20% battery life and thus require recalculation to reach 5%. The Viewing figure comes from Windows Media Player using a 720p, H.264-encoded video.
The Gaming test requires some additional explanation. In order to create a looping, repeatable workload, I started with 3DMark 11's first test and ran until the systems shut off. Here's the thing, though: because 3DMark is a synthetic metric designed to tax graphics hardware, Battery Boost is likely given no opportunity to scale back clock rates, and thus appears to have no effect. Instead, we see the more powerful host and graphics processors exact a hit to battery life. Once we put all of the data together and realized that this wouldn't reflect real-world gaming, we went back to create a more applicable workload.

Metro: Last Light makes for an ideal follow-up because it can be looped and its settings are highly tunable. When I crank up the detail settings to bring average framerate down (to around 34 FPS with the power adapter plugged in), the results I recorded in 3DMark are largely repeated. I can drop the graphics quality, however, generating a much lighter load, and increase battery life by an astounding 96%.
That still doesn't reach the previous machine's battery life, though, since that older system sports less powerful hardware.
Perhaps the biggest issue with this test is that Metro: Last Light's most mainstream DirectX 11 settings are still quite taxing to a mobile GPU. Plugged in, I was only seeing 90 FPS at my entry-level combination of options. But as stressful as Metro appears to be, we've seen Battlefield 4 and Far Cry 3 run at similar performance levels using their medium quality settings.
We're not going to strike off in search of a modern game that generates hundreds of frames per second at ultra-low detail levels simply to validate the potential gains of Battery Boost. Instead, we'll note that the technology's best application is as a performance normalizer when you're away from a wall socket, where battery life can be extended without pushing frame rates you don't need. Fixed-frequency power-saving mode would have caused minimum framerates to drop below playable performance levels, as shown by the GeForce GTX 770M in the Battlefield 4 line graphs a few pages ago.

Although Nvidia's software-based technology was designed to limit performance in exchange for greater battery life, letting the hardware run at full speed shows that MSI's newer notebook can often be less efficient than its predecessor. There's simply no free lunch. None of the components benefit from more advanced manufacturing technology, and the ones that affect performance are operated at higher clock rates to move the needle.
If you do choose not to stress the hardware when running off the battery, you’ll be rewarded with over six hours of reading and over five hours of movie viewing. Those are the two applications where the GT60 2PC shines, and they’re also the two activities you'll most likely engage in as you sit on an airplane.
Even before considering the added support for Nvidia's Surround technology, MSI’s GT60 2PC Dominator has all the performance needed to make it the perfect replacement for last-year’s GT60 2OC. The thing is that, in the month we've had this notebook, preparing its review, upgrading to this system from MSI's previous-gen offering is no longer free. The older version dropped $100 at the boutique builder that still carries it.
This means, at least for now, you can save a few bucks on last year's configuration. Of course, we don't expect it to last, and we're certain that once it sells out, it'll be gone for good. And that'll leave us with the GT60 2PC.

Would you even want to spend $100 less, though? No, actually. Even after the old system's price drop, the new model's internal components offer a large-enough performance increase to justify a higher cost. And the situation gets even better when you fold Surround support into the equation. Nvidia's GeForce GTX 870M is fast enough to play a great many taxing games at medium quality settings and a 5760x1080 resolution. That’s a big accomplishment for a notebook that weighs less than nine pounds including the power adapter.
Yet, in spite of its Battery Boost technology, you can't tap into all of that extra performance without sacrificing battery life. You can choose between giving up game detail, letting Nvidia's new feature bring frame rates down to a more modulated target for the sake of longer run time away from the wall, or play at more taxing levels, cutting into Battery Boost's available headroom. At least you're given a choice. Moreover, Battery Boost's frame rate target is configurable. And of course, because it's intimately tied to GeForce Experience, you can always lean on that software to configure your game settings for you.
Just remember: the technology works best in games that have high average, but low minimum frame rates, giving you full GPU power only when the game needs it and scaling back when the extra power isn’t needed. The tough choice you'll need to make will be whether to use high-quality settings for an hour of game time or lower details for two hours.
But the best part about the GT60 2PC Dominator is what it can do for you when you’re not gaming. For instance, I could write up all of my Computex coverage on the way back from Taiwan, catch a few hours of sleep, plug back into the wall when I get back, and game across three monitors at home. All of that from one machine.
While the GT60 2PC isn't fast enough to justify upgrading from the GT60 2OC (for those of you who already own that laptop), I can heartily recommend MSI's updated platform to anyone previously considering last year's configuration and still on the fence.
MSI doesn't escape my judgement unscathed, though. Two problems carry over from the GT60-2OC-022US. First is the single DIMM that seriously cuts back on memory bandwidth. This shouldn't be an issue. The chassis supports up to four DIMMs, so it'd be easy to use two 4 GB modules to maximize throughput. Second, the 1 TB mechanical hard drive feels amazingly slow after spending as much time as I do with SSDs. Fixing either shortcoming on your own would require opening the chassis and violating MSI's warranty.
For those reasons, I can only recommend purchasing the GT60 configured more optimally from a boutique builder that'll apply its own warranty to the system. MSI could earn more enthusiastic approval from us by finishing the GT60 2PC the way a Tom's Hardware reader would want it. Value-oriented or not, nobody wants to make noticeable compromises over trivial expenses.



