MSI GT627: Bringing Balance to the Force?
by Jarred Walton on April 29, 2009 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Power Requirements
Power requirements with a laptop plugged in don't necessarily reflect power requirements when a laptop is on battery power. In particular, high-end GPUs run at lower maximum clock speeds when using the battery. Keep this in mind when looking at the following numbers. We test under idle conditions, with a 100% load placed on the CPU via Folding@Home SMP, and finally at maximum load by running FAH SMP at the same time as we loop 3DMark06 (at the native LCD resolution).
Our power measurements are with the LCD at maximum brightness, which isn't necessarily a fair way of doing things as some LCDs are much brighter than others are. Unfortunately, we don't have most of the laptops around to retest. The MSI GT627 only uses 1W more power running at maximum brightness, however, which represents an increase in power draw of just 4%. On the other hand the Dell Studio XPS 16 only uses 9W (33%) more power at maximum brightness. The other interesting thing to look at is power requirements when the CPU is overclocked. Since it's extremely simple to enable/disable overclocking (press the Turbo button), we only recommend it when you're doing something that's CPU intensive. In such situations, overclocking increases power requirements by 10-11W. You definitely wouldn't want to overclock the system when you're running on battery power!
In terms of overall power requirements, the 15.4" chassis helps MSI to provide reasonable gaming performance without using substantially more power than some non-gaming (i.e. GeForce 8600M or lower GPU) laptops. Looking at battery life and performance, the MSI GT627 would be a far better choice than laptops like the HP dv5t or Gateway M152-XL. Either buy a laptop that offers noticeably better battery life and lower performance, or jump to the MSI GT627. Graphics chips like the GeForce 8600M/9500M and Mobility Radeon 3650 just seem to use too much power and offer too little performance in return.
Noise Levels
We also ran noise testing using an SPL meter at 24" under the same conditions as our power tests.
Idle noise levels aren't the best, but otherwise the GT627 does quite well in this test. Also interesting to note is that overclocking didn't affect idle noise levels, but it did add over 3dB to the CPU and maximum load results.
Temperatures
We didn't create any charts, but we wanted to give a quick rundown of the temperatures you might expect from the GT627. We placed a maximum load on the system for 60 minutes (looping 3DMark06) and then measured temperatures, so these results are something of a worst-case scenario. However, the testing environment was only 67°F, so in warmer conditions the notebook will likely run a bit warmer. Also note that the notebook was sitting on a hard, flat surface - you can use it on your lap, but if you block the ventilation slats temperatures may also increase.
We measured temperatures of up to 50°C at the exhaust, which is by far the hottest spot on the chassis. Temperatures on the bottom of the laptop range from 24° to 41°, with most of the bottom measuring around 35°C. The keyboard and palm rest aren't quite as hot, ranging from 25° to 33°C with most of the keyboard staying under 30°. Compared to the Gateway P-7808u, a few areas are slightly hotter but overall the difference is less than a couple degrees. The combination of slightly lower performing parts with a smaller 15.4" chassis works well.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
Anand tested the MacBooks - he's the Mac person around here - and outside of battery life there really aren't any tests we can run on the Macs without installing Vista. As mentioned in the past, MacBooks running Vista also have battery life problems (they get about half the battery life they achieve under OS X). So why are they in where they excel? I thought it would be obvious: we want the Windows vendors to catch up to Apple, whatever it takes. If Apple can do it with a certain set of components, others can do the same thing.There's little point in installing Vista on a MacBook just to run all these tests. Frankly, you can look at the specs of a notebook and generally guess within a few percent how it will perform. A MacBook with a P8400 CPU is going to be about the same as a Vista laptop with the same CPU.
IlllI - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
i like the laptop display quality tests, would it be possible to also test the quality of the macbook display and post the results?JarredWalton - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
If I can get Anand to part with one of his MacBooks for a week or two.... :-D (He's in North Carolina; I'm in Washington. We typically see each other maybe a couple days a year.)Hulk - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
I agree with you 100%. We need quality displays on laptops!Thank you for pushing this issue.
andrezunido - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
Nice review, seems like a well rounded notebook for the price but I wouldn't mind paying a little extra 100$-200$ for a decent screen I mean its not even LED backlit.I mostly use my laptop for programming work and the screen (apart from battery life - I like the freedom of working anywhere) is a major concern for me, the manufacturers tend to neglect its importance making it a premium/luxury of top of the range laptops (i.e. Apple's macbook pro 15 and 17 - this later being the only with matte option, Asus U2, Dell), all being over the ~2000$ mark.
Anyway, nice, balanced feature set (the overclock button is a nice touch), might consider buying one given its competitive price to do some gaming.
Hrel - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
The Macs start at $2K!!! At least with PC you get choices, and more customization and better compatibility. Also anandtech did a review of a laptop not too long ago with the best laptop screen they'd ever seen; pretty sure it was from dell.niva - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
Well I personally think the 32 bit vista is a big no-no at this stage. I don't care if some apps still have problems working under 64 bit vista, I want to use the extra gig of ram and I want to be able to upgrade the RAM and use it w/o having to swipe the OS.Does MS offer a free upgrade of 32 bit vista to 64 bit vista on machines like this one? Or does one have to fork out the cost for the 64 bit OS?
Lord 666 - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
I received a free copy of Vista Ultimate last year at a Microsoft "Heros Happen Here" event. Tried to get the 64bit disc for it but was told by MS the SKU I have is not entitled for 64bit media.Judging by that alone, I highly doubt MS will offer 64bit upgrades in the future as they did with XP in 2005. Their 64bit coming out party really is Windows 7.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
I had a desktop that came with Vista 32-bit installed, and at some point the installation became corrupted. Just for kicks, I decided to try installing Vista 64-bit instead, using the RTM DVD. That worked fine with the code on the box. I don't know if that would work in other instances, though.IlllI - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
maybe one day you can review one of these http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9050...">http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp...&typ... or http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9173...">http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp...&typ...looks like they are the same except one uses a P7450 and the other a P8400.
either seem to be very similar to the msi, except the asus comes with 512mb on the gs as opposed to 1gb with the msi. also as you can see the asus is a tad cheaper.