iBuyPower Battalion M1771 (MSI GS70) Gaming Notebook Review
by Dustin Sklavos on December 30, 2013 2:45 PM ESTWhile synthetics are good for a reality check, the iBuyPower Battalion M1771's reason for being is gaming. The GeForce GTX 765M is capable of producing performance that's at least, in synthetics, not too far removed from last generation's second best, the GTX 675MX.
Since this is a higher end gaming system I'm omitting the Value benchmarks, but you can still find them in Bench for comparison's sake.
Performance is basically where it should be, but it's interesting to see where bottlenecks shift depending on the game. The GTX 765M's primary weakness is its 128-bit memory bus; even with 4GHz GDDR5, the GPU is still somewhat starved for memory bandwidth. So while the 765M can produce a stellar performance in synthetics against the GTX 675MX and GTX 580M, once that memory bandwidth limitation kicks in it starts to tumble.
Probably owing to differences in drivers, performance jumps around the map a bit. For some reason, performance in StarCraft II takes a bath, but everything else is about where it should be. 1080p with AA (or in the case of Tomb Raider, TressFX) is a bit too much for the limited memory bandwidth of the 765M, but if you're willing to kill the AA it should edge performance up into playable territory. That excludes Metro: Last Light, which beats up on the GTX 765M in general.
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DanNeely - Tuesday, December 31, 2013 - link
No. Except for anything they buy out of pocket or what is donated to create testbeds its mostly loaners so that the manufacture can get a half dozen reviews out of a single piece of hardware.Kristian Vättö - Wednesday, January 1, 2014 - link
It depends on the review item, publication and company/region. Typically expensive items like notebooks and smartphones have to be sent back but I've only had to send back two or three SSDs and that's because I've dealt with companies' European offices (they have more limited marketing budgets).johnxfire - Wednesday, January 1, 2014 - link
Will we we ever get a review on the W230ST? Its probably my favorite piece of hardware ever, coming from my NP8150 to that has been an amazing move. It saddens me that Clevo resellers arent as popular as they ought to be.hfm - Thursday, January 2, 2014 - link
I seem to recall all the reviews saying it sounded like a jet engine during gameplay. One of these days we'll get a nice thin and like gaming laptop (4-6 lb depending on size) .. I think the 14" around 4-4.5 and 15-17 maxing around 5.75-6lb are good spots..hfm - Thursday, January 2, 2014 - link
I meant to say something these sizes and weight that don't sound like they are about to take off during gaming..Hubszo - Thursday, January 9, 2014 - link
You're pointing lack of 802.11ac connectivity and it sounds pretty logical considering today's WiFi development. But what surprise me the most that Anandtech has so far not taken proper focus on the widespread issues (some even say about law suit) regarding the most common 802.11ac solution in the form of Intel AC 7260 (specially if utilized under Windows 8.1). It is now several months with this unsolved problem where signal and connection drop-outs are making customers furious and disappointed with Intel's lack of proper action. Personally I own MS-1757 (MSI GT70) with the mentioned WiFi card and I have unfortunately joined huge group of unhappy users (66 sides of posts on Intel's forum speaks for itself) regardless that entire machine pleases me a lot..Ananadtech always was (and still is) my favorite source of IT info, pointing pitilessly bugs, design flaws and "scams" but I just don't understand why is so little attention here on this subject where its negative impact on WiFi experience is so obvious.
Innokentij - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
Why dont you check for throttling issues when you review laptop gaming? 1 hour of gaming with fraps running to check is a must if you want to review a gaming notebook.