This is the first mobile chip from nVidia’s new range, and it’s a monster. It’s got 1344 stream processors clocked at 941 MHz, with a GPU Boost peak of 967 MHz. Those are faster clocks than any top-end mobile card in last year’s nVidia range. MSI has doubled the standard 3 GB of GDDR5 memory, and it’s now clocked to 1250 MHz. That’s a mighty specification, and it scarcely matters that this chip uses last year’s Kepler architecture – it still battered every benchmark test we threw at it. We loaded Stalker’s toughest Ultra settings at full-HD screen resolution, and the MSI averaged 115 fps. That’s better than almost every laptop we’ve tested, and on a par with the more expensive Alienware 17 with its nVidia GTX 780M. The MSI handled recent games, too. We tested Battlefield 4, Batman: Arkham Origins and Bioshock Infinite at their toughest settings and full-HD, and the three titles averaged 34, 52 and 86 fps. See all laptop reviews. The Core i7-4800MQ processor has four 2.7 GHz Hyper-Threaded cores, and it also impressed in general system speed. In PCMark 7 it scored 6222 points, which is ahead of almost every rival – only the Alienware 17, with the same chip, was marginally faster. The 128 GB Toshiba SSD returned an excellent sequential read speed of 497 MB/s, but its write pace of 271 MB/s was mediocre. We wish the SSD was bigger, but at least it’s backed up with a 1 TB hard disk. MSI also includes 8 GB of memory, Killer-branded gigabit ethernet, Killer’s 2×2 MIMO dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, and a DVD writer – but no Blu-ray compatibility. The 17in matt screen has a 1920 x 1080 resolution and is capable of particularly bright output: its 343 cd/m2 brightness is about the highest we’ve seen on a laptop, beating the Alienware 14’s 325 cd/m2 result. Both machines had the same 0.29 cd/m2 black level, but the MSI had better overall contrast. The TN panel still makes games look great, but it’s not without fault. The matt layer adds grain, and the Delta E of 7.2 is not great. And while black levels are commendably deep, it struggled to distinguish between subtly different shades. Viewing angles weren’t good either. The GT70 is huge: 59 mm thick with its little rubber feet included, and weighs 3.9 kg, with another 500 g for its power brick. That’s more than both Alienwares, but the MSI puts its weight to good use with great build quality – there’s barely any give in the wrist-rest and screen, and the base is stronger. It’s got the typically loud design we expect from gaming machines, with flashing status lights, dramatic angles, big vents and a mixture of brushed aluminium and glossy plastic. The design isn’t as coherent as the matt, colour-coordinated Alienwares, but it makes a statement. The keyboard comes from SteelSeries, and it’s good: the Scrabble-tile keys are spaced further apart than those on the Alienwares, and they’ve got a consistent action that withstands frantic gameplay. There’s a numberpad, too. The trackpad’s buttons are good – their clicky action is reminiscent of gaming mice – but the pad itself is a little too small. Gaming laptops don’t usually have good battery life, and that’s the case here. We looped streaming video from BBC iPlayer and the MSI lasted just 2 hours 53 minutes – and this figure dropped to little over an hour during games. The MSI wasn’t quiet, either, with a fan that ramping up in demanding games. Its noticeable whir proved distracting unless we had the GT70’s loud, punchy, well-balanced speakers playing at high volume – we’d use headphones instead.
