MSI GP70-2PE ‘Leopard’ Gaming Notebook Review

Introduction Running off the tail end of our look at MSI's GS6 'Ghost Pro' gaming series notebook, which features NVIDIA's latest 800m series graphics, MSI have been keen to show us what else they have in their artillery for the everyday gamer. Where the GS60 is a strong and well-balanced system, packing some Ultrabook-like credentials such as its slim and lightweight design, the GP70 Leopard that we're looking at today is aimed more at the budget gamer who wants a competent system that packs all the features and credentials needed to be classed as a gaming notebook, but without such a strong price tag that surpasses the £1000 barrier. The GP70 is by no means a new system in its design and layout, having been around for at least one generation now, the GP70 'Leopard' is effectively a refreshed model, taking advantage of NVIDIA's latest 800m series graphics to give this more budget conscious notebook a performance boost, bringing it up to date with the latest games and the growing needs of today's gamers. As we have seen from our first look at the 800m series graphics on the Ghost Pro, there is a notable gain in performance to be seen over the previous generation 700m series chips. To put the latest generation graphics into context, a current generation 870m GPU provides frame rates and performance similar to that of a 780m core whilst a 860m should give performance similar to that of a 770m and so on. What this means for the Leopard is that we should see a notable difference in performance between the new GP70 Leopard, with its 840m GPU and the older GP70 with its 740m offering. Aside the GPU there are a handful of other areas where MSI have done some housekeeping, the network adaptor has been upgraded to the KillerLAN E2200 series gaming NIC, whilst the wireless adaptor sees an upgrade to support the latest 802.11ac standard. The audio sees a refresh with MSI's Audio Boost technology to give a deeper adn richer audio experience. Finally the storage sees a huge boost in performance from a hybrid system that uses 24GB of NAND cache with a 1TB hard drive for all of its storage needs over to a setup that uses two separate drives; a 128GB mSATA drive for the boost drive and a 1TB hard drive for bulk storage needs. All the other key areas of the systems specification, including the processors, chipset, memory and I/O features, plus the design of the system remain the same as before. Name: MSI GP70-2PE 'Leopard' CPU: Intel Core i7-4700HQ @ 2.4GHz RAM: 8GB 1600MHz ADATA MIF4D1D167HZ1 SSD: Toshiba 128GB mSATA SSD HDD: Western Digital Blue 750GB GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 840M 2GB LAN: Killer E2200 WLAN: Intel dual-band Wireless-AC 3160 Monitor: 17.3"1920 x 1080 Anti-glare LED backlit Keyboard: Steelseries chiclet I/O: 2x USB3.0, 2x USB2.0, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA, SD Reader, Mic-in & Headphone-out, 1x 1Gb LAN, FHD Webcam ODD: DVD-RW DL Battery: 6-Cell 4400mAh 49Wh OS: Windows 8.1 Dimensions: 41.8 x 26.9 x 3.9 cm Weight: 2.7kg with battery (5.96lb) Warranty: 2 year RTB Price: £899.99 Inc VAT For any gaming laptop, let alone a system as thin as this, there is a lot of 'oomph' behind the keyboard - especially in the graphics department and considering the fact that gaming laptops these days are generally considered as bulky and heavy, a thin and light system is certainly a welcome addition to the market. Every part of MSI's gaming series is just as important as the notebook itself and thus everything follows the same colour scheme. Bearing the red dragon and the tagline 'Top Player - Top choice', the box print looks like the brushed effect paint that we will see on the notebook. Inside the notebook comes protected inside a plastic bag and then a cloth liner to prevent marks and scratches during transport, further more a soft-touch layer sits between the keyboard and screen to ensure the notebook arrives with you in the same way that it left the factory. A series of guides, manuals, warranty paper work followed by a driver CD and regional power adaptor round off the GP70 package. A Closer Look - Outside Built with smooth clean lines and rounded corners and edges, the GP70 has a matte black brushed effect finish which is used throughout most of MSI's Gaming Series products, Built in to the same 17.3" frame as the previous generation GP70, this newer model is as good as identical in appearance. Even though this system has a bigger display than the GS60 Ghost Pro which we recently looked at, the Leopard width and depth wise is not much different. It may be near twice as thick as the GS60 as well as 50% heavier, but in this area of the market, a slightly heavier build is somewhat expected. Anti-glare displays are starting to become a more popular option for notebook displays, eliminating the reflection that is typically found on a glossy panel. If you have used a glossy panel then you will know where I'm coming from here. Built in to a 17.3" frame, the GP70 features a FHD 1920 x 1080 panel with the anti-glare coating that is a better option for a gaming system in my mind. On the back of the display is the only indication that this is a gaming system. Set into the plastic frame is an MSI badge with the gaming series logo below. Unlike the GS60 the badge sadly does not light up when the system is on, it should have been nice to see it here, but even as a small addition, lighting up the badge does come with a price tag - even if it is small. For a system that is more price conscious, I'm therefore not fussed about the LED. Running down the left hand side of the chassis we find a Kensington lock point, DC power jack, a grill for exhausting heat, a HDMI output, two USB3.0, headphone-out and microphone-in jacks with gold-plated terminals to give a better and clearer audio experience and finally a SD card reader. The rear of the notebook is clear of any I/O or grills however we can get a look at the tall feet that lift the notebook clear from a desktop surface to provide the fan with a good supply of air, resulting in a cooler running system. A BD/DVD-RW combo drive takes up over half of the space available on the right hand side of the chassis, although MSI are still able to cram in a couple of USB2.0 ports, one of which features MSI's Super Charger technology, delivering a higher power throughput for charging power hunger devices such as iPads. Towards the rear of the chassis is finally a VGA output and an Ethernet port for network connections through the KillerLAN NIC. Whilst using the GP70, purely by chance I made a discovery which has stumped me a little. If we look closely at the USB port (and the VGA and Ethernet ports as well for that matter) we can see that they are in fact upside down. Naturally the only way I found this out was when I tried to use the Super Charger enabled USB port to charge my phone, only to find my USB cable didn't go in the port first time. Now we have all had the situation where we've gone to insert a USB cable upside down by mistake, but to have it not insert the right way up is a little unusual. I have quizzed MSI as to why these ports are upside down and I am waiting on a response. Perhaps someone made a mistake whilst designing the notebook in the first instance? Once I find out the reason for this, I'll be sure to give the reason right here. A webcam is another feature that we expect to see on any notebook system these days, although whilst a large number of these give a just-do image, MSI ensures that their gaming notebooks offer more than a just-do feed with a 720p sensor in their cameras. The keyboard for any gamer is almost certainly one of the most important parts of a gaming system. Forget what the game looks and sounds like, if you don't have a board that feels right or doesn't respond in the right way, you are almost likely going to get frustrated. Personally the feel from the Steelseries boards that MSI use on their notebooks for me is not that bad for the purpose of typing like I do virtually all the time I'm using a computer, however as I don't play games all that much, I am not able to speak from the gamers perspective. Rest assured though that I have spoken to a pair of professional gamers in the past who can confidently say that they are happy with the Steelseries keyboards that are found on these notebooks. If they are good enough for the pro's then they are good enough for me. Backlit keyboards are, like a number of other features, becoming very popular on notebooks, especially those that are gaming orientated. In order to manage the price point of the GP70 however, there is no lighting to be seen on this board. Running above the keyboard is a row of seven hot keys. From left to right these are; ODD Eject, display output, airplane mode, cooler boost, WLAN on/off, MSI gaming panel and the power button. Like the Ghost Pro, the power button alternates between blue and orange to indicate when the NVIDIA GPU is being utilised and you're getting the higher level of performance that is on offer. Working with the Realtek audio codec and MSI's audio boost technology, a pair of small stereo speakers are positioned to either side of the hot key buttons. Below the keyboard, the track pad consists of a recessed area with a series of raised dimples as such which mark out the working area. Compared to the smooth surface of most touchpads, personally this one is not that great to use, the patterned surface I feel has lost its edge so to speak and I feel like I have to correct cursor movements more often than not. Just above the touchpad is a key which disables the pad when an external mouse is being used, eliminating any interference when part of your hand touches the pad during a gaming session for example. Although the touch pad itself is not to my taste, the left and right buttons are, on the other hand, quite nice. Although not easily seen in the image below, the button has a glossy finish with a subtle glitter effect embedded into it and a thin metallic strip running along the back edge. In front of the button are the system LEDs. Marked on the upper surface and visible from the front where they can be seen when the lid is closed, the LEDs indicate (from left to right): drive activity, Bluetooth status, WLAN status, battery charging status, Caps lock, num lock and sleep state. On the underside of the system we find a number of small grills through which air can circulate, whilst a removable cover surrounds what appears to be most of the motherboard. A warranty sticker is placed over one of the screws so I will make it clear, if you haven't already guessed, that any upgrades that you make to the system during the two-year warranty period will invalidate your notebooks warranty. If you wish to have more than 8GB of RAM then you are best off in purchasing the notebook with this upgrade already done and still have your shiny warranty still intact should you need it. At the back of the notebook we have a removable battery (something that the GS60 Ghost Pro does not have). The 6-cell battery here holds a 4400mAH / 49wH capacity which should see a typical running time of around 2-3 hours when in balanced or power save modes. When we come to the battery test later on we will get a clearer idea of how well the battery performs. A Closer Look - Inside Lifting the lid on the underside of the GP70 we get instant access to the three key components that the user may want to upgrade after they have purchased their notebook. In addition to the storage devices we also have clear access to the blower fan, making the process of cleaning out dust a lot easier. In the front left hand corner (under your left hand whilst using the notebook) is the secondary storage device. Secured by two screws, the hard drive easily lifts out of the system in the even that you wish to replace it with a second SSD or upgrade to a larger drive in the future (as and when >1TB drives are available in a 2.5" format). Although the GP70 has the option to have a 1TB drive installed, the Leopard comes with a 750GB offering from Western Digital's Blue line of drives. Another key component that helps to boost the systems performance down the line is the memory. The GP70 has support for up to 16GB of 1600MHz RAM through two SODIMM modules. Whilst MSI used modules from Kingston's OEM range of ValueRAM memory modules on the GS60 Ghost Pro that we recently looked at, the Leopard's memory comes from ADATA. In this system we get 8GB of RAM through a single module, running at 1600MHz. The primary storage for the Leopard comprises of a single 128GB mSATA module from Toshiba. Like the hard drive and memory, the positioning of the mSATA module is prime for future upgrades, although the GP70 only ships with a maximum of a 128GB drive from the factory, with mSATA SSDs now shipping with 256GB capacities, there is the option if you so wish to boost the primary storage after purchase. I will note, however, that removing the cover on the underside of the notebook will invalidate the systems warranty and any upgrades are done at the owners risk. Lifting out the mSATA module we find an Intel 3160HMW module giving the system wireless-AC and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. Lifting the cooler out from the underside of the notebook we can see that MSI use a dual-heatpipe design here with a single heatsink and blower fan combo to expel heat out the side of the chassis. Below the top contact plate (as seen in the photo above) is the NVIDIA GPU. Like the GS60, the GP70 plays host to the latest 800m series graphics and in particular here we have an 840m with 2GB of VRAM. Based on the Maxwell architecture, the 840m packs 384 shader units clocked to 1029MHz and thanks to NVIDIA's latest GPU Boost 2.0 and Optimus technologies a typical power consumption of under 30W is seen. The result of this is a card that is ideal for medium-sized notebooks such as this system, offering a sufficient performance to play games at higher detail settings whilst offering up a good amount of battery life at the same time. Alongside the 840m, the Leopard comes with the same Core i7 CPU that we saw on the Ghost Pro. Clocked to 2.4GHz, the i7-4700HQ is one of Intel's flagship processors for the notebook market, offering up not only 4 cores and 8 threads of processing power, but also Intel's 4600 graphics chipset with support for NVIDIA's Optimus technology, reducing the power consumption and raising the battery life of the system where possible. Further round the motherboard, close to the primary storage device we find the system battery and the HM86 chipset. Built solely for the mobile market, the HM86 chipset supports many of the features that we tend to find on the desktop H87 chipset, but with a stronger focus on power consumption and battery life. Turning the system back the right way up and removing the upper half of the chassis we can get a closer look at a few more of the Leopards key components. In the image we see below, the gap to the left of the chassis would normally be occupied by the cooling system, whilst the larger space to the right hand side is where the optical drive is positioned. Due to this system having a removable optical drive, there is the option - should the user wish - to install a third 2.5" drive, further boosting the systems storage capacity. The metal plates that we can see on top of the motherboard are relative to the positions of the CPU and GPU, acting as a brace for the mounts for the cooler. Beside the brace for the GPU we find a pair of SKhynix VRAM packages, these two chips work with the two on the other side of the PCB to provide the 2GB of memory for the GPU. Most, if not all of MSI's gaming laptops offer up the gaming optimised KillerLAN network chipset. Over a standard LAN controller, Killer network controllers prioritise gaming network traffic over that of internet or local DHCP traffic. By prioritising the gaming traffic Killer aim to reduce the latency between the gamer and the game servers - after all a gamer wants 'less lag and more frag'. On the audio front the Leopard packs the well-known and trusted ALC892 controller from Realtek. Delivering high quality audio through the Audio Boost engine - the same one that is featured on MSI's gaming motherboards for desktop systems, the ALC892 chipset also features Sound Blaster Cinema to give a surround sound like experience when using a set of standard headphones. When playing games, where knowing where your enemy is can change the game outcome, these little extras are where MSI feel their systems have a competitive edge. The last chip that we find near the GPU is an Analogi ANX1122 DisplayPort translator. Although the Leopard does not have an external DisplayPort connections, the system's built-in display is connected through a proprietary connector. The ANX1122 chip simply translates the display signal from the eDP to the LVDS (Low-Voltage Display Signal) that runs to the built-in screen. Test Procedure To test this system, we want to stress every component of the system to check stability and performance, giving us an idea as to why those particular components were picked for this system. This particular system comes pre-installed with Windows 8.1, but of course this can be customised upon checkout. A wide variety software applications are used to gain the broadest spectrum of results and this allows us to get the best and fairest set of results for comparison as possible. Hardware used: Acoustic dBA meter AC power meter Software used: 3DMark 11 3DMark 2013 AIDA64 Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R15 CrystalDiskMark CPU-Z HW-Monitor Passmark PerformanceTest 8.0 PCMark 7 PCMark 8 Powermark Super PI Unigine Heaven 4.0 Unigine Valley 1.0 wPrime Games used: Bioshock Infinite Dirt Showdown Metro Last Light Sleeping Dogs Tomb Raider CPU-Z GPU-Z AIDA64 GPGPU PCMark 7 PCMark 7 provides a set of 7 suites for measuring different aspects of PC performance with a high degree of accuracy. Overall system performance is measured by the PCMark Suite. The Lightweight Suite measures the capabilities of entry-level systems and mobility platforms unable to run the full PCMark suite. Common use performance is measured by the Entertainment, Creativity and Productivity scenario suites. Component performance is measured by the Computation and Storage hardware suites. The Storage suite is ideal for testing SSDs and external hard drives in addition to the system drive. Systems Comparison PCMark 8 PCMark 8 is the latest version in our popular series of PC benchmarking tools. Improving on previous releases, PCMark 8 includes battery life measurement tools and new tests using popular applications from Adobe and Microsoft. Whether you are looking for long battery life, or maximum power, PCMark 8 helps you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs. Home Test The PCMark 8 Home benchmark includes workloads that reflect common tasks for a typical home user. These workloads have low computational requirements making PCMark 8 Home suitable for testing the performance of low-cost tablets, notebooks and desktops. Home includes workloads for web browsing, writing, gaming, photo editing, and video chat. The results are combined to give a PCMark 8 Home score for your system. Creative Test The PCMark 8 Creative benchmark includes workloads typical of enthusiasts and professionals who work with media and entertainment content. With more demanding requirements than the Home benchmark, this benchmark is suitable for mid-range computer systems. PCMark 8 Creative includes web browsing, photo editing, video editing, group video chat, media transcoding, and gaming workloads. Work Test The PCMark 8 Work benchmark test measures your system's ability to perform basic office work tasks, such as writing documents, browsing websites, creating spreadsheets and using video chat. The Work benchmark is suitable for measuring the performance of typical office PC systems that lack media capabilities. The results from each workload are combined to give an overall PCMark 8 Work score for your system. Storage Test Use the PCMark 8 Storage benchmark to test the performance of SSDs, HDDs and hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office and a selection of popular games. You can test the system drive or any other recognised storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 8 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices. Applications Test The PCMark 8 Applications benchmark measures system performance using popular applications from the Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office. You can choose which tests to run based on the applications installed on your system. Each test automatically steps through a series of actions such as opening, editing and saving a file. The results are used to calculate the PCMark 8 Applications scores for the system. Systems Comparison 3DMark “The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. And it’s not just for Windows. With 3DMark you can compare your scores with Android and iOS devices too. It’s the most powerful and flexible 3DMark we’ve ever created. Fire Strike is our new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.” 3DMark 2013 FireStrike 3DMark 2013 Fire Strike Extreme Systems Comparison 3DMark 11 3DMark 11 is the latest offering from Futuremark, taking full advantage of DirectX 11 by utilising tessellation features and volumetric lighting. It takes your graphics and CPU hardware to the edge to simulate the most extreme conditions whilst working as a stand point to compare results with other users online. 3DMark 11 Performance 3DMark 11 Extreme Systems Comparison Unigine Heaven 4.0 Heaven Benchmark with its current version 4.0 is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms, such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. 1680 x 1050 1920 x 1080 Systems Comparison Unigine Valley 1.0 Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end-user. 1680x1050 1920x1080 Systems Comparison Bioshock Infinite BioShock Infinite is the third game in the BioShock series. It is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games, and published by 2K Games. It supports higher-resolution textures and fully utilises DirectX 11 capabilities. DiRT Showdown Dirt Showdown is a video game from Codemasters and is part of the Colin McRae Rally games revolving around a tour of events to compete in allowing you to win money and prizes to spend on new cars and upgrades as well as unlocking new events and races. The game uses high-resolution textures and AA settings to simulate dust particles, terrain and damage to the vehicles. Metro Last Light Metro: Last Light (formerly Metro 2034) is a first-person shooter and horror video game developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver.he game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and features a mixture of action-oriented and stealth gameplay. It utilises DirectX 11, Tessellation and heavy shadows. Sleeping Dogs Sleeping Dogs is a 2012 open world action-adventure game based around Wei Shen; a Chinese-American police officer going undercover. The game utilises DirectX 11 features as well as high quality intensive reflections and high-resolutions textures. Tomb Raider Tomb Raider is a video game franchise which also includes comic books, novels, theme park rides and movies, centering around the adventures of the English archaeologist Lara Croft. Square Enix have rebooted the franchise with a DirectX 11 utilised game with Anti-Aliaising features and lighting effects. CPU Benchmarks Cinebench CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer's performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON's award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more. CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It's completely free. R11.5 R15 Systems Comparison CPU Benchmarks Continued Super PI Super PI is a computer program that calculates pi to a specified number of digits after the decimal point—up to a maximum of 32 million. It uses Gauss–Legendre algorithm and is a Windows port of the program used by Yasumasa Kanada in 1995 to compute pi to 232 digits. Systems Comparison wPrime wPrime is a leading multithreaded benchmark for x86 processors that tests your processor performance by calculating square roots with a recursive call of Newton's method for estimating functions, with f(x)=x2-k, where k is the number we're sqrting, until Sgn(f(x)/f'(x)) does not equal that of the previous iteration, starting with an estimation of k/2. It then uses an iterative calling of the estimation method a set amount of times to increase the accuracy of the results. It then confirms that n(k)2=k to ensure the calculation was correct. It repeats this for all numbers from 1 to the requested maximum. Memory Benchmarks AIDA64 Memory Bandwidth AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. AIDA64 Extreme Edition provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Systems Comparison SSD Performance AIDA64 Disk Benchmark AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. AIDA64 Extreme Edition provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark is a small HDD benchmark utility for your hard drive that enables you to rapidly measure sequential and random read/write speeds. Here are some key features of “CrystalDiskMark”: Sequential reads/writes Random 4KB/512KB reads/writes Text copy Change dialog design internationalization (i18n) Systems Comparison Hard Drive Performance AIDA64 Disk Benchmark AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. AIDA64 Extreme Edition provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark is a small HDD benchmark utility for your hard drive that enables you to rapidly measure sequential and random read/write speeds. Here are some key features of “CrystalDiskMark”: Sequential reads/writes Random 4KB/512KB reads/writes Text copy Change dialog design internationalization (i18n) Systems Comparison USB 3.0 Performance AIDA64 Disk Benchmark AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. AIDA64 Extreme Edition provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark is a small HDD benchmark utility for your hard drive that enables you to rapidly measure sequential and random read/write speeds. Here are some key features of “CrystalDiskMark”: Sequential reads/writes Random 4KB/512KB reads/writes Text copy Change dialog design internationalization (i18n) Systems Comparison Network Performance PassMark Advanced Network Test The PassMark Advanced Network Test is designed to test the data transfer rate between two computers. One of the systems acts as the server and will sit waiting for a connection whilst the other computer acts as a client. The client connects to the server and sends data to it for the duration of the test. The network benchmark test will work with any type of TCP/IP connection. Including Ethernet, dial-up modems, ADSL, cable modems, local area networks (LAN), Wide area networks (WAN) and wireless networking (WiFi). The software has been optimized to use a minimum amount of CPU time, allowing even high-speed gigabit Ethernet connections to be benchmarked. Users have the ability to change the following test parameters. The IP address of the machine acting as the server and the port number used for the test to help with firewall issues. The size of the data block used for each send request. It is also possible to select variable sized blocks to measure performance deltas as block size increases or decreases. The duration of the test. The protocol, either TCP or UDP. The TCP protocol is when data integrity is important (Errors are corrected using data re-transmission). UDP is used with applications that are tolerant to data loss such as video streaming. The Advanced Network Test is part of the PerformanceTest suite which can be found on the PassMark website. In each of our test configurations, the wireless adaptor is tested at three different ranges, the first running within 10ft of the access point(s) and with a direct line of sight. After this the laptop is moved into another room around 20ft away without a direct line of sight. Moving even further away the adaptor is placed at a range of over 40ft to push the adaptors range much further. In all situations, the adaptor is tested in an environment where the building has solid brick walls and on a segregated access point to eliminate any other wireless clients from saturating the wireless channel. In each of the test charts, red indicates the furthest test, green the mid-range test and blue the direct line of sight. Where applicable the adaptor is tested on both the 2.4GHz band at 802.11n speeds and on the 5GHz band at 802.11ac speeds where available. 2.4GHz 802.11n 5GHz 802.11ac System Network Performance Acoustics Noise is generally the bain of most consumers lives and in the hope of finding the quietest operation, we feel it's necessary to show you the audio level of components. Typically with a desktop system we would fit a Power Consumption Powermark The purpose of the workloads is to simulate realistic usage scenarios of portable computing devices. Short test scenarios are looped until the per-iteration run time (five minutes by default) is reached or the battery charge end condition is met. The workloads selected for the benchmark are run in order, each workload once per iteration. Iterations are run until the battery charge has dropped to the desired level or the benchmark is cancelled. Once the battery charge end condition has been met Powermark generates a result based on the time elapsed and battery charge consumed by the workloads. In order to maintain the specified workload weighting the results of the final iteration (during which the battery charge fell to the desired level) is ignored. Word Processing The word processing workload is a text editor look-a-like application. It is implemented using RichTextBox control in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Typing in the editor is simulated and throttled to match the typing speed of a user. The workload content is based on a Wikipedia article on batteries. Web browsing The web browsing workload opens Internet Explorer and serves content from a local custom-made web server. The content is a modified version of Peacekeeper 1.0 Community site test. The computational load is mostly JavaScript based and performs following tasks: Encryption XML parsing Data filtering String sorting Window scrolling Word processing workload The word processing workload is a text editor look-a-like application. It is implemented using RichTextBox control in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Typing in the editor is simulated and throttled to match typing speed of a user. The workload content is based on a Wikipedia article on batteries. Video playback The video workload simulates watching movies on a portable device. Clip details: Codec: H.264 Duration: 8:43 Resolution: 1280 x 720 Frame rate: 25 frames per second Bitrate: approx. 5000 kbps. Gaming The gaming workload renders a DirectX 9 Shader Model 2.0 scene to simulate the graphics workload of a mainstream game. The scene features cascaded shadow maps and high-resolution shadow mapped point lights. Productivity The productivity test includes the web browsing and word processing workloads, simulating a typical work use scenario. Entertainment The entertainment test includes the video and gaming workloads, simulating a typical recreational use scenario. Balanced The balanced test uses an even split between the web browsing, word processing, video and gaming workloads. Systems Comparison PCMark 8 Battery Performance PCMark 8 improves on previous versions by including new battery life testing tools. The Home, Creative, Work and Applications benchmarks can be used for battery life testing. Choose Battery Life mode to loop the benchmark until the battery is almost empty to accurately measure battery life under real-world conditions. PCMark 8 even supports external instrumentation with 3rd party power measurement equipment. Power Draw To test power consumption, we monitor the overall power of the system through a plug-in electricity usage monitor at an idle and load state. This allows us to show the fluctuation between how much power draw the graphics card takes at idle and at load. By monitoring the overall usage of the whole system, it gives an easy comparison if you wish to do the same yourself as opposed to buying very expensive individual testing equipment. Temperatures Measuring temperatures is all about being consistent therefore we keep a steady eye on monitoring the ambient room temperature to make sure that it stays the same. While this is constantly being monitored, we measure the idle temperature of the card using HWMonitor over a 15 minute period. Once this has been recorded, we set FurMark into motion for 15 minutes and record the results again. Final Thoughts Pricing Part of the focus with the GP70 Leopard is pricing it right for the more budget focused user. At a shade under £800 we are moving towards the upper end of the 'budget' scale. Obviously this comes down to the choice of components that has been made, however as I'll detail below, there is the potential to have a system that performs just as well, but perhaps for a slightly lower price point. Overview As a more cost-effective option in MSI's gaming series lineup, the GP70 Leopard is a system that teeters on the point of being a cracking bargain. Whilst there are a number of areas where I can give this system some merits, there are a few areas that sadly don't. Starting off with the hardware side of things, NVIDIA's 840M GPU is more than capable of giving the drive needed to run most of the latest games, although (as we would expect) you will need to drop the quality settings down a couple of notches in order to see frame rates that are consistently over the 30fps mark. Pairing the 840m with the same i7-4700HQ chip that we saw in the GS60 Ghost Pro however does leave me a little undecided. Whilst I am aware that an i5 option is available for a lower price point in the 15.6" GP60 Leopard, we are only looking at a dual core processor rather than a quad-core i5 so you either have a more than capable processor with a lower end GPU or a combination with a dual-core chip and the same 840. Basically I would much prefer to see a quad-core i5 with an 850m on offer, giving a better balance of performance in price bracket that could be around that of the system that we've look at here. The use of the higher performing processor also leads me to believe that the spec of other components has been cut in order to keep the price point within the reach of the more budget conscious user. One such detail is with the hard drive. MSI have opted for a 750GB 5400RPM drive here from WD's Blue line of drives and once again there could have been a slightly better deal offered with perhaps a 1TB drive which seems to be the standard right now, even if it is a 5400RPM drive to keep a balance in cost. On the point of what you see when using the notebook, I can't quite work out what MSI were thinking when they came up with the idea of a dimple covered track pad. Any of you that use a notebook system quite often will know that having a smooth pad to work on is more preferred, with a slick surface that your thumb or finger can glide along with ease, these dimples not only slow down your use of the pad, I found it to be less responsive. The lack of a keyboard backlight is also a little disappointing to see, but then again we can't have every accessory available throughout the entire notebook range. The only other thing that I have to say I hate is the bloat ware that MSI install before the system is shipped. I understand why some brand specific software is installed on a notebook, but having things pop up every 5 minutes from the moment you get it out of the box is rather frustrating - you have to consider as well that not everyone is going to feel comfortable uninstalling things fresh out of the box. If I click a box to say that I don't want to be pestered again, please don't do the same thing next time I reboot the system. Putting these few items aside and looking at the good points, I have to say that I've not been put off by the systems design, granted we don't have the nice backlit keyboard on offer as mentioned above and the track pad is not to my taste, the rest of the Leopard is well laid out and it does feel comfortable to use - both on my lap and on a desk. The large 17.3" display is nice and clear with a good viewing angle and brightness. The only time that the display was particularly hard to see was when sunlight was beaming directly onto it, but then this is easily overcome by simply turning yourself around ever so slightly. The battery performance is not too bad for a gaming notebook, although the Powermark and PCM8 tests showed a typical run time of 2-3 hours, I was able to get just over four hours out of the Leopard while browsing the internet and writing part of this review. As a whole the GP70-2PE 'Leopard' is not a total loss, granted the mismatch between the processor and the rest of the core components could do with some attention to bring up the spec in one or two areas a little more to give a well-balanced spec, performance and most of all cost. The touch pad will take a bit of time to get used to, unless you're using a USB pointer that is and little creature comforts such as a backlit keyboard are not present; but as a basic framework for an entry-level system, MSI have got the right idea. Should the spec become more balanced for the price then perhaps I'd be more inclined to give it a thumbs up. Simply put, it's good but it's not quite perfect. Pros Latest 800m series graphics Upgrade to a full SSD boot drive over the previous generation Clear display with a good level of colour and brightness for the price Good foundation for a budget gaming notebook Cons Graphics detail will need to be reduced in order to get playable frame rates Less-than average battery life Horrible touchpad No backlit keyboard Too much bloat-ware installed by MSI "Comparing the GP70 Leopard to its older brother, there are a number of key improvements such as the GPU upgrade and change to a full on solid state boot drive which are welcomed. What does let this system down is the over spec on the CPU front, leaving the rest of the system lagging to give the desired price point. If the CPU sped was to be brought down a shade to allow a small upgrade here and there around the rest of the system, we may then be looking at a cracking budget gaming notebook." Thanks to MSI UK for providing this review sample.