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Gaming Notebook: 15-Inch Vs 17-Inch

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Problem: Find a cheap, powerful gaming notebook—and choose between the 15-inch or 17-inch options. Looking at MSI’s decent options, we weigh pros and cons.

'GX' Takes Gaming to the Extreme

The GX740 and GX640 were designed with gaming in mind, optimized with the best combination of powerful and affordable hardware to ravish even the most advanced games. The Radeon Mobility 5800 series is one of the most powerful gaming graphic solutions available for mobile computers, and in conjunction with Intel's performance processors, gaming is where these laptops shine.

The 17-inch form-factor has several inherent advantages. The larger screen alone adds to the gaming experience just by providing a more immersive environment. The roomier chassis and additional cooling features also yield the potential for faster components, and in the case of the GX740, the opportunity for overclocking.

Because the Core i5 and i7 processors incorporate Turbo Boost technology, manual overclocking of the CPU isn't much of an option, but ATI's Overdrive allows for simple overclocking of the video card. With the GX740, its Radeon 5870's GPU core can be increased from 700MHz to an impressive 800MHz and the video memory from 1000MHz to 1200MHz, given the proper environment. In the case of the GX640, its Radeon 5850 can be overclocked to the point that it is identical to the 5870 of the GX740, but due to cooling constraints, these speeds can't be realistically achieved.

As you can see from the above chart, the GX740 maintains a strong 10% lead over the GX640 when averaged amongst all of our benchmarked games. If you're interested in the raw data of these benchmarks, before they were normalized and averaged, you can find it here.

25 Comments Comment from the forums
  • quantumrand
    I went back and forth between these two laptops more times than I can count. I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means, but I do like to play the latest games from time to time. In my case, battery life wasn't really a concern since I rarely use my laptop away from a plug, so it was really no holds barred between the two.

    On the one hand, the GX740's quad core CPU with hyperthreading was a huge selling point for me. I do a lot of video converting as well as 3D modeling, so 8 cores is pretty sweet. The size of the thing is pretty extreme though and takes up almost all of my available desk space, leaving little room for my mouse, lol.

    On the other hand, the GX640 is very similar to my current laptop, the GX620. It's the same size, same design, same layout, so switching to it would be very simple. It still has plenty of power to be more than useful, but compared to the GX740 it feels like a big hit to take.

    When it all comes down to it though, the GX640 just offers the best performance per price of anything I've seen. I'm by no means a big spender, so at the end of the day, I have to go with the best deal.
    Reply
  • Trueno07
    I have an older MSI gaming notebook (it's not really that old, only a year, but they don't make them anymore) and i love it. It hasn't given me any trouble, and aside from some wear and tear on the keyboard (all my fault :D) it's a fantastic performer.
    Reply
  • stewartwb
    This is an interesting review, but it seems dangerously close to being an advertisement for MSI, with just a token mention of another vendor in the closing paragraph.
    Reply
  • rohitbaran
    Both the MSI laptops are great performers and coupled with 3 year warranty, they should be giving Alienware a run for their money.
    Reply
  • cknobman
    Awesome review and comparison.

    Stewart: Although I understand your point I think it would be very hard to find another 15 inch laptop with equipment that high spec for such a low price (and likewise for the 17 incher outside of the asus consideration) which makes it easy to explain why we are only seeing MSI. Not to mention Toms can only review the equipment they are given so if no other vendors offered a laptop for a review then MSI deserves any adverts they are getting.
    Reply
  • nice advertisement, where are the game benchmarks.
    Reply
  • quantumrand
    snorenice advertisement, where are the game benchmarks.
    It seems like the content management system doesn't like certain links. The benchmark data can be found here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlI_WGE7CQWXdDExTkE5ZHQxOC10eE1pR19Cd0VRLVE
    Reply
  • Tomsguiderachel
    This was not a paid advertisement--the writer selected these laptops to illustrate the 15 vs 17 issue for performance-oriented laptops. Truthfully, there aren't many comparable products in this price range, but if you know of some please feel free to let us know in this comments section. Also, keep in mind that we usually limit our reviews to new products--we were unable to find any recent product launches in the same price range/category.

    Thanks for reading,

    Rachel Rosmarin
    Editor, Tom's Guide
    Reply
  • ghostofanonion
    Xan I just say the only thing beastly about tuhe i7-720 is the price. It's no where near the makrketing hype. In saying that I'm quite pleased the performance of my system (i7-720, 8gb, 5870) I just didn't see the raw power these reviews are promising.
    Reply
  • quantumrand
    ghostofanonionXan I just say the only thing beastly about tuhe i7-720 is the price. It's no where near the makrketing hype. In saying that I'm quite pleased the performance of my system (i7-720, 8gb, 5870) I just didn't see the raw power these reviews are promising.
    You're definitely right. In terms of raw power, these laptops certainly don't compare to the possibilities of a similarly priced desktop. No laptop would. Just looking at ATI's Mobility 5800 series makes it plainly clear (the Mobility 5800 is dreadfully similar to the 5700 desktop core).

    But when it comes to laptops, these two systems really stand out, both in terms of performance and price. In my opinion, they're a perfect fit for any serious gamer who likes to LAN it up with his friends.
    Reply