MSI GT70 Dominator
Pro Gaming Notebook
EDITOR’S CHOICE
AWARD
RRP: $3,999 | Website: www.msi.com
H
ave you ever wondered what the
ultimate game notebook looks
like in 2014? Well, wonder no
more because according to MSI, they
just may have the best offering on
the market. As far as I’m concerned,
I think that may be a valid claim
because not only have I never used a
faster notebook, but it’s very rare if
ever, that I’m ever impressed by what
are essentially desktop replacement
machines.
The GT70 Dominator Pro is
something a little special. Unlike most
notebooks that I come across, this one
is unapologetic about what it is. With
a price tag of $4,000, it had a lot to
live up to and it delivered for the most
part.
Before I get into the details and
my experience with it, do note that
a notebook or at least one at this
price has to be a lot more than just
specifications. There is only so much
that any vendor can fit into a notebook
form factor and with these high end
these systems, they are often very
similar. It is everything else around
the notebook that will perhaps set it
apart from the competition. After all,
when paying this much for any piece of
44 The OverClocker Issue 29 | 2014
computer equipment, one should not
have to justify the purchase. For this
kind of pricing, one expects the best
and the GT70 is very close to that.
You may be familiar with the DELL
Alienware 18 notebook with dual
GTX 770M GPUs. This notebook in
the benchmarks (3D benchmarks
specifically) will be faster than the
GT70 Dominator Pro and yes it is about
half the price. With that however there
are many things that you sacrifice on,
not only in specification, but in terms
of battery life, storage and a plethora
of others things that merely looking
at benchmarks would not reveal to
you. So I’m very aware that there are
cheaper alternatives but before you
write off the GT70 do consider that it
is offering you the something close
to the best hardware there is for any
mobile platform.
Primarily this is a Gaming machine;
sure enough it can be used for
any other purpose that requires
immense processing power, but
it is geared at the gamers with
very deep pockets who more than
likely owns an already powerful
desktop machine perhaps. The
difference here is that said user
may want to game on the go without
sacrificing too much or anything at
all as compared to gaming on their
desktops.
To that end, MSI has outfitted this
notebook with the latest NVIDIA
GeForce GTX880M, the fastest mobile
GPU on the planet if the claims by
NVIDIA are to be believed. This GPU
is as you would expect based on the
GK104 and that means it’s essentially
the desktop equivalent of the GTX 680
or if you prefer, the GTX 680M and
780M. That’s correct, these are all
based on exactly the same silicon
with only the power saving features,
TDP and clock speeds setting them
apart. Do not be disappointed though
as the GTX 880M is tangibly faster
than the 680M and you’re not likely
to reach the same clock speeds on a
notebook with that GPU in comparison
to one with the 880M such as this one
which can boost upwards of 993MHz.
What MSI has done though, in a
very peculiar move is pair this GPU
with a staggerin