[section_title title=”Performance”] Performance
When it comes to actually using the GT60 2PE, MSI have done a solid job on making sure the non-gaming elements of the system don’t blemish the overall package and given the relatively portable nature of the GT60 2PE, MSI have done well here.
Starting with the performance numbers from our benchmarks, it’s clear that the GT60 2PE is a full throttle gaming system with the GT60 only being beaten out by the full desktop systems. Our graphs only show results for 1080p as we have nothing for 3K settings to be compared against, but to give you an idea of how much power the GT60 2PE has left-untapped – 30FPS at 3K resolution on the highest settings (sans TressFX) in Tomb Raider was achievable. This scenario played out through the rest of our other games too, with Hitman able to hit a playable 30FPS at 3K (without MSAA) and even in the gruelling Company of Heroes 2 bench, 3K again was playable without the unnecessary SSAA options.
MSI’s extensive cooling solution does wonders for the usability of the GT60 2PE too. There is no repeat here of the questionable heat issues that plagued the high-end Gigabyte P27 and as a result, the GT60 itself is relatively quiet during gaming, or at least, no louder than my ITX desktop PC and when not gaming the system is as quiet as any other laptop. The other side of this is that there’s a peace of mind to be had with a cool and quiet laptop as even when the machines have been designed to accommodate high-performance components, no one wants them running unnecessarily hot.
Beyond the gaming prowess of the GT60 there is a high-end notebook to be used too. Starting with the screen, even on a laptop the real estate is such a boon for usage. Being able to have two tabs open side by side on a laptop and being able to have a significant amount of information up in each one is a genuine highlight – especially coming from a meagre ‘HD’ laptop screen. Of course, the display is also awesome for movies and viewing images, especially high resolution ones from a camera, it’s just a shame that aside form gaming, there isn’t much content available to make use of it. To back up the display the GT60’s included speakers are also a real treat on their own merits because they’re laptop ones and they’re surprisingly powerful at full volume. The out of the box sound is definitely configured towards bass more than anything else, but the inclusion of the Creative software means that you can customise your EQ settings to a decent degree if the ‘booming’ sound isn’t for you.
MSI’s partnership with SteelSeries certainly bears some fruit and the ease of use and inclusion is a legitimate proposition. Having macro ability on a gaming laptop is awesome, really. The keyboard layout and response is perfectly fine for gaming once you become accustomed to it and I didn’t get a feeling of being at a disadvantage by using the onboard keyboard versus my desktop one.
