MSI GT60 2PE Dominator Pro Review

Performance Analysis

We were expecting some pretty significant numbers here given the Dominator Pro's price tag. In Cinebench R11.5 it matched the Schenker XMG P503 Pro, which had the same CPU and a quick flick through our CPU results showed that its score of 7.06 was actually faster than a desktop Intel Core i5-4670K. Admittedly the latter lacks hyper threading and the Intel Core i7-4770K did boast an even faster score of 8.12, but even so, this isn't bad going. In Cinebench R15 it didn't quite match the desktop CPUs, but again it wasn't far off matching the Core i5-4670K.

Our image editing test proved to be a little disappointing; despite having the same CPU as the Schenker XMG P503 Pro the Dominator Pro was nearly 200 points slower. The CPU appeared to be boosting correctly and the RAM was set to the correct speed but clearly either drivers or some other issue was coming into play and slowing things up a bit. It was a similar story in the video encoding test - the Dominator Pro was still faster than a Intel Core i5-4670K, but noticeably slower than the Schenker machine.

Desktop CPUs proved to be considerably more powerful in our multi-tasking test, though, and overall the Dominator Pro placed itself between a Intel Core i3-4130 and Core i5-4670K in terms of performance, which is roughly where you want to be in terms of a desktop replacement laptop, which is clearly what the Dominator Pro is.

Gaming threw up a number of issues and all of these centre around the 3K display. In Battlefield 4 at 3K with 4xAA, the frame rates were pretty terrible - just 16fps on the minimum - and while dropping the AA entirely had negligible impact on the visuals thanks to the insane number of pixels it only boosted this to 21fps. Clearly running at native resolution isn't going to be possible in demanding games.

Thankfully, with 4xAA applied at 1,920 x 1,080, the minimum frame rate was a much healthier 32fps and despite not running at native resolution, the visuals didn't take too much of hit. Crysis 3 was a similar story - 28fps at 1,920 x 1,080 but a woeful 14fps with no AA at 3K.

As for the benefits of 3K overall, well Windows still isn't all that well optimised to cope with high resolutions making day to day computing a straining on the old peepers. However, we'd certainly rather have the hardware and hope for better software support than the other way round.


As we suspected, the trio of RAID 0 SSDs managed some pretty incredible speeds with the read topping out at 1,434MBsec and a write speed of 1,153MBsec in ATTO and this was actually tangible compared to single SSD-equipped laptops we've tested recently. Even so, we'd still opt for a single fast SSD ourselves, if only to reduce the chance of the array failing with three drives on the go.

Battery life was reasonable, although in our full-on Unigine Heaven loop with medium brightness and WiFi enabled, the Dominator Pro only lasted just over an hour. However this was with the GPU running flat out and the CPU taking a hefty hit too. In our more relaxed 720p video playback test, it was on par with what what we've seen from other high-end gaming laptops, managing just under three and a half hours. You can probably expect to better four hours of word processing with WiFi disabled.

Conclusion

The MSI GT60 2PE Dominator Pro is clearly an accomplished performer. It packs in masses of powerful hardware, has a good keyboard and finishes it off with a mostly excellent 3K resolution screen. However, almost inevitably when it comes to gaming laptops we do have some issues.

Firstly the design and build is just a little below what we'd hope for given the price. Sure, you're getting loads of performance for all that money but when spending £2,000 your expectations in all areas do ramp up. It's far from bad but it's certainly not one to set the pulse racing either.

We were also a little disappointed with the touchpad and keyboard, with the former being a little cramped and the latter not offering a UK layout.

Most of all, though, was the fact that 3K resolution screen was unusable in many games - it's just too high a resolution for the graphics card to cope at such high resolutions. With Windows offering an iffy experience on the desktop with such a high resolution too, we're not entirely convinced it's worth paying the extra right now. If you can cope with everything being tiny, though - or if you're hoping Microsoft will improve support soon - then it's otherwise a very good screen.

Gaming laptops are always divisive products but if you are in the market MSI has certainly got most things right with the GT60 2PE Dominator Pro.