XOTIC PC GT72S DOMINATOR PRO G-041
Maxwell-powered heavyweight competitor
WHEN MOST PEOPLE think of a laptop, their mind usually goes to the same place: a lightweight, portable notebook that can fit, well, on their lap. Xotic PC’s GT72S is indeed portable, and it is a notebook, but it’s definitely not a laptop.
This is not a notebook that you’ll see anyone try to bust out on a cramped coach seat on an airplane, or pull out of a trendy messenger bag after they lock up their fixed-gear bicycle. This thing is a heavy, portable gaming rig that’s much closer to a desktop replacement than it is a laptop such as the Razer Blade 14.
The PC’s innards are reason enough to set it apart from most other mobile computers. The PC is based on MSI’s GT72S G-041, whose specs are mostly the same. The computer features a 3.8GHz Intel Core i7-6920HQ Skylake quad-core (with HyperThreading) CPU. That’s just 200MHz slower than the ( non-K) desktop i7-6700, and 200MHz faster than the i7-6920HK that was in the MSI GT72S 980 Dragon we reviewed late last year. Like the 980 Dragon, the GT72S G-041 carries an 8GB Nvidia GTX 980 onboard to push pixels. Note the lack of “M” in the nomenclature; this is a desktop GPU that’s been put into a mobile PC. To top it off, the PC comes with 32GB of DDR42133 RAM, which is more than enough for most PCs, including desktops.
For connectivity, the PC features six USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI 1.4 port, a DisplayPort 1.2 connector, and one “Super Port.” The Super Port is basically a USB 3.1 Type-C connector that is also compatible with Thunderbolt 3, which enables you to have mind-bendingly fast file transfers or a 10-gigabit Ethernet connection. The notebook uses Bigfoot Killer Ethernet and wireless adapters, which allow for the use of Killer’s Doubleshot Pro networking features. (However, unless you’ve got two different Internet connections you can use at once, use cases for this technology are quite slim.)
One of the key hardware upgrades that comes with the Xotic PC model is the use of two Samsung 950 Pro NVMe SSDs, instead of the SM951s that come with the stock MSI model. Xotic PC also swaps out MSI’s standard thermal compound with IC Diamond paste for the CPU and GPU. On top of that, Xotic PC shipped the PC with its “Redline Boost” GPU overclock and Windows optimization applied.
One thing we noticed was that the 17.3inch IPS G-Sync display looked great during testing. The matte screen offered great detail and color with a reasonably wide viewing angle. It’s a good companion for the powerful GPU, basically. FRAMES AND FORTUNE Speaking of testing, one thing that the GT72S does very well is play games. With the power of the GTX 980 behind it, the PC was able to push out pixels at an admirable rate. In Tom C lancy’s T he Division, the Xotic managed an average of 50.3fps at 1080p with ultra settings. The Xotic bested the Gigabyte P35X v5 by about 11fps. On the flip side, the Eurocom Sky X9 still outran the GT72S by 7fps in the same test. For comparison, the P35X is armed with a 3.5GHz i7-6700HQ and a GTX 980M, while the Sky wields a desktop i7-6700K and a GTX 980.
It’s worth noting here that with the launch of Nvidia’s Pascal line of GPUs, it won’t be too long before we start seeing GTX 1060s, 1070s, and 1080s in laptops. Maxwell still has a lot of power, but the architecture’s (and the 900 series’s) days are numbered.
It was interesting to compare the Xotic’s Core i7-6920HQ to the Core i7-6700HQ that is so common in other mobile gaming PCs. In just about every test, the i7-6920HQ has the edge. The Xotic beat the Acer Predator 15 by 65 points in Cinebench 15, and the Xotic pulled ahead in x264 too, although only by a little over 1fps. These wins, though sometimes small, can be attributed to the 6920HQ’s 8MB of cache (compared to the 6700HQ’s 6MB), and the fact that the 6920HQ has a 300MHz advantage.
Like we said at the outset, this PC is large. While some may be appalled at the size, the PC’s thickness allows for an optical drive, a more robust cooling solution, and better audio acoustics. At 8.4 pounds, it isn’t something you’d want to carry around in your hands. However, we were able to carry it in an MSI GT hardshell backpack for testing, which worked quite well. If you’re planning on buying the GT72S, we recommend snapping up a good backpack, too.
At over $4,000 as configured, this PC is definitely an investment—you can build a formidable desktop PC for that amount, after all. But then again, you can’t take your desktop as carry-on.