Announcing the Tom's Hardware AMA and Gaming Giveaway with MSI!

[poochiepiano]

Looking at the evolution of gaming standards from the jump to 16:9, then 1080p, to the widely-considered sweet spot 1440p and lust for 4k, do you see the obsession over resolution ever slowing down? Is there a point where you feel that we can move on from worrying about definition and if so, when? Do you personally care very much about it, or are you content with having great gameplay, resolution being relatively unimportant?

 

[Gurg]

Will you ever design graphic boards that can be used to upgrade your laptops? Would love to upgrade my MSI GT70 with 970m to a reasonably priced 1070.

 

[Guest]

Many people are building smaller Mini-ITX/Micro-ATX builds builds with limited Pci-e expansion slots. With many builds getting smaller, not everybody has two available slots. Some of us actually need to use the other expansion slots. We should be seeing more higher-end single slot cards. There is a market for these cards. My customers are constantly begging for them and sadly all there is available is the GT 730.

The GTX 950/RX 460 with cool running 128-bit GDDR5 memory have the potential to be true single slot cards. With the newer 14nm and 16nm architectures (also 28nm Maxwell) and power efficiency we should be past this already. Heat is no longer a problem. Will you design gaming single slot cards with vents to blow out hot air just like the dual slot cards? Hint: The designs of the Quadro M4000, M2000, and K2200.

 

[James Mason]

Are there any new exciting and unexpected products coming from MSI any time soon? Or any revolutionary new air coolers for GPUs like a Twin Frozr 7 or something?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Many of the build requests we receive stipulate common color theme. MSI has in mart, supported this but options have been limited. Power series MoBos and Lightning cards worked..... Krait / Armor works. But the Titanium series has been ignored. One saving grace has been that GFX card shrouds are easily removeable and easy to disassemble for painting.

We have a request for a Titanium based build pending and it's been stalled by our inability to produce a shroud and back plate worthy of the coating on the Titanium board. Next weekend, will be in a friends machine shop experimenting with cutting / machining back plates out of various materials as well as powder coating with various simulated metal finishes.

Now to the question ... what hasn't MSI addressed this market niche with aftermarket accessories ... back plates, shrouds, decals, etc. If it doesn't make sense financially to sell them due to perceived inadequate demand, making templates available for download (CNC Machines, 3D Printers, etc. would make the products far more attractive to the modder marketplace.

BTW, user has asked that we incorporate the MSI Dragon Logo on those custom back plates. I see these all over the net .... for example.
http://www.v1tech.com/shop/backplates/msi-dragon-backplates/

Recognizing that this is MSI Intellectual Property however,I wouldn't want to ruffle any feathers. I don't expect a tacit approval to produce by the 1,000s but do we have to worry about lawyers knocking ion our door when making parts for a custom build ?

 

[Swanka]

I have two questions.

The first is this: In the past few days, you, MSI, have teased and then announced the coming of new VR-ready laptops, set to launch on 15 August, 2016. However, I myself am a first-year college student who has class starting on 6 September, 2016. Will dealers such as Newegg have them in stock in time to buy one before classes begin?

My second question deals with the same laptops: As a student, long battery life is key to success (or at least peace of mind). Have you made any significant improvements in this field? In years and models past, your models have been noted to have sub-par battery life, even for gaming laptops.

 

[g-unit1111]

Another question I have: Because of VR the challenges of integrating desktop power graphics into laptops is becoming more and more critical. And I've seen numerous attempts by MSI and other laptop vendors to incorporate desktop GPUs into laptop form factors, but that defeats the purpose of a laptop being portable. Will the challenge of replicating desktop GPU power in a laptop form factor get easier with each generation or is that something that is impossible at the moment?

 

[KC5VDJ]

Thanks for the opportunity!

I have four questions.

First, I LOVE the Titanium boards, and notice that you just came out with the new ones in the same. Will you (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE) keep the Titanium boards going into the future?

Second, Did any of you that have been with MSI for years ever imagine during the massive boom in Taiwan in the 1980's, when anyone with a garage and some machine tools was starting their own computer / electronics company, that MSI would ever be one of the "Big Three" (MSI, Gigabyte, Asus)?

Third, I am really into ITX, but I am also REALLY into high performance and overclocking, as well as nice looking boards that are great for show in windowed rigs. Right now, out of the big three companies, there is only one ITX solution that fits both criteria (The Asus Impact series). Will MSI PLEASE consider entering into this market space with an ITX board that has worthy power delivery for serious overclocking, and premium audio as well? Maybe even a Titanium (HINT HINT)? Seeing the sales on the Asus Impact, you know this would be a very ripe market to enter. You do make some nice looking ITX boards, as do the other companies, but for any serious performance on today's unlocked CPUs, there is only one board that fits the bill. Asus can not have the riser card idea patented, as there is just so much prior art on that it blows the mind, and also the height limitations for those areas in the mini-ITX specification itself make it quite clear that such was the idea to begin with. Also note that Jetway has for years used risers to fit in the extra features on their ITX boards. There needs to be competition in the high performance mini-ITX space!

Lastly, when are you going to finally make the plushie dragons available to those of us that can not make it to your events? I have a friend with several, but he won't give any of them up! I want one!

 

[Lutfij]

1| Most of us here frequenting on Tom's Hardware may know which motherboard to buy and the why we should buy said board but there are those among us who might not know where each of your product's series stands when compared to another. Apart from having, say, aesthetic difference's could you classify where each motherboard series stands beside your target audience?

2| Acting as an add-on question to JackNaylorPE's post here the color palette on your range of motherboards are diverse but complementing colors from your GPU series are limited. As of now, there are only two variants of your mitx boards on the latest Skylake platform and with the advent of lower power consuming components, smaller form factor PSU's and the ability to now make a themed build(unlike our times in the early '90's+2000's) is it possible to see a titanium(or of another series) based mitx board that is feature packed outside of the black and red scheme?

3| There is an avid modding community running side by side with systembuilders and a portion of them reside here albeit on a different form of exposure. As a member of the community who would like to see more modding initiatives move forward, do you guys see a scope, in the future, whereby you're working with the modding community to help add features to your product range's to make them (more or less)modding friendly?

 

[Calinacase]

First of all, I want to know if like Kc5vdj suggested, you'll make a titanium itx board, It's a great idea.

Secondly, why did you make a sculpty dragon instead of making the plushie dragon more available?

Thirdly, would you all consider making some video cards that match the titanium boards with the fan and shroud options? Red and Black are so common it's frustrating trying to make a build that stands out in the custom builds segment.

 

[synphul]

A couple of questions:

1- Will some of the other boards besides top tier enthusiast motherboards be getting similar 'titanium' or thermal armor treatment?

Boards like the x99 and z170 have the option on some models and though the b150 mortar arctic heads in that direction with a shield over the i/o components none seem to have the shielding. I think thermal armor is as much aesthetic as it is anything and those who opt for more budget oriented chipsets often lose out. Amd boards also seem to be lacking thermal armor options. Is it possible these will be introduced on some of the am4/zen boards coming out in the near future?

2- This is a bit related to the first question and my first opportunity to speak to anyone involved with motherboard design. When it comes to amd boards I've noticed a lack of thermal solutions like thermal armor, vrm heatsinks and vrm power phases in general. Many of the popular cpu's from amd include the fx 6xxx and 8xxx/9xxx 6 and 8 core cpu's yet so many of the boards tend to sport 4+1 power phases or vrm without heatsinks. That leaves people often times choosing a board that doesn't overclock well or struggles to handle their cpu's power demands and at times leads to thermal throttling due to overheating vrm's.

In contrast almost all of intel's boards whether performance z or x99 or lower tier board like b150/h170 intended for locked quad core cpu's with less power consumption feature much more capable 6-8+ phase power and all but a handful of low budget boards feature heatsinks on the vrm. Why is this? Is this part of the design specs sent to MSI from amd or is it a choice that MSI and other board makers decide upon to try and supply amd customers with more budget friendly boards? Is this also something that will potentially be addressed with amd's upcoming zen/am4 motherboards, boards featuring more robust power phases as a rule rather than the exception and things like vrm heatsinks becoming more commonplace as it is with many of intel's boards?

 

[Achoo22]

What is the status of 3D Vision and what steps are your company taking to provide continuing support to customers that bought 3d Vision devices and accessories? Does your long-term support strategy for G-sync and other proprietary technologies differ in any meaningful way from your strategy for 3D Vision?

 

[JakeWearingKhakis]

MSI,

I've always wondered how AMD and NVIDIA decide which companies get the better silicon and how many. Do they tell you ahead of time what the clock limits for each batch are, or are you forced to test the limits of each chip individually as you receive them and hope for the best?

 

[ultimalegacy]

The mobile GPU space has been stagnant. Pascal and Polaris have pushed desktop graphics to the next generation, but where are the next gen mobile GPUs? When will our laptops be able to run games in ultra settings and 4k resolution?

 

[cookiefrancs]

Are you going to offer any pre-built PCs? You already make laptops why not build desktops?

 

[zerosumhorizon]

I am thinking of purchasing a new GTX 1080 graphics card. What makes your GTX 1080 better than the competition?

 

[pickledbutton]

Does MSI have any plans to enter the PSU market?

 

[GhostOfChurchill]

The MSI Afterburner suite is a great piece of software. I can overclock my graphics card even though I don't have a MSI GPU. I'd like to use Afterburner or something similar to overclock my CPU too. Is there any MSI software in beta or available that will automatically overclock my CPU? Do you have any overclocking recommendations? I'm a bit of a noob :lol:

 

[MP5_shooter]

Which do you prefer: air or water cooling?

 

[bilbobumdrum]

You make products primarily for gamers. Your laptops are engineered for gaming needs and your graphics cards are designed to be overclockable. I want to know what games you all are currently playing?

 

[Parsnickety]

Can you tell me the story behind the G-Dragon? I freaking love the thing! It is so cool and it moves too? Who designed it? Who produces it? Is the G-Dragon MSI's new mascot?

 

[jmarpleson]

I love the idea of eGPUs. You can have your sleek and stelthy laptop, but also have the power to game if you need it. Razer, Gigabyte, and Asus have all released plans to develop an external GPU solution. Do you have any upcoming external GPU products in the pipeline? If so can you give us details on their features?

Thanks in advance!

 

[zaaaff]

Can you tell me how you designed your fans and cooling for graphics cards?

 

[swordart4ever]

I'm pretty skeptical of NIC "gaming" network cards. It's supposed to be a NIC designed specifically for online gaming, but people insist that they do not notice any reduction in their ping and in game lag.

The newest generation of Killer NIC products have dropped significantly in price, and are faster than the previous generation.

If I got one would there be an improvement in my online gaming performance and lag reduction or is the integrated NIC on my motherboard sufficient?

 

[syphon_renegade]

Why is 4k such a big deal for gaming and why does require so much power? Take for example the GTX 1080, it can run games in 4k, but for how long? On DX12 games it barely pushes 60 frames in certain games, with the frame rate commonly dropping below 60 fps. When you add up the cost of a new graphics card and a new monitor, 4k gaming seems incredibly expensive. When will 4k gaming be reasonably priced?