Introduced only a few months ago, MSI has updated its GT60 and GT70 gaming notebooks to offer the fastest mobile graphics processor in Nvidia's arsenal. Priced at $1,900, the GT60 comes equipped with a 15.6-inch 1080p display, an Intel Core i7-3610QM, a GeForce GTX 680M with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, 12GB of DDR3 1600MHz RAM, a 750GB 7200RPM hard drive and a DVD drive.
For $2,600, the GT70 pushes that to a 17.3-inch 1080p screen, dual 128GB SSDs in RAID alongside a 750GB storage drive, 16GB of RAM, a Blu-ray burner and a second USB 2.0 port. Expectedly, the larger system's overall weight increases by nearly a pound from 7.7lbs to 8.6lbs.
Both machines carry a programmable multi-color backlit gaming keyboard designed in partnership with SteelSeries, a network card by Killer Gaming, gold-plated audio jacks with an amplifier, a 720p webcam, a 7-in-1 card reader, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, three USB 3.0 ports, an eSATA port, as well as VGA and HDMI 1.4 outputs.
The systems ship with a nine-cell battery, though MSI doesn't seem to offer any estimations on run time. "Not long" is probably a fair guess if you're doing anything intensive, as the GTX 680M alone has a 100W TDP.
Based on Notebookcheck's tests, the Kepler GPU should offer playable framerates when running most modern games on respectable settings. A notebook similar to the GT70 offered between 40fps and 60fps when playing titles like Max Payne 3, Dirt Showdown, Alan Wake, Batman: Arkham City, TES V: Skyrim and Crysis 2 on high or ultra.