MSI is not backing out of the gaming laptop competition as its own MSI GS30 Shadow is keen on competing with Alienware’s Graphic Amplifier. MSI unveiled in the early stages of CES 2015 a gaming machine made to rival the Alienware toe to toe. Alienware’s new Graphic Amplifier tech is designed to offer raw gaming power on a laptop, but MSI took it a bit further with the MSI GS30 Shadow offering not just a GPU boost but an entire gaming dock with some nifty extra bonuses.
The MSI GS30 Shadow is a 13 inch gaming laptop that stands at a 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution with an integrated Iris Pro 5200 GPU. The chip on this beefy machine is a Core i7-4870, backed by a 16GB RAM DDR3L at 1600 MHz. The storage on the MSI GS30 Shadow is a RAID 0 setup with paired 128 GB SSDs.
The specs on MSI GT30 Shadow by itself are not that wow, buuut…. enter the gaming dock! It allows for the full use of a desktop GPU while expanding storage by means of offering a 3.5 inch HDD slot. And if that isn’t enough wait until you hear the speakers on the dock!
MSI representatives at CES 2015 were very on point saying that their machine has an edge over the Alienware’s Graphic Amplifier and it all comes down to bandwidth. Their claims are that the Gaming Amplifier limits the bandwidth to PCI-E x4 speed, while the Gaming Dock offers the full speed of PCI-E x16, which in turn translates to better performance. The bundle comes in at a basic price $1700, but you will have to pump in extra coin for a high grade desktop GPU and an additional HDD. The company stated that the MSI GS30 Shadow and Gaming Dock will only be sold as a bundle until further notice, while the gaming dock will be sold separately with other MSI gaming machines in the future.