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# MSI GS63VR

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Device | GS63-6RF (2016) | GS63 (2017) | GS63-8RE (2018)
CPU | Yes i7-6700HQ | Yes i7-7700HQ | Yes i7-8750H
Display | -- | Full HD 120Hz/3ms | Full HD 120Hz/3ms
Intel IGU | Yes Intel HD Graphics 530 | Yes HD Graphics 630 (i915) | Yes Intel HD Graphics 630
Nvidia GPU | Yes GTX 1060 | Yes GTX 1070 | Yes GTX 1060
Network | Yes | Yes | Yes
Atheros Wireless | Yes | Yes | Yes
ALSA | Yes | Yes | Yes
Touchpad | Manual | Yes | Yes
Webcam | Yes | Yes | Yes
Card Reader | Yes | mmc warning | Yes
Power management | Yes | No | Yes

The GS series of MSI laptops is considered to be a thin gaming laptop. Although it is not thin as ultrabooks, it is still very thin for a gaming laptop. As of October 5th 2017, the 2016 model works fine with the latest kernel. The 2017 model has a bug concerning the eDP LCD display. There is a fix from intel here: https://github.com/freedesktop/drm-tip/commit/0501a3b0eb01ac2209ef6fce76153e5d6b07034e.patch[dead link 2023-05-06—HTTP 404]

This issue was discussed in this thread: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=230541

## Installation

Standard installation works flawlessly per the Installation guide.

## Drivers

### Nvidia/Optimus

It is possible to use Bumblebee to make the Nvidia GPU in this laptop usable. In order to avoid issues caused by the BIOS in the GS63VR when using bbswitch, add `acpi_osi=! acpi_osi="Windows 2009"` to the kernel options at boot (per NVIDIA Optimus#Lockup issue (lspci hangs)).

For HDMI/DP ouput: Bumblebee#Output wired to the NVIDIA chip.

As alternative, you can use Optimus Manager. You can change between Intel and Nvidia restarting the X server and use external screen use nouveau driver.

### Touchpad

This laptop uses an Elantech touchpad, and as such libinput works well. Two finger scrolling works out of the box (tested on GS63-6RF and GS63-8RE). Install libinput-gesturesAUR for more multitouch actions.

### Networking

#### Wireless

NetworkManager works out of the box for Wi-Fi on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks.

### Audio

The headphone jack always acts as SPDIF out and subsequently has no volume control and does not mute the speakers when a device is plugged in. Link to a description of the issue on the ALSA mailing list.

As a workaround it is possible to reassign a microphone input jack using hdajackretask to behave as an audio output.

### SteelSeries keyboard

To set color to Steel Series keyboard use MSIKLM

#### GS63-8RE

Use the instructions on MSI GS65#Keyboard backlight to install msi-perkeyrgbAUR.

### Sleep

If the laptop does not fully enter sleep mode, bluetooth and mobile light stay on and sleep light does not come on. Then try reinstalling TLP.

### Web camera

#### GS63-8RE

`Fn + F6` will toggle disable/ enable the web camera.

### Power management

#### GS63-8RE

After installing NVIDIA, bumblebee, and bbswitch while running KDE power usage is down to ~7W or 9 hours according to powertop.

## Misc

### BIOS

To access the BIOS, from a cold shutdown, repeatedly press the `delete` key immediately after pressing the power button. To access the Boot Device Menu, from a cold shutdown, repeatedly press the `F11` key immediately after pressing the power button.

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