It can happen when nVidia Optimus is turned ON. Turn it off and try again.
nVidia Optimus technology switches between cpu's integrated graphics and discreet videocard depending on load. Sometimes it does it ineffectively, causing lags.
It is used on laptops only, iirc.

Hmmm, how do you "turn it off"? I know you can select in the NVidia control panel whether:

1. Let the drivers decide automatically when to use Geforce and when Intel GPU.

2. Prefer using Geforce.

3. Prefer using Intel.

That can be set as an universal setting, or case by case, for each game or application separately. It seems that regardless of your choice, the driver might still choose differently, allegedly for compatibility reasons.

I don't recall any option to "turn off" Optimus though. Which GPU would it use then?

The ability to select the GPU case by case is sometimes quite useful though. Sometimes if the game doesn't work correctly on one GPU, it might work fine if you switch the GPU to the other. For instance Gorky 17, compatibility problems with Geforce, works great with Intel GPU.

In the games of The Witcher 3, I'd definitely try to run it with Geforce of course (force it to use the Geforce GPU, if necessary).

That's right. It's in the control panel.
By saying "turn off" i mean you can force laptop to use only discreet gpu or cpu's integrated graphics.
If someone knows Russian language, there is a good tutorial on nVidia Optimus. I used it to solve performance issues on friend's laptop.

To the OP: Something's wrong with your laptop. I would have it checked out. It's normal for the keyboard to get warm when playing a demanding game, but it shouldn't be hot enough to give you blisters.

I didn't read all of this thread, but turn VSync back on. It caps your FPS to 60. With it off, you might be over-doing it.

Also, get a new laptop.

It's a sentence. So naturally it doesn't encompass the entirety of the situation. Plus it's not like I'm taking this thread seriously. But there are definitely laptop manufacturers who aren't being duly responsible. Like those who'd even consider a installing a high end GPU like that in something that is going to burn like a supernova the second it's even moderately tested.

Even the Witcher 3 shouldn't really push a 970 to its limits, yet it's damn near melting that laptop all the same. So yes, there's truth in that. The simple truth is that no matter what hardware system builders jam in there, a laptop should at most be considered slightly above average for a new PC. So there's no point in buying anything that exceeds that criteria.

Also, since it is a bigger 17.3" gaming laptop, it should certainly have good ventilation. I've usually associated the "hot keyboard"-feature to smaller non-gaming laptops which are run near their limits.

http://www.msi.com/product/notebook/GE72-2QF-Apache-Pro.html#hero-overview

"Cooler Boost 3: higher efficiency dual cooling system"... I wonder if that is worth anything then, besides marketing?

Then again if a fan gets totally broken, the system should notice that upon bootup and refuse to proceed.

Question to OP. do the fans seem to run ok, ie. you can feel there is warm/hot air being constantly pushed out from the laptop? Maybe you even hear the fan(s) spin up faster when running TW3? Then it should be working as it should, even though 85 C CPU (or more) core temp is still maybe a bit too high.

Also it wasn't clear to me: was this problem only when you disabled vsync? I'd suggest two things (which were kinda mentioned already before):

- Enable vsync in the game.

- From the NVidia Control Panel, force The Witcher 3 to use the NVidia Geforce GPU (using Intel GPU wouldn't certainly cause overheating, but just thinking it might have caused the performance problems you reported when enabling vsync, if the Optimus system somehow incorrectly switched to the Intel GPU at that point).

Do you then have performance, or overheating, problems?

LOL come on. :) Apparently that MSI laptop model is quite new, it even comes with Windows 10 preloaded. (Then again he didn't reveal the exact laptop model only until later in the thread.). So if there is some manufacturing problem in it causing overheating, warranty should cover it.

I agree with you though: enable vsync back, and make sure NVidia GPU is being utilized with TW3.

I recall reading on the ASUS user forums a couple of years ago when some people were complaining about their 15" ASUS gaming laptops overheating (the CPU). One of them opened the laptop and saw some kind of "film" (wrapper) on top of the CPU. He removed it, and it seemed the overheating problem was gone. So it appeared like there had been some manufacturing problem on some patch of the laptops, forgetting to remove some protective sheet or something?

I didn't follow that discussion long enough to find out if that was really the case, but that sounded odd anyway. Was the "CPU wrapper" there on purpose, or inadvertently?

Ah, looking it up it seems in the book version it was Frisby. I didn't know that, interesting.

I wasn't kidding. If it's under warranty, s/he needs to get it warranty repaired if it's causing burning-hot heat from the top - if a warranty repair is available. If it's not available, then either get it repaired or spend some money to trade it out. That kind of heat will destroy that laptop with enough time.

LOLing at the "it's broken" posts.

you're right.
problem solved.
i changed some sort of settings on Nvidia and made sure to run TW3 with GTX 970M
then it ran quite well so i turned Vsync on again. but still no problem.

guess my problem was damn OPTIMUS thing.

bless you everyone and timppu. love u

And bless the Eternal Fire!

would have been cooler if tc actually learnt the burning hands spell.