MSI GT75 TITAN 4K-012 Gaming Laptop Review

Peak Performance out of the Box

MSI is known for their gaming laptops. While the Chinese company makes a variety of different computers, their gaming rigs are the bread and butter of their business model. But even by the standards MSI has set, the GT75 Titan is impressive. It stuffs the highest end hardware components into a tight little frame and runs like butter. While the price tag is steep, there’s a lot of value here. Normally even the highest tier gaming laptops cut corners somewhere: be it in a shallow keyboard or dim display or reduced memory storage. But MSI delivers peak performance out of the box without the need for upgrades or attachments. Read on to learn more.

Performance

The GT75 makes use of a 8th Gen 2.9-GHz Intel Core i9-8950HK processor. The i9 series of Intel processors are hands down and inarguably the most powerful option for gaming laptops, and the eight generation’s construction signifies a major improvement in performance when compared to the previous generation. It makes use of six cores, and it should be more than enough to run every modern game smoothly and crisply, but it can also be overclocked if you’re really trying to squeeze as much juice out of your machine as possible. 32 GB of RAM helps improve general performance and load times. The simple fact is, if you’re looking for gaming laptops with more processing power than the GT75, you’ll have to wait at least a few years. This represents the pinnacle of what you can find today.

Graphics

Equally as impressive as the top shelf core processor is the graphics card in the GT75. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU represents the top of the barrel regarding graphical performance, and that’s further bolstered by the inclusion of 8 GB of VRAM. As you might expect from such a heavy rig, you can expect a full HD resolution of 1920 X 1080, but what’s more surprising is how nimbly it runs. The latest games on the highest performance settings can regularly hit a frame rate approaching 100 fps.

Drop it down just one level and you can expect even better results. Suffice to say, it performs well above any standard industry benchmarks in that regard. If there was any doubt, this is a machine that’s ready for virtual reality. We may be early in the advent of consumer VR technology still, but you can expect the GT75 to perform admirably even as the technology continues to develop and become more sophisticated in its execution.

Display

The graphical processing prowess of the Titan wouldn’t amount to much if it doesn’t have a display that can do it justice. Fortunately, the Titan’s 17.3″ screen is uniformly impressive. This is an exceptional display capable of reaching Ultra HD resolutions of 3840 X 2160 pixels. You don’t have to worry about dimness here, and the level of detail in the color contrast is truly world class. It can display 175% of the color scale. While this display sports a refresh rate of 144 Hz, it also supports Nvidia’s G-Sync technology so that it can perform well even in games that support refresh rates exceeding that. It also supports ray tracing technology, and while that’s an underutilized capability that allows for highly photorealistic effects, it’s likely to become more predominant in the years to come.

Cooling and Battery Life

All the power packed into the GT75 comes at a price, but it’s one that’s endemic in all gaming laptops that scale to the luxury end of things. The battery life on the GT75 lasts roughly three hours, but that’s a practical standard. While that’s a little shorter than some gaming laptops in this class and a little longer than others, the distinction in either respect is negligible.

What’s more surprising is how cool this gaming laptop runs. No matter how much you push the performance of this machine, you can expect a temperature well below 100 degrees at any point where it would be touching your body. That’s due to the Cooler Boost Titan technology used in the GT75. It makes use of dual fans and eleven different heat pipes and employs separate cooling solutions for your GPU and CPU. That allows you to push this machine as hard as you could want without concerns about overheating or causing any internal damage.

For a little extra help cooling your laptop, take a look at our Laptop Cooling Pad Guide.

Peripherals

When a manufacturer needs to cut costs on gaming laptops, keyboards are usually the first thing to go, and that’s true even for high end gaming laptops. But MSI clearly didn’t get the memo. MSI went all out in the construction here, offering a mechanical keyboard with island-style keys. You can expect lightning fast typing and a refreshingly responsive tactile experience here. MSI has partnered with SteelSeries, one of the leaders in this market, to create the keyboard, and it shows. Each of the keys are customizable RGB backlighting, and both macros and application shortcuts are supported as well.

The touchpad is pretty large in size and comfortable, but it’s still just a trackpad. Until manufacturers find a way to change up the formula, a proper third party gaming mouse will always be preferable, and sometimes practically necessary for serious or professional gamers.

Final Thoughts

MSI’s GT75 Titan proves that you can have it all, though it isn’t a budget laptop by any means. While most gaming laptops on the market have something going against them, MSI gets everything right around the board. Because while most manufacturers understand the importance of a good GPU and CPU, MSI excels at the smaller touches. A staggering number of ports and a surprisingly solid speaker system round out a package that excels from top to bottom, and the Titan should continue to serve you well for years to come.

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