Makes desktops seem underpowered.
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If you were to write down what specs a dream gaming laptop would have, that list and the MSI GT83VR 7RF Titan SLI (See it on Amazon) would match perfectly. With one exception: your budget. The MSI GT83VR 7RF Titan SLI doesn’t care about budget. It just crams every single possible wish list feature under the sun into one heavy (but technically still portable) package. MSI took every high-end component it had on-hand and stuffed them into a portable housing without worrying about the cost. After the dust settled, the total came to $5,399. Talk about sticker shock.
When I say this laptop is "loaded," I'm not using hyperbole. It's so powerful it needs two power supplies. Let's take a closer look.
Here are the specifications of the GT83VR Titan SLI I'm specifically evaluating here:
- Model: GT83VR 7RF Titan SLI
- Display: 18.4-inch Full HD (1920x1080), IPS panel
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 1080 SLI, 8GB + 8GB GDDR5X
- Processor: Intel Core i7-7290HQ @ 3.10GHz
- Memory: 64GB DDR4
- OS: Windows 10
- OS Drive: 1TB PCIe NVME SSD in RAID 0
- Storage Drive: 1TB 7200RPM
- Optical Drive: BD Burner/DVD Super Writer
- Ports: 1x USB 3.1 Type-C, 5x USB 3.0, 1x SD card reader, 1x miniDisplayPort, 1x microphone in, 1x headphone out
- Battery: 8-cell (79,344 mWh)
- Wireless: Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-fi 802.11AC
- Weight: 13.13 pounds
- Price: $5,399
Crazy, right? So what’s it like to use a fully-loaded, completely out of the realm of affordability for most, gaming laptop? In one word: Amazing. As long as you don't actually try to take it anywhere. Which, admittedly, is sort of the point.
Design and Features
So you want a laptop that’s as powerful as, or more powerful than, most desktops, eh? Well, here it is. There’s only one problem; it’s huge. HUGE. It weighs 13.13 pounds and measures 16.85 x 12.36 x 2.52-inches. It's so big that even at its thinnest point it’s still 1.66-inches, thanks to its tapered design. And as I wrote above, it requires two power supplies, most likely because of its dual GPU setup.
Powering this beast of a laptop is an Intel Core i7-7920HQ with a base clock of 3.10GHz, and a Turbo clock of 4.1GHz. On the GPU front there's two GeForce GTX 1080s in SLI, and topping things off is a whopping 64GB of DDR4 RAM. Things are just as gnarly on the storage front as the OS is contained on two 500GB PCIe NVME SSDs in RAID 0, and there's a 1TB 7,200rpm hard drive for data storage too. All of this is as top-of-the-line as you can get with current technology.
Eight ports are on the left side, ranging from USB to audio, to an SD card reader. On the backside is the single USB-C 3.1 Thunderbolt 3 port, mini DisplayPort, HDMI, power, and Ethernet. The right side is almost comparatively bare, with just two more USB ports.
Upon opening the lid, you’re immediately greeted by a mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Speed switches (swoon!) and a touchpad on the right. In-between the keyboard and the massive 18.4-inch display is an empty space, making room for the cooling system and Dynaudio speakers.
The bezels around the display are fairly large, but that’s expected with a device that is unapologetically big in every way. Overall, the Full HD (1920x1080) display was sharp with sufficient color saturation. I do have a gripe, however, about the display included on this unit. With dual GTX 1080 GPUs, it can clearly power a 4K panel, or at least a 1920x1080 120Hz panel -- so why aren't those options? As of this review, there's no option to upgrade the display at all, so you're stuck with an old fashioned 1080p display at 60Hz, which is a really major shortcoming on such a powerful machine.
Speaking of little issues, my loudest complaint about this monster is the touchpad. It’s far too sensitive to use for casual use, with errant taps registering while scrolling through a web page or the app list. I do, however, like that it can turn into a number pad with a tap on the “num” button in the top-left corner of the pad.
As far as the keyboard goes, if you like Cherry MX switches, you'll love the way these feel. It's worth pointing out this is one of the only laptops I've ever seen with a real mechanical keyboard, as most laptops are too thin to house the switching mechanism, but obviously that's not a problem on this laptop. The keys are crisp, responsive, and have that reassuring click mechanical keyboards are known for. And the most unsurprising feature on this laptop is that it has full RGB lighting as well.
Software
MSI preloads a series of programs on the GT83VR Titan SLI, each one with its own purpose. The Killer Control Center provides a connection manager where you can prioritize bandwidth for specific programs and analyze Wi-Fi. Naturally, the SteelSeries Engine 3 allows for color customization of the keyboard, along with profiles, key bindings, and macros.
MSI’s Dragon Center provides a system monitor, for keeping tabs on memory use, fan speeds, CPU/GPU load, and temps. Dragon Center also has a system tuner to control functions like VR auto-detection, power options, fan speed, and sound preferences. There are five total user customizable profiles available, each one with its own keyboard shortcut.
Since this system uses an HQ processor you can't overclock it, but with as much power as it has that's not much of a loss really. Overclocking laptops usually just results in more fan noise and heat for a barely-noticeable bump in performance.
Something else worth pointing out is just how quiet the fans are, and how loud the audio is. For most of my testing I left the volume level around 30, which was loud enough to be heard over the fans without any issues.
Benchmarks
To investigate the Titan's chops I ran it through our standard gaming benchmarks and compared it to a few other high-end laptops we've tested. Since this is the first GTX 1080 SLI system IGN has tested, it naturally stomped on everything. It would be disappointing if it didn't, with its price tag.
Looking at the benchmark results, I can't say I was surprised at all. I expected it to dominate in every single test, and it did with just one exception; PCMark 8, where it lost by a teeny, tiny margin to the Asus ROG Zephyrus (I think that the CPU-constrained Hitman score is a fluke, also). It's basically the fastest machine available, period. Even calling it a powerhouse is an understatement. What's even more awesome is that even when gaming the system is relatively quiet; thanks to its massive size there's plenty of room for cooling.
Granted, benchmarks only tell part of the performance story. During gameplay, I had zero issues with rendering, frames dropping, or anything worth calling out. I played a lot of PUBG when reviewing this particular unit, and besides the bugs we’ve all encountered, the experience was incredibly smooth. Outside of gaming, most of the performance gains the all-star spec sheet provides aren’t that noticeable. Programs open fast, and and everything is smooth and responsive.
Battery Life
When a laptop comes with dual power supplies, there’s little doubt that it’s actually designed to remain plugged in and not carried around. That said, you can untether from the power supply for about an hour of gaming before it will run out of juice. In my battery rundown test I looped a 4K video until the device powered down, and it lasted for 59 minutes. That happens to be the same exact amount of time I was able to record on several occasions when playing PUBG.
The lesson here? You'll need to keep this bad boy plugged in most of the time. If you do want to take it somewhere, you'll need a backpack big enough for the monstrous laptop and both power supplies.
Purchasing Guide
The MSI GT83VR 7RF Titan SLI has an MSRP of, cough, $5,399, and that's the price it's usually sold at online. It occasionally dips to a little under $5000:
• See the MSI GT83VR 7RF Titan SLI on Amazon
The Verdict
On paper and in the real world, there’s no doubt the GT83VR 7RF Titan SLI is a monster. It delivers on everything it promises, without hesitation. The touchpad is frustrating, but as a gaming machine, you'll probably just use a mouse anyway. The biggest downsides here, besides cost, are its lack of portability and puzzling choice of a 1080p 60Hz display. It's an extremely impressive feat of technical excellence, but MSI seemingly spent so much time thinking about if they could that they didn't stop to think about whether they should.
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