MSI GE76 Raider

amazon MSI GE76 Raider reviews

Equipped with an Intel Core i9-11980HK chip and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 card in the highest configuration version, the MSI GE76 Raider is one of the highest-performing gaming laptops on the market today.

Specifications

CPU: Intel Core i9-11980HK

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080

RAM: 32GB

Memory: 1TB SSD

Display: 17.3-inch, 1920x1080p, 360 Hz

Dimensions: 15.63 x 10.57 x 1.08 inches

Weight: 2.9 kg

Eye-catching design

MSI GE76 Raider is a laptop with a massive design, with an overall weight of up to 2.9 kg. However, in terms of size, MSI’s gaming laptop has a relatively slim appearance when compared to other models in the same segment. MSI’s Raider series has not changed much in terms of design compared to the previous version, except for the 17-inch screen.

The color version of the MSI GE76 Raider that we used in the review is called Titanium Blue. The outer shell of the machine has main color is silver gray and only lights up metallic blue when viewed at a certain angle.

The MSI GE76 Raider is a laptop with a gamer-like design. Its display is encased within a slim bezel, finished with diagonal cuts at the edges for a more aggressive look.

Located on the body of the Raider is a full-size keyboard, flanked by a full numeric keypad. The keyboard set is brightly lit by a brilliant RGB lighting system. In addition to the lighting system for these buttons, the laptop is also decorated with a strip of RGB lights located on the front edge of the body.

The machine’s aluminum outer shell has a good build quality, giving it a very solid feel when held in the hand as well as when in use.

The machine is equipped with many connection ports of diverse types, divided equally among 3 sides of the laptop. Specifically, on the left edge, you will find 1 USB Type-A port and 1 USB Type-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an anti-theft lock slot. Meanwhile, on the right side, there are 2 more USB Type-A ports and a full-size SD card reader slot.

The remaining ports of the Raider are located on the rear edge of the body, which includes 1 Mini DisplayPort, 1 Thunderbolt 4 port, an Ethernet jack, an HDMI port, and a power port.

Screen

GE76 Raider is equipped with a screen with a diagonal of 17.3 inches, 1080p resolution, and a high refresh rate of 360Hz. This is a suitable background for playing fast-paced games, thanks to its ability to display up to 360 frames per second.

In our test, the screen of the GE76 Raider averaged 319 nits, just enough to surpass the screen brightness of the Alienware m17 R4 (316 nits) and Aorus 17G (311 nits).

Based on the results obtained from the color calibrator, the Raider screen is capable of covering 73.3% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. This color coverage result is a bit lower when compared to gaming laptops in the same segment.

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Keyboard and touchpad

For many years, MSI has equipped its gaming laptop models with keyboards manufactured by SteelSeries. The GE76 Raider is one of those models. The keyboard set of this gaming laptop version is of good quality, with responsive buttons and good tactile feedback, providing a good user experience.

The machine’s touchpad has a 2-way size of 4.1 x 2.5 inches, providing just enough usable area for me to perform well the multi-finger swipes of Windows 10.

Ability to play games

MSI equips this Raider version with the top graphics card in the segment, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 with 16GB of VRAM. Accompanying the powerful graphics card is the Intel Core i9-11980HK chip, providing an impressive level of overall performance in the segment.

To test whether the RTX 3080 card could take full advantage of the 360Hz display, I opened up the Dota 2 game and selected the unlimited frame rate setting. When reducing the game’s resolution to 720p and rendering quality to 60%, the frame rate that the laptop achieved fluctuated between 320 and 350 fps.

Test the graphics processing capabilities of the machine with a game with a heavier configuration, namely Control. When playing at 1080p, with the Ray Tracing setting enabled, the laptop had a frame rate that fluctuated between 70 and 80 fps.

At Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest configuration setting, 1080p), the Raider averaged 106 fps, surpassing competitor Alienware m17 R4 (103 fps).

Performance

Powered by Intel’s top chip Core i9-11980HK, along with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, the GE76 Raider not only delivers great gaming performance but also allows you to quickly get anything done daily workload.

Testing the performance of the machine with Geekbench 5, the Raider scored single and multi-core of 1594 and 8388 points, respectively. These are the 2 highest results compared to the segment.

The Raider did well in our write speed test, copying a 25GB file for an average speed of 1309.64 MBps. This SSD is faster when compared to two gaming laptops from Alienware and Gigabyte, but slightly worse than ROG Strix (1499 MBps).

The GE76 Raider encountered a bit of difficulty in the video transcoding speed test with the HandBrake application. Specifically, the laptop completed the conversion of a 4K video to 1080p resolution within 7 minutes and 12 seconds. This is not a bad result, but it is worse when compared to the completion times of Alienware (6 minutes 44 seconds) and Strix (6 minutes 11 seconds).

Battery life

As a performance gaming laptop with a large screen, the GE76 Raider didn’t last long in our battery life test. Specifically, the laptop powered off after only 2 hours and 40 minutes of continuous web surfing using a wifi network, with the screen brightness adjusted at 150 nits.

This battery life result, though 35 minutes longer than the Alienware m15, is much worse when compared to the battery life of the Gigabyte Aorus 17G and Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 in the same test.

Heat dissipation ability

We obtained body temperature results when the laptop ran the Metro Exodus game to determine the machine’s heat dissipation performance.

During this time, the keyboard center area, specifically between the G and H keys, the laptop had a measured temperature of 46.4 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the touchpad area had a more comfortable temperature than a bit, recorded is 89.2 degrees Celsius. The area with the highest temperature is located in the chassis position, with a measured temperature of 59.8 degrees Celsius.

Summary

For those who are looking for a gaming laptop with top performance and the ability to replace the desktop when needed, the MSI GE76 Raider is the top choice that you need to consider. In addition to the peak performance that the laptop brings, the machine is also equipped with a screen with a refresh rate of up to 360 Hz.

The machine has a heat level that gives off warmth when playing games, but this is a common limitation of laptops in this segment. If you are looking for a gaming laptop with top performance in the segment, capable of playing every game on the market, then the MSI GE76 Raider will be a good choice.