The MSI GT83VR Titan Review: 1080 Times 3
by Brett Howse on April 13, 2017 8:00 AM ESTAbout two years ago, we looked at the latest creation from the minds of MSI. The GT80 Titan was their boldest move yet, and set the bar for performance, featured the world’s first fully mechanical keyboard on a gaming laptop, and packed in one of the largest displays available, with the 18.4-inch FHD panel. This was the only Broadwell quad-core laptop we tested, since the mobile quad-cores were very short lived, and were quickly replaced by Skylake. It featured two NVIDIA GTX 980M graphics cards in SLI, and sat atop our Notebook Bench with the highest performance we’d seen, at least until NVIDIA’s Pascal came along.
MSI updated the GT80 Titan as a mid-cycle refresh, adding Skylake and the GTX 980 (non M) in SLI as well, so the Titan series has not sat idle. Today we are taking a look at the latest incarnation from MSI, dubbed the MSI GT83VR Titan. The GT80 Titan was one of the best notebooks of its time, and surprised us with the quality and capabilities that it had. The mechanical keyboard was a fantastic addition, and the titanic size (pun intended) meant that despite the powerful components inside, it ran cool, and relatively quiet, even under load. Today we’ll see if the GT83VR Titan can live up to those high expectations.
When looking at a gaming laptop, performance is obviously one of the keys. MSI does not disappoint here, with Kaby Lake quad-core Core i7-7920HQ, which is 3.1-4.1 GHz with 8 MB of cache, in a 45-Watt package. Graphics are now Pascal based, with SLI GTX 1070 or GTX 1080, up to 64 GB of DDR4, and up to 1 TB of PCIe SSD storage, along with 1 TB of SATA HDD storage. Being a large gaming laptop, the RAM and storage can be upgraded by the end user. MSI shipped us the top of the line unit, with SLI GTX 1080, 64 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of SSD.
MSI GT83VR Titan 7RF | |
CPU | Intel Core i7-7920HQ 4C/8T 3.1-4.1 GHz 8MB Cache 45W TDP |
GPU | NVIDIA GTX 1080 SLI 2560 CUDA Cores, 8GB GDDR5X Per Card 1557-1734 MHz |
Memory | Up to 64 GB Dual-Channel DDR4 |
Display | 18.4" 1920x1080 IPS 60 Hz |
Storage | Up to 2 x 2TB PCIe NVMe (RAID 0) 1 TB HDD |
I/O | 5 x USB 3.0 1 x USB 3.1 w/Thunderbolt 3 1 x HDMI 2.0 1 x mini DisplayPort 1 x SPDIF Microphone Input Audio Output Headphone Jack |
Dimensions | 429 x 315 x 43.2-63.5 mm 16.9 x 12.4 x 1.7-2.5 inches |
Weight | 5.94 kg / 13.1 lbs |
Battery | 75 Wh, 2 x 330W AC Adapter |
Networking | Killer Doubleshot Pro Killer Wireless-AC 1535 2x2:2 MU-MIMO Killer E2500 Gigabit NIC |
Price | $4399+ USD As Tested: $5200 USD |
The rest of the laptop has pretty much been carried over from the GT80. There’s still a mechanical keyboard, but the keyboard now features Cherry MX Speed Silver switches and per-key lighting. There’s a Type-C USB 3.1 with Thunderbolt 3, and one without Thunderbolt, five USB 3.0, RJ45 with Killer networking, HDMI 2.0, SD, and Mini-DisplayPort.
The MSI GT83VR Titan definitely qualifies as a desktop replacement, with plenty of performance, a desktop keyboard, and lots of IO. But has the design held up to time? That’s the real question. For those looking for a bit less power, and a bit less cost, MSI also sells the GT83VR Titan 7RE with GTX 1070 SLI.
57 Comments
View All Comments
mlambert890 - Sunday, April 16, 2017 - link
"Mostly the same functionality"?You dont get 1080 SLI.
You get an even uglier even *less* portable form factor.
You dont get a premium CPU given mini-ITX and the poor cooling design.
This crazy post takes the tired "but build doe!!!!!" argument against a premium laptop to an insane new dimension
lazarpandar - Saturday, April 15, 2017 - link
No reason to strap all that shit to the back of a monitor........... would not buy or ever recommend.Dug - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
Why? I can't imagine they will sell more than 1 of these.And that's probably because the designer's grandma felt sorry for him and bought one to make him feel better.
wapac - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
On the GPU Performance page it has "Shadow or Mordor"Brett Howse - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
fixed thanks!CoreLogicCom - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
You have to be kidding me. I'd rather get a Sager/Clevo based laptop (ie OriginPC or System76) that can take a 4k 17" panel, desktop class 7700K cpu, up to dual 1080 in SLI, and the rest of the storage and connectivity items, etc and still be cheaper. Sure I'd like the keyboard here on the Sager but not enough to compromise and buy this MSI. I really wish Killer would go away, too. I'll take an Intel NIC and WLAN card.sonicmerlin - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
Kai o Ken... times four!!!digiguy - Friday, April 14, 2017 - link
even the crazy Acer Predator 21x makes more sense than this...Flux0r - Friday, April 14, 2017 - link
I bought my last MSI laptop in 2014, a GS30 shadow with dock for $1700.By 2016 it was a paperweight, cracked screen and cpu fan ball bearing failure.
No parts available anywhere. MSI refused to support.
I can only imagine the rage from the owner of a $5200 paperweight.
Shadowmaster625 - Friday, April 14, 2017 - link
This is retarded. The original GT80 Titan already overpowered that display. $5000 for a 1080p notebook is for teh dumb.