T
he MSI GT76 Titan lives up to its name, weighing
4kg, costing four grand and being packed with
desktop-level hardware. There’s the desktop RTX
2080 GPU, for starters, which has 2,944 stream processors
and 8GB of memory, and the boost frequency is overclocked
from 1710MHz to 1755MHz.
Likewise, the Core i9-9900K is one
of Intel’s beefiest consumer chips, with
eight Hyper-Threaded cores alongside
a peak boost clock of 5GHz. The rest of
the specification is monstrous too.
There’s 64GB of DDR4 memory, and a
1TB RAID 0 array made from two
Samsung PM981 NVMe SSDs. You get
a 1TB hard drive as well, and networking
is handled by dual-band 802.11ax Wi-Fi
and Killer 2.5Gbps Ethernet.
This isn’t the first laptop we’ve seen
with components at this level. The
£3,799 Alienware Area 51m included
the RTX 2080 with an overclock,
alongside a Core i9-9900K CPU, 32GB
of memory and a similar RAID SSD
storage setup. The MSI weighs 4kg and
comes with two power bricks that add
1.8kg, and it’s 397mm wide and 42mm
thick. The Alienware is slimmer and
lighter at 31mm and 3.87kg, and its
power bricks weigh 1.5kg.
The MSI beats the Alienware for
connections though. It has four full-
sized USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports and twoType-C connectors, one of which supports Thunderbolt 3.
There are HDMI and mini-DisplayPort connectors as well,
alongside two audio jacks and a micro-SD slot. What’s more,
there’s full internal access with two free memory slots.
The machine looks like a typical gaming laptop, with
loads of RGB LEDs and huge cooling vents. Build quality is
generally good too, but it’s not flawless. The screen is
robust, but there’s some movement in the wrist rest and
the plastic underside is flimsy.
You get a SteelSeries keyboard with per-key RGB
backlighting, and quiet, consistent switches with a
reasonable amount of travel. It’s fine for typing and general
gaming. However, these buttons still suffer from familiar
flaws, lacking the precision and snap of mechanical units.
This keyboard also has slim numberpad keys and no macro
buttons. The Alienware is better. While its keyboard
remains spongy, it has more travel and five macro buttons.
Meanwhile, the MSI’s touchpad is fine, but the buttons are
underwhelming, with inconsistent clicking.Performance
We weren’t able to test the GT76 using Nvidia FrameView
due to a software error, but FRAPS still demonstrated this
machine’s abilities. We used MSI’s default Comfort mode,
which runs the GPU at around 1860MHz. Here, all of the
frame rates at 4K stayed above 30fps, which is playable,
but you’re going to need to drop the resolution below the
native 4K settings for smooth gameplay at top settings.
However, that’s more than enough power for a VR headset.
The Alienware’s 1080p screen is a better match for the
hardware. Testing at 1080p saw the MSI deliver minimum
frame rates of 91fps and 76fps in Shadow of the Tomb
Raider and Total War: Warhammer II, but the Alienware
was slightly ahead.REVIEWS / LAPTOPS
MSI GT76 TITAN
DT 9SG/£4,000 inc VAT
SUPPLIER overclockers.co.ukGAMING LAPTOP
SPEC
CPU
3.6GHz Intel Core i9-9900K
Memory
64GB 2666MHz DDR4
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 8GB
Screen
17.3in 3,840 x 2,160 IPS 60Hz
Storage
2 x 512GB Samsung PM981 M.2
SSDs in RAID 0, 1TB hard disk
Networking
Dual-band 802.11ax Wi-Fi,
Killer 2.5Gbps Ethernet
Weight
4 kg
Ports
4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen
2 Type-C/Thunderbolt 3, 1 x USB
3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 1 x HDMI, 1 x mini-
DisplayPort, 1 x micro SD, 2 x audio
Dimensions (mm)
397 x 330 x 42 (W x D x H)
Extras
Bluetooth 5
Operating system
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Warranty
Two years parts and labour return to baseT
he MSI GT76 Titan lives up to its name, weighing
4kg, costing four grand and being packed with
desktop-level hardware. There’s the desktop RTX
2080 GPU, for starters, which has 2,944 stream processors
and 8GB of memory, and the boost frequency is overclocked
from 1710MHz to 1755MHz.
Likewise, the Core i9-9900K is one
of Intel’s beefiest consumer chips, with
eight Hyper-Threaded cores alongside
a peak boost clock of 5GHz. The rest of
the specification is monstrous too.
There’s 64GB of DDR4 memory, and a
1TB RAID 0 array made from two
Samsung PM981 NVMe SSDs. You get
a 1TB hard drive as well, and networking
is handled by dual-band 802.11ax Wi-Fi
and Killer 2.5Gbps Ethernet.
This isn’t the first laptop we’ve seen
with components at this level. The
£3,799 Alienware Area 51m included
the RTX 2080 with an overclock,
alongside a Core i9-9900K CPU, 32GB
of memory and a similar RAID SSD
storage setup. The MSI weighs 4kg and
comes with two power bricks that add
1.8kg, and it’s 397mm wide and 42mm
thick. The Alienware is slimmer and
lighter at 31mm and 3.87kg, and its
power bricks weigh 1.5kg.
The MSI beats the Alienware for
connections though. It has four full-
sized USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports and twoType-C connectors, one of which supports Thunderbolt 3.
There are HDMI and mini-DisplayPort connectors as well,
alongside two audio jacks and a micro-SD slot. What’s more,
there’s full internal access with two free memory slots.
The machine looks like a typical gaming laptop, with
loads of RGB LEDs and huge cooling vents. Build quality is
generally good too, but it’s not flawless. The screen is
robust, but there’s some movement in the wrist rest and
the plastic underside is flimsy.
You get a SteelSeries keyboard with per-key RGB
backlighting, and quiet, consistent switches with a
reasonable amount of travel. It’s fine for typing and general
gaming. However, these buttons still suffer from familiar
flaws, lacking the precision and snap of mechanical units.
This keyboard also has slim numberpad keys and no macro
buttons. The Alienware is better. While its keyboard
remains spongy, it has more travel and five macro buttons.
Meanwhile, the MSI’s touchpad is fine, but the buttons are
underwhelming, with inconsistent clicking.Performance
We weren’t able to test the GT76 using Nvidia FrameView
due to a software error, but FRAPS still demonstrated this
machine’s abilities. We used MSI’s default Comfort mode,
which runs the GPU at around 1860MHz. Here, all of the
frame rates at 4K stayed above 30fps, which is playable,
but you’re going to need to drop the resolution below the
native 4K settings for smooth gameplay at top settings.
However, that’s more than enough power for a VR headset.
The Alienware’s 1080p screen is a better match for the
hardware. Testing at 1080p saw the MSI deliver minimum
frame rates of 91fps and 76fps in Shadow of the Tomb
Raider and Total War: Warhammer II, but the Alienware
was slightly ahead.REVIEWS / LAPTOPS
MSI GT76TITAN
DT9SG/£4,000 inc VAT
SUPPLIER overclockers.co.ukGAMING LAPTOP
SPEC
CPU
3.6GHz Intel Core i9-9900K
Memory
64GB 2666MHz DDR4
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 8GB
Screen
17.3in 3,840 x 2,160 IPS 60Hz
Storage
2 x 512GB Samsung PM981 M.2
SSDs in RAID 0, 1TB hard disk
Networking
Dual-band 802.11ax Wi-Fi,
Killer 2.5Gbps Ethernet
Weight
4 kg
Ports
4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen
2 Type-C/Thunderbolt 3, 1 x USB
3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 1 x HDMI, 1 x mini-
DisplayPort, 1 x micro SD, 2 x audio
Dimensions (mm)
397 x 330 x 42 (W x D x H)
Extras
Bluetooth 5
Operating system
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Warranty
Two years parts and labour return to base