MSI seem to have gotten the ball rolling fresh off this year. With the integration of Intel’s new Kaby lake processors, MSI have combined that and a GTX 1070 Pascal card to make a laptop that’s going to be extremely appealing to gamers. Those who are looking to invest in desktop replacements and have a little extra cash to pony up front. The 2017 refresh of the MSI GT73VR Titan has the designations, 7RF (GTX 1080) or 7RE (GTX 1070) along with Intel’s new Intel Core i7-7820HK that should appease gamers and creative users who are out to search for a new notebook.
I got the 1070 variant of this device, while this titan did come out towards the end of 2016, the gulf market now receives this model in particular. It’s worth noting that there’s also a more powerful 4K version of this model that comes with a 17.3″ UHD, 4K eDP IPS-Level with the same internals. With a lot to expect from laptop makers in 2017, MSI wants to get the ball rolling and it seems they are kicking it hard with the 7RE.
Specs
Design
Not a lot has changed in terms of MSI’s design language in the GT series. Its iconic black chassis accented with red lines will probably remind you that this is the sports car of laptops. It’s thick, heavy and got a bulky frame that’s pretty common with laptops of this class. MSI does however supply a laptop bag big enough to accommodate both the laptop and power brick charger, which is equally heavy as well.
The back cover has a backlit MSI dragon logo is layered with corning gorilla glass and is illuminated with two accents on the side. This entire design screams a statement when you’re walking with this outside of the gaming world. I mean, look at the fan exhaust system, this thing practically looks like a BMW i8. The cooling system of the Titan is some of the best I’ve seen and it’s both functionally and aesthetically pleasing. However it’s also a consideration that the fans are incredibly noisy.
You’re going to want to invest in earphones, because the fans output noise. I did some gaming at a coffee shop and I was getting concerned looks that my laptop was giving out mostly because of the noise factor.
All in all, it’s a solid build. Major caveats are that some of the ports have been moved to the back of the laptop’s frame. These include the RJ45-LAN, Mini-DisplayPort, USB 3.1 Gen.2 Type-C with Thunderbolt 3, HDMI, and AC power charge.
On the sides, we have five USB 3.0 ports, SD card reader, line-out, line-in ( a great addition for any serious streamer), microphone and headphones. The SD card is excellent. I’ve noticed this after seeing the transfer rate of RAW images from a DSLR.
“This design screams a statement when you’re walking with the MSI Titan in the real world”
Like any gaming brand, MSI also love their RGB color configurations. Their steelseries keyboard is completely backlit with full RGB configurations that can easily be changed in the Dragon Center app that comes preloaded with the laptop. The keyboard itself is fluid and responds quick. As a bonus, MSI supplies a steelseries mouse in box that can be calibrated with the steelseries app. More than an add on, I felt it a necessity since the trackpad on the review machine I had would freeze at times.
Display
The 120 Hz panel is retained from the previous GT73VR 6RE. With it comes all the benefits of playing and viewing media on this monitor. It’s packed in with Nvidia’s G-Sync technology making this a fairly decent monitor to have but you’re going to have to calibrate it first though. MSI’s displays tend to have a slight blue cast on them which can easily be fixed. That aside, gaming with lush colors was a welcome sight.
Software
I’m happy to see that MSI didn’t put a lot of bloatware for the newer laptops. Dragon Center, the central heart of MSI’s gaming software, combines many comfort, control, and tuning options in a simple interface. You customize everything from keyboard lighting, fan control and manual overclocking. The CPU is already set to 4.0 GHz OC default.
Core gamers will be happy about the comprehensive customizability of the keyboard as well as the fan control and the Turbo. The CPU is overclocked to 4.0 GHz by default, which was already the case for the previous model. I benchmarked on Turbo mode on power cable but it’s nice to see MSI give users that option for professional overclockers and enthusiasts alike to really push their hardware.
Performance
I used a combination of PCMark8 and 3DMark Time Spy benchmarks. Given how new Kaby lake is, 3DMark reported an anomaly that the benchmarks may not be reflective of the score it receives. I will update his article once 3DMark accounts for Kaby lake processing in due course. Speaking of Kaby lake, the processor has nearly identical clock speeds which a 2-3% speed bump from the core i7-6820HK. From a price perspective, if you’re looking at purchase a cheaper MSI GT, you’re still on good standing since skylake still delivers and where gaming is concerned, you’re covered for a few more years. While you’ll be able to run 4K you’re not going to hit 60 fps by any measure. 1080p benchmarks however show that this machine is well capable of hitting 60fps+ on max settings.
When it comes to audio, the titan’s speakers are loud. There’s also clarity in the Titan’s speakers which you can adjust and Nahimic 2 does the rest for your headphones giving you up to 7.1 virtual surround sound. With the all new Sound Tracker feature, gamers will be able to see with an on screen indicator where the sound is originating from.
Gaming Benchmarks
I took two of the biggest titles that are graphic intensive, Doom and Rise of the Tomb Raider and both delivered exceptional results. With Doom hitting 110 fps on 1080p and Rise of the Tomb Raider average 58.95 fps on ultra with no trouble at all. Most of this was done on MSI’s turbo mode. You’ll have to settle for 4K with a frame cap of 40 before you start seeing a frame average of 35fps. For the main intention it was built for, the GT73VR Titan’s numbers for gaming are impeccable and of course it’s VR capable, the clue’s in the name of the product and some
Battery
Expect to enjoy an average of three hours of gaming. You can also opt to switch the dedicated graphics card for the integrated graphics driver if you’re doing something that’s not GPU intensive to extend your battery life to a certain degree which involves a system reboot so users would be mildly inconvenienced during this process.
Verdict
The MSI GT73VR 7E has a price tag of AED 10,999 which is still cheaper than a top of the line macbook. It’s a definite must buy for any discerning gamer who’s looking to get a desktop replacement.
We are long past the debate if gaming desktops are the investment with most machines exceeding AED 7,000 which can get you a really good PC. The short answer to end that debate is that you pay for portable desktop performance. With a price tag of AED 10,999 ( Still cheaper than a top end macbook ), The MSI GT73VR 7E is a definite must buy for any discerning gamer who’s looking to get a desktop replacement. The device took a lot of punishment when I used it for rendering videos, playing games at max settings and still maintained its temperatures thanks to its fan system, you’re also going to have to invest in a great headphone as a result of this, the fans do go really loud. That in no way is a deterrence but an advisory nonetheless. This notebook gets our gamers seal of approval.
For those who are looking for a more affordable pricing, worry not. MSI’s GT73 6RE which comes in sky lake is also a notebook worthy of your consideration.
