About 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.

Design
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  • SaolDan - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link

    what a Beast!
  • ImSpartacus - Friday, April 14, 2017 - link

    With a 60Hz non-VRR 1080p display?

    What a waste. A single 1080 and a desktop cpu is a better match if you're gimped by that display.
  • Morawka - Friday, April 14, 2017 - link

    i agree, the display choice seems like the Achilles heel of the whole setup.. The one single laptop that is capable of pushing 4K, gets a 1080p screen.. Meanwhile, the 4K thin and light laptops come with a 1050m, or even the Razer Blade with a 1070
  • unityole - Saturday, April 15, 2017 - link

    p870km1 has 4k display and two 1080, Asus GX800 has 4k display with two 1080.. so there are other laptops out there able to push for 4k.
  • milkod2001 - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link

    Fat, ugly and stupid specs( 1080 sli for 1080p, the biggest overkill ever).I wonder if some marketing lady almost in pension age is making the final specs for those builds...
  • ddriver - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link

    Fat is understandable, but does it have to look like a PC from the 80s? sli could be good for future games, who knows what inefficient AAA mess is gonna pop out.
  • WorldWithoutMadness - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link

    Don't forget the display is only 60Hz
  • ImSpartacus - Friday, April 14, 2017 - link

    No kidding. What a joke.
  • supdawgwtfd - Friday, April 14, 2017 - link

    VR!
  • HollyDOL - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link

    Tbh the "Titan" naming makes sound almost intentionally misleading.

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