Msi ge76 raider. MSI designs its Raider GE series gaming laptops for enthusiasts, a somewhat vague term, but the series includes models ranging from near-top-tier ones with 17-inch screens, 13th generation Intel Core processors, and discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards, to more budget-friendly options with previous generation processors and GeForce RTX 20/30/40 series video adapters, and screens that may be 15.6 inches in size.
We are examining the latest and most advanced model, the MSI Raider GE78HX 13V, msi ge76 raider review
We are examining the latest and most advanced model, the MSI Raider GE78HX 13V, featuring a QHD 17-inch screen. True to MSI’s style, it comes in a range of configurations: the official website currently lists seven variants with Intel Core i9-13980HX, Core i9-13950HX, and Core i7-13700HX processors, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop and GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop graphics cards, 32 or 64 GB DDR5 RAM, and 1 or 2 TB SSDs. All models are equipped with a modern Wi-Fi 6E adapter, a 2.5-gigabit Ethernet controller, and a rich set of interface ports including one Thunderbolt 4, and a battery with a considerable capacity of about 100 Wh. These laptops are shipped with Windows 11 Home OS and an external 330 W power supply.
The specific model we received for testing is one of the higher-end ones – MSI Raider GE78HX (the “very highest” has not 32, but 64 gigabytes of memory). We tested the following configuration:
Msi ge76 raider gaming laptop
- Processor: Intel Core i9-13980HX (8+16 cores/32 threads, up to 4.0/5.6 GHz, 45—157 W)
- RAM: 32 GB DDR5-5600 (2 × SO-DIMM Hynix HMCG78AGBSA095N), both slots occupied
- Video Subsystem: Integrated Intel UHD Graphics, discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop graphics card (16 GB GDDR6)
- Screen: 17 inches, 2560×1600, IPS (AUO B170QAN01.2), 240 Hz
- Sound Subsystem: Realtek, 6 speakers
- Storage: 1 × 2 TB SSD (Micron_3400_MTFDKBA2T0TFH, M.2, NVMe, PCIe 4.0 x4), with an additional free M.2 slot
- Card Reader: SD
- Network Interfaces: Wired network 2.5 Gbit/s (Intel Killer E3100G)*, Wireless Wi-Fi 6E (Intel Killer AX1690i, IEEE 802.11ax, 2.4/5/6 GHz, MU-MIMO), Bluetooth 5.3
- Interfaces and Ports: 1 × Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C) with data transfer and DP graphic output support, 1 × USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C with data transfer, DP graphic output, and PD charging support, 1 × USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C with data transfer and DP graphic output support**, 2 × USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, RJ-45, Video Outputs: 1 × HDMI 2.1 (8K@60 Hz / 4K@120 Hz), 3 × DisplayPort via USB Type-C ports, Audio Jacks: 1 combined for headset (mini-jack)
- Input Devices: Keyboard with a numeric keypad and Per-Key RGB backlight, Clickpad
- IP Telephony: Webcam 1080p@30 fps, Microphone (two)
- Battery: 99.9 Wh, lithium-polymer
- Dimensions: 380×298×33 mm (29 mm excluding legs)
- Weight without Power Supply: 3.06 kg
- Power Adapter: 330 W, weight 1.48 kg (with cables)
- Operating System: Windows 11 Home (22H2)
MSI Monarch 13 laptop. Just 990 grams
Msi ge76 raider Laptop Packaging and Design Review
The product is packed in two cardboard boxes (one inside the other for better protection), with the inner box featuring a handle for carrying.
Apart from the laptop itself, the package includes a power supply with cables (a detachable input cable of 1.7 meters; a soldered output cable of 1.1 meters with a Velcro strap for coiling), a set of documentation, and a warranty card.
External Appearance and Ergonomics
The only color option is black, with few decorative elements: thin red stripes at the top and golden at the back, plus the company emblem, which are not very noticeable when the device is off.
Once turned on, the RGB backlighting can be activated, which we will describe when discussing the relevant control utility. With the default settings, the laptop looks quite eye-catching, resembling a Christmas tree sparkling with colorful lights, which will surely delight preschool children.
The lid with the LCD screen and the top panel of the case are made of an aluminum alloy, while the bottom is plastic (but with a metal mesh insert). The construction is quite sturdy: even with strong pressure, the surfaces flex minimally, and no creaks or clicks were noticed during testing. The twisting stiffness of the lid with the screen is also good, better than one might expect from a 17-inch diagonal.
As with any gaming laptop, it cannot be called thin. The thickness is stated to be 23 mm, but our measurements showed it to be significantly more at the thickest point, near the rear edge – 28.8 mm, and if you include the rubber foot, it’s even 32.6 mm. Only at the front (not at the very edge, but near the front foot) does the thickness match the stated 23 mm.
The length and width of the case correspond to the specifications given.
All surfaces are matte but smooth (though not slippery), and they quickly become covered with noticeable handprints.
The frame around the screen is narrow on the sides — 6 mm, noticeably wider at the top: 13.5 mm (where the webcam with an indicator and shutter, as well as microphones, are located), and at the bottom 16.3 mm.
The RGB backlighting on the front edge of the case is clearly visible.
The bottom has an unusually complex relief, with almost more decorative elements than on the top cover. In addition to elongated and quite rigid feet (one long at the front, two shorter at the back), there is an additional V-shaped plastic protrusion that increases rigidity when placed on a hard surface. Almost half of it is occupied by a metal mesh insert with numerous tiny ventilation holes, through which air is drawn in to cool the components. It is unlikely to cover a significant part of them with your knees when placed in a corresponding manner, but it is still not advisable to place the laptop on a soft surface.
On the left and right sides at the rear of the case, there are rows of larger holes through which the ventilation system expels heated air. Groups of such holes are also located on the side edges.
There is also a row of small, narrow slits in the back part of the top cover, which result in the heating of the lower part of the screen, but during testing, it was found to be quite weak.
The screen lid opens to an angle of up to 130 degrees and is precisely fixed in any position, starting from approximately 30 degrees. In the closed state, the fixation is slightly worse — no retaining magnets are provided.
The hinge strength is moderate, allowing the lid to be opened with one hand. The outer part of its front edge is made slightly protruding along its entire length, making it convenient to lift with a finger at any point.
On the left side of the laptop, there are a Thunderbolt 4 (Type-C) port, an SD card slot, and a combined mini-jack for audio gear. There is also a tiny indicator that lights up yellow when the battery is low, white during charging (turns off when fully charged), and blinks if the battery is faulty; in the normal position of the operator, this indicator is not visible and one has to look from the side to see it.
On the right side, there are two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A ports, as well as a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port with support for DisplayPort functions and Power Delivery charging.
A portion of the ports has been sensibly positioned on the rear end: a socket for the external power adapter, another USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port (also claimed to support DisplayPort function, though this was not observed during testing), a full-size RJ-45 socket, and an HDMI 2.1 port.
The keyboard is very similar to those seen in various modern models of MSI gaming laptops: full-size, with a three-row numeric keypad, and a membrane type with an island-style key layout.
Most keys are of a standard size (15.8×16 mm), while the arrow keys are slightly smaller – 12.8×13.2 mm (which is much better than if they were half the height). The function keys are narrow (14×8.5 mm), the left Shift key is 34.3 mm wide, and the right one is 25.4 mm. The numeric keypad is three-row, and its keys are noticeably smaller than the others: 11.8×12.8 mm. The positioning of the Fn key is traditional for MSI – on the right, and the typeface of the numbers and Latin letters on the keys is still distinctive, requiring some getting used to.
There are large margins on the sides: 31 mm each, but in this case, it is justified – there are speakers located there, with grilles and small holes accordingly.
The WASD keys are distinguished: if all others have a black upper surface, these are semi-transparent. Without backlighting, they look a bit odd, and with backlighting, they simply look alien: cloudy, with streaks inside (the Power button is made the same way), but the bigger issue is that the printed symbols are very poorly visible when the backlight is on.
A few more measurements: the distance between keys in the same row and between rows is 3.3 mm. The full travel of the keys is about 1.6 mm according to our measurements, making typing quite comfortable, with quiet sounds.
Some keys have tiny white indicators built into them, displaying corresponding modes (Caps Lock, speaker off, etc.).
There is a disableable Per-Key RGB full-color backlighting with four levels, quite bright at the maximum. Both the printed symbols and the edges of the keys are illuminated. To control it, the SteelSeries GG utility is required (see below), which is by default included in the startup.
The Power button is located on the right in the row of function keys, which does not exclude accidental presses. There is no fingerprint scanner.
The webcam is located above the screen and records in 1080p at 30 fps (which is good: nowadays many expensive laptops have 720p cameras). There is a shutter, and the camera can also be turned off using a key combination.
The touchpad is large — 131×82 mm, and it is positioned almost exactly along the axis of the body. There are no dedicated buttons, but the left and right edges near the touchpad can effectively function as corresponding mouse buttons. A key combination for its quick disablement is also provided.
Msi ge76 raider. Software
The laptop comes with Windows 11 Home OS, and the entire available SSD volume is allocated for the system partition — for a two-terabyte drive, this is clearly not the best solution, and the owner will have to create partitions at their discretion.
MSI Center
There is a set of utilities, including the proprietary MSI Center (version 2.0.26.0), which offers a Russian language option for its interface.
It includes a monitoring section where you can view a number of useful parameters, including fan speeds (and confirm that they differ).
The “Functions” tab has four subsections: Gaming Mode, User Scenario, General Settings, and Noise Cancellation.
In the first one, installed games should be “registered,” and some settings selected for each, though the range of options is quite modest.
In the second subsection, one of the four pre-set scenarios (profiles) of operation is selected, the essence of which is generally understood from the names and additionally commented in English when hovering the pointer.
Scenarios can either be selected manually or automatically switched to the optimal mode using the MSI AI Engine feature (the AI abbreviation implies “artificial intelligence,” but examining its effectiveness is beyond the scope of our review).
There are only settings in the “Smart-auto” and “Extreme Performance” scenarios. In the former case, they relate to automatic switching to “Super Battery” mode under certain power conditions or to extreme performance when launching selected applications, as well as enabling the Smart profile of the Nahimic utility (more on this below).
For the “Extreme Performance” scenario, fan operation profiles are selected, and there is the possibility of overclocking the GPU and video memory frequency by up to 200 MHz.
Quick switching between scenarios is possible without launching the utility by pressing Fn+F7. And for enabling/disabling the Cooler Boost mode, the combination Fn+↑ is provided (when enabled, both fans accelerate to 6200-6300 rpm, resulting in corresponding noise).
Here, switching between integrated and discrete graphics is also done using the GPU Switch feature (at the bottom of the window), which allows setting the usage order of integrated and discrete video cards: only the former or the latter, as well as the MSHybrid mode for automatic selection of one of the two according to the needs of a specific application.
After changing the GPU Switch setting, a warning window is displayed, followed by an automatic reboot. The selected choice remains after rebooting the laptop, even if the utility’s auto-launch is disabled.
The current mode of the laptop’s graphics subsystem can be determined by the color of the built-in indicator in the Power button: white indicates the use of the integrated video adapter, and yellow indicates the discrete one.
The General Settings subsection allows control of some additional functions, the list of which is clear from the screenshot:
Noise Cancellation, as the name suggests, controls noise suppression to improve voice transmission in the presence of background noise.
The “Support” tab provides access to several subsections, among which “Live Update” allows checking for software updates, “System Information” displays brief information including the BIOS version and laptop serial number, “Service” provides access to additional information through an internet connection, and “MSI Recovery” enables the initiation of Windows boot error repairs with the Boot Repair utility, as well as backup and restoration.
Clicking the gear icon in the top right corner of the window leads to the general settings of the utility. In addition to changing the language, one can choose a dark or light color scheme, disable the startup of MSI Center when the system starts, manage utility updates, and control device information collection.
Additional modules can also be loaded.
In the previously used version of MSI Dragon Center, there was battery charge management – choosing the maximum level, which affects both autonomy and energy replenishment time, and (as is believed) battery life, but in the MSI Center versions (without the word Dragon), this function is not available.
SteelSeries GG
In addition to the RGB backlighting of the keyboard, the laptop has purely decorative light elements: a strip along the entire length of the front edge and the logo on the top cover.
Control of all this lighting is managed through the SteelSeries GG utility, in this case, using version 29.1.0.
Upon launch, the utility first connects to the internet, displays a bunch of bright images, and offers either to log into an existing account or to register a new one and join “our community” to receive news and discounts on various software purchases. Fortunately, this offer is not mandatory — it is possible to work without registration.
There are various functions not related to lighting control. Opinions on their usefulness may vary, so they will not be detailed here, but some are worth mentioning. For example, it’s possible to record segments of gameplay, edit them, and post them on social networks to show off to friends.
There’s also an option to adjust sound settings for optimal gaming and chat experiences.
More detail is given to the visual effects created by the keyboard lighting and the laptop’s decorative elements.
Starting with the keyboard, a separate window called MSI Per Key RGB Keyboard is used. With ready-made configurations and selected effects and parameters, various color transition options can be set, including constant lighting with a chosen color.
A preview feature is available — the set configuration is immediately reproduced by the keyboard’s lighting components.
Custom configurations can be saved under any name.
Selecting “Disable” means the keyboard backlight cannot be turned on, except when pressing Fn, which will illuminate the arrow keys and function keys.
Another window named MSI Matrix controls the decorative lighting elements — the front strip and the logo. The control principles are the same as for the keyboard: configurations with effects and selectable parameters.
It’s not possible to set different configurations for the strip and the logo, but different effects can be chosen — for example, turning off the logo lighting and leaving it on for the strip.
The utility itself also has settings: it can be excluded from startup, interface language can be chosen, and desktop notifications can be enabled.
Other Software
Other utilities are briefly mentioned: Nahimic is responsible for advanced sound processing during playback and recording, and App Player is an Android smartphone emulator that allows logging into a Google account, downloading purchased or free games from the Play Store, and playing them using a mouse and keyboard.
Additionally, the Microsoft 365 suite of applications is installed, which requires payment for full functionality.
The Msi ge76 raider laptop features a 17-inch IPS display with a resolution of 2560×1600.
The external surface of the display is black, hard, and semi-matte (with very well-defined reflectiveness). There are no special anti-glare coatings or filters, nor is there an air gap. When powered by the mains or battery and with manual brightness control (there is no automatic adjustment based on an ambient light sensor), its maximum brightness reached 456 cd/m² (in the center of the screen on a white background). The maximum brightness is high, making it possible to comfortably work/play on the laptop outdoors on a sunny day if positioned in the shade.
For assessing screen readability outdoors, we use the following criteria, obtained from testing screens in real-world conditions:
- Maximum brightness, cd/m²
- Conditions
- Readability assessment
For matte, semi-matte, and glossy screens without anti-glare coating:
- 150 cd/m²:
- Direct sunlight (>20,000 lx) – unreadable
- Light shade (~10,000 lx) – barely readable
- Light shade and thin cloud cover (≤7,500 lx) – uncomfortable to work
- 300 cd/m²:
- Direct sunlight (>20,000 lx) – barely readable
- Light shade (~10,000 lx) – uncomfortable to work
- Light shade and thin cloud cover (≤7,500 lx) – comfortable to work
- 450 cd/m²:
- Direct sunlight (>20,000 lx) – uncomfortable to work
- Light shade (~10,000 lx) – comfortable to work
- Light shade and thin cloud cover (≤7,500 lx) – comfortable to work
These criteria are quite conditional and may be revised as more data is accumulated. It should be noted that some improvement in readability might be achieved if the matrix has certain transreflective properties (part of the light is reflected from the substrate, and the picture is visible in the light even with the backlight off). Glossy matrices even in direct sunlight can sometimes be turned so that they reflect something sufficiently dark and uniform (on a clear day, for example, the sky), which will improve readability, whereas matte matrices need to be shielded from light to improve readability. Indoors with bright artificial lighting (about 500 lx), it is more or less comfortable to work even at a maximum screen brightness of 50 cd/m² and below, so in these conditions maximum brightness is not an important factor.
Returning to the screen of the tested laptop. If the brightness setting is set to 0%, the brightness is reduced to 23 cd/m². In complete darkness, the brightness of its screen can be reduced to a comfortable level.
At any brightness level, significant backlight modulation is absent, so there is no flicker of the screen (no PWM).
This laptop uses an IPS type matrix.
Response time depends on whether the matrix overclocking is enabled in the proprietary utility (OverDrive parameter). It should be noted that at 60 Hz, overclocking is not actually enabled. The diagram below shows how the on and off times change during the black-white-black transition (the “on” and “off” columns), as well as the average total time for transitions between halftones (the “GTG” columns) for a refresh rate of 240 Hz:
We determined the total delay in output from switching video buffer pages to the start of image output on the screen (recall that it depends on the peculiarities of the Windows OS and video card operation, not just the display). At a 240 Hz refresh rate, the delay is 3 ms. This is a very small delay, it is absolutely not felt when working at the PC, and in very dynamic games, it will not lead to a decrease in effectiveness.
In the screen settings, two refresh rates are available – 60 and 240 Hz. For the video signal, you can choose 10 bits per color, but the output will still be with a color depth of 8 bits per color. It should be noted that the 240 Hz refresh rate will be useful both in games and when watching movies – in the second case, the frames will alternate with equal duration (for typical content).
Let’s summarize. The screen of this laptop has a high maximum brightness (456 cd/m²), making it usable outdoors in daylight if shielded from direct sunlight. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable level (down to 23 cd/m²). The screen’s strengths also include low response times and output delays (3 ms), a high refresh rate (240 Hz), good color balance, a wide original color gamut with the possibility of correction to sRGB. A drawback is the low stability of black when viewed at an angle off the perpendicular to the screen plane. Overall, the screen quality is high, and from the perspective of its properties, the laptop can rightfully be considered a gaming device. It should be noted that a laptop with such a screen can also be used for professional color work, as its potential allows.
Battery Operation
The battery capacity specified in the specifications is 99.9 Wh.
To a large extent, this battery has determined the weight of the laptop, which slightly exceeds 3 kg, whereas 17-inch gaming models usually weigh less than three kilograms.
Load Scenario | Battery Life, Discharge from 100% to 1%
MSHybrid, keyboard backlight off
Text Work | 7 hrs 09 mins
Video Viewing | 4 hrs 57 mins
MSHybrid, keyboard backlight at maximum
Text Work | 6 hrs 45 mins
Video Viewing | 4 hrs 01 min
MSHybrid, “Super Battery” profile in MSI Center, keyboard backlight off
Text Work | 6 hrs 14 mins
Video Viewing | 4 hrs 05 mins
Discrete Video Card, keyboard backlight off
Text Work | 3 hrs 05 mins
Video Viewing | 2 hrs 33 mins
First, about the influence of different factors: when working with text, the keyboard backlight slightly reduces battery life, and more significantly when viewing videos.
The “Super Battery” profile does not increase autonomy but reduces it by almost an hour, which cannot be attributed to random factors — this is strange, but we have already seen something similar in other MSI laptops.
Forcing the switch to the discrete video adapter, compared to the MSHybrid mode where the integrated card is used in these work scenarios, halves the autonomy when viewing videos and reduces it even more when working with text.
Looking only at the results obtained, they can only be described as modest: with any settings in office tasks that don’t require significant computational power, a full charge does not last the entire workday, and this is with a very moderate screen brightness and a “cut-off” at a very low residue of 1%.
For more resource-intensive applications, the existing battery should be considered as a built-in UPS for not too long interruptions in the power supply or for moving the laptop from place to place without turning it off. Therefore, even in short trips, it is unlikely to be possible to do without a standard adapter, and it is unusually heavy, almost 1.5 kg with cables, and not small in size: 19.8×10×4.5 cm (plus cables). Of course, the necessity to always have a power supply at hand is characteristic of almost all gaming laptops from different manufacturers, but such massive PSUs are still rare. However, below we will show that for this model, it is sometimes possible to manage with a Power Delivery adapter, which is significantly smaller and lighter.
The results for the laptop in question are comparatively good, but that’s it: there are no radical differences from devices with batteries whose capacities are 10 and even 20 percent lower. Even with a third less energy reserve, one of the competitors lagged behind our protagonist not in the corresponding proportion but by a maximum of 15%.
No settings are provided that allow limiting the charge level and thus affecting autonomy. However, both in the laptop in question and in others, there is a characteristic feature of the charging algorithm: if, at the time of connection to AC power, the remaining battery energy exceeds 90%, charging will not occur, and waiting for 100% is pointless. There is some logic in this, but in cases where maximum autonomy is required, one would need to first discharge the battery to at least 88-89 percent and then connect the adapter.
According to these measurements, the process is not very fast, but one must take into account the very high capacity of the battery for any laptop, and then it turns out not so much: 70% was reached in an hour and a half, 90% in just over two hours, 95% in two and a half hours, and only the last five percent, as is usually the case, took a significant amount of time, so a full charge lasted more than three hours. Another measurement, during which various applications for tests were installed on the turned-on laptop, showed a very close value: 3 hours 09 minutes.
We conducted a measurement with the laptop turned off and powered by an adapter supporting PD 20V@5A mode (100W, with the corresponding cable). During this, the consumed current was monitored.
The process follows the standard algorithm for lithium-ion batteries: initially, the current is at its maximum and even increases slightly during the first one and a half hours, then it begins to decrease — first quite rapidly, then more slowly. The total charging time was almost the same as previously, and the indicator turns off when the current reaches its minimum.
The maximum consumption does not even reach three amps, so less powerful adapters supporting PD 20V@3.25A can be used, which are more widely available today. However, such adapters are only suitable for charging when the laptop is turned off, as the peak consumption we recorded upon OS loading after turning on reached up to 4.6 amps. Whether the missing current will be “supplemented” from the battery remains uncertain, and we did not test this.
After the OS loads, the consumed current does not exceed one amp, but only if no heavy applications or games are launched. Hence, a PD 20V@5A adapter can be used for office tasks, including simultaneous battery charging. Even when copying files from an external NVMe SSD with the keyboard backlight on, consumption did not exceed 3A (battery charged, screen brightness about 40%).
Thus, in some cases, it is possible to manage without the bulky standard PSU, but one must be aware of the inevitable limitations.
The cooling system, named Cooler Boost 5, includes two fans and six heat pipes. As mentioned earlier, air is drawn in through the slits in the bottom and expelled at the back, as well as from the left and right sides.
Pipes from the CPU and GPU heat sinks lead to each fan, so both contribute to the cooling of both processors. The fans are regulated separately and automatically increase or decrease their speed as needed, so the degree of this contribution will vary depending on the situation.
We will see below how effective this system turned out to be.
The description on the official website mentions the MSI OverBoost Ultra technology, which in configurations with the Intel Core i9-13980HX processor provides a total thermal package for the central and graphics processors at levels up to 250W. When only the central processor is under load, the boost frequency of its P-cores can reach 5.2 GHz. We will see what this achieves in practice.
To assess how the system components’ parameters (temperatures, frequencies, etc.) change when using the discrete graphics card in different load scenarios, we will present a table (in all columns, except the right one, the maximum/stable values are given through a slash, with overheating temperatures marked in red). The state of the fans is judged by the readings of the MSI Center utility, whose readings are not always unambiguous, so there is some degree of conditionality in the presented data.
Msi ge76 raider. Noise Level
We conduct noise level measurements in a special sound-insulated and semi-anechoic chamber. During this, the microphone of the sound meter is positioned relative to the laptop to mimic the typical head position of a user: the screen is tilted back by 45 degrees (or to the maximum if it does not tilt to 45 degrees), the axis of the microphone aligns with the normal emanating from the center of the screen, the front end of the microphone is at a distance of 50 cm from the screen’s surface, and the microphone is directed towards the screen. The load is created using the powerMax program, screen brightness is set to maximum, room temperature is maintained at 24 degrees Celsius, but the laptop is not specifically cooled, so the air temperature near it may be higher. To assess the real power consumption, we also provide (for some modes) the power consumption from the network. The battery is pre-charged to 100%. In the settings of the proprietary utility, the Extreme Performance or Super Battery profile is selected:
Load Scenario | Noise Level, dBA | Subjective Assessment | Power Consumption from Network, W
Super Battery Profile
Idle | 28.1 | quiet | 45
Extreme Performance Profile
Maximum load on CPU and GPU | 53.7 | very loud | 320 (maximum 340)
If the laptop is not loaded at all, its cooling system, even in Super Battery mode, operates in active mode (one fan rotates), but the noise from its operation can only be heard in a quiet environment. In the case of heavy load and a high-performance profile, the noise from the cooling system is high. The noise character is even and not irritating, but low-frequency humming due to the beating frequencies from the two fans is audible.
Msi ge76 raider. Performance
The laptop is equipped with the new top-tier Intel Core i9-13980HX processor (codenamed Raptor Lake HX, released in early 2023). It has 24 cores, of which eight are high-performance Performance cores (P-cores) capable of running two threads at frequencies up to 5.6 GHz, and sixteen are single-thread energy-efficient Efficient cores (E-cores, up to 4.0 GHz). Therefore, the maximum number of threads is thirty-two, which is exactly the number of logical cores displayed by the operating system, and various utilities may show something like “8P + 16E”.
The processor’s TDP is declared as 55W base and 157W in turbo mode, but laptop manufacturers can change the power consumption level, starting from 45W. During testing, we found that in this case, it can exceed both values, with the base value significantly so: up to 120-133W were observed.
The processor integrates an Intel UHD Graphics video core, capable of operating at frequencies up to 1.65 GHz. However, for games and applications capable of utilizing the GPU, a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop graphics card is used.
The laptop is equipped with SK Hynix DDR5-5600 memory in SO-DIMM slots (both occupied).
It uses a two-terabyte Micron_3400_MTFDKBA2T0TFH SSD (M.2, NVMe, PCIe 4.0 x4).
Msi ge76 raider. Conclusion
The MSI Raider GE78HX, at the time of testing, was the most powerful laptop among those that have visited our lab. The previous leader, the Maibenben X639 with an external SJO, did not stay on top of our Olympus for long.
Such performance levels are achieved by using today’s top-of-the-line Intel Core i9-13980HX processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop graphics card. The only slight disappointment is the SSD PCIe storage used – it’s good but doesn’t quite match the best examples. However, if necessary, a more powerful one can be installed in the free M.2 slot and the OS transferred to it, leaving the existing one for data storage.
The laptop has an excellent screen: resolution 2560×1600 (16:10), high brightness, contrast, and refresh rate, good color balance, and a wide color range. All this allows it to be used not only for gaming but also for professional color work.
The port equipment is quite modern: one Thunderbolt 4, two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (one also supports external Power Delivery charging), two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, HDMI, and 2.5-gigabit Ethernet. Wireless interfaces are also up to par: Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
The keyboard configuration is the same as in other modern 17-inch MSI gaming laptops: with normal (only slightly reduced in size) arrow keys and a numeric keypad, albeit three-row, with the Fn key located on the right side and dedicated “gaming” WASD keys. RGB lighting with effects for the keyboard and external decorative elements is a matter of taste: various light tricks are not necessary for everyone, but if desired, they can be turned off and left with monochrome backlighting for the keyboard.
Completing the picture are a nearly 100 Wh battery, a built-in audio system with six speakers, an SD card reader, and a 1080p webcam.
Of course, there are some observations. The laptop turned out to be heavy, especially when adding the weight of the standard 330-watt power supply, but for office applications and for battery charging, a much more compact PD 20V@5A adapter can be used, and for charging alone, even a PD 20V@3.25A.
The cooling system in tests often cannot prevent overheating and throttling, but the same is observed in the vast majority of modern gaming laptops, which often also have external surfaces that get very hot, which we did not observe in this model.
Despite the high battery capacity, autonomy against other gaming laptops is not record-breaking, but it cannot be called critically low either: the results shown in our tests are certainly no worse than average.
The noise level can be irritatingly high, especially evident in modern games, and the significant noise of other similar devices is hardly a consolation.
It’s somewhat surprising to find the OS in the Home version – for a laptop with such a configuration, you would expect to see Pro.
Overall, the device made a very good impression. Of course, the high price is not pleasing, but the availability of seven configuration options will allow you to choose a model to fit your budget; either you will have to sacrifice something, or conversely, by paying more, you can get maximized memory.
