In this MSI Raider GE76 review for the updated 2022 variant, we’re taking a look at the sheer performance and gaming capabilities of MSI’s top-spec machine. Speaking of which, gaming laptops are becoming more powerful each day, thanks to advancements in fabrication technology. In the past few years, the manufacturer's focus has shifted from delivering the highest performance possible to devices that offer the highest performance per watt. You may have heard the term “desktop killer” thrown around a lot for ultra-powerful laptops. But usually, such laptops don’t offer high efficiency. Their batteries usually end up discharging in around an hour or so of normal usage. As a result, these “desktop killers” offer immense performance but at a huge cost to mobility.
The MSI Raider GE76 I had in for review gave me a glimmer of hope for the things to come. For the uninitiated, it's packing a top-of-the-line Intel 12th Gen Alder lake processor featuring a combination of hybrid cores and performance cores. Intel claims that the new CPU design divides the workload smartly so whenever extra performance isn’t required the processor is saving battery life in the background. As a result, the expectation for the MSI Raider GE76 is set, it should give us “desktop-level” performance and also decent battery life.
Processor: Intel 12th Gen Core i9-12900HK 14-core 20-threads CPU with 24MB Intel Smart Cache
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with 16GB GDDR6 VRAM (175W TGP)
Memory: 32GB DDR5 RAM running at 4800MHz
Storage: 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD
Display: IPS LCD FHD display with 16:9 aspect ratio with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution and 360Hz refresh rate
Battery: 90Wh
Weight: 2.89kg (approx)
Before diving deep into the MSI Raider GE76 Raider review, let’s take a closer look at its powerful processor. The latest MSI gaming laptop comes equipped with an Intel 12th Gen Core i9-12900HK. It is based on Intel’s latest 7nm fabrication process, meaning team blue is packing more transistors within the same die area as it did before. The biggest change, however, is in Intel’s design approach. The Intel 12th Gen Alder lake processors are split into “Efficiency cores” and “Performance cores” also known as “E” and “P” cores respectively. Splitting the CPU cores for performance and efficiency reminds me of Apple’s M1 chip. The division of labour between CPU cores worked for Apple so it could also work for Intel right? Here’s the answer.
The Intel Core i9-12900HK has 14 cores that are split up into 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores. The CPU also has 20 threads as mentioned and the entire setup delivers probably the best multitasking performance I have ever witnessed. In the Cinebench R23 Multi-core test, the Intel chip scored 16100. The number went up to 16560 after multiple rounds of testing. It is probably one of the best multi-core performance scores I saw in a gaming laptop. Furthermore, I also found that the processor was not using more than 100W TDP in achieving this high score.
In fact, it remained fairly efficient around 77-80W on average during most of the test duration. Surprisingly, the 12900HK has a PL2 limit of 135W, so the Cinebench R23 score can be even higher. According to some reviews, the multi-core score for the Intel Core i9-12900HK goes as high as 20,000, which is easily comparable to desktop-level performance. Furthermore, the Intel chip also scored slightly more than 2000 in the R23 single-core test, which is equivalent to the performance of several entry-level quad-core processors. The Intel chip also scored 6507, which is one of the highest Cinebench R20 scores as well for laptops.
Moving on to the PC Mark 10 Extended benchmark and the laptop scored some pretty great numbers over here as well. The laptop easily topped the ASUS Scar Strix G15 featuring the AMD Ryzen 6000 series I recently tested and remains the best score any laptop scored in our tests overall. The MSI Raider GE76 also features an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with 16GB VRAM. Its performance was the highest I ever tested on a laptop GPU. The RTX 3080 Ti scored 28691 in 3d Mark’s Firestrike test and 13237 in TimeSpy. Both of these are great numbers and they’re almost double the performance of an RTX 3060 laptop GPU with 6GB GDDR6 VRAM.
The MSI Raider GE 76 comes with a screen that I like to call a “Gamer” display. Mainly because it does not support higher than 1080p resolution but has an insanely high 360Hz refresh rate. It is the same as last year’s model though which is a bummer as I was expecting them to at least bump up the resolution to 1440p. You can get a QHD resolution display but that is only available with a 240Hz refresh rate panel. I honestly think the 1440p 240Hz panel would be the right choice here as no game, other than an eSports title, can touch the 200FPS mark on this laptop on a high graphical preset.
During the display test, the laptop’s display achieved a peak brightness of around 284 nits, which is a bit less. And in terms of colour accuracy, the screen had an average Delta E value of 2.2, which is fairly colour accurate. The maximum Delta E however was as high as 5.5 but for the most part, it is a fairly colour accurate display. Other important specs of the laptop include 0.251 Black luminance, which is good for an LCD display. Furthermore, the laptop’s screen covers 99.8% sRGB colour space and around 78% DCI-P3 colour spectrum.
In terms of efficiency, I managed to game on this laptop to play GTA V for up to 2 hours. I received a similar result in the PC Mark 10 gaming battery performance test which lasted around 1 hour 45 minutes with around 70% screen brightness. In terms of stand-by time, I was able to get close to 5hrs 20 minutes with the battery in performance mode. The MSI Raider GE76 is certainly not a full-day battery laptop but it is far more portable than your average “desktop killer” devices out there.
The combination of Intel 12th Gen Core i9-12900HK and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is one of the best any laptop gamer can have. In our test, we decided to test a bunch of AAA games to thoroughly test the laptop’s performance. We also compared the MSI Raider GE76 Raider to last year’s model, just to get an idea of how much performance has improved. As you can see the laptop performed exceptionally well in all the cases. It delivered over 100FPS in all AAA gaming titles at 1080p resolution and high settings. Even when compared to last year’s model, the MSI Raider GE76 Raider represents an around 10 FPS increase on average in all gaming titles. This gap will also further widen if the user switches to the ultra graphics preset.
As expected the MSI Raider GE76 is probably the most powerful gaming laptop you can buy in the market today, at least that’s what its insanely high CPU benchmark score represents. Intel’s new Alder lake CPU brings the best of efficiency and performance in one single package, which is a very tough feat to accomplish. The best part is that Intel is maintaining these numbers while using the 7nm fabrication process. Team Blue did take its sweet time to reach here but with the kind of performance increase they brought with them, the wait seems to be worth it after all. As for the MSI Raider GE76, it is most likely the best performing gaming machine of 2022 and a beast of a laptop in almost every other performance aspect as well.