Let us pretend we are desktop people, thinking about building a new system. What would we look for? If we are after a gaming system, clearly, we need a big GPU. A very beefy CPU is a nice touch as well if we want to keep the GPU fed. Plenty of memory, lots of storage, and maybe lots of ports for expansion. Add in a nice RGB keyboard, perhaps a high refresh display, and lots of cooling. Now let us imagine we pack that into a 2.9 kg / 6.4 lb package. That seems impossible, doesn’t it? What if we added in a 99.9 Wh UPS as well? Now that is really crazy. Let me present to you the MSI GE76 Raider, which brings all of this together into the 2021 version of MSI’s Raider series of gaming laptops.

Raider: The Gaming Desktop Replacement

MSI is no stranger to gaming systems, having almost exclusively focused on them for the better part of the last decade. The company offers a lineup of devices, including the true “desktop replacement” Titan platform, “enthusiast-level” Raider series, and the more subtle Stealth offerings, as well as a few more offerings to hit lower price points as well. In the gaming laptop world, MSI truly covers the entire spectrum, and with some of the most recommended devices on the market. They often do not come cheap, but they are always packed full of performance and features.

Which brings us to the 2021 MSI GE76 Raider lineup, which has just been refreshed to include the latest Intel Tiger Lake-H processors coupled with NVIDIA’s Ampere laptop graphics. The unit MSI sent us for review features the Intel Core i9-11980HK processor, with a 5.0 GHz maximum boost frequency and overclocking options. Intel’s current flagship processor is coupled with NVIDIA’s flagship in the RTX 3080 Laptop (henceforth known as the 3080L) GPU. There are two SODIMM slots for DDR4, which allow up to 64 GB of system memory, and two M.2 slots for storage.

On the display side, MSI offers plenty of choices for their 17.3-inch GE76 Raider, and all of the options offer high-refresh, which is fantastic. The review unit shipped with a 360 Hz 1920x1080 panel, but for those that would prefer a higher resolution, MSI has both 165 Hz and 240 Hz 2560x1440 displays, and even a 120 Hz 3840x2160 display. All the displays are “IPS-Level” panels as well, meaning they are not the old Twisted Nematic TFT which forces terrible viewing angles on the recipient, which is fantastic. The displays all have a niche that they fill, and it is great to see this much choice in a product when other devices have focused almost exclusively on the e-Sports target.

MSI GE76 Raider
Component	GE76 Raider Options	As Tested
CPU	Intel 11th Generation Core Core-i7-11800H 8-Core 16-Thread 45W TDP 4.6 GHz Max Boost Core i9-11980HK 8-Core 16-Thread 65W TDP 5.0 GHz Max Boost	Core i9-11980HK 8-Core 16-Thread 65W TDP 5.0 GHz Max Boost
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptop RTX 3060L 6GB GDDR6 130W TDP w/Dynamic Boost RTX 3070L 8GB GDDR6 140W TDP w/Dynamic Boost RTX 3080L 8/16 GB GDDR6 165W TDP w/Dynamic Boost	GeForce RTX 3080L 16 GDDR6 165W TDP w/Dynamic Boost
Display	17.3-inch IPS-Level High Refresh 1920x1080 144Hz 1920x1080 360Hz 2560x1440 165Hz 2560x1440 240Hz 3840x2160 120Hz	17.3-inch 1920x1080 360 Hz
Memory	2 x DDR4-3200 SODIMM Up to 64 GB Maximum	32 GB DDR4-3200
Storage	1 x PCIe 4.0 M.2 1 x PCIe 3.0 M.2	1 TB PCIe 4 NVMe
Keyboard	SteelSeries Per-key RGB Backlit
Webcam	1920x1080 resolution 30 FPS
Audio	Dynaudio 2 x 1W speakers / 2 x 2W woofers 3.5 mm headset jack
I/O	1 x Type-C Thunderbolt 4 1 x Type-C 3.2 Gen2 2 x Type-A 3.2 Gen1 1 x Type-A 3.2 Gen2 1 x SD Express 1x HDMI (8K@60Hz) 1 x Mini-DisplayPort
Networking	Killer AX1675 Wireless Wi-Fi 6E w/Bluetooth 5.2 Killer E3100G 2.5 Gbps Ethernet
Battery	99.9 Wh
Dimensions	397 x 284 x 25.9 mm 15.6 x 11.2 x 1.02 inches
Weight	2.9 kg / 6.9 lbs
Price	Core i7 / RTX 3060L Starts At $1499 USD Core i7 / RTX 3070L Starts At $2249 USD Core i7 / RTX 3080L Starts At $2999 USD	$3399 USD

MSI has outfitted the GE76 Raider with a SteelSeries keyboard offering per-key RGB backlighting, and there are likely enough ports to satisfy almost anyone. There are USB Type-C, one of which supports Thunderbolt 4 and the other which is USB 3.2 Gen 2, two USB Type-A Gen 1 ports, and a USB Type-A Gen 2 port. We also get HDMI 2.0, which supports up to 8K output at 60 Hz / 4K 120Hz, mini-DisplayPort, 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, and even an SD card reader. It would be a surprise to see that not satisfy almost any prospective buyer.

MSI has packed in the largest battery possible at 99.9 Wh. Batteries larger than this can not be taken on an airplane, which makes this more or less a legal limit for laptops, and to try to help with battery life, MSI offers both hybrid-graphics mode (NVIDIA Optimus) as well as discrete graphics mode. Unfortunately, they do not do this via NVIDIA’s new Advanced Optimus, but instead with the more traditional multiplexer which means that a reboot is required.

What’s more if you think “this is great, but a 17-inch gaming is just too big for me” MSI also has refreshed the GE66 Raider which is the 15.6-inch smaller sibling of this capable and well-equipped gaming notebook.

As usual, let us start the review by going over the design.

Design

With the GE76 Raider living closer to the “desktop-replacement” spectrum of notebook as compared to ones more focused on mobility, there are some design choices which aided its overall reason for being. It is also a gaming-focused notebook, so unsurprisingly there is plenty of lighting as well, although the aesthetic is less in your face than perhaps some other gaming systems are. MSI calls the color of the GE76 Raider 'Titanium Blue', and it works well with look and feel of this device. MSI has fitted their normal dragon logo on the laptop lid, but it is not backlit so it is more of a subtle look. The display hinges are not quite at the back of the notebook either, which allows more room for components and cooling, without sacrificing the display bezels too severely. For a 17.3-inch notebook, the overall dimensions are compact.

The top bezel of the display is distinctively larger than the sides, but MSI has put this extra space to good use by outfitting the GE76 with a FHD (1080p) webcam, which is nice to see. Most other gaming notebooks offer 720p cameras, if they offer one at all. Even with the extra laptop behind the hinges, the bottom bezel is still quite large. A taller display could fit here, but unlike devices focused on productivity, gaming-focused laptops still unfortunately need to be 16:9 aspect ratios, as not all games handle the taller resolutions well and it can cause some weird scaling. Beyond that, we also do not see too many high-refresh rate displays run at 16:10.

The SteelSeries keyboard is not the best keyboard we've ever found in a MSI gaming notebook - MSI has chosen to fit in a 10-key design, which is a bonus if you like them, but even on 17-inch notebooks, it really cramps the entire keyboard trying to make everything fit. MSI has put the power button as 'just another key' in the keyboard, and that is always a weird choice as it means you can accidentally turn off the laptop while typing. It is over the 10-key, so that is far less of chance than when it replaces Delete, but a separate power button would have been nicer.

On the backlit design, full marks to MSI for leveraging per-key RGB here. The GE76 Raider is a premium device, and when you see similar offerings with 3-4 zones of RGB it never works very well. With per-key, you can highlight specific keys, especially those you use infrequently, or to give as much character as you want.

The downside of the keyboard is the keys themselves. The key caps are completely flat and smooth. This makes it more difficult to touch-type as compared to the ASUS ROG Strix G15 we reviewed this year which had a wonderful texture on the key caps to really let you feel where your fingers are. The GE76 Raider could certainly use this. The key feel is also just OK. It is a step above some of the cheaper Clevo-based laptops, but not on par with other MSI offerings like the Titan. It is not bad, but it is not the best either, and when the price point is where it is at, everything counts.

MSI’s trackpad is also fine, and for office-tasks, will work well. It is smooth, and registers clicks and multi-touch without any issue. For gaming, of course, a dedicated mouse is really almost a necessity.

The chassis of the GE76 Raider is a combination of aluminum and polycarbonate, and while that would be very unfortunate on an Ultrabook, for a device that is designed to sit on a desk most of the time, the choice to go with a plastic composite for the bottom is not a deal breaker by any means. It likely gives them more strength, and a lighter overall weight, and since the in-hand feel is not needed, the metal finishes have been moved to where your hands are more likely to be, such as the display lid and keyboard deck.

As mentioned in the introduction, MSI has fitted plenty of ports to the GE76 Raider which should really satisfy almost any scenario. Because this is a device meant to sit on a desk, a lot of the ports, including the power port, are located on the rear of the laptop which makes cable management much easier. Speaking of the power port, MSI has moved to a rectangular power connector which feels like it will last much longer than the older barrel connectors, which could get loose over time. It clicks in well, and feels very secure, and while they are not the only ones to move in this direction, it is still welcome.

For those into lighting, the MSI GE76 Raider features an RGB strip at the front which can be customized using the included software. This, along with the RGB keyboard, is all of the lighting on the notebook, so it is definitely a step back compared to some of the more outrageous designs on the market. It is more subtle and looks very good. If you do not like lighting, it is a simple option to turn it off and you can hardly even tell that the lighting strip is there.

System Performance

For 2021, MSI has moved to Intel’s newest 11th generation Tiger Lake H-Series processors in the Raider lineup, which brings a lot of advantages over the 10th generation Comet Lake product. The new 10 nm processor features the newest Willow Cove cores which offer a lot of performance over the outgoing Skylake-based 14 nm generation. For the GE76 Raider, MSI offers up to the Core i9-11980HK processor which offers eight cores plus hyperthreading and a peak single-core boost frequency of 5.0 GHz. If you like to tweak your devices, MSI also offers overclocking on this model to get the maximum out of the device.

For a deeper dive into the new Tiger Lake-H platform, please refer to this Intel Reference Design system we tested back in May. When we tested it, the reference design arrived with basically no power limit set, which the reference design could not handle, so for the review, the TDP was set to 45-Watts as that is the “nominal” power level of the H-Series platform historically. TDP is important, as Intel does specify 35-Watt, 45-Watt, and 65-Watt levels for the 11th gen laptop platform, but the Core i9-11980HK offers both 45 and 65-Watt TDP ranges. If the platform can cool it, performance will be much better with a higher TDP since the system will not have to scale down the frequency as aggressively. Intel’s Reference Design laptop could not handle the 65-Watt base, but MSI's desktop replacement system here is designed to do that - later in the review we will go over the thermals in more detail, but perhaps without much surprise, MSI fares much, much better.

To see how the MSI GE76 Raider performs it was run through our standard laptop testing suite. If you would like to compare the results against any other system we have ever tested, please use our Online Bench tool. For those unaware, all tested laptops get sent back to the manufacturer post-review, so when we add new tests to the suite, older systems will not be included in the results since the test was not run.

For this review our comparisons will be other desktop replacement systems, including the AMD powered ASUS G513QY with Ryzen 9 5900HX, Intel’s Tiger Lake reference system, and a few older systems including the previous generation MSI GE75 Raider.

PCMark 10

PCMark is a full-system benchmark which highlights CPU performance, but also includes the GPU, memory, and storage as factors in the outcome depending on the test being performed. With Intel’s fastest Tiger Lake processor coupled with the NVIDIA RTX 3080L, the MSI GE76 Raider is the fastest laptop we’ve tested in the overall PCMark 10 suite. Not a bad start.

Cinebench R20

Intel’s Tiger Lake reference system proved that Intel once again holds the single-threaded performance crown, and with MSI running at the higher TDP range for the Core i9-11980HK, it pulls ahead even further. AMD still provides more multi-threaded performance thanks to more efficient cores.

Handbrake

If you need to transcode content, Handbrake allows the choice to use the software encoder for the best quality, or one of the hardware-based encoders for a quicker conversion. The AMD powered ASUS system edges the MSI in software slightly, but the RTX 3080L with its massive 165-Watt TDP in the MSI allows it to edge the other systems.

7-Zip

File compression and decompression is another common task, and it is very interesting how different the AMD and Intel platforms perform these tasks. AMD has a clear advantage in decompression, but Intel’s single-threaded performance advantage seems to give it the edge on the compression side. The MSI’s higher TDP for Tiger Lake provides it an advantage here.

Web Tests

Web performance is not just a CPU test, but also a browser test, since web performance is predicated on the underlying browser scripting engine. For all tests, we leverage Microsoft Edge, although any benchmark result is a point in time, since browsers are constantly updated which may impact the results.

Intel’s Tiger Lake platform has upped the game for web performance again, and the MSI system is able to squeak past the Ryzen 9 5900HX in both WebXPRT and Speedometer. Single-threaded performance is still important, even with eight cores and sixteen threads available.

Storage Performance

To test storage performance, we use the recently added storage tests for PCMark 10, which leverage real-world storage traces and provide a much more realistic result than just looking at peak speeds. A big advantage of Tiger Lake over the outgoing Comet Lake platform, as well as AMD’s Cezanne, is that Intel has added PCIe 4.0 storage support for this generation. MSI has outfitted review unit GE76 Raider with the Samsung PCIe 4 PM9A1 1 TB drive, although since drives are a commodity now, there is no guarantee that will be installed in all systems sold at retail.

The Samsung PCIe 4 drive is easily the quickest drive we’ve tested yet, with a fantastic average access time of just 70 microseconds, and an overall score of over 2300. If storage performance is key for your workflow, the MSI GE76 Raider will handily fill the bill.

GPU Performance

For a gaming system, while outright GPU performance is key, keeping the GPU cool and keeping the GPU fed with commands also requires a strong CPU. MSI offers the GE76 Raider with various graphics choices, such as the RTX 3060L, the RTX 3070L, and RTX 3080L, the latter of which can be had with either 8 or 16 GB of GDDR6, with our review unit having the larger 16 GB version. TDP is also variable among designs, and NVIDIA just specifies a TDP range for their laptop graphics processors. MSI supports up to 130 Watts on the RTX 3060L, up to 140 Watts on the RTX 3070L, and up to 165 Watts on the RTX 3080L, with all systems supporting dynamic boost.

With MSI sending us the GE76 Raider with the 360 Hz 1920x1080 display, CPU performance will be critical as well, as the RTX 3080L will be quite CPU limited at this resolution, even on demanding titles.

For this review, we’ve added some new games to the laptop suite. As such, we only have results for the ASUS G513QY and MSI GE76 Raider for those tests at the moment, and the results will expand as we test more devices in the future. So, for this review, the new games will be included with our older games to show a wider range of devices. We will also be adding some UHD resolution gaming results for certain titles to see how the big iron of gaming notebooks can handle 8 million pixels.

As usual, we’ll start with the synthetics, and here we’ve added 3DMark Time Spy, so similar to the games, we only have results for the latest systems we’ve tested.

3DMark

UL’s 3DMark suite shows that in the synthetic tests, AMD’s Radeon 6800M is quite competitive with the RTX 3080L. On the older Fire Strike test, there is a substantial jump, as expected, from RTX 2080 to RTX 3080L.

GFXBench

The DirectX 12-based GFXBench tests are cross-platform, and available all the way down to smartphones, so it is not too difficult for a proper gaming laptop. MSI’s GE76 Raider leads the way here against all other systems tested.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

In the second installment of the rebooted Tomb Raider franchise, the MSI GE76 Raider dominates. Although at 1920x1080 resolution large GPUs will be CPU limited, the extra performance from Tiger Lake elevates the GE76 Raider significantly above all other systems we’ve tested.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Again, with the excellent CPU gaming performance and RTX 3080L, the GE76 Raider is well ahead of any other system we’ve tested in this title.

Strange Brigade

This title is one that is included because it can run on low-powered systems all the way up to proper gaming notebooks. At 1920x1080, the MSI GE76 Raider is hilariously in front, but with the resolution set at UHD, the results are much closer.

Shadow of War

Again, as expected, the MSI GE76 Raider dominates here, well ahead of the other systems in what is again a CPU-bound test at 1920x1080.

Far Cry 5

Ubisoft’s Far Cry 5 engine is also one that is heavily influenced by CPU performance, and the MSI GE76 Raider rises to the occasion to surpass all other systems. When running in UHD resolution, the average framerate is just above 60 FPS even with the settings at Ultra. That is pretty impressive.

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

The first new game in our suite is the latest in the Assassin’s Creed franchise which is set in England, and even at 1920x1080 the game is very demanding at its highest detail settings. At UHD, even with the settings turned down somewhat, the MSI GE76 Raider is not quite able to hit 60 FPS.

Borderlands 3

The MSI GE76 Raider stretches its legs here, easily outpacing the AMD Radeon 6800M in both FHD and UHD resolutions.

F1 2021

The latest Codemaster simulation of Formula 1 increases the graphical fidelity again, but at FHD resolution is not very demanding and allows the MSI GE76 Raider to take advantage of its fast refresh display. Once the resolution is cranked up to UHD though, even with the settings reduced, the laptop is not quite able to hit 60 FPS on average.

Godfall

At the native resolution of the GE76 Raider, Godfall is incredibly smooth even at the “Epic” settings level. At UHD with the settings turned down to “High” it is just able to delivery 60 FPS average.

GPU Conclusion

There is little doubt that the 165-Watt RTX 3080L that MSI has outfitted in this GE76 Raider is plenty capable, and with 16 GB of GDDR6 RAM, will be future proof for quite some time. A big factor in gaming laptop performance though is the processor, especially with a lot of systems still shipping with relatively low-resolution FHD displays. The Intel Core i9-11980HK really delivers here, dragging the GE76 Raider to the top of pretty much every gaming test we can throw at it. It is very impressive.

Display Analysis

MSI offers a fairly wide-range of display options for the GE76 Raider. There is the eSports-focused 360 Hz FHD panel found in our review unit, along with a pair of QHD panels with 165 Hz and 240 Hz refresh. There is even a UHD panel with an impressive 120 Hz refresh rate. MSI’s options are all excellent and all offer the high-refresh that would be expected in a gaming system.

The 360 Hz display in the review unit is of course incredibly smooth, but also seems like a bit of a specification that is just being increased to say you have increased it and show a higher number to make people think they are getting something better. As seen in our gaming tests, even older games really came nowhere near 360 frames per second. There are going to be some diminishing returns even if the game could actually run at that framerate. This unit has no variable refresh rate technology, and so the options are either 360 Hz if you can hit it, or can deal with repeated frames, or 60 Hz - there are no inbetween options.

MSI has historically done very well with display accuracy, and they offer a TrueColor application that allows the user to choose various color modes, including a sRGB mode. This is always a nice benefit of the MSI ecosystem, and it is nice to see MSI not fall for the trap of P3 color gamut support, since it is not handled very well in Windows 10 at all.

To see how the display performs, we leverage Portrait Display’s Calman software suite with a custom workflow. Brightness and contrast measurements are done with the X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter, and color accuracy testing is done with the X-Rite i1Pro2 spectrophotometer.

Brightness and Contrast

With just 314 nits of brightness, the GE76 Raider is very average for a gaming system. It does offer reasonable black levels and good contrast, but for those not playing in a dark environment, more brightness would be appreciated.

Grayscale

Portrait Display Calman

Immediately, the MSI GE76 Raider throws up a curveball here. MSI notebooks tend to have fairly good color accuracy out of the box, and with the ability to choose sRGB with the included software, often are near the top of our gaming notebook accuracy charts, but the 360 Hz display found in the GE76 Raider is anything but accurate, sacrificing some of that accuracy for the higher refresh rate as is sometimes the case with these sorts of panels.

Gamut

Portrait Display Calman

The gamut test checks the color levels for 100% brightness of the primary and secondary colors, and again, the GE76 Raider does not do very well here compared to the older GE75 Raider. It is not able to cover the entire sRGB gamut with its backlighting.

Saturation

Portrait Display Calman

In comparison to the gamut test which just checks the primary and secondary colors at 100% levels, the saturation sweep checks at 4-bit steps from 0% to 100%. Considering the previous results it is likely no surprise that the GE76 Raider performed poorly here.

Gretag Macbeth

Portrait Display Calman

The final test moves off of the primary and secondary color axis, and includes a lot more colors from all over the spectrum, including the important skin tones. There are some very high error levels detected here, dragging the average down quite a bit.

Colorchecker

Portrait Display Calman

To give a relative example of the color accuracy of the display, the colorchecker swatch shows the targeted color on the bottom, and the color achieved by the display on the top. The display in this notebook is significantly missing its targets pretty much across the spectrum.

Display Conclusion

If the price of a 360 Hz display is poor color accuracy, it is really the wrong direction. The previous generation GE75 was one of the most accurate gaming notebook displays we had tested, and it still included a 144 Hz display. Moving to such a high refresh rate is apparently detrimental to the overall experience, as the system can not achieve those kinds of framerates in really any game on the market. There is also the other elephant in the room, which is the lack of G-SYNC support on the Raider notebooks, which again, makes the high-refresh rate display less of an asset.

Considering MSI’s strong performance in the past, the results of the GE76 Raider are really very underwhelming.

Battery Life

Although battery life is certainly not the goal for 17.3-inch desktop-replacement laptops, MSI has squeezed in the largest possible battery they could to give the GE76 Raider a fighting chance. At 99.9 Wh, it is bumping right into the 100 Wh maximum for air travel. As usual though, battery life is not just a factor of battery size, but also efficiency of the entire system, and laptops with big NVIDIA GPUs tend to not fare that well.

MSI does include “Hybrid Graphics” with the GE76 Raider through a software switch in their settings, which allows the user to choose between NVIDIA Optimus to disable the GPU when not needed, or discrete graphics only, which directly connects the display to the RTX 3080 via a multiplexing switch. What would have been nice to see though is NVIDIA’s new Advanced Optimus, which allows this change to happen without a reboot, but sadly, it is not here.

Web Battery Life

On a web workload, the high base power draw of the GE76 Raider is a serious disadvantage. A large 17.3-inch display, coupled with the RTX 3080, even while switched off, still results in less than amazing battery life. AMD has really done their homework and provided the ability for the dGPU to draw basically no power when not in use, which is why the ASUS system is ahead. NVIDIA has more work to do here to achieve those results.

Looking at the normalized results, which remove the battery size from the equation, paints an even worse picture for the GE76 Raider, with high power draw masked by a very large battery.

PCMark 10 Modern Office

One of the more recent tests we’ve added to the laptop suite is the PCMark 10 battery life test, which runs the Modern Office workload in ten-minute loops. If the laptop finishes, it is allowed to idle to fill out the full ten minutes before it starts again. The large battery helps the GE76 Raider surpass the Razer Blade 15 here, but it is no match for the AMD-powered ASUS.

Movie Playback

Video playback is one of the least-demanding tests since almost all of the work is offloaded to the video decoder, allowing the rest of the system to sleep, so it tends to be the best-case scenario for almost any system. The Intel video decoder is very efficient, which helps the GE76 Raider take advantage of the large battery and provide reasonable video playback time.

If we divide the result by the length of The Avengers, we get our Tesseract score, and the GE76 Raider is almost able to play back this movie three full times on a charge.

Battery Charge Time

With a massive 280-Watt AC Adapter, the MSI GE76 Raider has the ability to recharge the 99.9 Wh battery very quickly if they had decided to, but to prolong the battery longevity, often the charge rate is reduced.

That is certainly the case here. Power draw at the wall while charging was only around 50-55 Watts, and the GE76 Raider takes almost three hours to completely fill the 99.9 Wh battery.

Wireless

MSI has outfitted the GE76 Raider with the latest and greatest wireless solution from Killer, which is now owned by Intel, and uses the industry-leading Intel wireless solutions as its base. The Killer AX1675 supports Wi-Fi 6E, meaning there is 6 GHz support, as well as Bluetooth 5.2. For those that prefer wired connections, MSI has also included the Killer E3100G Ethernet adapter, which supports 2.5 Gbps Ethernet.

Wireless performance was outstanding on the GE76 Raider, which is a trademark of the Intel-powered Wi-Fi solutions. Speed is always important, but so is stability, and the Killer AX1675 showed no problems during our time with the system. Intel’s driver stack is one of the most stable around, so that was not a big surprise.

Audio

MSI leverages Dynaudio for the speaker system on the GE76 Raider, with 2 x 1-Watt speakers, and 2 x 2-Watt woofers.

Considering the poor-quality audio on many laptops, and with the expectations as low as they are, the MSI GE76 Raider has a much wider sound range than most notebooks that come through, and perhaps thanks to it being a 17.3-inch notebook, the soundstage also seemed wider than most. SPL measured right around 80 dB(A) measured one inch over the trackpad, and the extra two woofers appear to make an impact on the low-end of the audio range. For a notebook of course.

The GE76 Raider includes the standard 3.5 mm audio jack, and for most people, a proper set of desktop speakers or headphones would make a big difference.

Thermals

A beefy GPU paired with a power-hungry, performance CPU creates a huge load on a laptop computer. The 17.3-inch notebook has plenty of space for heatsinks and fans though, so we will see how it performs.

NVIDIA rates laptop GPUs for a range of TDPs, and MSI is using 165-Watts as the target, with Dynamic Boost available, and the Core i9-11980HK can have up to a 65-Watt TDP as well. To cool this, MSI offers several cooling modes, including silent, balanced, and extreme performance which cranks up the cooling fans to maximum and provides the most thermal headroom. To see how the GE76 Raider copes with a long gaming session, Shadow of the Tomb Raider was run at 1920x1080 with the settings at the max.

Measuring power draw at the wall, Shadow of the Tomb Raider could draw up to 290 Watts, but even so, the GE76 Raider was able to cope with the heat. CPU temperature did creep up for the first hour or so before settling in at about 95°C. Toasty, but not anything the laptop was unable to handle. GPU performance was very flat during the entire session. Despite all of this heat, the laptop areas that your hands would interact with never got very warm, with the keyboard just getting to around 40°C in a few spots. The system was able to handle this very well. The downside of the extreme performance mode though is noise, with the system peaking around 55 dB(A) measured one inch over the trackpad. If you are going to run at maximum, you would really need closed-back earphones to try and remove some of the noise.

On the CPU side, the CPU was stress tested in both extreme performance and balanced mode to see what kind of impact it has on thermals.

CPU Test in Extreme Performance Mode

CPU Test in Balanced Performance Mode

With the laptop set at its most performant mode, sound was again around 55 dB(A) and MSI allowed the CPU to use a TDP of just over 70 Watts sustained. Turning the performance to balanced made a dramatic impact on noise, with a SPL around 44 dB(A) which was much more comfortable to use, but the CPU was knocked down to about 62 Watts sustained to achieve this. Thankfully, with this much performance on tap in the GE76 Raider, balanced mode is likely fine for almost all scenarios.

When idle in balanced mode, the fans were still on, but inaudible, which is excellent.

The RTX 3080L and Core i9-11980HK can both combine for a very high heat load, but MSI’s cooling system is up to the task.

Software

Thankfully MSI did not burden the GE76 Raider with a lot of third-party utilities. What is included is MSI’s own software suites to control the laptop performance, as well as the display.

The MSI Center suite lets you set up the laptop performance and sound levels, and for the most part, is fairly well laid out. Once you use it a bit, finding the settings are pretty simple. Unfortunately, the application window size can not be increased, so it requires some scrolling even if you had extra desktop space to fill.

Setting the laptop performance is done via Features->User Scenarios, and you can choose among the previously mentioned performance levels. Extreme performance cranks the cooling to maximum, but also allows you to overclock the CPU and GPU if desired. There is also a User customizable setting to choose performance and fan speed if you don’t like the ones MSI has created.

Under Features->General Settings are the switches to turn off certain keys and the webcam, and also the important option to use hybrid (Optimus) graphics, or directly connect the display to the NVDIIA GPU. That switch does require a reboot.

The Live Update feature in MSI Center lets you easily update drivers and firmware, and works pretty well. Most laptops feature some sort of update mechanism, and it sure beats the days of manually finding the correct driver for everything in your system.

There is also hardware monitoring if you want to check in on temperatures and other statistics of the system. MSI’s implementation is a bit bland, but it does provide all of the necessary information.

To adjust system lighting, or the per-key RGB keyboard, you have to use the SteelSeries GG suite, which offers plenty of customization for both the light bar, as well as the keyboard. SteelSeries has updated their software and the new version is a bit more intuitive than before.

Final Words

If you are after a fast gaming system, read no further. MSI’s GE76 Raider is an absolute beast of a device, with the best gaming performance of any system we have ever tested. The combination of the Core i9-11980HK, GeForce RTX 3080L, and plenty of cooling allows for impressive framerates in any title.

The design of the GE76 Raider is nicely executed as well. The Titanium Blue finish is handsome, and although there are some “gamer” touches, none of them are outlandish. The light bar at the front is a nice touch if you like RGB, and if you don’t when it is disabled it looks like there is nothing there.

MSI offers a nice array of options on the new GE76 Raider as well to hit different price points, and different use cases. The laptop shipped for review is clearly targeting eSports gamers, with the biggest CPU and GPU combination offered, but paired with a 360 Hz FHD display.

Unfortunately, the display was a bit of a let-down. MSI has historically offered very accurate displays, but the panel in our review unit was anything but. The 360 Hz refresh is an impressive number, but even with the performance of this device, no game we tested was anywhere near that kind of framerate at FHD resolution. The previous generation GE75 Raider’s 144 Hz panel was very accurate, and fast enough. The Raider series is also missing any cariable refresh rate technology, which is a shame on something so clearly targeting gaming.

The keyboard is good, but not great. The per-key RGB option is a big plus, and allows not only customization, but also usability. For instance, when you press the Fn key, all of the keys except those with a Fn function get turned off, making it much easier to find what you were looking for. Being able to set specific keys a specific color really helps find keys you use often, but maybe not every day, and is a big step up over zoned backlighting.

The key caps are the biggest disappointment, with very little traction on the caps themselves, and an overall very flat design. It makes typing not as comfortable as some of the competition, or even MSI’s Titan laptops. Good, but not great. Likely not a dealbreaker for most, unless you are really into keyboards.

The GE76 Raider offers a tremendous amount of expansion. There is a Type-C Thunderbolt 4 port, as well as a second Type-C port, as well as three Type-A USB ports. Despite the Type-C ports also providing DisplayPort, MSI has still included a mini-DisplayPort option, as well as HDMI video outputs if you do want to connect this to an external display. Including a SD card reader is a nice touch as well for those with SD-based cameras.

The GE76 Raider’s cooling system is up to the task, keeping everything from overheating no matter how long your gaming session goes. The Extreme Performance mode unlocks additional power for the internal components but can also get a bit loud. Thankfully the balanced mode is most of the performance, for far less noise.

MSI laptops are not the least expensive on the market, but the company tends to deliver high-quality devices for every generation. They seem to have delivered again with the GE76 Raider. There is plenty of performance, lots of expansion, and lots of choices to hit different price ranges, or to target different use-cases. It is nice to see them include options high-refresh displays across the range, from FHD to QHD to UHD.

The MSI GE76 Raider packs a wallop. If you are in the market for a gaming system, this system needs to be on the short list for anyone who craves framerate. At $3399 for the model we tested, it is silly season on GPUs right now, but as a gaming replacement system, it's going to be a fun option to consider.