MSI’s GT76 Titan has some extremely powerful hardware inside, including 8 core i9-9900K
overclockable CPU and Nvidia RTX 2080 graphics, so let’s find out how well it performs in
games at different resolutions and see how it compares with some other gaming laptops.
For the specs there’s an 8 core 16 thread overclockable desktop i9-9900K CPU, 200w Nvidia
RTX 2080 graphics, definitely no Max-Q here, and 32gb of memory in dual channel. You can
find other configurations and updated prices linked in the description.
Unfortunately there’s no option of disabling Optimus for better performance, we’re stuck
with it so no G-Sync here.
The MSI Dragon Center software allows us to set different performance profiles. With turbo
mode you have the option of setting all 8 CPU cores to 4.8, 4.9 or 5.0 GHz. I’ve done
all testing here with a maximum of 4.9 set, as some games would crash at 5. It also allows
us to overclock the graphics by 150MHz on the core and 250MHz on the memory. I’ve
tested with these settings as I figure even someone that doesn’t know what they’re
doing can easily apply these changes, and I’ve got coolerboost enabled, which basically
sets the fan speed to maximum.
We’re only covering gaming performance here, so if you’re new to the channel you’ll
definitely want to get subscribed for the thermal testing and full review videos where
I’ll cover everything. We’ll start off by going through all games at all setting
levels at 1080p and 4K resolutions, then afterwards we’ll see how the Titan compares with some
other gaming laptops. 1440p wasn’t tested as it wasn’t a default resolution of the
machine, and I couldn’t easily add it as a custom resolution.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode. I’ve got RTX on shown by the green bars,
and RTX off shown by the purple bars. At 1080p it was still quite playable even with RTX
on at ultra settings, where I was able to average above 60 FPS, however we could get
much higher than this with RTX off. At 4K it was still playable with RTX off, where
almost 60 FPS averages were reached at ultra settings, however RTX wasn’t going so well,
to the point where my frame recording software kept failing to record 1% low data.
Control was tested by running through the start of the game, and again I’ve tested
both RTX on in green, and RTX off in purple. RTX was playable at 1080p and it actually
looks good in this game, we’re just under 60 FPS with all settings maxed out, however
as you can see much higher is possible with RTX off. At 4K RTX is basically unusable,
while low settings with it off played ok, again near 60 FPS, however with medium and
high presets at this resolution there were noticeable issues due to the lower frame rates.
Wolfenstein Youngblood was also tested playing through the start of the game. This one uses
Vulkan and the performance was nothing short of excellent at 1080p. I wasn’t really seeing
any noteworthy differences between the different setting levels at this resolution, there was
hardly any change between minimum and maximum, so might as well just max it out so that it
looks its best. This is definitely a title that would benefit more from the 1080p 144Hz
or even 240Hz screen option. At 4K the results are honestly still excellent and much better
than I was expecting. If you’re using the 4K screen like I’ve got here it’s limited
to 60Hz, and I was seeing above this for the 1% low even at maximum settings, so not only
is it looking great, but it’s playing perfectly smoothly while doing it.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint was tested with the game’s built in benchmark tool, and as expected
due to the specs these are some of the best results I’ve seen with this title so far.
At 1080p even ultimate settings was averaging well above 60 FPS, granted the 1% low was
down quite a bit, ultra looks much better in that regard. At 4K the results are hit
hard, however 60 FPS was still possible with the very high setting preset, so still some
fair results.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was also tested with the game’s benchmark tool, and at 1080p
these are some of the best results I’ve ever seen from a gaming laptop, which I guess
isn’t that surprising given the hardware inside, but we’ll see how this game and
others compare with different laptops soon. At 4K the results drop back quite a bit again,
however medium settings was still capable of above 60 FPS averages, with high settings
not too far behind.
Fortnite was tested using the replay feature, and the results were a bit lower than I was
expecting, however this is my first time testing these specs with the new chapter 2 map so
it could just be a bit more resource intensive. In any case, there's absolutely no problems
playing with max settings. At 4K epic settings was still quite usable with 60 FPS averages,
however we could more than double this just by dropping down to medium settings.
PUBG was also tested using the replay feature, and again great results here. I mean I’ve
got a 60Hz screen, and even the 1% lows at high settings are double this, so no issues
here and it’d work great if you get it with a 1080p high refresh rate screen instead.
At 4K it was still possible to average above 60 FPS which is a pretty impressive result,
while low settings and below allowed for 100 FPS and above.
Alright last time I tested a crazy powerful machine some people got upset that CS:GO wasn’t
included, so here we go. At 1080p the results are well above average due to our increased
CPU power, and there’s a nice improvement to 1% lows too. The averages at 4K aren’t
too bad, but the 1% lows drop quite a bit, however I doubt many people would be looking
to play at this resolution anyway, I only included it because I tested everything else
at 4K too.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark. At 1080p ultra settings was
just below 200 FPS with relatively high 1% low performance too, so as expected no issues
here, granted the results at max settings weren’t all that much above mid range options.
At 4K ultra settings still had above 60 FPS even for the 1% low, so while lower comparatively
to the 1080p results just covered, these are still good results considering the resolution
and 4K 60Hz screen.
The Witcher 3 is fairly GPU heavy, so it was no surprise that the results are close to
many other RTX 2080 laptops I’ve tested. I don’t think it needs a super high frame
rate to play, so although ultra settings is a step back compared to the other setting
levels it was still playing perfectly fine. I thought 4K wasn’t going too badly even
at ultra settings, however the high setting preset was needed if I wanted to average above
60 FPS in my testing.
Borderlands 3 was tested with the game’s built in benchmark, and it must be one of
the few times I’ve ever seen decent performance from the highest setting preset at 1080p.
This wasn’t the case at 4K, however it was still possible to achieve above 60 FPS for
the average with the medium setting preset at this resolution.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was also tested with the game’s benchmark tool, and as a
test that’s on the CPU heavy side we’re seeing great results thanks to the 9900K,
with above 60 FPS averages from the ultra high preset. That may not sound like much,
but that’s quite a good result for a laptop. At 4K the results drop back quite a bit and
are honestly more in line with what we’d see from more mid range laptops at 1080p,
with the medium setting preset just shy of a 60 FPS average.
Let’s also take a look at how this config of the MSI GT76 Titan compares with other
laptops, use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested at different times
with different drivers.
I’ve tested Battlefield 5 with ultra settings and I’ve got the GT76 highlighted in red
near similarly specced machines. In this test it’s taking the lead in terms of average
frame rate, although it was only just ahead of the ASUS Mothership, but it’s worth considering
that costs a lot more too. The 1% low was lower though, and slightly behind the Alienware
51m, however it’s still higher than the average FPS from our 1660 Ti machines down
the bottom, so an impressive result.
Here are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark. This time
the Titan was a little behind the other 2080 machines in average frame rate, however the
1% low is right up there with the best result from the ASUS Mothership, so again pretty
crazy results compared to most others.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings. The Titan was in between the Alienware 51m and ASUS Mothership, basically all of
these machines are on a completely different level compared to the others due to the high
end specs.
As we’ve seen MSI’s GT76 Titan is offering serious levels of performance, which is to
be expected, it’s a thick machine with an overclocked 8 core desktop 9900K CPU and overclocked
RTX 2080 graphics capable of running up to 200 watts. 1080p gaming was of course no problem
at all, if you’re using it primarily for gaming you’d probably be better served by
the 1080p 144Hz or even 240Hz option. With the 4K screen I’ve got here 1440p would
also likely be fine with these specs based on my experience with other laptops that have
similar hardware, while native 4K was hit or miss depending on the game and setting
level, but for the most part I’d say these specs are 4K capable for a laptop.
There are definitely some compromises to be made with a machine like this, mainly in terms
of size, battery life, portability and price. It’s more of a desktop replacement that
can still be moved rather than your regular gaming laptop, but we’ll look into this
in more detail in the upcoming full review video.
I’ll be testing thermal performance in the next detailed video, so if you’re new to
the channel consider getting subscribed for that as well as for future tech videos like
this one.