The MSI GT76 Titan is a thick machine with desktop level hardware inside, but serious
levels of power equal serious levels of heat, so what sort of temperatures are we looking
at with this desktop replacement? In this testing I’ll take a detailed look at thermals
and see how much we can improve performance with some simple changes.
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.
On the bottom we’ve got a huge mesh area which should help with air intake. Air is
exhausted out of the vents along the back, as well as from the rear left and right corners.
There are 11 heatpipes and 4 fans in total for cooling, and it appears that the cooling
for the CPU and GPU are separate. Two of the fans are in the traditional spots, while the
other two are below the screen or above the keyboard underneath these vents, as you can
see here from this video I took at Computex in June. MSI are also using CNC polished copper
blocks, the smoother surface should help improve contact between the dies and the cooling.
As you can probably imagine, these specs need some serious power, and that’s why there
are two 230 watt power bricks needed to power it.
The MSI Dragon Center software allows us to swap between four modes, which from lowest
to highest are ECO, Comfort, Sport and Turbo. In Turbo mode we’re also given the option
to easily overclock the CPU and GPU, up to 5GHz on the CPU, and +150MHz on the GPU core
and +250MHz on the GPU memory. We can of course tweak these further with third party tools
though. In terms of fan speed I’ve tested either with the default automatic speed, or
with coolerboost enabled which basically sets the fan speed to maximum for best cooling.
Thermal testing was completed in an ambient room temperature of 21 degrees Celsius, so
expect different results in different environments.
At idle the CPU was fine and the GPU was a fair bit warmer comparatively.
The rest of the results are from combined CPU and GPU workloads, and are meant to represent
worst case scenarios as I ran them for extended periods of time.
The gaming results towards the upper half of the graph were tested by playing Watch
Dogs 2, as I find it to use a good combination of processor and graphics. The stress test
results shown on the lower half of the graph are from running the Aida64 CPU stress test
with only the stress CPU option checked, and the Heaven GPU benchmark at max settings at
the same time to fully load the system.
In ECO and Comfort modes, whether gaming or under stress test, the GPU was thermal throttling
at around 91 degrees Celsius. This is expected, as these modes are designed for quieter operation
so the trade off is extra heat. The main limitation for the CPU in the multicore stress test was
thermals, we can see it was throttling at 97 degrees Celsius in most of these tests.
The GPU gradually lowers in temperature as each mode increases the fan speed. The gaming
results on the other hand aren’t bad at all, in sport or turbo mode they’re within
reason given the specs.
These are the clock speeds for the same tests just shown. CPU performance was the lowest
in ECO mode as this caps the power limit of the CPU to 55 watts, but it’s worth calling
out that these speeds even in this worst performance mode are better than most 6 core i7-9750H
laptops I test. With comfort mode the CPU clock speed rises, however the GPU speeds
stay the same, if you recall in the last graph it was still thermal throttling in comfort
mode. The GPU speeds rise up in sport mode as this increases the fan speed, likewise
CPU performance increases for the same reason, more fan speed helps reduce the thermal limitations.
Turbo mode improved upon this a little more, and then there were some extra CPU improvements
with undervolting and adding a cooling pad as these also help address thermal throttling.
The GPU speed is the highest in these two modes as I’ve also got the GPU overclocks
enabled through Dragon Center. In this particular game we’re also hitting MSI’s 5GHz claim
after some basic tweaks, the cooling pad wasn’t needed either though it helps, however this
will of course vary by game.
These are the average TDP values during these same tests. We can see the RTX 2080 was approaching
its 200 watt limit in turbo mode when under stress test, this particular game isn’t
heavy enough on the GPU to demand more than 160 watts I guess. Anyway these are pretty
crazy results, on average with the GPU sitting at 195 watts we’ve also got the CPU around
the 120 mark, so that explains the temperatures.
Here are the CPU clock speeds while under a CPU only stress test, basically I was only
able to hit the 5GHz overclock speed with my undervolt applied, at least in this workload.
The limitation was thermals, even in a CPU only stress test like this the 97 degree limit
was still being reached and these tests were done with coolerboost enabled too, so maximum
fan speed. To run at these speeds though we’re seeing over 120 watts being reported, so kind
of understandable.
To demonstrate how this translates into performance I’ve got some Cinebench CPU benchmarks from
the different available modes. It’s worth considering an i7-9750H best case scores around
3000 points in multicore, so we’re getting a nice boost from both higher clock speeds
and those two additional cores. Despite thermals being the limitation in this specific workload,
the cooling pad and undervolt hardly made much extra improvement.
Just for comparison, here’s how the best results compare against some other 8 core
machines that I’ve recently tested.
I’ve also tested Shadow of the Tomb Raider with the game’s built in benchmark tool
just to show average frame rates from each mode. The results were interesting, even in
the lowest ECO mode we’re still getting exceptional performance from a laptop, and
this was while the fans were on the quieter side, as you’ll hear shortly.
If you want to see more gaming benchmarks from the Titan, check the card in the top
right where I’ve tested 12 games at 1080p and 4K resolutions.
As for the external temperatures where you’ll actually be putting your hands, at idle in
eco mode the keyboard was around 30 degrees Celsius, pretty normal stuff. With the combined
CPU and GPU stress tests running and still in eco mode it’s now around 40 degrees,
but as you’ll hear soon the fan is hardly going. Moving up to comfort mode it’s about
the same, no major changes. Sport mode increases the fan speed, so although we’re now getting
higher performance the external temperatures are a bit better. Again in turbo despite now
delivering higher levels of performance it’s even cooler due to the faster fans. Here’s
what it looks like playing an actual game for an hour with the same turbo mode and fans
on auto, again no issues at all.
Here’s how the fans sound with these different modes in these tests.
At idle in the lowest eco mode the fans were still audible, though my noise floor is between
34 and 35 so it’s still quiet. In the stress tests with eco it’s still on the quieter
side, and comfort mode was basically the same, which is honestly quite impressive when you
consider that you can still play games with well above average levels of performance.
Quieter operation with good performance is a real possibility, at the expense of thermals
of course. Sport mode rises the fans up quite a bit, it’s about 11 decibels higher now.
In turbo mode with the fan on auto it’s quite loud, then with the fan at max speed
in coolerboost it’s very loud, you’ll definitely want headphones for that.
The results from the Titan are quite impressive when you consider that it was possible to
hit 5GHz on average sustained over 8 cores, at least in these workloads. Yes it does run
hot if you stress it hard in turbo mode, and thermals were the main limitation even once
undervolted and with a cooling pad in use, but honestly that’s always going to be expected
when you stick a 9900K in a laptop - the fact is the performance is still there despite
this, and while actually playing games the thermals seemed reasonable.
The RTX 2080 also runs up to 200 watts, which is fairly crazy. If you saw my gaming benchmark
video it’s no surprise that it’s offering serious levels of performance.
I was a bit surprised that adding a cooling pad didn’t help too much with the thermal
throttling, given the amount of mesh on the base of the machine. In addition to heat the
downsides are of course the loud fan noise when in turbo mode or with coolerboost enabled.
With some decent fan speed though the keyboard deck doesn’t get hot at all, so it’s quite
comfortable to use, and you do have the option of using it with quieter fans.
These differences in performance shown aren’t hard and fast rules, there are different factors
which will vary results, primarily the temperature of the room you’re running in, application
of thermal paste, and even the specific hardware which comes down to the silicon lottery. You
may not be able to undervolt or overclock your hardware the same as me, it depends on
the chip and its specific power requirements, so don’t just blindly copy my settings and
do some testing to find out where your stable point is for best results.
It may be possible to improve temperatures by swapping the thermal paste, considering
thermals on the CPU are preventing us pushing further liquid metal could definitely help.
Unfortunately, this isn’t something I’m able to test in a borrowed review unit, otherwise
the next reviewer will unknowingly report non stock results.
Raising fan speed, using a cooling pad or undervolting are much easier for most people
to do anyway, and as we’ve seen these tweaks did help improve performance and temperatures
with the Titan.
Let me know what you thought about the thermals from the MSI GT76 Titan down in the comments,
and if you’re new to the channel you’ll definitely want to get subscribed for the
upcoming full review to see everything this machine has to offer.