This is the most powerful gaming laptop I’ve tested so far!
It’s MSI’s GE76, and my high spec model has Intel’s new 12th gen Core i9-12900HK
processor, a 14 core 20 thread part, along with Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti graphics with a high
power limit and 32 gigs of DDR5-4800 memory.
This year’s new GE76 essentially looks the same when compared to the older 11th and 10th
gen models.
It’s definitely got some gamer flair with the RGB, but doesn’t quite go overboard,
though of course that’s personal opinion.
The machine is quite solid with very little flex to the keyboard deck, and the lid didn’t
flex much either despite the larger 17” size.
The laptop alone weighs 3kg or 6.7lb, then over 4.1kg or 9lb with the large 280 watt
power brick and cables included.
It’s definitely on the larger side, however it’s not super thick like other desktop
replacement style machines that I’ve tested.
The GE76 is available with three different screen resolutions, and mine has the 1080p
360Hz option.
Honestly I think 1440p is a better sweet spot at the larger 17” size, but the 3080 Ti
would probably have a decent shot at 4K gaming too.
The 1080p screen had decent color gamut and contrast, but it didn’t even hit 300 nits
at maximum brightness which isn’t a great result, it’s dimmer than I’d want for
such an expensive machine.
It’s also got a MUX switch, so you’ve got the option of running with optimus enabled
for higher battery life or optimus disabled for higher performance in games, but there’s
no advanced optimus so you’ve got to reboot when you want to swap between those two modes.
The MSI Center software, the control panel for the laptop, let’s us enable or disable
panel overdrive, which affects screen response time.
With overdrive enabled, which is the default, we’re looking at a 3.2ms average grey-to-grey
response time, an extremely impressive result, and one of the pluses of getting the 1080p
option.
This mode had a little overshoot, but you’ve got the option of disabling overdrive which
slows the response time a little to 6.5ms.
It’s one of the fastest screen’s I’ve ever tested when compared to other laptops,
which you’d expect from a 360Hz screen.
Last year’s 11th gen model was about 1ms slower despite having the same panel, and
although that’s within the margin of error, it’s possible they tuned the overdrive mode
better this year.
The total system latency was the fastest I’ve ever tested.
This is the total amount of time between a mouse click and when a gunshot fire happens
on the screen in CS:GO, so yeah definitely a great option if you’re serious about eSports
gaming on a laptop.
Backlight bleed was only extremely minor and never noticeable during normal use, but this
will vary between panels.
There’s a 1080p camera above the screen in the middle, however there’s no IR for
Windows Hello face unlock.
So despite having a 1080p camera the quality isn’t actually that great.
The microphones are alright, this is what it sounds like while typing on the keyboard,
and this is what it sounds like if I set the fan to full speed.
So it’s actually doing a decent job of isolating my voice over the loud fan noise, granted
most people probably aren’t going to be gaming during a meeting or something.
The keyboard has per-key backlighting which can be adjusted between 4 brightness levels
using the F10 and F11 shortcuts, and all keys and secondary functions get lit up.
Typing was alright, I didn’t have any issues and liked using the keyboard, but some people
might not like the smaller right shift key.
The precision touchpad clicks down anywhere and worked alright, though it felt a little
small given the overall size of the machine
The left has a Kensington lock slot up the back, and air exhaust vent, USB Type-A and
Type-C ports, both of which are 3.2 Gen 2, and 3.5mm audio combo jack.
The right has two more USB Type-A ports, but they’re slower 3.2 Gen 1.
There’s also an SD card slot and there’s an air exhaust on this side too.
The rest of the I/O is on the back in between two more air exhausts at the corners.
From left to right we’ve got a Mini DisplayPort 1.4, Type-C Thunderbolt 4 port, 2.5 gigabit
ethernet which is unfortunately facing the wrong way, however I found it high enough
that I could unplug without lifting up the back of the machine.
There’s also HDMI 2.1 and the power input on the right.
There’s nothing on the front, but the lid was still easy to open despite no dedicated
groove.
Well actually there’s the all important RGB bar, which as we all know needs to be
on for best performance in games, and this can be controlled and customized through the
included Steel Series software.
Alright so the left Type-C port has DisplayPort support and that in combination with the HDMI
port and Mini DisplayPort on the back all connect directly to the Nvidia graphics.
Due to the way 12th gen processors and Thunderbolt work this generation, the Type-C port on the
back can only be used if optimus is enabled, and it connects to the integrated graphics.
If optimus is disabled then you can’t use it as a display output.
I also found that neither Type-C port can be used to charge the laptop and the HDMI
port does not appear to have variable refresh rate, or VRR support.
Getting inside was fairly easy using the tools linked in the description, just remove 13
Phillips head screws and take off the bottom panel.
I like that the light bar isn’t part of the bottom panel like say the ASUS Scar 15,
so there aren’t any ribbon cables connecting it to the motherboard.
There are also air intake vents directly above the two fans.
Inside we’ve got the battery down the front, two M.2 drives above on the left, two DDR5
SODIMM slots to the right of those, and the Wi-Fi 6E card to the right of that.
I’ve given it the same upgradeability score as last year’s model, as we get the same
options when it comes to upgrading this newer 12th gen model, so one of the better results.
The Wi-Fi performance was decent, basically as long as we don’t have MediaTek or RealTek
we’re looking pretty good.
This is a 6E card, but unfortunately my access point only goes up to 6, so faster may be
possible.
This is my first time testing a DDR5 gaming laptop, but I can report that it’s using
x8 memory.
I’ve seen x16 DDR5 sticks in another engineering sample, so they still exist, let me know if
I should compare them in future.
There are front facing speakers on either side of the keyboard, as well as towards the
front on the left and right sides.
They sound alright but aren’t super clear.
There’s above average bass levels and they can get relatively loud, however I did hear
some popping at higher volume.
The latencymon results weren’t looking great here, but this is my first 12th gen laptop
tested under Windows 11 so it’s too early for me to say if it’s one of those or the
laptop.
This year’s GE76 is still powered by a 4-Cell 99.9Wh battery.
I’ve run my usual YouTube playback test with optimus both on and off as it’s got
a MUX switch.
With optimus off, the 12th gen GE76 lasted for less than 3 hours, then over 5 hours with
optimus enabled.
If we compare it to others, it’s not amazing, but also not terrible for a thicker, more
powerful laptop either.
This year’s 12th gen model was lasting more than half an hour longer compared to last
year’s 11th gen model.
The gaming performance is lower though, as this year Nvidia’s new battery boost 2.0
no longer caps FPS at a static 30 frames, and mine automatically moved between 30 and
50 FPS.
Let’s check out thermals next.
There are some shared heatpipes between the CPU and GPU and two fans towards the corners.
The i9 version of the GE76 has MSI’s new liquid metal pad on the processor.
This is different to regular liquid metal as it’s solid until it reaches 58 degrees
Celsius, at which point it liquifies.
MSI says that it makes it easier to maintain with no leaks, but only the top spec i9 model
has this, not the i7 version.
The MSI Center software let’s us change between different performance modes, which
from lowest to highest are silent, balanced and extreme performance.
Extreme performance mode optionally let’s you enable cooler boost, which sets the fan
to maximum, or you can also go to advanced mode to customize either fan individually.
By default it looks like it’s applying a 100MHz overclock to the GPU, however if I
actually check software like MSI afterburner it doesn’t appear, so it may not be working.
You can also hold the function key and press the F8 key to enable cooler boost at any time
to max the fan out, regardless of the performance mode in use.
The CPU and GPU temperatures were looking fine when just sitting there idle in the lowest
silent mode.
The rest of the results are from combined CPU and GPU stress tests and aim to represent
a worst case.
The GPU in the green bar was hitting thermal throttling in silent mode, but that’s just
the trade off for a quieter system, we’ll listen to fan noise in a moment.
Balanced mode was slightly cooler, then extreme mode cooler still.
Enabling cooler boost to max out the fan offered a nice improvement, then adding a cooling
pad didn’t help too much further.
It’s possible to manually boost the power limit of the CPU with software like Intel
XTU, and if we do this it’s possible to make the CPU hit thermal throttling at 95
degrees Celsius.
MSI has chosen to limit the maximum processor temperature to 95 using TCC offset, and this
is how I’ve done all testing, however you can change this in the BIOS.
You can either make the number higher, say 10, which would mean the maximum temperature
allowed is 90, or you could lower it to 0, allowing the 12900HK to run up to 100 degrees
Celsius.
These are the clock speeds during the same tests just shown.
I’ve decided to split the P and E cores up as they reach different speeds.
We can see the CPU power limit boost at the top is able to give us a massive boost, more
than 1GHz of extra speed to all 6 P cores, while the 8 E cores gain more than 700MHz.
The GPU speed actually drops back more than 100MHz though, and we can see why when we
look at the power levels being reached.
By default, MSI seems to be limiting the 12900HK to just 45 watts in a combined CPU plus GPU
workload.
By manually boosting the processor, it looks like some of the power from the GPU is taken
away - it’s a trade off.
In the default best extreme mode though, around 170 watts for the 3080 Ti with the CPU also
loaded up is an impressive result, and as you can see with the result at the top, there's
clearly some CPU headroom.
To be fair, the CPU is able to sustain 90 plus watts in a CPU only workload like Cinebench
indefinitely.
It’s only capped to 45 watts by default if the GPU is also active, like in a game,
but again as mentioned you have the power to modify that as the HK processor is unlocked.
The single and multi core performance is the best I’ve ever recorded from any laptop
so far.
This isn’t too surprising, prior to Intel’s 12th gen processors the best options we had
were 8 core 16 thread parts, but now we’re able to go up to 14 cores and 20 threads.
Not only that, but the single core score is 17% higher compared to the next highest machine
just below it, which actually has a desktop tier processor, so yeah a very impressive
result.
The performance lowers if we unplug the laptop and run the test on battery power.
Although we’re losing around 5000 points to the multi core score, it’s still one
of the highest results relative to all of the last gen models that I tested last year.
Not to mention the single core score is largely unchanged and is 20% higher than the best
other result here.
I just want to stop here and say how impressive these results are, not just from the GE76,
but Intel 12th gen in general.
AMD’s Ryzen 6000 processors are definitely going to have a fight on their hands when
they launch soon.
Make sure you’re subscribed for all my upcoming comparisons!
The keyboard was below the usual 30 degree Celsius point that I typically see with most
other gaming laptops when just sitting there idle, so cold.
It gets a little warmer with the stress tests running, but remember the GPU was thermal
throttling in silent mode in this workload.
Stepping up to the higher balanced mode and the temperatures are quite similar despite
it now performing better because the fan speed raises.
Extreme mode with the fans set to automatic was a little cooler, the palm rest area was
still cold and the keyboard was barely warm to the touch.
It gets even colder if we set the fans to full speed with cooler boost, but it’s way
louder now, let’s have a listen.
The fans were still audible when it was just sitting there doing nothing in the lowest
silent mode.
Silent mode with the stress test was a bit louder, and although the GPU was thermal throttling,
as we'll see next, the gaming performance was still great, so good performance with
lower fans is definitely possible.
Balanced mode was of course louder, extreme mode was similar to most other gaming laptops
that I test, while max fan starts getting rather loud, you’ll definitely want headphones
or something if you choose to enable this.
Here’s how an actual game performs with the different modes in use, so better performance
at the higher levels as you’d expect, but what I found most impressive was the silent
mode result.
Yeah we were hitting GPU thermal throttling here with the stress tests earlier, but some
people just want a quieter system that can still perform.
Now let’s find out how well MSI’s top spec GE76 actually compares against other
laptops in games.
We’re going to focus on 1440p here as I think it’s a better matchup for the specs,
but you can check out this video next if you also want to see how well it performs at 1080p.
It’s worth noting that Intel 12th gen has 8 lanes of pcie Gen 4 between the CPU and
discrete graphics.
With last year’s 11th gen, laptop makers had the choice of selecting 8 or 16 lanes,
and last year’s GE76 had 16 lanes for the Nvidia graphics which means the older model
actually gets more bandwidth.
This may affect some games, but ultimately 8 lanes are considered enough for current
laptop GPUs.
This laptop also shipped with Windows 11 installed but core isolation was disabled by default.
Cyberpunk 2077 was doing the best on the new hardware out of any laptop tested so far,
though the average FPS was only just slightly ahead of the desktop replacement Clevo machine
which has a desktop processor and 3080 graphics.
The last gen GE76 wasn’t too far behind that either, I really had higher hopes from
the 3080 Ti at this resolution.
Control was similar in that the desktop replacement Clevo machine was very close, while the 11th
gen GE76 wasn’t too far behind the newer 12th gen version, we’re talking like 3 frames
difference on average, though both were still a fair bit ahead of other thinner 3080 gaming
laptops.
Again, I was expecting a bigger difference from the 3080 Ti here.
Here are the 3DMark results for those that find them useful, now for some content creator
tests.
Adobe Premiere was tested with the Puget Systems benchmark, and the GE76 is right at the top
of the graph, again surprising absolutely no one.
I mean it’s got the highest tier CPU and GPU that I’ve ever had so far, so this should
be expected.
Adobe Photoshop typically depends on processor performance, so again, the best processor
I’ve tested equals the highest Photoshop score yet.
Another nice win, but also only 8% higher than last year’s model.
DaVinci Resolve is more GPU heavy, which is probably why this year’s GE76 is now scoring
15% higher than last year’s model in this test.
Again not a huge boost, but more number more better and all that.
I’ve also tested SPECviewperf which tests out various professional 3D workloads, and
the 3080 Ti is producing some of the highest numbers I’ve seen here.
Intel 12th gen dedicates 4 lanes of PCIe gen 4 for two M.2 slots, and my GE76 came with
two 2TB NVMe M.2 SSDs, both of which were able to offer exceptional read and write speeds.
The SD card slot was acceptable, but I’ve seen other laptops max out my card at beyond
200MB/s.
The card clicks in and sits most of the way into the machine.
MSI’s advanced BIOS can be unlocked by entering this epic cheat code.
Just like previous MSI laptops, you get a seriously crazy level of options to control
through here, so definitely make sure you know what you’re doing and don’t brick
the machine with random changes.
This is where you can adjust the TCC offset as well as other thermal and power controls.
It's also possible to enable undervolting for the P-cores but not the E-cores.
Linux support was tested by booting an Ubuntu 21 live CD.
By default the keyboard, touchpad, ethernet, and camera worked, plus you can still use
the F8 shortcut to max the fan out.
Unfortunately audio, Wi-Fi, the keyboard shortcuts to change volume, keyboard brightness and
screen brightness did not work, and although the front light bar was lit, the keyboard
did not light up.
Given 12th gen just launched, a newer version of Linux is probably needed here with better
support for brand new hardware.
I’m sure this will improve over time.
Let’s discuss pricing and availability next.
This will of course change over time so refer to those links in the description below for
updates.
At the time of recording, the 12900HK and RTX 3080 Ti model goes for $4200 USD on Newegg,
yikes.
For $1200 less you can still get the same CPU with what I’d argue is a better screen
choice but with RTX 3070 Ti graphics, and I’d expect an i7 configuration to be lower
still.
Generally in the past I haven’t found i9’s to be worth the price premium over i7.
Alright, let's summarize all of the good and all of the bad things about MSI’s GE76 to
help you decide if it’s a laptop you should consider.
For those that want higher levels of power in an at least somewhat manageable form factor,
I think MSI’s GE76 is going to be one to beat this year.
The performance on offer with Intel’s 12th gen processors is on another level compared
to what they’ve put out for the last 5 plus years.
That said, while the laptop as a whole was constantly a chart topper in both gaming and
content creator workloads, I was left disappointed by the RTX 3080 Ti in games.
I just expected more considering it’s got 20% more CUDA cores compared to the 3080 of
last year, not to mention faster memory and a higher power limit.
Regardless, there are still higher levels of power here, and despite that, thermals
remained in check for the most part.
Though this is a result of the 45 watt power limit on the processor which is the limit
when the GPUs also active.
But as mentioned, there is a lot of customization available.
There’
There’s definitely headroom to boost the CPU power limit at the expense of a warmer
machine, and MSI’s advanced BIOS gives enthusiasts everything they need to do just that.
Battery life is a little better than previous versions, but don’t expect miracles from
what is borderline a desktop replacement machine.
After testing the MacBook recently, the speakers left a lot to be desired, and of course the
fans can get quite loud, though you do have the option of running it quieter at the expense
of higher temperatures - and like I always say, user choice is always best, so it’s
great to have options rather than being stuck one way or the other.
All things considered, compared to last gen GE76, in just gaming this high price seems
kind of hard to justify.
But for other tasks that can benefit from the 14 core 20 thread i9 processor this thing
is definitely a beast.
The 1080p screen that mine came with only makes sense if eSports is your number one
priority, otherwise the high refresh 1440p or even 4K option would be the way to go with
this level of power.
Check out this video next if you want to see more gaming benchmarks from this laptop.
I’ve compared it against 18 other laptop GPUs in 10 plus different games or something
ridiculous like that, and of course make sure that you’re subscribed for my upcoming comparisons
between Intel 12th gen and AMD’s new Ryzen 6000 laptop processors.
You’re definitely not going to want to miss that!