MSI’s new GE76 is the fastest gaming laptop I’ve
ever tested! I’m going to show you how well it runs in 12 games at 4K,
1440p and 1080p resolutions. I’ll also compare it against other gaming laptops
to show you the differences and we’ll check out overclocking and screen response time too.
These are the specs of my GE76. MSI have sent their maxed out 10UH model which has
an 8 core i9 processor, 64 gigs of memory, and a 4K 120Hz screen which is powered by Nvidia
RTX 3080 graphics with high power limit and 16 gigs of VRAM, which is more than
the 10 gig in the desktop RTX 3080 by the way, granted the desktop card’s memory is faster.
Nvidia lists the power limit of the RTX 3080 mobile graphics as a range from 80
to 150 plus watts, and I found that the GE76 could happily pump out 150 watts
to the GPU all day long even with the CPU using 70 watts, pretty impressive stuff.
To top it all off, the GE76 lets us disable optimus after a reboot, which results in increased
gaming performance. Unfortunately there’s no G-Sync, but it does have resizable BAR support.
The MSI Dragon Center software lets you modify performance modes, and I’ve done all testing
with the highest extreme mode enabled and cooler boost enabled, which sets the fan to full speed
for best results. This doesn’t apply any GPU overclocking by default, but that is easy to do
through the software, and I’ll take a look at how much extra performance that gives us a bit later.
So with all of that in mind, let’s first start out by seeing how well
the GE76 performs in 12 different games at all setting levels at 4K,
1440p and 1080p resolutions. After that I’ll compare the GE76 against other gaming laptops,
then check out overclocking results followed by screen response time.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the games benchmark. Now give me a moment to explain what’s
going on here. The purple bars are 1080p results, the red bars are 1440p results,
and the green bars are 4K results. I’ve also tested all setting levels available, which are
shown on the left with lowest down the bottom and highest up top. 4K in the green bars was
still capable of passing 60 FPS even with the high setting preset, an excellent result for this test.
For brief comparison, many modern gaming laptops struggle to hit 60 FPS ultra settings at 1080p,
but the GE76 is doing better than this even at 1440p in the red bars.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested in little China with the street kid life path.
The graph is a bit more packed with data as there were more setting levels tested,
but basically 4K isn’t doing super well in the green bars regardless of setting level,
60 FPS isn’t possible in this test even with low settings. 1440p in the red bars on the other hand
was doing much better, high settings was able to average above 60 FPS, while the RT medium preset
with DLSS wasn’t far behind. 1080p in the purple bars was far better though, in all cases even the
1% low performance at this lower resolution was above even the average FPS of 1440p.
Control was tested with and without ray tracing and DLSS, let’s start with those features off
with stock standard gameplay. This time 4K in the green bars was easily surpassing 60 FPS with the
low setting preset, and honestly I think the game still looks pretty good even at low settings. That
said though, 1440p in the red bars was running way better. Even maxed out at high settings was
doing better than 4K at low. I think this is a good sweet spot, as the super high frame rates
possible at 1080p in the purple bars are honestly more than you need to play this game well.
With ray tracing enabled, 1080p was still able to surpass 60 FPS
even with max settings. 1440p wasn’t too bad, still quite usable at lower levels,
but 4K wasn’t really usable, but that’s where DLSS comes in.
With DLSS enabled 4K in the green bars is still on the lower side, however 1440p in the
red bars is running much better now, 80 FPS at high settings and playing without issue,
but again 1080p in the purple bars has higher 1% lows than even the averages from 1440p.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was tested with the game's benchmark. 4K in the green bars
was around 60 FPS with the medium preset, while 1440p even with max settings was higher than this.
I don’t think this game needs a particularly high frame rate to enjoy, but it’s certainly possible
to get above 100 FPS if you’re fine with lower quality settings.
Personally I’d prefer a mix of quality and resolution.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was tested in the Sydney landing challenge. 1440p and 1080p didn’t
actually see that much of a difference, the red and purple bars are only 1 to 3 FPS apart,
and at max settings it’s the smallest difference out of all tests. Technically maxed out 1440p was
ahead of 1080p, but the range is margin of error stuff. 4K in the green bars was just
under 60 FPS with low settings, which is an impressive result for this resource heavy game.
Watch Dogs Legion was tested with the games benchmark. Like many of the other titles tested,
this one doesn’t really need high frame rates to run well.
4K in the green bars with high settings was right on 60 FPS which is a great result,
but even max settings at 1440p was above 60 FPS. There’s less of a difference between 1080p and
1440p at the lower resolutions, presumably as both are more CPU bound, but then the higher
resolutions show more of a difference as the load shifts over to the 3080 GPU.
Battlefield V was tested in campaign mode. This game is an older game now compared to
the previous titles covered, which I’d say is why the frame rates are much higher compared to most
of the previous games. Even 4K ultra settings was above 60 FPS for the 1% low, an excellent
result, and you’ll see just how crazy this performance is compared to other laptops soon.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games benchmark tool. 4K max settings was still
close to 60 FPS, seriously impressive stuff from a laptop. Like some of the other games covered,
1440p and 1080p at lower settings were quite close together as the GPU is less saturated.
This is another game we’ll use to compare against other laptops soon, but spoiler,
the GE76 is offering chart topping performance.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature using the same replay file for all resolutions.
As an esports title higher frame rates are possible here. Medium settings at 1080p would
be plenty for the 1080p 300Hz panel option, and medium settings at 4K also makes good use
of the 4K 120Hz panel. Again like other titles, the performance difference at low settings is
extremely minor compared to higher levels, with all three resolutions achieving around 400 FPS.
CS:GO is another esports title, and this one in particular is one I’ve found to see big gains with
optimus disabled which I’m sure is contributing to the crazy high frame rates we’re seeing here.
500 FPS was possible with 1080p low settings, while the 4K results in the green bars are
looking similar to what I normally see from more mid range laptops at 1080p.
Rainbow Six Siege also hits fairly high frame rates without issue. Even 4K max settings was
reaching average FPS higher than the 120Hz refresh rate of the 4K display with 1% lows that weren’t
too far behind. Otherwise the 1% low from 1080p max settings would be close to the 300Hz 1080p
display if you had the GE76 with that option instead, again impressive stuff.
The Witcher 3 is an older game that I still test so that you can compare with my older videos.
Again 4K is running no problems even with higher settings,
the 1% low at ultra is around 60 FPS, and even high settings is close to 100 average FPS.
Like most other games covered, 1440p is able to offer a fairly big performance
boost comparatively should you want to preference even higher frame rates.
Now let’s find out how well MSI’s new GE76 Raider gaming laptop compares against others.
This is the highest specced laptop I’ve tested so far, so we are expecting some pretty good results,
but regardless, use these comparisons as a rough
guide only, as they were all tested at different times with different drivers.
I’ve tested Battlefield 5 in campaign mode at ultra settings, and the GE76 is highlighted
in red. It’s on another level compared to all other laptops that I’ve tested so far,
with an average frame rate almost 19% higher than the next closest competitor, which is also using
new RTX 30 series graphics. Unfortunately I’ve only got 1080p data for comparison,
at higher resolutions the differences could be even larger, especially with the 16 gigs of VRAM
that my RTX 3080 has, however it is worth noting that MSI do also sell the GE76 with the 8 gig
3080, so expect different results with that configuration, particularly at higher resolutions.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games benchmark tool with the highest setting
preset. In this test the GE76 was reaching 10% higher average FPS compared to the next best
result that I’ve recorded, a higher wattage RTX 2080 based machine. This is a GPU heavy test,
so I’m not too surprised to see the 150 watt 3080 at the top of the chart again,
but at the same time I really wish I could compare higher resolutions like 1440p. Unfortunately
that just wasn’t possible as laptops with 1440p panels only started becoming available this year.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the games benchmark tool at max settings.
The GE76 wasn’t the best here, though it’s not far off. This test is heavier on the processor,
so it’s not too surprising to see the desktop i9-9900K 51m at the top,
granted at the same time MSI’s GT76 Titan with the same 9900K processor was one place under the GE76.
Regardless, still an impressive result despite not being first place.
Now to be fair, both the ASUS Mothership and Alienware 51m that were ahead the GE76 in Far
Cry 5 have overclocks applied to the GPU by default. The GE76 doesn’t do this by default
which is how I’ve done all of the previous testing, but the software does allow us to
easily set both the GPU and GPU memory to 200MHz. It’ll come down to silicon lottery,
but mine crashed with a 200MHz core clock, but 150 seemed ok with my unit.
It’s possible to get a little extra boost in Shadow of the Tomb Raider,
not that you really need extra at these high frame rates, but hey it is possible. The i9
processor is also overclockable too, but you’ll either need to look through BIOS or
use software like Intel XTU to tweak that, I’ll check that out more in the upcoming full review.
I’ll also leave thermal testing for the full review video,
so make sure you’re subscribed for that one.
Now let’s check out the screen response time. This is the first
time I’ve ever had a 4K 120Hz panel, so I wasn’t too sure what to expect.
I measured average grey-to-grey response times at 7.6ms, which is a decent result
given our target for a 120Hz monitor would be an 8.3ms response time for transitions to
occur within the refresh window, granted some transitions were longer than this.
I’ve got a link in the description if you need an explanation on what all these numbers mean.
Here’s how these results compare against other gaming laptops. Sure there are definitely faster
1440p and 1080p panel options, but this isn’t bad at all considering we’re dealing with 4K,
and again like I said, on average we’re under the desired 8.3ms.
The GE76 is also available with 1080p 240Hz or 1080p 300Hz options if you want higher
refresh rates than the 120 of the 4K panel. MSI don’t appear to be offering a 1440p
screen with the GE76 at this time, which I think is a huge missed opportunity.
Although we can play modern games at 4K with high settings no problem on these specs,
1440p high refresh for the 3070 or 3060 configs where 4K is going to
be more of a challenge would have been better compared to only offering 1080p.
But hey I guess on the plus side at least with these specs and 1080p you can definitely
make use of that 300Hz panel. You can of course run games at 1440p on the 4K screen.
This will probably come down to personal preference, but personally I found 1440p games
to look pretty good on the 4K screen. I thought they were still sharper than 1080p in any case.
You’re absolutely going to want to make sure you’re subscribed for the full review on this,
there’s a lot of important stuff that we need to discuss,
but for now while you wait why not check out how well the new ASUS Zephyrus G15 performs
in these same games over in this video, so I’ll see you over in that one next.