Do you want the most powerful gaming laptop coin tin purchase? Exercise you besides have a spare $v,000 just lying effectually? Expect no farther than the MSI GT83VR 7RF Titan SLI, a monster gaming laptop with dual GeForce GTX 1080s inside. This is, quite but, the most powerful gaming laptop we've tested at TechSpot.

The GPU configuration is evidently the virtually impressive office of the GT83VR, just you lot'll also exist getting a top-end Core i7-7920HQ processor, 64GB of DDR4 memory, and a dual SSD solution in RAID 0. In every facet of this laptop's hardware you'll be getting faster, more expensive components than a typical gaming machine.

To fit in such powerful hardware, the MSI GT83VR is massive. Not only does this motorcar include an eighteen.four-inch display, information technology'south as well v.5kg heavy (12.1 pounds) and upwards to 69mm thick at its thickest. This is without factoring in the ii enormous 330-watt power bricks that are required to power it. Certain, at that place is technically a battery in the GT83VR, simply if yous want to use it for more than an hour, lugging around the power bricks is a must.

And so the GT83VR isn't a specially portable laptop, just that isn't a problem. This machine will be sitting on a desk for virtually of its life, only moving from place to place when admittedly necessary. The adept news is that an equivalent desktop PC with this sort of hardware inside will be even larger and more cumbersome, and so if you are planning on transporting some sort of gaming machine from fourth dimension to fourth dimension, it might brand more sense to buy a laptop similar the GT83VR.

Enormous vents on the sides and rear of the GT83VR exhaust air that's sucked in through the base of operations, cooling both GPUs and the CPU with reasonable efficiency. The sheer book of metal heatsinks and heatpipes contributes to the GT83VR'south heft, although these coolers are necessary for gaming without throttling.

A second primal feature is the big, space-consuming mechanical keyboard. Featuring Scarlet MX RGB Speed Silver keyswitches, the mechanical keyboard on the GT83VR is unlike any other laptop keyboard I've used. The clicky tactile feedback, excellent responsiveness, and class-leading travel distance of this keyboard are essentially equivalent to my desktop PC's mechanical keyboard, providing an experience that's just equally good. You won't become this from many other (if any) gaming laptops.

As each fundamental is RGB-illuminated, the GT83VR's keyboard is fully customizable through the included SteelSeries software utility. There are a range of cool preset effects to choose from, or you can customize the colour of each private key to your liking. Through different profiles, you could illuminate just the necessary keys for the game you're playing, for example. And of course, RGB is all the rage these days, so it'due south peachy to encounter its inclusion on this laptop as well.

The keyboard is raised more than a traditional desktop keyboard, and there's no wrist wrest, so information technology'southward not the most comfortable keyboard for long periods of typing. Notwithstanding, I didn't have any issues using the keyboard for lengthy gaming sessions, and that'southward the primary focus of this monster laptop.

Going in this review, I was concerned about the odd position of the trackpad – a byproduct of the mechanical keyboard'south inclusion. As it turns out, while its position is certainly unorthodox, information technology'southward non horrible to use; in fact later on a couple of days getting used to it, the trackpad is perfectly fine for navigating the operating organisation.

The secondary function of this trackpad, which allows it to be used as a touchscreen-like numpad, is not every bit impressive. Trying to perform calculations or do any sort of serious work on a touch interface is poor compared to the feel provided by the mechanical keyboard right next to it. And for gaming, you'll even so want to plug in an external mouse.

With so much infinite around the sides of the GT83VR, MSI has included an impressive selection of ports. You get five USB iii.0 Type-A ports (3 on the left, ii on the right) plus two three.5mm audio jacks, a SPDIF optical audio port, a hi-fi audio port, and an SD card reader. On the rear is Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, mini-DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt iii. In that location'due south even a Blu-ray drive included in this laptop for those that still use discs.

The speaker system included in the GT83VR consists of four 3W tweeters and a 3W woofer. There'southward more depth to the sound provided by this laptop than many other gaming laptops, just it's still non especially amazing, mostly due to pronounced mid-tones. With such a neat range of ports to claw up external speakers, this is what yous should stick to.

The strangest aspect of the GT83VR is the display. Information technology's an eighteen.iv-inch 1080p IPS LCD with a refresh charge per unit of just 60 Hz. This is a laptop with two GTX 1080s in SLI within, which is more than plenty to comfortably play modernistic games at 1080p 60 FPS. The hardware in this laptop is more than suited to a high-refresh 1080p brandish, something at or above 120 Hz; or alternatively something higher resolution.

MSI could accept easily included a 4K panel in the GT83VR to prove off the power of its dual-GPU configuration. Thou-Sync would accept been a cherry on the meridian, but in that location'due south no variable refresh here either.

I suppose the reasoning for this display choice is MSI figures many people volition exist plugging in a larger external monitor for gaming. When you're spending so much money on a laptop, it'd be a waste material to game on just an 18.4-inch display, however the portability factor would be directly impacted by such a choice. Granted, plugging in a 3440 10 1440 ultrawide monitor or something 4K would actually make the dual GTX 1080s shine.

The display itself is reasonable quality, with good peak brightness (329 nits) and good, though not outstanding color accuracy in its sRGB style. The contrast ratio here is a little depression for my liking, at only 710:1, however viewing angles are very solid. You lot probably wouldn't want to practice artistic piece of work on the GT83VR'southward display, but it looks and works nice for gaming.