MSI GT80S Titan SLI Gaming Laptop First Look

[kewlguy239]

MSI sent us its enormous GT80S Titan, an 18.4-inch laptop featuring an Intel Core i7-6920HQ, 32 GB of DDR4 memory and two Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 graphics modules in SLI.

MSI GT80S Titan SLI Gaming Laptop First Look : Read more

 

[redgarl]

4500$ for an SLI laptop? The mechanical keyboard and the access to component is great, however, all this doesn't worth 4500$.

Discrete GPU is the way to go for laptop with thunderbolt.

 

[Davinlevey]

To be fair it does have sli Desktop 980's in it, not 980m.

 

[ledhead11]

Overall a nice review. It's one of the few that shows comparisons to a desktop equivalent. I have an SLI-253 2QE model with many similarities that I've customized. The 980m's in the previous gens can OC slightly(+75/100 on the core, +300 on the memory) with very stable and noticeable results but the 980m's are considerably slower than these desktop version 980's.

One significant thing missing from this review are details involving the customization factors of the GT80 lines. The top covers come off with 2 screws giving you access to 4 m.2 slots(I have mine set up w/ 2 raids- 1 for OS , 1 for Games), optical drive bay(which can be replaced w/ another HD), and the standard HD, and 2 of the memory cards. The bottom cover has about 6 screws that give access to the remaining 2 memory cards, and GPU's. The GPU's are intended to be vendor only replaceable but you can do it yourself(warranty issues) .

It should be noteworthy that when the latest 10xx GPU's come out there should be a better power/performance ratio allowing more OC'ing on these both(the 980's use a different MXM than the 980m's).

The two things I completely agree about with all the GT80's: Price and displays. No word, but it would be nice if MSI puts out a 4k swap out(very, very unlikely). If you really want one and want to take some money off the tag. Buy a base model and upgrade the memory/drives yourself.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

That's a neat touchpad design with the ability to turn it into a number pad!

 

[adam non]

Seems to be a day late and a dollar too expensive given the 1080 and 1080M.
As others noted, a fast, "normal sized" laptop with an external GPU case will be cheaper, more versatile and upgradeable as well as less total expense ... $4500 really is "if you've got money to burn and a strong backpack ..."

 

[nebun]

thanks but no thanks...why in the world would anyone want something like this??? don't get me wrong it is very nice and looks awesome, but no very practical

 

[Gaidax]

5kg Laptop? Are we back in 90s?

Honestly, any laptop over 2.5kg should not be happening nowadays, we're in 2016... sure it's not frikkin' year 3789, but damn can they try and do a lean AND powerful design and not some machine Frankenstein style?

 

[g-unit1111]

This is an insane PC. It's way too big and impractical to be a laptop, and less than 60 minutes of battery life for $5,000? I'm out.

 

[falchard]

Woo it actually has 60 minutes of battery life. Where did they find room for the car battery?

 

[dstarr3]

I thought the headline implied this had SLI Titans in it. THAT would be a bit silly.

 

[g-unit1111]

Woo it actually has 60 minutes of battery life. Where did they find room for the car battery?

I'm not even sure a car battery could power that thing. :lol:

 

[ledhead11]

As I stated above I do agree about the price. The other issue that most make fun of the label of "laptop". Obviously its not. It's a mobile desktop thru and thru. I use mine at home on a desk for gaming/net-surfing and then pack it in the backpack it came with to take to work as a high end mobile workstation for 3d scanning/rendering/cad/video or photo editing. It takes about 60-90 seconds to pack up and go. Try doing that with an entire desktop(monitor/tower/keyboard/cables/bricks) and then bring back home daily 5-7 times a week. Yes its cheaper to build a desktop(look at my rig under this, and including the monitor it's around 3k) but all of that is over 50lbs vs. 10 for the titan.

Anonymous also mentioned the touchpad, yeah it pretty much sucks(great eye candy when turned on), I use a bluetooth mouse but TBH there's not a single touchpad I've ever liked.

 

[eriko]

4500$ for an SLI laptop? The mechanical keyboard and the access to component is great, however, all this doesn't worth 4500$.

Discrete GPU is the way to go for laptop with thunderbolt.

This gets so boring to reply to....

Some of us WORK ON THE ROAD, and can ONLY HAVE A LAPTOP.

There, see now? Its not possible to carry extra screen, GPU, or whatever YOU think a traveling user should have.

 

[eriko]

That's a neat touchpad design with the ability to turn it into a number pad!

Razer has one that is a complete second small screen too.

 

[eriko]

Seems to be a day late and a dollar too expensive given the 1080 and 1080M.
As others noted, a fast, "normal sized" laptop with an external GPU case will be cheaper, more versatile and upgradeable as well as less total expense ... $4500 really is "if you've got money to burn and a strong backpack ..."

And then with all that extra heft, will miss the point entirely - not be portable.

Jeezzzzzzze.

 

[eriko]

This is an insane PC. It's way too big and impractical to be a laptop, and less than 60 minutes of battery life for $5,000? I'm out.

In a machine like this - the battery is just a UPS.

 

[eriko]

Woo it actually has 60 minutes of battery life. Where did they find room for the car battery?

I'm not even sure a car battery could power that thing. :lol:

Likely powered by a battery somewhere in the region of 90whr. However, my car with two batteries, has 950CCA each. Not even similar.

 

[eriko]

It looks a lovely machine, and I love my 18.4" laptops (on my 3rd), but with all that GPU horsepower, and a display @ < 1440p, I'm out too.

1080M will be a game changer too...

 

[ledhead11]

Seems to be a day late and a dollar too expensive given the 1080 and 1080M.
As others noted, a fast, "normal sized" laptop with an external GPU case will be cheaper, more versatile and upgradeable as well as less total expense ... $4500 really is "if you've got money to burn and a strong backpack ..."

And then with all that extra heft, will miss the point entirely - not be portable.

Jeezzzzzzze.

I agree with you and the other point many are missing is that the Titan GPU's are upgrade able as is. These are not soldered GPU's they're MXM 3.0 and with the 10 series cards using less power it should improve a number of things.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Woo it actually has 60 minutes of battery life. Where did they find room for the car battery?

I'm not even sure a car battery could power that thing. :lol:

Likely powered by a battery somewhere in the region of 90whr. However, my car with two batteries, has 950CCA each. Not even similar.

Whr is a unit of energy, CCA is current. Doesn't really make sense comparing the two numbers.

 

[photonboy]

I'd like to see what a Zen/Polaris, 14nm APU can do in terms of AFFORDABLE gaming in laptops.

Have a 75Hz panel (30Hz to75Hz asynch range) to properly support FreeSync on the low end, then LOCK the frame rate for gaming so you always stay in async mode.

Maybe get this price down to $700USD for GTX950 desktop quality graphics in a thin form factor.

Better yet, make an external APU box that includes the shared memory and power supply. For top end models use HBM2.

How would that work?
The game would simply copy over into the external memory on the box and all the processing would be done there similar to how it works with just the GPU today (switchable graphics where the high-end one kicks in for gaming).

this solution could actually work with ANY laptop today via USB. We don't need super fast access just to load the game. When the video is created it either goes to a desktop monitor, or is compressed and sent back over USB which should work pretty well

this external box can be optimized for size and noise since it's completely external, would have its own diagnostics, can be taken with you fairly easily, and best of all could theoretically plug into any computer. Probably would have good resell value too.

 

[jn77]

This is a really odd design for the keyboard and trackpad..... I actually don't like it.... Go look at some of the high end Eurocom Sager, Clevo or Origin laptops at $4500...... they make this thing look like a kid laid it out.

 

[falchard]

Don't be fooled by the scale in the pictures, this laptop is quite big with full sized keys. Not chiclets.

 

[eriko]

Woo it actually has 60 minutes of battery life. Where did they find room for the car battery?

I'm not even sure a car battery could power that thing. :lol:

Likely powered by a battery somewhere in the region of 90whr. However, my car with two batteries, has 950CCA each. Not even similar.

Whr is a unit of energy, CCA is current. Doesn't really make sense comparing the two numbers.

Well I was hoping to not spoon feed anybody.

Look up something called ohms law. There are lots of relationships, via simple math for you to explore.