The MSI GE76 Raider shows off the performance potential of next-gen PC hardware.
The MSI GE76 Raider is a very conventional gaming laptop. It’s bulky. It’s thick. It’s not something you’d take to work. But under the surface, this gaming laptop provides a sneak peek at the next generation of gaming components, including the new Intel Core i9-12900HK and the Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti. These top-of-the-line PC parts show just how good PC gaming can be in 2022 — despite some hurdles that this specific gaming laptop throws in their way. This gaming laptop has some high-end components inside, but you wouldn’t know it from the outside. The latest version of the MSI GE76 Raider doesn’t feature anything new externally. It’s still a massive 17-inch laptop, weighing in at 6.4 pounds and over an inch thick. It’s an old-school gaming laptop, even down to the aggressive vents and gamery design language. If you want something more modern and sleek, you’ll need to opt for the MSI GS66 Stealth, Razer Blade, or a number of other options. My unit comes in a toned-down “Titanium Blue” color that’s just barely not black. The screen is accented by angled edges on the lid, and a hefty chin that sits below the 16:9 aspect ratio screen. But being fit and stylish isn’t this laptop’s motto. Instead, it’s all about practicality. Convenient ports, a large screen, and of course, unbridled performance. The one bit of interest, though, is the light bar along the front. Wrapping onto the keyboard deck and along the front, the gentle glow of the light bar splashes some color onto your desk in a neat way. It’s fully customizable within the SteelSeries GG app, as is the per-key RGB keyboard. None of that is new in this year’s model, but still, it’s a nice touch. The MSI GE76 Raider features two brand new components inside: The Core i9-12900HK and the RTX 3080 Ti. Intel’s latest flagship processor, in particular, comes with a lot of expectations. With AMD’s recent rise to power, especially on the laptop front, even premium gaming laptops have started offering the Ryzen 9 5900HX as an option. We have a separate Alder Lake mobile review, detailing processor performance and even a breakdown of its new video editing improvements. Suffice to say, Intel’s new 14-core chip is looking extremely impressive. As seen in the chart below, we’re seeing massive gains in both single-core and multi-core performance compared to last generation’s Ryzen 9 5900HX and the Core i9-11950H. These are far better than a standard generational leap. Beyond just synthetic benchmarks, the MSI GE76 Raider is a powerhouse video editing machine. It’s the highest-scoring Windows laptop in Pugetbench’s Adobe Premiere Pro benchmark and even gets remarkably close to taking on the M1 Max MacBook Pro. Performance alone doesn’t make the MSI GE76 Raider necessarily a great video editing machine, though — more on the display later. In terms of raw performance, it’s well ahead of the competition. Of course, gaming performance is what this laptop is designed for. The fantastic single-core performance aids in gaming as well, which is fantastic. These are easily the best frame rates we’ve seen on laptops across our suite of game tests. Of course, the new RTX 3080 Ti is where most of that improvement can be credited, but CPU-heavy games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Civilization VI are certainly benefitted by the Core i9-12900HK too. MSI says it can deliver a total of 220 watts of power to the CPU and GPU, which is 25 watts ahead of other similar competitors. As always, it’s hard to do apples-to-apples comparisons with laptops. Interestingly, in the more GPU-dependent games, the GE76 Raider with the RTX 3080 Ti doesn’t have quite as large an advantage over the RTX 3080 machine.
