When it comes to optimal performance the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro 7RF sits atop the pile. The MSI GT75VR Titan Pro is opulence in gaming laptop form. Armed with a gorgeous 4K IPS 17.3-inch display, lightning fast Intel Core i7 CPU, powerful Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 GPU, and satisfying mechanical keyboard the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro offers one of the best mobile gaming experiences that money can buy.
Of course, this cornucopia of high-end gaming features doesn’t come cheap, as the unit that NBR tested is currently priced at $4,200. Is the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro worth steep the asking price? Read the full review to find out.
MSI GT75VR Titan Pro Build and Design
The MSI GT75VR Titan Pro maintains that familiar aesthetic that we’ve come to expect from MSI mixing a suite of customizable LED lights and black brushed aluminum chassis. The array of slants and slow sloping curves along with the large exhaust vents and forward slanting display lid give the laptop the appearance of a powerful muscle car. Which is fitting because this machine packs a serious punch and it certainly looks the part.
Measuring 16.85 x 12.36 x 2.28-inches and weighing 9.92 pounds the MSI GT75VR is certainly hefty for a laptop, especially when you add in the 2.73-pound power brick. Chances are you won’t be lugging around the MSI GT75 VR Titan Pro more than you have to, but that’s to be expected of a desktop replacement. The desktop replacement is a bit of a dying breed, with the advent of slimmer powerful gaming laptops such as the Razer Blade or Gigabyte’s Aorus line. However, thinner isn’t always strictly better. For it’s added girth the GT75VR offers plenty of room for easy modification and excellent ventilation.
Another benefit of the beefy build is that the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro is built like a tank. That’s good news considering the laptop is carrying some very precious cargo. NBR was impressed by how durable the chassis was. Even when applying considerable pressure there was no give. The display lid is slightly more pliable, but the hinges feel well crafted and hold up under pressure.
This is the kind of machine that you purchase when you want the power of a desktop with some limited mobility and the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro certainly offers that.
MSI GT75VR Titan Pro Ports and Features
The MSI GT75VR Titan Pro does not disappoint when it comes to connectivity. The left side of the device features three USB 3.0 ports and four audio ports. The right side houses a Kensington lock slot, a card reader, and two additional USB 3.0 ports. The rear of the chassis holds an Ethernet connector, a mini-DisplayPort connector, a Thunderbolt 3 connector, an HDMI connector, and a power connector. The placement of the visual inputs in the rear makes it really easy to setup the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro on any desk or table. It seem like a small thing, but it’s always a pain when you have to wrap your visual outputs from one of the sides and around the back of a laptop.
MSI GT75VR Titan Pro Keyboard and Touchpad
One of our favorite aspects of the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro is the keyboard. The laptop features a mechanical SteelSeries keyboard complete with number pad. The keyboard is outfitted with individual RGB backlighting allowing users to fully customize the look of their keyboard. Users can also save presets to profiles and attach them to games, along with saved macros setups and keybindings.
More important than how the keyboard looks is the feel. Punchy and succinct the GT75VR offers quick 3mm travel with a lightweight 1.5mm activation. This means that it doesn’t take much for the key to activate. Pair that with the consistent feedback not only allows you to hit keys quickly but in rapid succession, making it perfect for games that require a high apm (actions per minute).
Located below the keyboard is a generously sized touchpad. The touchpad offers two physical buttons accented by LED lighting. The soft rubber pad is comfortable to the touch but doesn’t allow for the smoothest of travel. It’s not too big of an issue, but some multi-finger gestures can feel a bit sluggish on the surface. From a performance standpoint though, the touchpad is outstanding, capturing every swipe, click and gesture without fail.
MSI GT75VR Titan Pro Screen and Speakers
Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t spend at least a little time fawning over the gorgeous 17.3-inch 4K (3,840 x 2,160) resolution IPS display. The high-resolution panel is a joy to look at with rich detailed color contrast and a clear crisp picture. NBR was blown away by how well the laptop captured the rich colors of Blizzard’s Overwatch. The bright vibrant colors really popped off the screen. Colors are also incredibly accurate as well, with the panel covering roughly 99.5% of the sRGB color gamut.
As you’d expect the bright high-end panel offers excellent visibility with flexible viewing angles. Images held up well past 90 degrees without any loss in image quality. The screen also fares quite well in direct light, through heavy lighting and sunlight will cause a noticeable glossy sheen to appear.
Honestly, the only drawback to the screen is its 60hz refresh rate. Truthfully, that’s not really much a drawback though because the majority of all laptops screen have a 60hz refresh rate, but MSI is one of the few manufacturers to offers something higher. If you’re more performance minded you want to opt for the FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution variant that has a 120hz panel. Particularly if you’re into fast-paced competitive online games the higher refresh rate can really make mouse movements feel smoother. It’s one of those things that you don’t really think you’ll notice until you try it, but once you do it’s a huge quality of life improvement.
However, if you’re someone who enjoys more cinematic single player games than the 4K panel is a godsend. The higher resolution panel looks great in detailed rich single player games and is wonderful for watching movies and videos.
In addition to breathtaking the visuals the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro offers magnificent sound quality. Typically you don’t expect much from laptops when it comes to the audio, but the GT75VR happily surprises. The Dynaudio speakers offer rich detailed sound that manages to capture the challenging
MSI GT75VR Titan Pro Performance
As you’d expect at this price the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro is a powerhouse. Equipped with a seventh generation 2.9GHz Intel Core i7-7820HK CPU, with a Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 (with 8GB of GDDR5X), 64GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe SSD, and a 1TB HDD.
With this kind of spec lineup, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to know that the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro can handle pretty much anything you throw at it. From productivity apps to multitasking, to gaming this laptop can do it all with great aplomb. Another great boon is the 1TB PCIe SSD. Having your favorite games and applications stored on an SSD will greatly increase the performance and load times.
The NVidia Geforce GTX 1080 is a powerhouse when it comes to gaming. The laptop is capable of running pretty much every game title out there at 1080p on max settings at 60fps (frames per second). Unfortunately, the laptop will struggle to run most games at maximum settings at 4K though. For reference, we tried booting up The Witcher 3 at 4K and averaged around 51 fps. The performance was still consistent though and the higher resolution was well worth the small frame drop in our opinion. Users that are also willing to tweak settings will be able to run a lot of titles at 4K resolution and manage 60fps by turning a few visual options down.
The MSI GT75VR Titan Pro 7RF review unit that NBR tested had the following configuration:
- Windows 10 Pro
- 17.3-inch 4K (3840 x 2160) IPS Display
- Intel Core i7-7820HK 2.9GHz CPU
- Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 (8GB GDDR5X)
- 64GB of DDR4
- 1TB NVMe PCIe SSD RAID 0
- 1TB HDD (7200 RPM)
- Killer DoubleShot Pro
- 802.11ac
- Weight: 9.92 pounds
- Dimensions: 16.85 x 12.36 x 2.28-inches
- Price: $4,299
MSI GT75VR Titan Pro Benchmarks
PCMark8 Home (Accelerated) measures overall system performance in Windows 8 for general activities from web browsing and video streaming to typing documents and playing games (higher scores mean better performance):
PCMark8 Work (Accelerated) measures overall system performance in Windows 8 for work-related productivity tasks (higher scores mean better performance):
3DMark Fire Strike measures the overall gaming performance of the GPU (higher scores mean better performance):
CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test (C Left; D Right):
MSI GT75VR Titan Pro Heat and Noise
There’s no getting around it the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro can get quite loud. Even when doing basic computing tasks, the GT75VR produces a consistent hum. However, the fans really kick it into high gear when taxed, such as playing visually demanding games. The hum is consistent and can easily be heard over ambient background noise.
While a minor inconvenience the noise is well worth it. With two fans and 14 pipes, the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro offers excellent ventilation. While the laptop can get a bit hot towards the back end of the deck when stressed, we never ran into issues with bottlenecking. Thermals never impacted performance, even when stress testing.
MSI GT75VR Titan Pro Battery Life
PCMark 8 Balanced Battery Test (listed in minutes):
All of these powerful components along with the high resolution has made the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro a power drain. This thing will suck up battery life like no tomorrow. In our tests, the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro only ran for 1 hour and 52 minutes before shutting down. Considering that our tests are a bit more strenuous than typical use you can expect up to two and half hours on a single charge. However, if you’re playing games or doing any other kind of strenuous activity you better have the GT75VR plugged in.
For other devices, the weak battery life could be a death sentence, but this is a desktop replacement. This isn’t something you’re going to be traveling with a lot. Typically when you’re using it, you should have access to a power outlet.
MSI GT75VR Titan Pro Final Thoughts
The MSI GT75VR Titan Pro is an excellent machine. At $4,200 how could it not be though? The better question, is it worth that price? Honestly, that answer really depends on what you want. Is the raw computing power alone with that steep entry price? No. You can easily build a desktop or a customizable laptop with similar specs at a more affordable price point. However, what you can’t get are all the extras. The wonderful mechanical keyboard, an insane array of ports, a full suite of backlight LEDs, and the gorgeous 4K panel make the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro truly something unique and special.
It’s an extravagance for sure. However, this is a truly wonderful machine if you can afford the steep asking price.
Pros:
Top of the line performance - Comfortable mechanical keyboard
- Fantastic build quality
- Gorgeous 4K panel
- Excellent connectivity
Cons:
- Weak battery life
- Bulky
- Expensive
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