At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• Excellent mechanical keyboard
• Class-leading Mini-LED show
• Incredible CPU and GPU efficiency
• 2TB of stable state storage with PCIe Gen5 assist

Cons

• Uninspired design 
• Short battery life

Our Verdict

The MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V isn’t a sensible selection—however if you need the last word in efficiency, don’t hesitate.

Price When Reviewed

$5,299

Best Prices Today: MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V

$5299

The time period “next-gen” isn’t typically utilized to laptops however this 12 months it feels acceptable. New PC gaming laptops will deploy three large upgrades: new processors from Intel and AMD, new RTX 40-series graphics {hardware} from Nvidia, and new PCIe Gen5 stable state drives. The MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V has all three and, collectively, they provide gaming laptops an actual kick within the pants.

For extra choices, take a look at our roundup of the best gaming laptops.

MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V: Specs and options

The Titan’s specs may be summed up with ease. It has the very best of every thing. 

MSI crams within the newest Intel Core i9 processor, top-tier Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics, 64GB of RAM, and a 2TB PCIe Gen5 stable state drive. The solely apparent weak spot is the webcam which, for some motive, stays caught at 720p (however not less than consists of an IR digicam for biometric login)

• CPU: Intel Core i9-13980HX
• Memory: 64GB DDR5
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 4090
• Display: 3,840 x 2,160 144Hz IPS Mini-LED
• Storage: 2TB PCIe Gen5 M.2 stable state drive
• Webcam: 720p with IR
• Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C with DisplayPort Alternate Mode, 3x USB 3.2 Type-A, 1x SDXC card reader, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x Mini-DisplayPort, 1x RJ-45 (Ethernet)
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
• Biometrics: None
• Battery capability: 99 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 15.6 x 13 x 0.9 inches
• Weight: 7.3 kilos
• MSRP: $5,299.99

Of course, there’s one different merchandise on this checklist price contemplating… the worth. The Titan’s $5,299.99 MSRP will instantly take it out of competition for most individuals. Still, its sheer audacity holds a sure enchantment—and there’s no denying the Titan can stomp any benchmark that dares to face in its manner.

MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V: Design and construct high quality

IDG / Matthew Smith

It’s cheap to count on the costly MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V to ship a garish, overwrought design. On the opposite, MSI retains it easy. Perhaps too easy. At a look, the Titan’s thick, matte black physique could possibly be simply mistaken for any high-end gaming laptop computer produced within the final decade. A collection of RGB lights dotting the rear followers provides some aptitude when utilized in a darkish room, not less than.

Build high quality is unremarkable. The decrease chassis feels stable, however the supplies cladding the laptop computer appear the identical as these discovered on these bought for hundreds much less. Picking up the laptop computer from one facet creates noticeable flex all through the machine. The identical is true of the show, which warps and wavers when it’s opened. Most gaming laptops have these points—however these hoping the Titan’s price ticket may purchase a splash of luxurious will likely be dissatisfied. The alternatives from Alienware and Razer really feel extra sturdy.

The Titan weighs in at 7.3 kilos. That’s heavy, however not stunning. Most 17-inch laptops land between six and eight kilos. The laptop computer’s weight is clear when stowed in a bag. And you’ll want a giant bag. At 15.6 inches vast, and 13 inches deep, the Titan received’t slot in most backpacks and messenger baggage with a laptop computer compartment.

MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V: Keyboard and trackpad

IDG / Matthew Smith

The MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V has a Steelseries-branded mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches. It’s a superb typing expertise, with lengthy key journey and a crisp, taut bottoming motion that gives tactile suggestions. Keystrokes are audible, however not annoying, so the Titan (in all probability) received’t drive everybody close by batty. 

Whether this issues in video games is debatable. Personally, I didn’t discover the Titan’s keyboard any extra responsive than most, however I’m not on the “path to pro.” My love of the keyboard—and, to be clear, it’s nice—is rooted in easy day-to-day use. It’s an important keyboard for writing or shopping the net, but additionally excellent for gaming.

The keyboard is backlit with RGB LED lighting that may be personalized per-key. Backlight customization is dealt with by way of the Steelseries GG app as an alternative of an app from MSI. This is a perk. The Steelseries GG app is somewhat good, with straightforward to grasp controls and a really wide selection of customization choices. The app will also be used to customise keyboard features, which is useful if you wish to make your individual keyboard shortcuts for players or productiveness apps.

While I like the keyboard, it does have one flaw. The numpad is just too small. It affords solely half-sized keys crammed into the keyboard’s proper facet. A laptop computer of this dimension might present a full-sized numpad, however MSI as an alternative makes use of the area for user-facing audio system. 

The touchpad is sweet, too. It’s giant, measuring 5 inches vast by 3.25 inches deep, and gives a clean, responsive floor. Windows’ multitouch gestures are straightforward to activate, principally due to the touchpad’s giant floor. Physical, clicky left and right-mouse buttons can be found and work effectively. The touchpad additionally accepts mouse enter by tapping its floor.

MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V: Display, audio

IDG / Matthew Smith

The MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V’s has a 4K IPS Mini-LED show with a 144Hz refresh fee. Apple’s MacBook Pro 14 and Pro 16 get the credit score for bringing Mini-LED to laptops in 2021, MSI actually introduced the first Mini-LED laptop display back in 2020. MSI has expertise with the know-how, and it exhibits.

Brightness is extraordinarily excessive even in SDR content material, reaching a most of 585 nits. That’s the best brightness I’ve on file for any laptop computer in SDR. The show additionally delivers an exquisite distinction ratio of 19440:1. That’s inferior to OLED (which often reaches an successfully infinite distinction ratio when examined with my SpyderX colorimeter), however it’s an enormous step up from a typical IPS show. The MSI Sword, for instance, affords a distinction ratio of 1220:1.

Color gamut can be glorious, masking 100% of sRGB and 97 % of DCI-P3. OLED laptops will typically carry out higher. The Acer Predator Triton, for instance, covers 100% of each colour gamuts. The Titan’s efficiency continues to be glorious, although, and delivers a vibrant, punchy picture. 

HDR is supported, and turning it on ups the ante. I measured a most sustained full display screen brightness of 947 nits. I used to be pleasantly shocked to see the laptop computer has few issues dealing with SDR content material when HDR is turned on in Windows 11. Colors stay pretty correct and content material nonetheless seems to have the correct luminance. HDR does shift the colour temperature noticeably, nonetheless, and seems somewhat heat and reddish.

Whether the Titan’s Mini-LED show defeats OLED is determined by your priorities. It’s significantly better in HDR content material, because of its added brightness. The show additionally has a non-gloss coat which, paired with the show’s excessive brightness, makes the laptop computer straightforward to make use of in rooms the place glare may be a difficulty. OLED shows technically ship higher colour efficiency, nonetheless, and can nonetheless seem darker and richer when displaying darkish content material, particularly when considered in a darkish room. 

Motion readability is great due to the IPS panel’s low response instances and 144Hz refresh charges. Test photos of League of Legends and DOTA 2 confirmed character silhouettes and heath bars have been straightforward to see whereas scrolling. Character names have been exhausting to make out, although, which is typical for even the very best 144Hz shows. Fast digicam pans in 3D video games will present loads of element, with solely small components obscured. 

Audio is delivered by a pair of 2-watt audio system and a pair of 2-watt woofers. These supply good sound high quality with a transparent mid-range, loads of separation between excessive and lows, and a few oomph to bass. I didn’t discover any rattle, distortion, or different undesirable points when listening to bass-heavy tracks. Maximum quantity is a bit low, which can disappoint if you need the Titan to double as a increase field, however it’s an pleasurable audio expertise general.

MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V, regardless of its excessive worth, makes do with an old-school 720p webcam. It’s not nice. The picture seems softy and grainy and colour replica isn’t correct, with a notable shift in direction of inexperienced in my testing. Streamers on the lookout for an all-in-one streaming laptop computer received’t discover it right here. The microphone can be mundane: it sounds clear and affords good quantity, however audio appears tinny and distant. 

Though the first webcam falls quick, MSI does supply an IR digicam that allows Microsoft Windows Hello facial recognition login. It labored effectively in my testing, because it does on each laptop computer that helps this characteristic. It’s an important different to logging in with a password or PIN.

MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V: Connectivity

IDG / Matthew Smith

A wholesome collection of ports line the MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V’s flanks, however the laptop computer doesn’t go above and past.

MSI consists of two Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C ports. Both assist DisplayPort Alternate Mode, to allow them to be used to output video. One of the 2 ports additionally gives as much as 100 watts of USB-C power delivery. That’s not sufficient to deal with the laptop computer beneath load, however does present a backup possibility in case you neglect the large 330-watt energy brick (or don’t really feel like packing it). Additional video connectivity is supplied by HDMI 2.1 and Mini-DisplayPort.

The laptop computer has three USB-A 3.2 ports, an SDXC card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack. This is sufficient however not particular. The Titan’s worth units excessive expectations, so I might have appreciated to see a number of audio jacks and one other USB-A port. 

MSI does improve the RJ-45 port, to its credit score, offering 2.5Gbps Ethernet speeds. Wireless connectivity can be top-notch with assist for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Wi-Fi efficiency was glorious in my testing with a Wi-Fi 6 router, hitting most speeds of simply over 900 Mbps even when two rooms away from my router. This is roughly the utmost velocity I can entry by way of my house’s Gigabit Internet connection.

MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V: Performance

The MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V has all the most recent {hardware}. The processor is Intel’s Core i9-13980HX with 24 cores (eight efficiency cores and 16 environment friendly cores) and a most turbo frequency of 5.6GHz. That’s joined by Nvidia’s new RTX 4090 cell graphics. 64GB of DDR5 reminiscence and a 2TB PCIe Gen5 stable state drive spherical out this powerhouse.

So, how does it deal with benchmarks? Let’s get into it.

IDG / Matthew Smith

MSI comes out swinging with a rating of 8890 in PCMark 10, the best PC World as recorded from a laptop computer. This isn’t surprising. It’s regular for a brand new era of {hardware} to ship improved efficiency. Still, it’s clear the Titan lives as much as its identify, because it delivers robust ends in all of PCMark 10’s subcategories. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Cinebench R15 delivers an much more spectacular outcome, because the Titan races to a rating of 4,971. Nothing else we’ve just lately examined comes shut. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Handbrake is the odd duck right here, delivering an excellent however not spectacular results of 904. I’m left a bit puzzled by this, however did observe that Handbrake didn’t seem to totally saturate the processor’s 24 cores. The Core i9-13980HX, although spectacular, does rely closely on core rely to thump its rivals, so any state of affairs that doesn’t tax all cores will eat into its margins.

Processor benchmarks are solely half the story, in fact, and arguably the lesser half. The MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V additionally delivers Nvidia’s RTX 4090 graphics with 16GB of GDDR6 reminiscence and a most graphics energy of 175 watts.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Anyone curious if the brand new era of RTX 4090 cell {hardware} would ship an uplift just like its desktop peer (which, for the file, is considerably extra highly effective than the cell RTX 4090) ought to now have their doubts squashed. The Titan’s rating of 19531 flat slaps, leaving even the RTX 3080 Ti begging for mercy. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a bit much less embarrassing for the RTX 30-series laptops, however nonetheless exhibits a giant lead for the RTX 4090. It delivers roughly 35 further frames-per-second, on common, at 1080p with element settings at Highest. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Firing up Metro Exodus offers the Titan one other likelihood to eat final 12 months’s cream-of-the-crop for lunch. An common rating of 88 frames-per-second at 1080p and Extreme element is frankly unprecedented. Nvidia’s RTX 4090 cell redefines high-end laptop computer efficiency on this title. 

To give the Titan a extra worthy problem, I popped into Cyberpunk 2077 and ran the sport at 4K decision with Ultra element settings and ray-tracing on, with ray-traced lighting set to Ultra. DLSS was turned off. The Titan averaged 41 frames-per-second, which is great. These settings are inclined to dip even the stoutest laptops beneath 30 FPS. Turning on DLSS 3 roughly doubles this efficiency to 88 frames-per-second.

Honestly, I discover it virtually exhausting to consider {that a} laptop computer can obtain this stage of efficiency. Cyberpunk 2077 was thought-about an actual system-thrasher upon its launch in 2020 and, with ray-tracing turned on, it stays among the many most technically demanding video games out there. Yet the Titan cruises by way of it, offering an pleasurable expertise even at 4K and really excessive element settings. This is sweet information for the laptop computer’s potential sooner or later. Ray tracing continues to be a considerably area of interest characteristic, however lastly beginning to go mainstream thanks partially to video games like Cyberpunk 2077.

MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V: Battery life

The MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V is a power-hungry laptop computer that ships with an enormous 330-watt energy brick that’s troublesome to pack and impractical to bust out at a espresso store. Fortunately, the Titan additionally has a 99 watt-hour battery that holds up effectively on the street.

IDG / Matthew Smith

I recorded 5 hours and 56 minutes of endurance from the Titan in our commonplace battery life check, which loops a 4K clip of the quick movie Tears of Steel. That’s an excellent outcome for a big, power-hungry gaming laptop computer.

Be warned. Because it’s so highly effective, the Titan can drain the battery far more rapidly. 3D gaming and intense workloads, like encoding video, can drain the battery in two hours or much less. Still, the Titan can deal with a couple of bit greater than a half-day of labor in case you follow much less demanding functions. 

MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V: Conclusion

First, my sensible recommendation: Don’t purchase the MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V. It’s large, heavy, loud, and terribly costly. You’ll want an enormous backpack to haul it and it barely suits on some espresso store desks, by no means thoughts an airplane’s seat-back tray. It’s an impractical showpiece for folks with more cash than sense.

But you continue to need it, don’t you? So do I. The Titan efficiently units a brand new definition of high-end laptop computer efficiency that rivals many desktop computer systems and renders last-generation {hardware} irrelevant. That alone could be noteworthy, however MSI goes the additional mile with a class-leading Mini-LED show that delivers eye-searing brightness and excellent distinction. 

No, the Titan isn’t a sensible selection—however if you need the last word in efficiency, and have the money, don’t hesitate. This is the hard-charging, benchmark-obliterating laptop computer you crave.