MSI Raider GE76 Hands-on: Say hello to one of the most powerful laptops of 2022

The MSI Raider GE76 is  one of the most powerful laptops you can buy today.

The beating heart of this beast is a monster Intel Core i9-12900HK CPU that’s also unlocked and overclockable. The secret to this laptop’s incredible performance, though, is an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU that can boost to a whopping 175 W TGP thanks to MSI OverBoost, and a formidable new cooling system called CoolerBoost 5.

This cooling system employs six heat pipes and two powerful — yet surprisingly quiet fans — to allow the system to unleash 220 W of raw power into your game! That’s an unheard of 175 W for the GPU, and 45 W for the CPU. Nvidia’s own spec sheet lists a 150 W maximum TGP for the 3080 Ti, making the Raider one of the fastest laptops you can get today. Oh, and if you need even more power, there’s an HX variant available capable of offering an unprecedented 250 W of power.

The CoolerBoost fans whirl into life at the press of a button, and you can see the FPS climb while you play.

The CPU and GPU are in turn paired with 32 GB of DDR5 RAM clocked at 4,800 MHz, dual PCIe Gen 4 SSDs in a RAID 0 array, and a stunning, 17”, 4K 120 Hz display that happens to support 100% DCI-P3.

If you play competitively, or simply enjoy higher refresh rates, MSI is also offering the Raider with a faster 2K 240 Hz display, as well as a blisteringly quick FHD 360 Hz option!

If that wasn’t enough, you’re getting a quad speaker array designed by Dynaudio. The speakers get very loud and can even drown out the CoolerBoost 5 fans. Thanks to two dedicated woofers, there’s a decent amount of bass as well.

To ensure you have enough power for gaming or working on the go, the Raider is packing the largest, flight legal battery you can get — a 99.9 Watt hour unit that charges via a 330 W power brick.

For I/O, you’re getting Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort support, USB-C and A ports, HDMI, 2.5 GB Ethernet, an SD Express card reader, and just about everything else you might need.

And it’s not just brawn we’re talking about here. The chassis is very rugged, and thanks to that nifty ‘Mystic Light’ RGB, eye-catching as well. The body is made of metal and there’s no flex to speak of. The hinge is also very stable. Despite weighing 2.9 kg, I can lift the laptop with one hand and it doesn’t flex.

Speaking of eye-catching, the Steelseries-designed keyboard in the Raider is sure to turn heads. It’s a solid keyboard with excellent travel and feedback, and more importantly, supports per key RGB lighting. Thanks to MSI’s panoramic aurora lighting design, the Mystic Light strip and keyboard RGB work together to create an immersive and atmospheric effect when gaming.

On the software side of things, the laptop comes with Windows 11 Home and various suites like MSI Centre and Nahimic for handling power management, colour profiles, audio, and more.

Whether you’re a gamer, streamer, or content creator, the MSI GE76 Raider is one hell of a device with more power on tap than many desktop PCs. In fact, given the large display, customisability, and overclocking potential, not to mention the fully customisable RGB lighting, this powerhouse of a machine will be the envy of many a PC gamer.

This festive season, check out some exciting laptop deals from MSI.

This is a Partnered Post.