With today’s technology, deluxe laptop PCs can easily overpower many mainstream desktops, and nowhere is that clearer than in gaming PCs. The 15.6-inch MSI Raider GE67 HX isn’t as colossal as the company’s 17.3-inch GT77 Titan (though one configuration shares that behemoth’s blazing Intel Core i9-12900HX CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics), but our test unit is less than half as expensive at $2,499.99. Even at its much lower price, the Raider still boasts a gorgeous OLED screen and impressive audio, not to mention excellent productivity and gaming performance. It doesn’t quite steal our Editors’ Choice award among gaming laptops from Lenovo’s 16-inch Legion 7 Gen 7, but it easily earns a commendable four-star rating.
No Shrinking Violet
While it’s not the top offering, our Raider’s 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12800HX processor is hardly a slouch, with eight Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, and 24 threads. Ditto for its VR-ready GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU with 8GB of VRAM, which is more than enough to run AAA games and get you plugged into the metaverse. The system comes with 16GB of memory, a 1TB NVMe solid-state drive, Wi-Fi 6E, and Windows 11 Pro.
While it’ll fit in a backpack, the MSI is not the most comfortable laptop to lug around, measuring 0.92 by 14.1 by 10.5 inches (HWD) and weighing 5.24 pounds. That’s manageable (especially if you remember the eight- to 10-pound gaming laptops of not long ago), but brief battery life obliges you to carry the three-pound AC adapter if you plan to spend a whole day away from your desk. Like most of its competitors, the Raider is a desktop replacement whose high-performance components demand considerable power and a beefy cooling solution to prevent overheating.
Visually, the MSI Raider GE67 HX screams “gaming laptop” from all angles. The aggressive MSI branding on the lid, the protruding cooling vents, and the RGB light bar that radiates from the notebook’s front edge (think Asus ROG Strix Scar 17, except even more in your face) are all familiar features among high-end gaming rigs .
MSI has partnered with SteelSeries for the RGB lighting effects on the light bar and keyboard. Both components can be controlled with either the supplied MSI Center utility or SteelSeries’ GG software. The latter also gives you full access to the key bindings of the keyboard, which feels satisfying to type on if a little cramped at lower right, around the cursor arrow keys.
Some additional keyboard shortcuts allow you to swap between RGB lighting profiles or adjust the intensity of the internal cooling fans. The touchpad is responsive and supports multi-touch gestures but doesn’t feel as premium as we’d expect on a laptop in this price range.
All other features of the laptop pale in comparison with the display. The OLED panel has an old-school 16:9 aspect ratio instead of the increasingly popular, slightly taller 16:10 (resolution is 2,560 by 1,440 pixels), but its brilliant colors and sky-high contrast just beg you to watch a movie on it, while a blazing 240Hz refresh rate keeps up with the fastest PC shooters. Whether it’s the latest streaming hit or immersive fast-twitch combat, visuals are smooth and color accuracy is as good as you’d expect from a high-end TV. Paired with an effective set of Dynaudio-tuned speakers, the Raider works well as a portable movie theater, though I’d still prefer a pair of headphones or high-end external speakers.
Like many gaming rigs, the MSI wraps its input/output ports around three sides including the rear as well as the left and right flanks. The laptop’s backside holds the charging connector, an HDMI video output, an Ethernet port, and a USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 port.
On the left, you’ll find an audio jack, two USB 3.2 ports (one Type-A, one Type-C), and an LED charging indicator. There’s also a Kensington security lock in the corner.
The right side provides two more USB-A ports with an SD card reader nestled between them. The panoply of ports makes the Raider a smart choice for people looking to minimize their desk setups—all you’ll need is an external monitor and your favorite peripherals. The system has more than enough power to act as a lightweight workstation for digital content creation apps as well.
Performance Testing: Rating the Raider
For as much praise as we’re giving the Raider, its specs are not uncommon among deluxe gaming laptops. For our benchmark charts, we matched the MSI against similarly equipped systems with the same RTX 3070 Ti laptop GPU. The Core i7-12800HX CPU is the ace that sets the Raider apart from most of its rivals, although the Asus Scar 17’s Core i9 will be formidable competition. The Aorus 17 XE, Razer Blade 15, and Lenovo Legion 5i Pro Gen 7 have near-identical specs and should come closest to matching the MSI.
Productivity Tests
Naturally, we challenged the gaming rigs with our full suite of productivity benchmarks as well as graphically demanding titles. UL’s PCMark 10 performs a variety of office tasks ranging from word processing and spreadsheeting to videoconferencing; all five laptops pulverized the 4,000-point score that indicates excellent productivity for everyday apps like Word and Excel. The MSI took the silver medal, just behind the Asus, in our PugetBench test which automates a variety of Adobe Photoshop image editing operations.
The Raider’s Core i7-12800HX won two of our three CPU tests, leading the way in Geekbench’s variety of number-crunching operations and Cinebench’s image rendering though falling slightly off the pace in our HandBrake video editing exercise.
Graphics and Gaming Tests
As you’d expect from five laptops with the same GPU, things were close in our graphically intensive benchmarks, but the Raider held its ground in our gaming tests.
The MSI slugged it out with the Lenovo in our synthetic graphics tests 3DMark and GFXBench, but came close enough to make it a contest.
The two systems again tied for the lead in the built-in 1080p benchmark of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but the Raider fell to the back of the pack in F1 2021.
Battery and Display Tests
We test laptop battery life by looping a 720p video file at 50% brightness and 100% audio volume, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off, until the system quits. The MSI landed in the middle of the group, lasting for a respectable six and a half hours before shutting down, but neither it nor any of its rivals will come anywhere near these results if gaming on battery power. Cranking up the brightness and cooling fans will drain a battery in a hurry.
We use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite sensor and its software to measure laptop displays’ color coverage and brightness. Not surprisingly, the MSI’s OLED panel excelled in both, with superb color quality and ample brightness (we like to see at least 400 nits from an IPS screen, but 370 is fine from a higher-contrast OLED display).
Verdict: A Solid Desktop Replacement
If you’ve wanted to dip your toes into PC gaming but can’t let go of your console roots, the MSI Raider GE67 HX stakes out an attractive middle ground between the speed and versatility of PC gaming and the comfort and ease of a console . If you can overlook its noisy fans and chintzy touchpad, the Raider provides a powerhouse entertainment experience with an OLED screen that tops most household TVs. It’s not cheap, but this gaming machine is more than the sum of its parts.
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