On the market for a gaming laptop with more than enough power to handle all the newest PC games? Meet the Extreme
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Besides promising a surge of raw power, the MSI GT83VR Titan 212 Pro has got some serious nerd juice in it. Though it won’t attract any chicks, the laptop is a phenomenal workstation for the professionals while adding value to extreme gaming experience at the same time. Is it a steal at $8000+? Absolutely not, and you will think twice for shoveling out this much amount of cash. But if you take my word for it, this laptop is da bomb.
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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Pros:
- Impressive screen size. 18’’ inches backed up by 1920×1080 HD IPS panel promises serious results to the multimedia, work and gaming savvy folks.
- Strong mechanical keyboard with shallow key placement.
- State of the art touch panel/ keyboard at the numeric keys area.
- Incredibly fast processing, minimum load times, close to 0% overheating issues and absolutely quiet performance at peak temperature!
Right off the bat, the laptop boasts not one, but two Gtx 1080 graphics cards in SLI configuration. The GPUs are more than enough to offer a relatively high frame rate without breaking a sweat. While the Kaby Lake Processor is busy doling out results for you, the laptop’s cooling system works at its maximum efficiency to ensure stable temperatures – These are perhaps two most important factors that you need to keep in mind whenever you are purchasing any high-end computer.
Now for some of you, the pricing may be more than intimidating. However, if you think that $8000 is a lot of money to be spending on “a laptop”, what about Asus GX800? The latter comes at a staggering price of over $10,000 and that too with next-gen features that are worth checking out. I hear some people were not okay with how Asus implemented the OC software because it caused the system to crash without any warning flags. Other than that, the meticulous design and engineering promise value to long time Asus loyalists.
Anyhow, coming back to the MSI GT83VR TITAN SLI-212, it is more than just a namby-pamby gaming machine. If you are an engineering student who has to do a lot of complex computations in MATLAB, or some kind of facial recognition software, the Titan has enough muscle power to get things done in the ideal time frame.
As compared to previous iterations of Titan series laptops, MSI introduced a quick workaround solution for those who are looking to add additional hardware components under the hood. After you flip open the lid, the laptop will reveal the Dragon Insignia panel at the top. You can pry it open to directly access the HDD, SSD and RAM bays to physically install or uninstall additional items.
Sadly, at this price, the MSI GT83VR TITAN SLI-212 does not have 4K display. In fact, its native resolution caps at 1920X1080, which is way too low as compared to what the Asus Gx800 has. However, MSI featured a lot of cool new stuff in the Sleight Trailer for this laptop. Plus, they also show the laptop in the making via a hi-def animation in the same trailer.
One more caveat is the laptop’s battery life. I do not blame MSI GT83VR for averaging at a little over 2 Hour battery life, and neither should you. You should know that high-end rigs consume more battery and are more resource hungry as compare to sloppy cheap portable workstations. If MSI had made it possible for the GT83VR to max out at 3 – 4-hour battery life, that would have been ideal.
At 2-hour battery life, make sure that you don’t have the charger plugged in all the time. This will cause the battery’s charging capacity to minimize, hence seriously affecting the battery life. Normally, I don’t share this tip while reviewing laptops or devices with relatively higher battery life, but seeing that this model is already peaking at 2 hours, a fair warning is permissible.
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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Moving on, the MSI GT83VR TITAN also supports a variety of temperature monitoring precision software. You can even keep track of the temperature spikes in the space between the keyboard panel and the structure underneath. Likewise, I could easily measure the temperature between the W and H keys easily without any hassle. Gamers know that WSAD is the hot zones that get the maximum number of keystrokes on a laptop or any keyboard’s lifetime.
This small review does not do justice to the MSI GT83VR TITAN SLI-212. For instance, I wanted to go in depth with the benchmarks on Rise of the Tomb Raider. The graphics looked so vivid when Lara came out of the car wreckage in the beginning of the game. Same goes for Skyrim, Mass Effect and Dishonored. These games are literally worth playing on this laptop.
Last but not the least, the VR experience is truly breathtaking. MSI GT83VR has full compatibility with a long list of VR headsets. If you are spending eight grand on a mean portable gaming machine, why don’t you spend a little more and get a dandy virtual reality kit? It’ll be worth it.