The MSI Titan GT77 Review: Desktop-Class Core i9-12900HX Tested
by Brett Howse on September 1, 2022 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Intel
- MSI
- Alder Lake
- Alder Lake-HX
Gaming Performance
While our engineering sample review unit comes with a 360 Hz 1920x1080 display, for retail units MSI is only offering a 3840x2160 120 Hz panel. Driving that display, MSI offers the Titan with a choice of either the NVIDA RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU or the RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, the latter of which is in our review unit. The RTX 3080L Ti is currently the fastest notebook GPU and will probably continue to be for some time. The RTX 3070L Ti model of the Titan GT77 supports 225 Watts combined CPU/GPU power, and the RTX 3080L Ti model bumps that up to 250 Watts, with up to 175 Watts for the GPU.
The Titan GT77 was run through our gaming laptop suite, with the newer titles in the suite run at both 1920x1080, as well as 3840x2160 by connecting an external display. As usual, we will start with some synthetics then move on to actual games.
3DMark
With the same GPU as the MSI Raider GE76, it is not a big surprise to see both systems very close to each other. The Titan’s HX processor has a bit more headroom, but both processors max out at the same 5 GHz peak boost on a single core.
GFXBench
The GFXBench 5.0 uses DirectX 12, but even so it is a low-impact test and is more useful for integrated graphics. The performance is very good in this very lightweight test.
Tomb Raider
Our first real game is the original rebooted Tomb Raider, which can still be a challenge for low-tier gaming notebooks and integrated graphics. The RTX 3080L Ti, unsurprisingly, has no issues with this title.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
The first sequel in this franchise really upped the stakes in terms of graphical fidelity and utilizes DirectX 12 as well. At 1920x1080 it can still be a challenge to mid-tier notebooks, but again, the MSI Titan GT77 dominates.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
The most recent installment in the Tomb Raider franchise is still not very demanding for an RTX 3080L Ti, at least at 1920x1080. There is a small boost here with the Titan just eking out the Raider. At this resolution, that will be down to the CPU since the game will not be GPU bound.
At UHD the Titan still has a small leader over the Raider. It is not a huge difference since both share the same 175-Watt GPU but there is a small win here for the Titan.
Strange Brigade
This game has a wide range of playability, with settings that support even integrated graphics, so it is less demanding than some of the others. The performance is very good, but there is no clear win here from the other RTX 3080L devices.
Borderlands 3
Borderlands 3 has the Titan ahead by a percent or two again, but is still very close.
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
Unsurprisingly, the same story is repeated here again with the Titan and Raider about equal.
F1 2021
Both systems are tied at FHD with the Titan just getting the edge at UHD.
Far Cry 5
Far Cry tends to be a CPU bound game, and here we have one of the few real wins for the Titan GT77. There is a noticeable gap at 1920x1080, and although the gap is much lower at 3840x2160, it still exists.
GPU Conclusion
The MSI Titan GT77 is a fantastic gaming device with the best GPU available and plenty of thermal headroom. The Core i9-12900HX processor is faster than the i9-12900HK we tested in the GE76 Raider (which has since been updated to the same HX processor) but for most gaming scenarios the CPU is not as big of a bottleneck. Both the HK and HX both feature the same 5.0 GHz maximum boost frequency, and while the HX offers two more P-Cores and four more threads, as well as a bit more thermal headroom, it was not a huge gain in gaming. There was a small but consistent increase, but it was not massive.
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Otritus - Sunday, September 4, 2022 - link
It’s a pretty decent benchmark to measure relative perform between processors, but almost no software uses the engine making it not “real world”. Cinebench is not a very good predictor for gaming performance because it scales poorly with additional cache. It is a decent predictor of productivity differences since it is a rendering workload, but you can always use “real world” tests like blender or adobe. I wouldn’t say it’s terrible — as it can provide decent insight into a processor with a single benchmark — but it provides no insight into workloads that a micro architecture can be very good at.bogda - Friday, September 2, 2022 - link
I expected at least several pictures of laptop internals. Considering the type of laptop tested, this would probably be interesting for many anandtech readers.Ryan Smith - Friday, September 2, 2022 - link
Unfortunately, we are typically prohibited from disassembling laptops these days. The manufacturers like to get them back intact.bogda - Friday, September 2, 2022 - link
I am sure anandtech with its reputation and history can get a permission to open and close desktop replacement laptop from manufacturer without problems. Peek inside it the least you readers expect.PeachNCream - Saturday, September 3, 2022 - link
No they really can't do that if they expect to get more review samples in the future. Reviewer sites of yore used to buy their hardware off the shelf, but in a age where landing benchmarks first is going to generate competitive page views, reviewers can't realistically wait until a laptop/phone/desktop lands on the shelves (especially now with supply problems, scalpers, and gray market reseller markups) so this is the world we live in. If you want internals, you just have to wait until someone rips one apart and that probably won't be very early in the hardware life cycle.IBM760XL - Friday, September 2, 2022 - link
Does AnandTech typically return laptops not-intact? :)It's a fair request, one of the things I look for in laptops is upgradeability. Being able to add more RAM or storage or perhaps upgrading the WiFi card down the road is an important consideration.
Although as an owner of an MSI, I'm well aware of their "opening this area voids the warranty" sticker. Not that it's ever stopped me, but they seem to be more of a stickler for that than most.
sheh - Friday, September 2, 2022 - link
Why are bad keyboard layouts the norm?Plenty of unused space horizontally (and also vertically).
meacupla - Friday, September 2, 2022 - link
What are you talking about? The keyboard layout is fineThe sides are filled with speakers, the rear is filled with cooling, and the front has a giant track pad.
IBM760XL - Friday, September 2, 2022 - link
My guess is sheh prefers full-width NumPads?Personally I have fewer complaints than for most laptop keyboards. It doesn't have half-height arrow keys, which is my top requirement (although it's not quite full-size, let's give it a B grade). The Cherry MX probably hash decent key feel/travel, which is also lacking on some laptops.
I'd personally slightly prefer dedicated page up/down/home/end buttons, versus the NumPad-off variant, but that's a small quibble and from someone who's learned to touch-type numbers quickly without a NumPad, and who usually only uses NumPads for directional movement in grid-based games.
So, yeah, overall I think they did a lot better job on the keyboard than most manufacturers do these days...
logoffon - Saturday, September 3, 2022 - link
Given that MSI is kind of a king of that, I'm honestly not really surprised. But they did get to new low with this layout.