Laptops featuring high-end 12^th Gen Intel Core CPUs have started showing up in stores in India, and gamers can get the first taste of this new hardware right now. With consistent competition from AMD over the past few years, plus Apple’s shift to its own in-house M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, Intel has a lot to prove in the premium laptop space. The biggest change with the 12^th Gen lineup is a move to a heterogenous architecture with multiple CPU core types. We’ve already seen how this changes things for high-end desktops, and now it’s time to talk about our first experience with a laptop powered by one of these CPUs.

MSI is one of the first companies to refresh its portfolio of gaming laptops in India with 12^th Gen Core CPUs. The new models cover a wide range of price points with different screen sizes and multiple CPU and GPU options. While the industry overall is moving towards slimmer and lighter models, even in the gaming market, what we have with us today is the top-of-the-line MSI Raider GE76-12UHS, a beefy gaming laptop with specs that max out almost every imaginable parameter, and a price that might be hard for most people to stomach.

If you need a gaming laptop and don’t want to compromise even a little bit on performance, this review will give you a taste of what an unlimited budget can get you in 2022.

 

MSI Raider GE76-12UHS price in India

MSI has announced multiple variants of the Raider series internationally, with a range of specifications. Not all permutations and combinations of the specifications (which we’ll get to soon) will be available in India. There are two options here – the MSI Raider GE76-UGS starts with a 12^th Gen Core i7 CPU, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD, and 17.3-inch QHD 240Hz screen for Rs. 2,85,990. The Raider GE76-UHS variant has a Core i9 CPU, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU, 32GB of RAM, 2TB SSD, and a 4K 120Hz screen, which pushes the price up to a blistering Rs. 4,81,990.

There’s also a Raider GE66 series, with 15.6-inch screen options, priced at Rs. 2,79,990 and Rs. 4,47,990 for equivalent variants. These are all official prices and retail listings come in a bit lower. Clearly, these laptops are not for the faint of heart. 

The Titanium Blue exterior of the MSI Raider GE76 doesn’t fit the typical gamer aesthetic but looks good

 

MSI Raider GE76-12UHS design

First of all, the Raider GE76 is is one of the largest laptops I’ve seen in a long time. Even as most manufacturers are pushing thin-and-light options in the gaming market, MSI has gone with a completely unapologetic approach that prioritises top-end components plus the cooling they’ll require.

Still, it’s not as bulky and heavy as top-tier gaming laptops used to be just a few years ago, and MSI has used the space well – for example, the 17.3-inch screen spans nearly the entire width of the lid; there isn’t much plastic around it making the Raider GE76’s body any wider than it needs to be. Despite its appearance, the Raider GE76 weighs only 2.9kg (not including the large power brick) which is less than what most everyday 15-inch laptops weighed not too long ago. You could actually carry it around every day without too much trouble if you want to.

The lid is metal with an icy silver-blue finish that MSI calls Titanium Blue. This is somewhat unusual for a gaming laptop, but it looks quite good – the only downside is that smudges are highly visible. MSI has avoided the obvious “gamer” aesthetic though the hinges and corners are slightly pronounced, and there are large vents on the rear. The MSI dragon badge is a little garish but that’s the only branding you’ll see anywhere.

When you turn this laptop on, however, all subtlety goes out the window. MSI has chosen to implement a gigantic RGB LED bar across the entire front lip of the GE76 Raider. By default it cycles through jewel-toned red, green, and blue. This can be customised through MSI’s software but it strangely isn’t integrated with the keyboard’s lighting effects and there’s no way to turn it off quickly when watching a movie, for example.

MSI has gone all in on lighting effects with per-key RGB illumination and a huge bar on the front

 

The keyboard has per-key RGB LED backlighting, and MSI has gone for a slightly muted, frosted tone rather than the bright colours you might expect. The effect is eye-catching, and you can switch patterns or turn it off quickly using Fn key shortcuts.

As for keyboard layout, none of the keyboard keys are too small or cramped. There’s a full-sized number pad but no paging block. The Fn shortcut key is to the right of the spacebar, which might take some getting used to. Shortcuts for volume and screen brightness adjustment are on the arrow cluster rather than the Fn row. The power button in the top-right corner is a bit stiffer than the others to make it harder to press accidentally.

Because this keyboard was designed by SteelSeries, you get the company’s GG app which lets you synchronise RGB settings and shortcuts across different accessories. Several games and apps support custom RGB effects. You can track stats such as health, mana, teammates, spawn time, and buff timers in League of Legends, or compass directions and tool durability in Minecraft, for example. Unfortunately the app pushes you to sign up for an account in order to capture and share gameplay clips, and there’s also lots of unwanted promotion for other Steelseries products.

The trackpad seems tiny on such a huge body but is actually a decent size. It’s aligned to the keyboard’s home keys, not the chassis, which is good. I felt a little too much friction when swiping around. It’s a bit of a surprise that there are no physical buttons, but the mechanism is okay for casual use. You’ll have a mouse for serious gaming anyway.

The MSI Raider GE76’s keyboard is spacious but has a few layout quirks

 

MSI Raider GE76-12UHS specifications

The unit I have for review was provided by Intel and MSI, and there’s one key difference from what’s on sale here – a 1080p 360Hz panel rather than 4K 120Hz. This shouldn’t limit performance but it does determine how games can be run. The Core i9-12900HK CPU, which is this generation’s top-end mobile part, has six P-cores with Hyper-Threading running at up to 5GHz and eight single-threaded E-cores running at up to 3.8GHz. The nominal TDP is 45W but this can be pushed way up to 115W if a laptop’s power and cooling design allow it. It does have integrated graphics capabilities based on Intel’s Iris Xe architecture for low-demand usage. The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU has 16GB of its own GDDR6 RAM.

MSI lists three display options internationally – full-HD at 360Hz, QHD at 240Hz, and 4K at 120Hz. Each one represents a tradeoff, and there are of course different games and tasks that could benefit from each combination. Considering the 17.3-inch panel size, I’d lean towards the higher resolutions to balance productivity and gaming, but I can see how some twitch-style gamers want the fastest refresh rate possible and aren’t going to push beyond full-HD in games anyway. 

RAM support goes up to 64GB of DDR5-4800 and there are two user-accessible slots. There are also two M.2 slots fed by PCIe 4.0 lanes so upgrading shouldn’t be much of a problem. The review unit had 32GB of DDR5 RAM (in dual channel) and two 1TB Samsung OEM SSDs. There’s Wi-Fi 6e and Bluetooth 5.2. The 99.9Wh battery was chosen to max out the capacity that’s allowed on commercial flights, and you get a hefty 330W charger in the box.

Most of the ports you’d need frequently are on the sides of the MSI GE76 Raider

 

Ports are placed on the sides and back of the Raider GE76. Starting with the left, there are USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps) Type-A and Type-C ports (the latter of which supports DisplayPort 1.4 video output), plus a 3.5mm audio socket. On the right are two USB 3.2 Gen1 (5Gbps) Type-A ports and an SD Express card slot. The rear has the DC power inlet, HDMI 2.1 and Mini-DisplayPort 1.4 video outputs, a single Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port, and a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet jack. 

There’s a 1080p webcam but no face recognition or even a fingerprint sensor. The Raider GE76 has stereo 2W speakers plus twin 1W woofers designed by Dynaudio. The keyboard has Steelseries branding. MSI has used six heatpipes two fans, one for the CPU and one for the GPU, which it says are larger than before.

You’ll get Windows 11, which is needed to take full advantage of Intel’s Thread Director feature which assigns tasks to the appropriate type of core. There’s some preloaded software too – MSI Center lets you manage on-device noise cancellation, backups, fan profiles, lighting effects, and more. App Player uses Bluestacks’ technology to allow you to play Android games. There’s also a short-term Norton Security subscription.

Large vents exhaust hot air out the rear, and more ports are placed here too

 

MSI Raider GE76-12UHS performance

Let’s first talk about everyday usage. The display on my review unit was non-reflective and generally pleasant to work with. Content on screen wasn’t especially sharp, considering the 1920×1080 resolution at 17.3 inches, and I have seen better. Colours are fairly punchy and watching videos was enjoyable enough. HDR isn’t on the spec sheet but this panel can get quite bright. The speakers fire upwards and sideways, creating a wide soundstage. They can get loud enough to fill a small room, and you could easily watch videos with a friend or two at a considerable distance from the screen. Sound is clear, especially voices, but can be a bit shrill at high volume.

The keyboard is a bit spongy but the keys do have good travel. The layout takes some getting used to, especially having the Fn key to the right of the spacebar. One neat touch is that when you hold the Fn key down, your backlight effect is paused and all available combo keys light up in red. The trackpad is thankfully centred to the keyboard. It works well enough and its click mechanism feels crisp.

Now it’s finally time to test Intel’s latest and greatest, in the form of the MSI Raider GE76 gaming laptop. Of course, we start with PCMark 10, which measures performance across multiple real-world use cases. The standard run produced a score of 7,172 while the Extended run managed 9,948. The new UL Procyon test is more specialised – its Office Productivity suite showed a result of 7,278 while the Photo Editing benchmark score was 8,198. Compared to the recently tested Asus ProArt StudioBook 16 OLED, which is based on an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, the 12^th Gen Intel Core i9 showed significant gains.

The browser-based WebXprt 3 and Basemark tests produced 344 and 1,247.37 points respectively. Cinebench R20’s single-core and multi-core scores were 634 and 5,614. POVRay’s default benchmark scene was rendered in 49s while V-Ray showed CPU and GPU render scores of 16,226 and 554 respectively. The Blender 3D benchmark took 2 minutes, 56 seconds to complete the familiar BMW render, 7 minutes 54 seconds for the Classroom test, and 7 minutes, 58 seconds for the Barcelona Pavilion scene.

Available shortcuts are highlighted when you hold the Fn key down

 

In real-world tests, the MSI Raider GE76 was able to compress a 3.24GB of assorted files using 7zip in 1 minute, 12 seconds, while Handbrake took 36 seconds to transcode a 1.3GB AVI file to H.265. In this latter test, the Ryzen-based laptop had a huge advantage thanks to its higher number of powerful cores working in parallel. CrystalDiskMark measured sequential reads and writes for the primary SSD at 7,031MBps and 5,116.7MBps respectively, while random reads and writes came in at 2,827.6MBps and 1,381.3MBps.

Coming to graphics and gaming performance, which is what everyone wants to know about, we again start with synthetic tests. 3DMark’s DX12 Time Spy Extreme test score was 5,881, while the Port Royal test with ray tracing managed 7,940 points. The Nvidia DLSS feature test showed scores of 36.86fps with DLSS off and 85.63fps with it enabled. Unigine’s Superposition benchmark was limited to 1920×1080, but with pushing quality up to the Extreme preset, the average performance was 46.32fps.

We start our in-game tests with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which averaged 134fps at 1920×1080 at the Highest quality preset. Surprisingly, with shadow ray tracing enabled and DLSS set to Balanced mode, the frame rate stayed pretty much the same. Metro: Exodus also supports both features. At its Ultra preset, the game’s benchmark tool reported a 90.72fps average. With…