We believe many of you gaming notebook enthusiasts was on cloud nine when NVIDIA confirms the use of the same desktop-grade GTX 10 series GPU for its AIB partner’s gaming notebooks. The MSI Gaming GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro that we’ll be looking into today, is one of the most powerful gaming notebook in MSI’s GeForce GTX 10 series powered gaming notebook lineup that is packed with an Intel Core i7 6820HK processor, 32GB DDR4 memory, 2 x Intel 256GB NVMe in Raid 0 configuration and of course, a GeForce GTX 1080 that packs a whopping 8GB memory just like the desktop variant of the GTX 1080.
Judging from the specifications itself, the GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro is no doubt a very powerful, but bulky gaming notebook to own. While the bulkiness is something that cannot be avoided at the moment, let’s see what kind of performance and feature we can expect from the GTX73VR 6RF Titan Pro.
(SRP for the MSI Gaming GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro is around RM15,399)
Specifications
Overview
Appearance wise, the GT73VR 6RF slightly resembles the GT72 2PC Dominator Pro, except for the position of the shortcut buttons and the vents for exhausting the hot air out its chassis.
There are a series of shortcut buttons located at the most right of the chassis with the functions as follows:
- Power button to turn on the system / force shutdown
- Increase the fan speed for extra ventilation (Cooler Boost)
- Launch XSplit Gamecaster for easily recording gaming moments, broadcasting and sharing live gameplay sessions to Twitch, YouTube, UStream and more
- Toggle the LED lighting profile of the keyboard
While the touch pad has a fancy glowing effect on its side for the aesthetics, both the buttons are somehow mushy to the touch, which isn’t really ideal for those who prefers a crispy solid click.
The keyboard used is as usual, prepared by the renown gaming peripherals manufacturer, Steelseries. The one used on the GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro is a new revision that comes with an improved gaming optimized key matrix to support more than the 6 KRO limit seen in the previous generations of MSI gaming notebooks.
The hinge design however, isn’t the design that allows you to lay the gaming notebook completely flat. It’s not really a big deal, but we’d prefer to have a gaming notebook that comes with a hinge design that allows you to lay the gaming notebook completely flat.
The GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro comes with a total of 5 x USB 3.0 port to satisfy your need for high speed storage devices, audio jacks for headphones and microphones, as well as a SD card slot for your gaming and daily usage needs.
The Type-C port for USB 3.1 and ThunderBolt 3, mini DisplayPort, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet Port and the charging port is very well placed in our opinion. Not only that it looks clean but it also makes desk cable management much more easier if you’re planning to have it staying on your desk in long term.
Brushed metal texture lid, glowing MSI dragon are the elements that gives the GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro a touch of premium.
Just like its predecessors, the GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro has the same large meshed area at the bottom of its chassis to provide better ventilation for better cooling performance.
Upgrading the components such as memory kit, SSD or MXM module is easy with this chassis, but it is advised to bring it over to a MSI certified service center to perform the upgrade if you did not wish to void the 2 year limited warranty covered by MSI Malaysia.
Software: MSI Dragon Center
The pre-installed MSI Dragon Center is something similar to the MSI Dragon Gaming Center software that we’ve seen on the previous generation MSI gaming notebook, a handy tool that allows user to monitor the system status, customize the keyboard lighting and LED color, toggle system performance and more – Aside of the new look, the user interface much more organized and intuitive now.
Gaming Test
The GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro packs the latest NVIDIA GTX 10 series graphics, the GTX 1080 with a slightly reduced performance for gaming notebooks. In our controlled test, We’ve gone through some selected titles in our library with the GTX 1080.
While most of the games are still considered as playable at this rate, titles such as the Crysis 3, Grand Theft Auto V and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt taxes the GTX 1080 heavily with it’s already heavy requirements, let alone the 4K resolution, which makes things more difficult for the GTX 1080.
Overclocking the GPU did helped a little, with an additional 253 MHz boost to the GPU clock, we’ve managed to get an average gain of 10% on most of the selected titles, but things still aren’t going too well for titles like Crysis 3 and Grand Theft Auto V at this point either.
Key Rollover Test
As we have mentioned earlier that the key rollover feature has been greatly improved this time, here’s a preview of the keys registered via the Aqua Key Test tool from OTD.kr:
A big thumbs up to MSI as the key matrix of the keyboard are now optimized to provide better support for games that requires more keys to be registered at the same time.
Audio Test
Audio quality wise, the GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro did lived up to the expectation just like it’s predecessor. The speaker alone manage delivers clear and powerful sound stage, along with a satisfying amount of bass during gaming and movie session without needing any help from the Nahimic 2 software that provides a virtual surround sound like audio quality.
Battery Life
The battery life for the GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro didn’t last too long under heavy usage as it only managed to sustain for approximately 1 hour and 8 minutes after a heavy gaming session under high-performance mode before it decided to turn itself off. While running under power saver mode for lightweight usage i.e document processing, reading, web browsing, the GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro manage to last for approximately 3 hours and 40 minutes.
Verdict
Graphics performance wise, it’s no doubt that the GTX 1080 packed GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro can handles pretty much any games with ease on 1080p and highest graphics settings, but it seems that 4k resolution is still something that not even a GTX 1080 can handle for now. This is proven during the test, as the GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro started to face some difficulties with games like Crysis 3, GTA 5, The WItcher 3: Wild Hunt especially, which the performance improvement not looking too bright even after we overclocked the GTX 1080 with an additional 253 MHz on the GPU clock. Of course, these titles can still be played on 4k resolution smoothly if you don’t mind lowering the graphics settings.
Graphics performance wise, it’s no doubt that the GTX 1080 packed GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro can handles pretty much any games with ease on 1080p and highest graphics settings, but it seems that 4k resolution is still something that not even a GTX 1080 can handle for now. This is proven during the test, as the GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro started to face some difficulties with games like Crysis 3, GTA 5, The WItcher 3: Wild Hunt especially, which the performance improvement not looking too bright even after we overclocked the GTX 1080 with an additional 253 MHz on the GPU clock. Of course, these titles can still be played on 4k resolution smoothly if you don’t mind lowering the graphics settings.
Cooling performance is excellent and we have nothing much to complaint about except for the slightly increase noise as the result for both cooling fans operating at maximum speed. If you’re worried that having the cooling fans operating at maximum speed will encourage faster dust build up, have no fear as removing the bottom cover to clean up the cooling fans is as easy as pie.
Price wise, the MSI GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro is retailed at the price of RM15,399, which makes it virtually impossible for those who is limited by budget. Still, if you’re one of those gamers who is always on the move and requires a high performing gaming notebook with 4k resolution – and of course, that extra budget to spend on, the MSI GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro is the gaming notebook that are seriously worth of your consideration.
Pros
- Very decent cooling performance with CoolerBoost
- Decent graphics performance
- Good overall audio performance
- Improved gaming optimized key matrix
- Generous amount of USB 3.0 ports
- Consider to be future proof with USB Type-C MSI SuperPort (Thunderbolt 3) port
Cons
- Cost a bomb
- Limited battery life on high performance mode
- Bulky, not easy to carry around
- Gaming on 4K resolution and highest graphics settings is still too much for the GeForce GTX 1080 to handle
