The ultra-high-end gaming notebook GT80 2QE Titan SLI is in the spotlight; featuring NVIDIA GTX 980M SLI, 32GB DDR3, 4x SSDs in Raid0 and the world’s first mechanical keyboard on a laptop. Excited much?
Product on Review GT80 2QE Titan SLI
Manufacturer & Sponsor: MSI
Street Price: £3499 GBP
As popularity continues to grow for gaming on-the-go and large gatherings such as LAN parties, the mobile gaming platform has seen significant rise in demand. It’s true to say that gaming systems certainly becoming more portable but not everyone wants to transport their home system to an event. Gaming notebooks are certainly more portable as the user only has to drop the product into a satchel and away they go. To play games at a competitive level the best hardware is essential and today’s review sees us cast a critical eye over one of the most highly anticipated and much sought after gaming notebook ever.
Last month MSI used the glitz of CES 2015 to announce their new behemoth gaming notebook – GT80 Titan SLI. This new notebook refuses to take gaming lightly by offering a catalogue of ultra-high-end components such as: Intel core i7 4980HQ, 32GB DDR3, NVIDIA GTX 980M SLI and 4x SSDs in Raid0 to name but a few. GT80 Titan SLI also carries with it a strong lineup of innovative features and MSI are using this new product to showcase the “World’s first” mechanical keyboard to feature on a notebook. This is an extremely exciting product, so let’s delay no further and begin the review!
MSI on their GT80 Titan SLI
The MSI GT80 2QE (Titan SLI)-023UK is designed to carry out the most demanding tasks without slowing down. The efficient 4th Gen Intel Core i7 Quad Core processor makes light work of the most demanding applications, all while utilising less power than previous generations, and the MSI GT80 2QE dedicated Dual/SLI GeForce GTX 980M graphics chipset provides a solid edge over other competitors when gaming.
Technical Specifications
Model
– Model: MSI GT80 2QE (TITAN SLI)-023UK
– OS: Windows 8.1
– CPU: Intel core i7 4980HQ (2.8GHz – 4GHz)
– Display: 18.4” Full HD, anti-glare LCD in LED backlight 1920×1080 16:9
– Memory Supplied: 4 x 8GB (32GB)
– Memory Type: DDR3L
– Memory Speed: 1600
– Max Memory Support: 32GB
– Graphics Chipset: Dual nVidia GeForce GTX 980M SLI
– Graphics Memory: 8GB GDDR5 x2
– Storage: 4 x 256GB M.2 SSD + 1TB 7200RPM
– Keyboard Type: SteelSeries Red backlit mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown Switches
– USB3.0 Ports: 5
– HDMI Port(s): 1
– Mini Display port(s): 2
– LAN Port(s): 1
– Microphone Jack(s): 1
– Headphone Jack(s) (SPDIF): 1
– Card Reader: SD (XC/HC)
– Audio: – 4.1 Sound by Dynaudio
– LAN: Killer DoubleShot Pro Gb LAN
– Wireless LAN – Killer DoubleShot Pro 11ac
– Bluetooth: V4.1
– Webcam: Full HD type (30fps@1080p)
– Dimension: 45.6 x 33 x 4.9 cm
– Weight: 4.5Kg (w/ Battery)
– Warranty: 2 YR’s Collect & Return (1 YR Global)
– Model: MSI GT80 2QE (TITAN SLI)-023UK
– OS: Windows 8.1
– CPU: Intel core i7 4980HQ (2.8GHz – 4GHz)
– Display: 18.4” Full HD, anti-glare LCD in LED backlight 1920×1080 16:9
– Memory Supplied: 4 x 8GB (32GB)
– Memory Type: DDR3L
– Memory Speed: 1600
– Max Memory Support: 32GB
– Graphics Chipset: Dual nVidia GeForce GTX 980M SLI
– Graphics Memory: 8GB GDDR5 x2
– Storage: 4 x 256GB M.2 SSD + 1TB 7200RPM
– Keyboard Type: SteelSeries Red backlit mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown Switches
– USB3.0 Ports: 5
– HDMI Port(s): 1
– Mini Display port(s): 2
– LAN Port(s): 1
– Microphone Jack(s): 1
– Headphone Jack(s) (SPDIF): 1
– Card Reader: SD (XC/HC)
– Audio: – 4.1 Sound by Dynaudio
– LAN: Killer DoubleShot Pro Gb LAN
– Wireless LAN – Killer DoubleShot Pro 11ac
– Bluetooth: V4.1
– Webcam: Full HD type (30fps@1080p)
– Dimension: 45.6 x 33 x 4.9 cm
– Weight: 4.5Kg (w/ Battery)
– Warranty: 2 YR’s Collect & Return (1 YR Global)
Packaging & Bundle
Apart from the etailer packaging, MSI present GT80 Titan SLI in a large, attractive box which details the features and fundamental technologies this notebook includes. There are no images of the notebook, just this text, the MSI gaming logo and a convenient carry handle for transportation.
Inside this box, all of the items are very well protected with foam padding. Different items are separated into compartments, and the notebook itself is concealed within a fabric sleeve.
Since GT80 Titan SLI is a high-end product, MSI bundle a large selection of items with the notebook to enhance the user experience. These items include the following:
• Documentation: warranty, user guide, software
• Driver software CD
• Gaming mouse + mouse pad
• Golden ‘WASD’ keys
• Dragon soft toy
• Wrist rest
Along with the gargantuan proportions of the GT80 Titan SLI notebook comes a beefy AC charger too. The sheer size of this unit (and weight) will surprise even the more extreme of users. The charger measures: 20 x 10 x 5 cm and uses a four-pin connection into the back of the notebook.
Included with the rest of the bundle is a large backpack which can be used to transport the notebook. The backpack has four compartments – having support for the GT80 Titan SLI notebook, with plenty of cushioning.
Closer Look
In likeness to its name, GT80 ‘TITAN’ SLI is rather substantial in size – measuring 45.6 x 33 x 4.9 cm. There is no denying this notebook has been designed primarily for gamers due to the bulky exterior and sharp accents. MSI has given our notebook a professionally crafted brushed aluminium lid which has the MSI gaming badge which will glow once the unit is powered up.
If the size of this notebook doesn’t live up to the name then the specification certainly does:
Processor: Intel core i7 4980HQ (2.8GHz – 4GHz)
Memory: 32GB 1600MHz DDR3
Graphics GeForce GTX 980M SLI (8GB GDDR5)
Storage: 4 x 256GB M.2 SSD + 1TB 7200RPM
Although this notebook has colossal dimensions, this is surely the highlight. GT80 SLI won’t be winning any awards for being compact or portable because this notebook is designed to be big and powerful. The specifications above are testament to this very fact!
Flipping the notebook over onto the reverse side reveals a large single panel. This panel can be removed, but is to be detached at the user’s own risk – removing the panel voids warranty.
On the underside there are various locations for ventilation and a series of rubber pads to prevent the unit from slipping on smooth surfaces.
Unlike other notebooks which do not have ports at the back (due to the panel being so thin) GT80 Titan SLI has a series of ports to take advantage of. There are two mini DisplayPorts, HDMI, the power port, and an RJ45 LAN port offering gigabit connectivity.
Using any of the video ports allows the user to output to a 4K display.
Running down the left-side of GT80 Titan SLI there are a selection of different ports and features. MSI include:
• Bluray burner (HL-DT-ST BD-RE BU20N)
• SDHC/XC card reader
• 3x USB 3.0 ports
• Optical SPD/IF audio port
• Gold plated headphone/microphone jacks
Additional to this, underneath the optical drive is a large area of ventilation for one of the GTX 980M’s to push out unwanted heat.
Over on the alternate side there are just two USB 3.0 ports and the same ventilation panel for the second GTX 980M.
Closer Look (Continued)
Opening the lid of this monolith we discover a 18.4” Full HD, anti-glare screen which is LED backlit. This display offers up to 1920×1080 with a ratio of 16:9. This may not seem like such a high-resolution for a notebook of this calibre but we’ve tested notebooks with similar sized screens that offer up to 4K resolution and scaling starts to become somewhat of an issue. So we’re actually quite pleased that MSI has designed to opt for 1080p resolution.
At the top of this screen resides a high-quality webcam which offers full-HD – 1080p at 30fps.
By far, the biggest selling point for the GT80 Titan SLI is the keyboard configuration. This notebook features the World’s first built-in Cherry MX brown mechanical keyboard – this is the first time for such a product to feature on a mobile device.
The keyboard is supplied and designed by SteelSeries and as well as having Cherry MX brown switches, also has LED backlighting. Having a gaming-grade keyboard at your finger-tips is great for general usage and for use with the latest gaming titles – no longer is such a device limited to the desktop PC.
Above the keyboard is a large aluminium plate which contains three buttons – GPU fan boost, NVIDIA GPU enable/disable and the power button. MSI has re-arranged this entire section. Usually, the keyboard would be at the top and the touchpad would be at the bottom but we now have this large expanse which can be used to place useful items. This isn’t its only use though – the plate can be completely detached from the notebook and access to the memory, HDDs and GPUs is made possible for users to potentially interchange hardware.
At the very top, MSI has chosen to use Dynaudio for their audio solution. Combining this with Audio Boost 2, Sound Blaster Cinema 2 and we get a rather immersive experience. MSI has improved the digital sound processing with this unit and has supplied dedicated amplifier chips with a sub-woofer.
So far, GT80 Titan SLI has proven itself to be an innovative piece of kit but when we arrive at the touchpad the innovation ramps up to a whole new level. MSI has installed a portrait orientated touchpad on the right-side which has left and right buttons. By default this pad will act as the mouse navigation but once the “Num” button is double-tapped this whole section lights up to allow the user to use numpad functionality.
Not only is this excellent use of space but it oozes creativity and we wouldn’t be surprised if other brands begin copying this unique feature.
Benchmarks: Temperatures, Boot Time & Battery Uptime
For our first benchmark tests we observe the max. CPU/GPU temperatures of the system during the Heaven benchmark. We also monitor how quickly the notebook boots into Windows 8.1 using a digital stopwatch. Battery uptime is another aspect which is observed… in its idle state (not performing any tasks) – uptime will be affected when the notebook is used, so expect less than the recorded result below.
Benchmarks: Cinebench R15
CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor is.
Benchmarks: X264 HD
Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. We think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.
Benchmarks: PCMARK 8
Since launch, SiSoftware has always been at the forefront of the technology arena, being among the first providers of benchmarks that show the power of emerging new technologies such as multi-core, GPGPU, OpenCL, DirectCompute, x64, ARM, MIPS, NUMA, SMT (Hyper-Threading), SMP (multi-threading), AVX3, AVX2, AVX, FMA4, FMA, NEON, SSE4.2, SSE4.1, SSSE3, SSE3, SSE2, SSE, Java and .NET.
Benchmarks: 3DMark & Heaven 4.0
The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. And it’s not just for Windows. With 3DMark you can compare your scores with Android and iOS devices too. It’s the most powerful and flexible 3DMark we’ve ever created.
Benchmarks: Far Cry 4, Assassin’s Creed Unity, BF4, Crysis 3
Our system uses two GTX 980M’s in SLI. To test how effective the 3D capabilities are, we’ll be benchmarking some of the biggest gaming titles out there. Purely for observation purposes, we have run all of these tests with and without SLI enabled, showing how effective a single or dual-graphics card configuration really is.
Conclusion
The introduction of GT80 Titan SLI is MSI throwing down the gauntlet and while doing so, sending out a clear and definitive message. This notebook is a beast to be tamed.
Regardless of which aspect you consider, GT80 Titan SLI has it all. Even the packaging and its bundled items are a talking point in themselves; offering a generous, wide selection of useful items.
Although the physical dimensions and weight of this notebook are monolithic (as is the charging unit), gamers will surely appreciate that GT80 Titan SLI has the intention to primarily target performance. Weight and size are irrelevant when all-out performance is in the spotlight.
Being laden with countless innovative features projects this notebook into revolutionary status. By utilising two of NVIDIA’s GTX 980M GPUs in SLI, this notebook will devour any gaming title on the highest of settings. This is of course assisted by the burly 32GB DDR3, a quad-core processor and 4x SSDs in Raid0 (MSI Super Raid 3). Irrespective of the usage – even outside of games this notebook excels no matter the arena.
Key to GT80 Titan SLI’s prominence is the “World’s first” backlit mechanical keyboard on a notebook. Having a mechanical keyboard integrated onto such a mobile device is a real perk and the inclusion of the touchpad/numpad feature is nothing short of creative excellence.
GT80 Titan SLI doesn’t come cheap, the strong line-up of hardware and features ramps the cost of this notebook up into uncomfortable territories. At £3499 GBP / $3900 USD, GT80 Titan SLI is a “money no object” type of product; destined for those who demand the very best.
It’s easy to see why we’re so impressed; GT80 Titan SLI is outstanding in many ways, it pushes the boundaries for all-out mobile performance and achieves this while delivering a catalogue of innovative features.
VIDEO REVIEW – VORTEZ TV
Pros
+ Sleek & aggressive styling
+ Ultra high-end specifications
+ Brilliant sound quality
+ Cutting edge features
+ Excellent performance
+ Lots of bundled items
Cons
– Large, heavy charger
– Poor battery life
– Big and bulky
+ Sleek & aggressive styling
+ Ultra high-end specifications
+ Brilliant sound quality
+ Cutting edge features
+ Excellent performance
+ Lots of bundled items
Cons
– Large, heavy charger
– Poor battery life
– Big and bulky
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
