MSI GT80 2QE Titan SLI Review

The MSI GT80 Titan model , which was launched a while ago and which we transferred to you in a live broadcast we organized as CHIP Online , finally got our hands. Introduced as the world’s first gaming laptop with mechanical keyboard, the GT80 Titan immediately draws attention at first glance with its different design. There’s a lot to talk about the GT80 ​​Titan , so let’s get started right away.

Gigantic structure

At first glance, the GT80 Titan reminds us of the Sinclair ZX-81 , which was launched in 1981 . It is really exciting to see a similar design approach on a computer again after all these years. We think that especially those who like retro products will especially love the design of the GT80 ​​Titan . On the other hand, it is clear that MSI has not shaped the design of the GT80 Titan by considering retro design. There are important reasons why the GT80 Titan was designed this way.

The GT80 Titan is a massive laptop. It’s a mobile product, but it doesn’t make sense to say it’s very portable. It will be good for your health to use it on desktop rather than laptop. The most striking in the design is of course not its gigantic structure, but the location of the keyboard and the empty space just above it. Now let’s talk about these parts.

Mechanical keypad

GT80 ​​Titan was touted as the world’s first laptop with mechanical keypad. The keypad is truly mechanical, which sets it apart from other laptops. This keyboard, which was created as a result of cooperation with Steelseries, allows you to get both comfortable and high typing performance. We liked the keyboard very much, but we will definitely mention a few points. One of them is that there is no palmrest area where you can rest your wrists where the keyboard ends. This may disturb the wrists of some users after a while while using the keyboard. However, since you will use it on the desktop, you do not have a hard time getting used to it. As a result of long-term use, we gave full marks to the keyboard in terms of comfort. The other point is that there are no Turkish characters on the keyboard of the model we examined. The reason for this We think that the model we are examining is an example of engineering. Users who are considering purchasing should pay attention to this as well.

Next to the keyboard, we see the separated touchpad part. Thus , MSI , which succeeded in presenting keyboard and mouse usage in a very pleasant way , actually hides a numeric keypad in this touchpad area. When you touch the ” Num ” text in the upper left corner of the touchpad , a virtual numeric key becomes ready for use.

On the numeric keypad, we see the power button, next to it the GPU and fan buttons. You can switch between the graphics processors using the GPU button, and of course you can run the fan with the fan, which we will mention again in the following steps of our review.

It is a pity that there is such a customizable touchpad area around the keyboard, as well as the absence of any multimedia shortcut button. We think a few multimedia shortcuts and function keys could also be added to the keyboard.

We open the safe

Now let’s get to the upper part of the GT80 Titan, which is designed as a closed box. The fact that the keyboard is located right in front of the laptop on the GT80 Titan is due to the fact that the entire technical staff is placed at the top. Thus, MSI, which finds a way to get rid of the heating problem and the temperature complaints of the users, includes units such as RAM and storage space under this section. It is of course possible to open this part and change parts. At the bottom of this area, it is possible to see the dual graphics cards, which is another point that makes the GT80 Titan attractive. Again, accessing this part from the bottom of the laptop is also like that. Another noticeable factor here is the ventilation system. Using the Cooler Boost 3 ventilation system, the GT80 Titan can control the temperature well with its large ventilation pipes.

With the aforementioned fan button of GT80 Titan, you can make the most of the ventilation system. But at this point, we recommend that you be prepared for the loud fan noise.

As it can be understood from the full name of the laptop as ” GT80 ​​2QE Titan SLI “, the laptop that uses the graphics card as SLI, that is, has a dual graphics card, is built-in with GPU button when you are not playing games or when you want to run the laptop in low power consumption mode without plugging in. It also offers the possibility to switch to the Intel HD Graphics 4600 graphics unit. The GT80 ​​Titan, which already has two 8GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics cards for powerful gaming performance , thus offers the choice to the user. Now let’s get to the technical staff.

Strong technical staff

The GT80 Titan, of course, has a strong technical staff. As we just mentioned, after the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M SLI, we see 16 GB in RAM. Of course, the SSD option could not be skipped on a laptop with a hard drive of 1 TB working at 7200 RPM. Even better, let’s say that there are 4 SSDs and these SSDs work with Super RAID 3. GT80 ​​Titan has 4 128 GB SSDs and 512 GB total SSD space. We got 1240 MB / s sequential read per second and 1059 MB / s sequential write performance by running CrystalDiskMark . This is a great result, of course.

The processor of the GT80 Titan is this year’s first product. Using the Core i7-4720HQ processor, which was released in the first quarter of 2015 , the laptop runs at a frequency of 2.6 GHz . The processor can naturally shift up to a frequency of 3.6 GHz . Of course, it is not possible not to get a good performance when you run all this technical staff in games. We will talk about it shortly, and finally, let’s talk about the screen.

GT80 ​​Titan displays an 18.4 inch screen. The screen looks beautiful, it has no shortage of color and vibrancy. But don’t expect high resolution on the screen. GT80 ​​Titan has a Full HD screen. Considering its high price, it is impossible not to think that there should be 4K support on the screen.

Performance

Working with the GT80 Titan, we experienced the keyboard for a long time, watched movies and watched its screen, looked at its speakers with a music test, and of course also subjected it to gaming tests. Apart from the game and speakers, we transferred our other notes. Let’s see what performance does the GT80 Titan promise with its gaming and speakers?

The GT80 Titan owes its being a full-featured laptop in terms of multimedia to Dynaudio speakers as well as to other equipment . The GT80 Titan, which has a 4 + 1 speaker system, carries a subwoofer. Thus, it also increases the enjoyment of notebook sound.

At the point of play, we had the opportunity to play Sniper Elite 3 , FarCry 4 , Metro: Last Light and more on GT80 Titan . Of course, the graphic details in both games were at the Ultra level. Let’s say we saw between 150 – 200 FPS in Sniper Elite 3. In FarCry 4, we got a performance that hovered at 80 FPS.