MSI GT73VR 6RE Titan Notebook Review

The GT73VR is clearly designed to be a desktop replacement. With a thickness of 4.9 centimeters and a weight of 4.1 kilograms, the gaming notebook is one of the bulkier systems, although MSI uses the available space pretty well and implements a particularly powerful cooling solution. 

The construction of the GT73VR is similar to the 18-inch sibling GT83VR, which is also designed for SLI, but it is also much heavier and more expensive. Similar to most competitors, MSI decided to use a dark color scheme for the whole chassis, but there are some red accents (Dragon logo, stripes, fan covers, etc.). The fan exhausts at the rear could have been inspired by a fighter jet or sports car. The author immediately thought about the Lamborghini Aventador when he saw the fancy shape.

While the display frame and the bottom panel of the base unit are made of plastic, both the lid and the top of the base unit are made of brushed aluminum. The latter massively improves the quality impression and creates a nice structure.

We would call the stability good up to very good. Even a lot of pressure does not really dent the base unit, which is also a result of the lacking optical drive. The display cover provides decent stability for a notebook.

The build quality also leaves a good impression at first. A closer look, however, did reveal some smaller irregularities (some issues with material transitions), but they are not important in practice. There are no creaking sounds when you use the GT73VR. MSI should adjust the hinges a bit. Even though it requires some force to open the lid, the screen still tends to wobble when there are vibrations. This is moaning on a high level though.

All things considered, the case gets a "good" rating. Whether you like the design is obviously a matter of taste. The GT73VR appears pretty bulky for a device from 2016. We would also appreciate seeing some optimizations in regard to the construction. Because of the angled front and rear of the case, it is tricky to identify and reach the rear ports and status LEDs.

The port selection can completely meet the expectations at this price range. MSI only implements one USB 3.1 Type-C port, but it does support Thunderbolt 3, which gives you a lot of possibilities (like eGPUs, for example). Furthermore, you get 5x USB 3.0 ports (Type-A) as well as four audio jacks (7.1 analog or S/PDIF), which is also pretty generous.

The video outputs are typical for a gaming laptop. You can attach external monitors via Mini-DisplayPort and HDMI. It is unfortunate that MSI only implements an HDMI 1.4 instead of 2.0 port, so external 4K monitors cannot be driven at 60 Hz. This is only possible via USB 3.1 and Mini-DisplayPort in this case.

We have to criticize the heat from the fans. To improve the cooling performance, the warm air is dissipated to the rear and also the sides, so the mouse hand can get pretty warm during gaming. Speaking of the mouse: Because of the layout with some ports pretty far to the front, there can be collisions with cables.

The GT72VR already showed MSI is using pretty fast card readers for its high-end models. 196 MB/s in the AS SSD sequential read test and 155 MB/s when we transfer jpg pictures are great results, which are only beaten by a few high-end notebooks like the Schenker XMG U726, for example. The Asus G752VS only managed 86 and 76 MB/s with the reference card (up to 260 MB/s).

MSI does not make any compromises in terms of communication, either. Wired connections are handled by the Gigabit Ethernet controller Killer e2400, which was specifically designed for gaming. The same applies for the wireless adapter Killer Wireless-n/-a/ac 1535, which supports all modern WLAN standards including ac as well as Bluetooth 4.1. Our networking test determines a very good wireless performance for the GT73VR. Almost 500 Mbps send and 600 Mbps receive (router ~1 meter away) beats many gaming notebooks. The Intel module Wireless-AC 8260 inside the Asus G752 only managed 465 and 566 Mbps, respectively.

There are not many accessories. Except for the 230-Watt power adapter (17 x 8.5 x 3.5 centimeters) with a weight of 772 grams, the box only reveals a cleaning cloth, a quick-start guide, a warranty brochure and a recovery manual. DVDs or USB drives with drivers or the operating system, respectively, are not included.

The maintainability of the GT73VR is excellent. Almost the entire bottom panel was designed as a maintenance hatch. Contrary to other notebooks and manufacturers, respectively, you do not have to loosen dozens of screws to access the internals. Thanks to several fixation hooks, which secure the bottom panel, the desktop replacement only requires five screws. MSI located a corresponding stripe in the center section of the rear for the more challenging "lever mechanism".

Once you get to the internals, you know why the cooling system requires so much space. While the Core i7-6820HK has three heat pipes, the GeForce GTX 1070 gets seven heat pipes (5 from the GPU and 2 from the CPU fan). MSI also deserves respect for the cooling construction of the SSDs. We know PCIe/NVMe models can get very hot, so there is a passive metal cooling element on top of the three m.2 slots (1x only SATA-III). The 2.5-inch slot is located behind the Solid State Drives, which is not ideal for quick upgrades (you have to remove all SSDs first).

Otherwise, you will find the wireless modules, the sound system, the 8-cell battery and two RAM slots. The remaining DDR4 slots should be located underneath the keyboard. Great: Thanks to the MXM module, it is theoretically possible to replace the GPU. The CPU on the other hand is soldered.

The warranty period is 24 months (Collect & Return service).

We can praise the touchpad for the most part and particularly liked the illuminated surrounding, which is rare for notebooks and makes inputs in dark environments much easier. The smooth surface, which almost feels like it is slightly rubberized, is another advantage. The gliding capabilities are sometimes just average (greasy or moist finger are trickier), but the overall handling works well.

The good impression is also a result of the decent precision and the multi-touch support. Content can be comfortably zoomed and scrolled via two-finger gestures, and you also get horizontal and vertical scrolling at the edges (activated by default). There is no criticism for the size, either. 11 x 6.5 millimeters should be sufficient for most users. MSI could improve the dedicated buttons; we think they are a bit too stiff. The accuracy is still better compared to ClickPads.

One of the most important unique features of the GT73VR is the high refresh rate. The change from 60 to 120 Hz does not feel quite as revolutionary as the change from an HDD to an SSD, but you do not want to miss the "new" technology once you have used it for a couple of hours. Even though games also run smoothly at 60 Hz, 120 Hz appears even faster and smoother, but the subjective improvement will probably vary from user to user. 120 Hz notebook panels are still a nice development since they have been available for desktops for years.

Our measurements show 100% sRGB coverage and 76% AdobeRGB coverage. For comparison: A standard panel usually manages 80-90% sRGB and 50-60% AdobeRGB. If you need even more colors, you should get a notebook with the 4K display AU B173ZAN01.0, which manages 88% AdobeRGB (see Acer Predator 17 or the Schenker XMG U726). The GT73VR can also beat the competitors when we look at the response times. Around 7 ms black-to-white and 26 ms gray-to-gray are very good for a laptop. The icing on the cake is Nvidia's G-Sync certification for the 17-inch device.

As expected for the high price, MSI only uses high-end components. Both the Intel Skylake generation (CPU) and Nvidia's Pascal architecture (GPU) are very modern. Two PCIe-SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration is also pretty convincing. Only the memory equipment is just "okay" at 16 GB. We would have expected at least 32 GB for 2,900 Euros (~$3264), although 16 GB should be sufficient for the time being.

Thanks to the additional overclocking, the GT73VR is a bit faster than comparable gaming laptops equipped with a Core i7-6820HK without OC or lower OC. The Asus G752VS, for example is beaten by almost 10% in the Cinebench R15 and R11.5 Multi tests. Even the desktop model Core i7-6700 (3.4-4.0 GHz) inside the Schenker XMG U726 is surpassed by a couple of percent. Laptops with the most popular Skylake quad-core Core i7-6700HQ do not stand a chance. The MSI GT72VR falls behind by more than 20% in the CPU benchmarks.

Unfortunate: Similar to the first test model of the GT62VR, the single-core values are pretty low. According to MSI, there is currently a problem with the Dragon Center, which will eventually be fixed by an update.

The system performance is excellent across the board. PCMark 7 determines 7024 points for the GT73VR, which is between the Asus G752VS (6803 points) and the test configuration of the Schenker XMG U726 (7093 points). The PCMark 8 results are great as well, even though the Asus G752VS manages a small lead in this case.

As you can see in the table, the performance of the RAID-0 system reminds us of the Asus GX700, which was also equipped with two 512 GB SSDs. Around 2800 MB/s sequential read and almost 2200 MB/s sequential write (AS SSD benchmark) are hard to exhaust in practice. Games should always be installed on the Solid State Drives if possible. The reason: Launch and loading times can sometimes be much longer on an HDD. Due to the technology, the HGST Travelstar 7K1000 only manages a fraction of the SSD-RAID performance.

Besides the CPU, the Turbo mode of the GT73VR also overclocks the graphics card. +100 MHz for the core and +200 MHz more for the 8 GB GDDR5-VRAM (manually up to +200/350 MHz) creates a nice performance boost depending on the 3D application. One example is the 3DMark 11 GPU score. 23,586 points results in an advantage of 6% over the Asus G752VS, where the GTX 1070 is just slightly overclocked (50 MHz chip, 150 MHz VRAM). The difference shrinks to 1-4% in Unigine Heaven 4.0 and the current 3DMark Fire Strike test.

That the 17-inch sibling GT72VR can keep up in many benchmarks even without the factory overclocking is a result of the fluctuating clocks of the Pascal GPUs. The specified Turbo range is just a rough guide, which can be surpassed when the cooling performance is sufficient. In the case of our GT73VR, the GTX 1070 can manage up to 2000 MHz (GPU-Z render test, fan speed Auto). But this value cannot be maintained over longer 3D loads. Two runs of the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark resulted in about 1650 MHz, which is also possible for notebooks without factory OC.

While the overclocking has mixed effects on the synthetic benchmarks, we can see a steadier frame rate improvement in the gaming tests. We tested six games, and the GT73VR surpasses the GT62VR by 5 up to 14% (8% on average). The advantage over the GTX 980 from the Maxwell generation is +33%. Notebooks based on the GeForce GTX 1060 are beaten by around 60%. Only the GeForce GTX 1080 (+ 20% power) or SLI systems are currently even faster.

The GTX 1070 can generally handle all games in the native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels at maximum details and multiple anti-aliasing. It only gets tricky with the UHD resolution (3840x2160 pixels), but the games usually run smoothly even on high settings. Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Far Cry Primal were the only tested titles that did not surpass 40 fps. We used the preloaded GPU driver 368.83, which did not cause any problems. Note: All measurements were performed with deactivated G-Sync.

One positive aspect is the pretty steady fan speed and the convenient noise characteristics of the fans. There is hardly any annoying pulsating we know from many other notebooks. The fans are always active while idling and run at a subtle 32-33 dB(A) (35 dB(A) @Windows launch).

The surface temperatures are pretty average. Around 30 °C while idling and around 40 °C under maximum load are typical for a high-end notebook. The maximum temperature was 51 °C at the bottom of the chassis, although it is not very likely you will use such a thick and heavy device on your lap. The important palm rest stays pretty cool at up to 31 °C in practice, so there should not be any problems even during longer gaming sessions.

MSI achieved a good reputation for sound quality over the last couple of years. The 2.1 system of the GT73VR is once again provided by Dynaudio and creates a more than usable sound, which should satisfy most users. Although deep tones can be a bit dull, the bass surpasses the majority of rivals (like the Asus G752VS, which is listed in the table). Medium tones are pretty balanced in our audio analysis, and high tones are a bit distorted, and we can confirm the latter subjectively.

The overall sound is still surprisingly powerful and differentiated for a notebook. At up to 82 dB(A), the volume is also sufficient for bigger rooms. We used the multimedia setting "Music" (Nahimic Audio Enhancer) for our measurements. The speakers and the subwoofer are located at the front of the bottom.

Due to the lack of the Optimus technology, the power consumption is higher compared to some other gaming notebooks. With the activated GeForce GTX 1070, the GT73VR consumes between 31 and 40 Watts while idling; the GT72VR needs just 22 up to 30 Watts.

You can see the improved efficiency of the Pascal architecture under load in particular. At 106 Watts (118 Watts incl. overclocking) in the first scene of 3DMark06, the GT73VR consumes much less power than the Asus GX700, which draws about 150 Watts from the socket. There is no criticism for the maximum consumption either when you consider the enormous performance. 218 Watts suggests a sufficiently sized power adapter (up to 228 Watts @Turbo mode).

One of the biggest drawbacks of the GT73VR is the mediocre battery runtime. Even if you switch to the HD Graphics 530 via GPU button to browse the web, the battery will only last about 3.5 hours at an adjusted luminance. Almost 5 hours while idling at the lowest luminance is not a great result for 2016, either.

Our 3D test with the maximum luminance and the dedicated GeForce GTX 1070 only determined little more than one hour for the gaming notebook. This result is roughly on par with the competition. The battery capacity of the GT73VR is 75 Wh. The GT72VR has an 83-Wh module; the Asus G752VS has a 90-Wh module. Attention: The frame rate drops to 30% on battery power.