MSI GT83VR 6RE Titan SLI Xotic PC Edition Notebook Review

In order to handle the heat development of the high-end GPUs and give users more headroom for the clocks, MSI made the chassis even bigger compared to the previous model, which was already huge to begin with. While the GT80S tipped the scale at 5 kg and was almost 5 centimeters thick, the GT83VR now puts up record-breaking numbers of 5.5 kilograms and almost 7 centimeters. The technically similar main rival Schenker XMG U727 (based on the Clevo barebone P870DM3-G) is just as heavy, but it is about 2 centimeters thinner. In short: The GT83VR is hardly suited for transportation. You will be better off with a single-GPU notebook with a display size between 15 and 17-inches if you are often on the road.

In terms of quality, the chassis leaves a very good impression. Besides the display cover, the top of the base unit is also made of metal (brushed aluminum), while the bottom panel is made of plastic. However, this is the case for almost every notebook and we do not think it is a problem.

The biggest advantage turns out to be the excellent stability of the base unit. Even a lot of pressure cannot dent the material. The lid could have been even sturdier for our taste, because you can warp and dent it visibly (this is the case for many notebooks). The hinges work well, but vibrations will still cause some minor bouncing. Thanks to the heavy base unit, it is absolutely no problem to open the lid with one hand. We were not quite as happy about the position of the keyboard. The mechanical keyboard has very high keys, so the keyboard had to be located – contrary to the Asus GX800 with the "Slim" design – very far to the front. The result is a missing palm rest, which will affect ergonomics (heavily angled wrists).

We are happy with the build quality and the majority of material transitions on our test model were even. We only found some smaller issues here and there, but you will not notice them in practice. We liked the design of the GT83VR for the most part, even though the red and sometimes illuminated gaming elements (fan exhausts, Dragon logo, accent stripes of the lid and the top of the base unit) cannot really hide the bulky construction.

The port selection can meet the high price tag. MSI equips the GT83VR with a total of five USB 3.0 ports and four stereo jacks. Besides a microphone input as well as a headphone jack, you will also find an S/PDIF port and a special Hi-Fi output on the left side. The latter is supposed to create unrivaled (headset) sound in combination with the integrated amplifier and dedicated ESS Sabre Audio-DAC. There is also a Kensington lock, a card reader and an RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port.

The video outputs are located on the rear. External displays can be attached via HDMI, Mini-DisplayPort or Thunderbolt 3 port with a Type-C jack, which also supports USB 3.1 Gen.2. The port layout is pretty good if you are a right-hander. The majority of ports are located on the left or the rear, so there is sufficient space when you use an external mouse. Left-handers will have to expect collisions and limited space though.

MSI usually uses very fast card readers for its more expensive notebooks, and the SD reader of the test model is no exception. 189 MB/s for sequential reads and 157 MB/s on average during the transfer of 1 GB of pictures reminds us of the Schenker XMG U727 (201/158 MB/s). Only the Eurocom Sky X7E2 (257/176 MB/s) is significantly faster within our comparison group. Even though our reference card manages up to 260 MB/s, all values above 150 MB/s are respectable. Many devices (like the Asus G752VS) stay below 100 MB/s or even reach USB 2.0 performance levels.

The GT83VR is similarly good in terms of wireless communication. The Killer module Wireless-n/a/ac 1535 managed 507-674 Mbps in the new version of our WLAN-test (router distance: 1 meter). All in all, the performance is similar to the Intel rival Wireless-AC 7265, which managed 529-676 Mbps in the Pascal edition of the HP Omen 17. The WLAN chip is accompanied by a Gigabit Ethernet controller, which is also provided by Qualcomm Atheros (Killer e2400). Thanks to the Killer Network Manager, you can monitor data traffic and also influence many aspects.

The scope of delivery is pretty meager. The box only contains a driver DVD, a quick-start guide, a recovery manual and the warranty brochure. That the box weighs more than 10 kilograms is primarily a result of the notebook and the power adapters. You read correctly: plural. To cover the power consumption of the system, the GT83VR needs two power adapters that are combined via Powerbox (see pictures at the top). Depending on the GPU configuration, the notebook is either shipped with 230 or 330-watt models (total power output: 460 or 660 Watts, respectively).

The maintainability is actually a bit worse compared to the previous generation. While the GT80S was equipped with a handy cover, you have to remove the whole bottom panel of the GT83VR. This procedure turns out to be quite challenging. After you have loosened 16 screws and – similar to some Asus devices – removed the stripe behind the display hinges, the bottom panel is still so firmly attached (clips, etc.) that you have to be careful to avoid damage when you pry it open.

This is also why we did not disassemble the system and only removed the metal plate above the keyboard, which can easily be pulled to the side after two screws have been removed. It grants access to the optical drive, the M.2 slots, the 2.5-inch bay and two memory slots. According to the manufacturer, the cooling system consists of three fans and 15 heat pipes.

Although the mouse replacement also acts as a numpad and is very narrow at a width of just 6 centimeters, the handling was surprisingly good in practice. The positive impression is, among others, a result of the smooth surface with good gliding capabilities as well as the precise inputs. Multitouch gestures are also supported. While the scrolling usually works well, zooming can be a bit tricky. MSI should also rework the dedicated buttons, which are – similar to the keyboard – pretty loud and require quite a lot of pressure.

We already mentioned that you can only get the GT83VR with a Full HD panel. 1920x1080 pixels is often not a big challenge even for a single GTX 1070 or GTX 1080, respectively, so the SLI systems are best paired with a 3K and 4K panel or at least a 120 Hz display. The pixel density of 120 PPI is also pretty low when you consider the high resolutions of some smartphones and tablets.

This is also a reason why many manufacturers do not offers 18-inch notebooks. There are just more choices in the 17-inch segment. The Schenker XMG U727, for example, can be configured with FHD as well as UHD panels. G-Sync is not available for the GT83VR, either.

The Samsung 184HL was inconspicuous during the reaction time testing. 21 ms black-to-white and 37 ms gray-to-gray meet the expectations – for an IPS panel. The same applies for the usable viewing angles. Attention: As soon as you reduce the luminance, there will be flickering (~250 Hz) – probably caused by PWM. Finally, a quick word about the brightness distribution of the review unit: We could only notice minor backlight bleeding on dark pictures, but it was not annoying at all.

A quick look at the spec sheet shows that the MSI GT83VR is prepared for all common situations. Inside the chassis are high-end components based on modern technologies. Intel's Skylake architecture (14 nm) and Nvidia's Pascal architecture (16 nm) are known for their high performance and good efficiency. DDR4-RAM and PCIe/NVMe-SSDs are up to date as well.

While the majority of gaming notebooks from 2016 are powered by a Core i7-6700HQ, MSI does not save any costs and implements the high-end models Core i7-6820HK (GT83VR 6RE) and the Core i7-6920HQ (GT83VR 6RF), which are even more powerful. Except for the clocks, the two Skylake models hardly differ at all. Every CPU has 8 MB L3-Cache and the integrated HD Graphics 530 GPU, even though the latter is not available due to SLI. Thanks to Hyper-Threading, the quad-core can execute up to eight threads simultaneously. Intel specifies the TDP with 45 Watts.

It is not really surprising that the performance is excellent. With the Turbo Mode, the Core i7-6820HK sits between the desktop models Core i7-6700 (Schenker XMG U727) and Core i7-6700K (Eurocom Sky X7E2) in the Cinebench R15 Multi-Core Test. The processor of the old GT80S 6QF even ran with 4.1 GHz, so the predecessor is actually a couple of percent points faster. The Core i7-6820HK of the Asus G752VS, which is "only" overclocked to 3.8 GHz, does not stand a chance, even though the performance impression should be very similar in practice.

The results in the system test paint a clear picture. With a PCMark score of 7551 points, the MSI GT83VR is one of the fastest gaming platforms on the market. Even our Desktop PC for the gaming tests only scored 7311 points. The old GT80S is also weaker at 7386 points. Even higher scores were only reached by the Asus GX700 as well as the prototypes of the Asus G800VI and the GX800. However, the system benchmarks are not that important here, because they are heavily influenced by the storage solution, which is not the most important aspect for gaming.

The RAID-0 system is also pretty fast with small files, so the laptop is always conveniently responsive (boot and loading times, application launches, etc.). The performance of the solid state drives is pretty much on par with the previous generation when you combine all benchmark results. "Normal" files (videos, documents, etc.) can be stored on a 1 TB hard drive. Our test model was equipped with the HGST Travelstar 7K1000, which is a very successful 7200 rpm drive.

Thanks to the enormous performance, micro stutters are rarely an issue for the 18-inch notebook. Other dual-GPU drawbacks (extreme power consumption, heat, short battery runtimes, etc.) on the other hand are still an issue here. Gaming enthusiasts will also have to deal with driver dependency. Even brand-new drivers can sometimes lack support for the second GPU and the performance might even be worse compared to a device without SLI.

We tested a total of 25 games and six of them were affected (24%). FIFA 17, Anno 2205, Batman Arkham Knight, Just Cause 3, Rainbow Siege Siege and Mafia 3 could not benefit from the second GPU with the latest ForceWare 372.90 and 373.06 at the time of this review. The test model also has some stability issues. Far Cry Primal, Alien Isolation and the 2016 version of Need for Speed occasionally crashed independent of the driver version. Some titles like Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Just Cause 3 and Mad Max also refused to run on a 4K screen, but this might be an issue of the games.

When SLI is working properly, the performance of the GT83VR is on a reference level. A combination of 1920x1080 pixels and the highest settings always runs smoothly. Even very challenging graphics highlights like The Witcher 3, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, and Mirror's Edge Catalyst are handled without stutters by the SLI systems. However, we previously mentioned that a single-GPU solution with the GTX 1070 or GTX 1080 is already sufficient for Full HD. You can only use the full potential of the GT83VR on an external 4K monitor. Our table below shows that the differences are bigger in this case.

The situation changes while idling. 33-35 dB(A) is decent for a gaming laptop (33-40 dB(A) @XMG U727), especially since there is no unnecessary pulsating from the fans. The latter is definitely not a matter of course. We also like the fact that the cooling solution slowly increases the fan speed under load but quickly reduces it after the load period is over. If you prefer a quieter device and can live with a couple of FPS less, you should switch the Shift Mode from Turbo to Sport. The 3D measurements drop to 43-55 dB(A). Still, the desktop replacement is not suited for noise-sensitive users due to the high noise development under load. We would recommend a headset during gaming in general.

The surface temperatures are pretty convenient. Up to 36 °C at the top and up to 43 °C at the bottom of the base unit are better than most gaming notebooks. The keyboard left the best impression, because it only reached up to 22 °C. The whole chassis is conveniently cool at 21-25 °C while idling; our measurement device showed between 25 °C and 39 °C for the competition.

Sound enthusiasts should be pretty happy with the 4.1 system from Dynaudio. According to our sound analysis, the two notebooks Schenker XMG U727 and MSI GT83VR currently offer the best sound quality. Subjectively, we can confirm this for the most part. The sound quality is pretty clear, rich and complex for a notebook, even though you should not expect any miracles. Thanks to the high maximum volume of 82 dB(A), the 18-inch system is sufficient for medium-sized rooms. We rarely had to use more than 50% for YouTube videos, for example.

Advanced users can play around with the Nahimic Audio software, which provides an equalizer and multiple presets (Music, Movie, etc.). MSI did not change the position of the sound system compared to the GT80. While the speakers are located behind a grille at the top, the subwoofer sits at the bottom.