MSI Raider A18 Series

MSI Raider A18 HX A9WIG-080

Specifications

Price comparison

Average Score: 70% - average

Reviews

80% MSI Raider A18 HX A9W review: Extreme power at an extreme price
Source: PC World
The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W is a CPU, GPU, and storage performance powerhouse. It delivers across the board with strong results in every benchmark, from multi-core sustained CPU workloads to ray-traced gaming and even AI large language models. Compared to its Intel-powered alternative, the Raider 18 HX AI, the A18 is broadly similar but scores small wins in gaming and storage performance. The A18 also notches a large win in AI performance thanks to the RTX 5090’s 24GB of VRAM. It’s not a perfect laptop. The Raider A18 is thick, heavy, and not much to look at. It also suffers a mediocre keyboard and touchpad and, as you might expect, can be loud under full load.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 07/04/2025
Rating: Total score: 80%

80% MSI Raider A18 HX A9W review: Extreme power at an extreme price
Source: PC World
The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W is a CPU, GPU, and storage performance powerhouse. It delivers across the board with strong results in every benchmark, from multi-core sustained CPU workloads to ray-traced gaming and even AI large language models. Compared to its Intel-powered alternative, the Raider 18 HX AI, the A18 is broadly similar but scores small wins in gaming and storage performance. The A18 also notches a large win in AI performance thanks to the RTX 5090’s 24GB of VRAM. It’s not a perfect laptop. The Raider A18 is thick, heavy, and not much to look at. It also suffers a mediocre keyboard and touchpad and, as you might expect, can be loud under full load.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 07/04/2025
Rating: Total score: 80%

60% MSI Raider A18 HX review: big in power, big in size… as in literally too big
Source: Techradar
The MSI Raider A18 HX is a great top-of-the-line laptop with a stunning display and enough ports to run an entire gaming setup. However, it comes at a premium price point and is so large that it doesn’t fit in a single backpack I own.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 06/11/2025
Rating: Total score: 60% price: 80% performance: 80% mobility: 20% workmanship: 60%

60% MSI Raider A18 HX review: big in power, big in size… as in literally too big
Source: Techradar
The MSI Raider A18 HX is a great top-of-the-line laptop with a stunning display and enough ports to run an entire gaming setup. However, it comes at a premium price point and is so large that it doesn’t fit in a single backpack I own.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 06/11/2025
Rating: Total score: 60% price: 80% performance: 80% mobility: 20% workmanship: 60%

MSI Raider A18 HX A9WJG

Specifications

Price comparison

Average Score: 84.8% - good

Reviews

AMD Ryzen 9 Gaming Beefcake! | MSI Raider A18 HX Laptop
Source: Tech Spurt
Gaming fans will love the power on offer from that AMD Ryzen 9 chipset, paired here with up to Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5090 GPU. The Raider A18 HX is unmistakably a laptop for gamers, with its obligatory RGB shenanigans. It sure isn't slim and light, while battery life is less than stellar, but if you're after raw performance you can't go wrong. The latest titles like Outer Worlds 2 and Battlefield 6 play with a sustained, smooth frame rate, even when you go nuts in the graphics settings. The MSI Raider A18 HX also boasts a gorgeous 18-inch Mini LED screen, so you can enjoy those games with a stunning 4K resolution. Factor in a beefy speaker system and a complete set of ports, and it's a solid laptop choice for gaming fans.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 11/22/2025

80% MSI's Raider A18 HX has the most powerful gaming hardware possible — does that outweigh the poor battery life and loud fans?
Source: Windows Central
The MSI Raider A18 HX is home to the two most powerful mobile components you can buy today, the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D and the RTX 5090. However, that power comes at the cost of battery life and portability. I recommend sticking with an RTX 5080 model rather than wasting your money on the 5090 upgrade, but the Ryzen CPU and the mini-LED display are tops.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 11/16/2025
Rating: Total score: 80% performance: 100% display: 100% mobility: 60% workmanship: 80%

MSI Titan 18 HX AI Review: Monster Power For Gamers And Creators
Source: Hot Hardware
The MSI Titan 18 HX AI is one of our all-time favorite high-end gaming laptops. This machine is not perfect, but taken as a whole, the MSI Titan 18 HX AI has a lot to offer for a wide variety of users. Although it’s marketed as a gaming laptop, the MSI Titan 18 HX AI is well suited for an array of compute-heavy tasks. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX is generally the fastest mobile processor for multi-threaded workloads, and its single-threaded performance is top-notch as well. Thanks to its full support for Thunderbolt 5, along with USB 3.2, its built in UHS-II card reader, and all of the latest wireless tech, the MSI Titan 18 HX AI also has a great assortment of IO connectivity. Although the non-delineated touchpad took some getting used to, the input devices on the Titan 18 HX AI are generally excellent, and the spacious 18” 120Hz mini-LED display option is great.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 09/26/2025

70% MSI Raider A18 HX: Overkill Power, Underwhelming Refresh Rate
Source: PC Mag
The Raider A18 HX lives up to its promise as a mammoth, high-performing gaming laptop. Its 18-inch mini LED display looks great (although its relatively low peak refresh rate is disappointing), its components are top-dollar fast, and it manages extremely high frame rates even with today’s most demanding games running at their highest graphics settings. The keyboard is great for gamers, and the Raider A18 HX sports an attractive gamer aesthetic. Simply put, there’s a lot to like. Most gamers, though, could get away with the much less expensive configuration with a slightly slower GPU. That would slash off a cool $1,300 without giving up too much gaming performance. At the lower price, this titanic gaming machine is easy to recommend if you're looking to buy big and deluxe.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 09/20/2025
Rating: Total score: 70%

MSI Raider A18 HX A9W Review - The Bottleneck Resolver
Source: Tech PowerUP
The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W with a Ryzen 9 9955HX3D and RTX 5090 could be called the ultimate gaming laptop. The mighty X3D CPU extracts the fantastic performance from the RTX 5090. Whether you're a hardcore gamer, a content creator, a power user, or a dad who plays Call of Duty: Warzone when everyone else is asleep, the Raider A18 will amaze you with its power. That's why this machine also deserves our Innovation Award for featuring an incredibly fast X3D CPU in a laptop chassis, with excellent cooling that doesn't compromise performance.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 09/17/2025

MSI Raider A18 HX A9W review – Cosmic Power, Colossal Price (RTX 5090 BEAST!)
Source: Laptop Media
The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W is an absolute monster of a machine, designed with a singular focus: to deliver uncompromising, desktop-class performance in a portable (albeit hefty) form factor. It’s a statement piece, a “cosmic-level gaming powerhouse” that largely succeeds in its mission to conquer any task or game thrown at it, thanks to its top-of-the-line components and spectacular display. However, this level of power comes at an equally stratospheric price, and for 6000 EUR, perfection is expected. While the Raider A18 gets incredibly close in many areas, a few notable issues prevent it from being a flawless victory. It’s a machine for the enthusiast who demands the best and is willing to accept a few specific trade-offs for the ultimate performance crown.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 06/21/2025

Foreign Reviews

83% MSI Raider A18 HX A9W, análisis: el portátil gaming más potente jamás creado surge al unir el procesador Ryzen 9 y la RTX 5090
Source: Xataka ES→EN
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 11/19/2025
Rating: Total score: 83% performance: 100% display: 90% mobility: 50% workmanship: 80% ergonomy: 93%

MSI Raider A18 HX A9W Review: un equipo ultra premium que aspira a la perfección. ¿La alcanzará?
Source: Noticias 3D ES→EN
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 10/10/2025

100% MSI RAIDER A18 HX A9WJG Review con AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D
Source: Geeknetic ES→EN
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 09/17/2025
Rating: Total score: 100%

91% MSI Raider A18 HX A9W Review en Español (Análisis completo)
Source: Profesional Review ES→EN
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 07/30/2025
Rating: Total score: 91% price: 89% performance: 100% display: 99% mobility: 64% workmanship: 93%

微星 Raider A18 HX A9W 评测–宇宙之力，巨无霸价格（RTX 5090 BEAST!）
Source: Laptopmedia CN zh-CN→EN
Positive: Excellent gaming performance; premium design; good cooling system; comfortable keyboard; nice connectivity; great speakers. Negative: Average display; short battery life.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 06/21/2025

Comment

MSI: Micro-Star International (MSI) was founded in 1986 in Taiwan. MSI is especially known as a manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards for PCs, but also offers computer accessories, complete systems, motherboards, graphics cards, laptops, desktop PCs, monitors and other components. However, the Microstar brand name in Germany belongs to the Medion company. MSI is known for its gaming products and has developed a wide range of gaming laptops and desktop PCs. The company is also active in workstations, servers and industrial automation. MSI has offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

These graphics cards are able to play the latest and most demanding games in high resolutions and full detail settings with enabled Anti-Aliasing.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop: A fast graphics card from the Blackwell family for laptops that is based on the GB203 chip and uses 8,192 shaders and 16 GB GDDR7 graphics memory (256-bit graphics bus).

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop: The GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile uses the GB203 chip and utilizes 10,496 shaders / CUDA cores of the maximum 10,752 that the chip has. This makes the RTX 5090 Laptop more similar to the RTX 5080 desktop variant (same chip) than the Desktop RTX 5090 with 20,760 cores and higher clock rates.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.

AMD Dragon Range:

R9 9955HX3D: High-end mobile 16-core processor with 32 threads and large 128 MB L3 cache (64 MB additional 3D V-cache with a CCD). Very fast, especially for games. Uses the new Zen 5 architecture.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.

» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.

3.6 kg:

A laptop with this weight is comparatively heavy and less designed for mobility than for use at the desk. Therefore, the devices tend to shine less with battery life than with a large screen and higher performance.

3.64 kg:

78.91%: This rating is not earth-shattering. This rating must actually be seen as average, since there are about as many devices with worse ratings as better ones. A purchase recommendation can only be seen with a lot of goodwill, unless it is about websites that generally rate strictly.

» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

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Devices with the same GPU and/or Screen Size

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Devices with Same Screen Size and/or Weight