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

Reviews

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

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 (Zen 4, Ryzen 7X4X/8X4X):

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:

73.02%: This rating is poor. More than three quarters of the models are rated better. That is rather not a purchase recommendation. Even if verbal ratings in this area do not sound that bad ("sufficient" or "satisfactory"), they are usually euphemisms that disguise a classification as a below-average laptop.

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

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