Titanic Doesn’t Even Start to Describe This Gaming Laptop computer

For those who can spend the required quantity of dough on this almost eight-pound behemoth, the Titan 18 HX will be the cellular PC for no matter you want, as long as you are able to do it in lower than two hours when away from a plug. It feels luxurious to make use of with its glorious mechanical keyboard, and it seems good with a top quality mini-LED, 4K show. Nevertheless, it’s best to know that—inevitably—you’ll be pushing the settings in your favourite video games after which discover the efficiency ceiling. Reaching the max of what you are able to do at 60 fps on the Titan 18 HX is akin to the sensation of driving 80 mph on a freeway with out a automobile in sight, then screeching to a halt with bumper-to-bumper site visitors. Even with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, this gigantic laptop computer is packing, although there’s a restrict to what a laptop computer GPU can accomplish. That’s not some extent in opposition to the Titan 18 HX, nevertheless it’s one thing to remember alongside that eye-watering price ticket.

With the newest top-end Intel Core Extremely 9 285HX CPU and RTX 5090 GPU, and 64GB of DDR5 RAM, I discovered the Titan 18 HX can meet slightly below the benchmarks of a full tower with the newest parts. To show these graphics, the laptop computer sports activities a 4K mini-LED show with clear visuals and good, excessive brightness. It’s nonetheless liable to reflections in direct mild, so preserve that in thoughts in the event you intend to take this beast open air. (It already weighs as a lot as a small canine, so why not play fetch with it?) On the high finish you possibly can spec it with 6TB of storage, sufficient for—on the very least—a majority chunk of your Steam library. I’ve by no means felt so spoiled when utilizing a laptop computer. For the worth you’re paying for this machine, you higher really feel such as you’re residing within the lap of luxurious.

With the near-top-end specs in my evaluate unit, the MSI Titan 18 HX totals to a whopping $6,379. For those who actually don’t have any take care of bills, you would go for the much more costly Dragon Edition Norse Myth edition with a canopy that features embossed Nordic runes and a killer picture of a leering dragon. Until this machine is one thing you propose to take to work, which can incite extra questions than you’re snug with. It prices a dragon’s hoard, however MSI’s costs have gone up, even within the midst of our testing for this evaluate. MSI’s different merchandise, like its Claw 8 AI+ have seen price increases over the previous few weeks, and the Titan 18 HX is not any exception. MSI didn’t reply to questions on whether or not these value hikes have something to do with Trump tariffs. Both manner, it’s clear MSI isn’t alone feeling the strain of the White Home’s obsession with import taxes.

At this value, the Titan 18 HX needs to be an ideal specimen if I had been to advocate it in any respect to anyone, even those that can afford it. With these specs, the machine wants a top quality thermal system in place, and MSI has managed the warmth with shocking grace. You may wager your keister this machine spits out some sizzling air, sufficient that my mouse hand might get additional sweaty subsequent to the facet exhaust. The remainder of the airflow blasts out the rear vents. After enjoying with the laptop computer for round quarter-hour, the world surrounding the operate row keys was burning sizzling, sufficient that in the event you depart your fingers there, it stretches from uncomfortable into painful-to-touch territory.

However the Titan 18 HX nonetheless feels snug whenever you really use it. The laptop computer’s thermals, which embody a vapor chamber and devoted copper warmth pipe for the SSD (it has 4 SSD slots, although one is PCIe Gen 5 and the remaining are Gen 4), preserve warmth off the palmrest and away from the WASD keys the place most gamers will relaxation their delicate fingertips. Taking part in on this laptop computer itself is a pleasure. The Titan 18 HX sports activities a full mechanical keyboard with Cherry switches. Every key clacks with a subdued clap that’s not too stiff however not mild sufficient to by chance press the mistaken key on the mistaken time. If I had one small grievance, it’s that the per-key RGB lighting isn’t all that shiny or eye-catching until you’re sitting in a really darkish room. The seamless touchpad makes use of haptics, which use motors to simulate the press of an everyday mechanical pad, feels on level with out that too-smooth glassy texture discovered on different laptops.

MSI claims its machine can draw 270W of energy to each the CPU and GPU for gaming duties. This “Max Increase” setting can even push 200W to the CPU solely, which is able to enhance efficiency in intensive duties. All meaning is that the Titan 18 HX manages to place a great deal of energy towards the parts that want it most for gaming. Maybe what stunned me most is simply how efficient an Intel’s Core Extremely 9 285HX is as a gaming CPU. In benchmarks, it manages to fulfill or, in some instances, beat the efficiency of the Intel Core Extremely 9 285K desktop-level CPU. Intel’s newest desktop processors weren’t precisely stellar on launch final yr—particularly for gaming functions, however the truth this laptop computer CPU is akin to desktops in any respect signifies Intel made some good strides with the top-end Arrow Lake series of chips.

Outdoors of gaming, the Titan 18 HX hit the mark for extra intense rendering duties. It managed to fulfill sub-1 minute benchmarks for our assessments rendering a scene in Blender, which is virtually equal to what we get on high-end desktop PCs. The Titan 18 HX was equally quick in our 4K to 1080p video encoding assessments. As for gaming, that’s the place issues get barely extra sophisticated.

The in-game benchmark outcomes had been stellar in titles like Cyberpunk 2077, the place the Titan 18 HX managed to get 60 fps at 4K with extremely settings with none type of upscaling. It was an analogous story with video games like Horizon Zero Daybreak Remastered and Black Delusion Wukong. Nevertheless, there’s a efficiency ceiling, and in the event you had been hoping to max out each single ray tracing setting in very demanding video games like Marvel’s Spider-Man II, you can see a wall that may dunk your fps under 50 and into the low 40s in some intensive moments. That is the place you would technically make use of Nvidia’s oft-touted multi-frame gen capabilities with DLSS 4. This primarily inserts a number of “generated” frames in between every body that’s really rendered by the PC. With a bunch of technical trickery, this boosts your frames per second so 50 or 60 fps can work into the low 100s on 2x body gen, or upwards of 200 fps with 4x settings.

Multi-frame gen is just not a panacea for low framerates. You continue to need nearer to 50 or 60 fps earlier than you allow it to keep away from graphics artifacts that may spoil the image. It’s particularly not ideally suited in the event you’re planning to principally deal with multiplayer, as body gen will essentially enhance latency, which is able to influence how the PC tracks your mouse motion between frames. That being stated, I wouldn’t fear about your framerates in most multiplayer shooters, whether or not that’s Marvel Rivals or Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 6. The laptop computer model of the RTX 5090 is a top-of-the-line card, and to be frank, there is no such thing as a different consumer-level card you should buy that’s extra highly effective than it. The GPU will high out most video games, however even then there’s a cap to how a lot you possibly can actually anticipate from it.

And nonetheless, even you probably have the bodybuilder physique to carry this eight-pound behemoth aloft for quite a lot of seconds, it will possibly’t be your on a regular basis carry laptop computer. MSI can’t escape the age-old downside with gaming laptops: the battery. Off a charger, on balanced efficiency settings by means of Home windows 11 and MSI’s Heart software program, I couldn’t even make it two hours while not having to plug it in. It’s far worse when gaming, and also you’ll be fortunate to get greater than an hour of time earlier than the battery runs out. The Titan 18 HX is a desktop alternative, in spite of everything, and that calls for you employ it out of your desk or no less than shut sufficient to some energy supply.

There’s solely a lot you possibly can anticipate from a laptop computer, however the Titan 18 HX represents the highest finish of what’s technically doable with fashionable {hardware}. When the one Razer Blade 16 configuration at present on the market prices $4,900 with an RTX 5090 in a thinner chassis, paying upwards of $5,000 for the heftier body and bigger (although non-OLED) show doesn’t sound as ludicrous. We are able to anticipate the upcoming Razer Blade 18 or different massive laptops which have but to see the sunshine of day (which is one other issue of Trump’s commerce warfare) to be priced at or simply under MSI’s humongous machine. MSI’s Titan 18 HX is shut sufficient to a supercharged pre-built desktop I might even take into account it another for a full gaming rig, particularly you probably have want for only one machine you possibly can plug into your TV or drag to your bed room for no matter gaming wants. Although as tariff woes proceed to extend prices and reduce availability, I wouldn’t blame you for trying on the Titan 18 HX as an idol of extra. I’m not the spiritual sort, and idolatry is the type of sin which may be a worthy value of admission for such a strong piece of tech.