What does almost $6,000 of gaming laptop computer get you?

It’s simple to get into the weeds on a pastime, particularly should you’re into PC gaming and dreaming of the best ranges of graphical efficiency. But how a lot is an excessive amount of for {hardware}? Spending high greenback on graphics energy, processing, RAM, storage, and so forth. — like many issues — ultimately results in diminishing returns. When it involves gaming laptops, MSI’s $5,699.99 Titan 18 is effectively past that inflection level. But it’s additionally like nothing else.

It’s not very logical to spend that a lot when different wonderful gaming laptops are almost as highly effective however value virtually half as a lot. While the Titan is a fully reckless buy, it’s additionally a joyous one which goes all out for specs and wide-eyed coolness issue.

The Titan goes onerous on nearly every little thing, although execution is a combined bag. The 18-inch Mini LED 4K HDR show has a decision of 3840 x 2400 and a variable refresh fee as much as 120Hz. It appears unbelievable. It’s not as contrast-y as an OLED, nevertheless it has a colourful punch with sufficient brightness to be simply seen in even a sun-drenched room. SteelSeries made its mechanical keyboard with Cherry low-profile switches, and it’s some of the tactile and loudest laptop computer keyboards I’ve ever touched. It’s received a ping-y metallic undertone in its key presses, which I usually don’t need in a mechanical keyboard, however for some purpose I like it within the Titan.

The seamless trackpad is edge-to-edge illuminated by customizable RGB lighting as a substitute of being invisible like on a Dell, and its haptic suggestions has a satisfyingly hefty knock that’s in contrast to another. But just like the Dell XPS 13 I examined earlier this 12 months, it’s not probably the most dependable at detecting finger clicks. If it had this suggestions mixed with the reliability of a MacBook’s trackpad, it will be my all-time favourite. And the Titan is flush with ports and expandability, together with two super-fast Thunderbolt 5 ports, three USB-A, two user-accessible RAM slots, and 4 M.2 SSD slots. Cap off the Titan’s specs with its top-tier Nvidia RTX 5090 laptop computer GPU, Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX CPU, 64GB of RAM, and 6TB of SSD storage, and the lofty $5,700 value begins making extra sense.

The Titan 18 is unapologetic about its standing as a desktop alternative. It’s 7.94 kilos / 3.6kg of “you paid out the nose for me to sit in one spot and crush AAA games or churn through processing-heavy tasks, and that’s what I’ll do.” And with its large 400W energy adapter, the entire package deal weighs 10.5 kilos / 4.76kg. I lugged it with me on a street journey, and having a machine this highly effective when visiting household was superior — even when touring with it wasn’t so enjoyable, because it didn’t slot in any of my baggage. While it’s simpler than transferring a full desktop PC and monitor, you’ll really feel simply as tethered to a wall plug. The Titan’s 99Whr battery can barely eke out 2.5 hours of primary Chrome, Slack, Google Docs, and chat app utilization earlier than it’s drained — and that’s in Eco mode with Windows Energy Saver turned on the entire time. While enjoying a recreation on battery, even with Nvidia’s BatteryEnhance optimizations enabled and focusing on simply 30fps, it dies in about an hour or much less.

But while you’re plugged in and going full-tilt on a visually demanding recreation, the Titan is a pleasure to make use of. It can play Cyberpunk 2077 at Ultra settings in 4K with ray tracing and DLSS 4 turned on at round 60 frames per second (or increased with body era). Turn ray tracing off or some settings down, and you’ll comfortably play at effectively over 60fps. Early ranges of the Battlefield 6 marketing campaign ran confidently at 60–75fps on the Ultra graphics preset and on the panel’s native 4K decision. There have been rare dips into the mid-to-high 50s throughout chaotic moments in bigger areas, however every little thing remained easy and snappy. If you wish to push body charges to the Titan’s max 120Hz refresh and even barely increased, you possibly can bump the decision all the way down to 2560 x 1600, and it nonetheless appears adequately crisp. But holding the sport in 4K Ultra and turning on DLSS 4 Quality yielded a contented medium of 90 to 100fps, whereas including single-frame era comfortably boosted it to 120 to 140fps.

Fan noise, whereas loud, isn’t as dangerous as some 16-inch gaming laptops I’ve examined. The Titan’s giant chassis permits for simpler cooling underneath load, pumping out numerous scorching air from its flanks. The keyboard deck close to the laptop computer’s hinge will get extremely scorching to the contact, however fortunately, your fingers on the WASD keys are spared. The width of the chassis additionally means the six-speaker sound system might help a tiny bit in figuring out directional recreation appears like gunfire. Though the audio system are sadly simply okay for films and music, missing depth and far low-end.

There are two elephants within the room with the Titan: the looming temptation of a correct desktop gaming PC and the category of 16- and 18-inch gaming laptops with RTX 5080 GPUs that sit under it. You can get a way more highly effective desktop PC for half the Titan’s value, add a 240Hz QD-OLED monitor, and nonetheless have the funds for left over for an M5 MacBook Pro and even an Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. But let’s be trustworthy, should you’re contemplating an 18-inch, 8-pound gaming laptop computer, you’re most likely transferring it round sufficient that this combo received’t work. But in that case, you would save round $2,400 on a gaming laptop computer with a 5080 just like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 and get, on common, inside 7 to 10fps of the Titan’s efficiency.

Running benchmarks on the Titan’s RTX 5090, which runs at its full wattage, I used to be struck by how shut 5080 laptops have been nipping at its heels. For $2,100 to $2,400 greater than an Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 or Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, the Titan solely yields an additional 7fps on common in 4K or about 9fps extra in 2.5K. The screens on these laptops are a little bit smaller and lower-res than the Titan, however they’ve pretty 240Hz OLED shows with deeper blacks, bolder colours, and a stronger distinction. As a lot as I really like the scale and brightness of the Titan’s Mini LED, I favor the look of these OLEDs. Even the 5090-equipped Razer Blade 16 and 18, expensive machines in their very own proper, value $1,000 lower than the Titan. The half-inch-thinner, 3-pound-lighter Blade 16 is way more versatile and travel-friendly, and its efficiency is totally on par with the Titan. Though the Titan has a higher-end CPU (with twice as many cores), better cooling (for quieter followers), user-accessible RAM slots (although not easily accessible), sooner Thunderbolt 5 ports, and two extra M.2 SSD slots.

The sickos who pony up for the Titan are nonetheless getting a machine that isn’t fairly like the rest. It’s an illogical buy, removed from any semblance of pragmatism or value-for-dollar procuring — even should you’re aiming for a little bit futureproofing. But regardless of its shortcomings and tremendous excessive value, it’s nonetheless a beastly laptop computer with its personal boisterous attraction.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge