Review of MSI GT80 Titan:
I know you're going to wonder whether the MSI GT80 Titan can handle even heavier workloads, so I spooled up the MSI GT80 Titan on a 4K monitor for kicks. Running Tomb Raider set on Ultimate at 3840x2160, I saw from 40 to 50 fps. That's perhaps a little lacking for a first-person shooter, which usually demands 60 fps, but respectably good gaming performance from a laptop. I might tune the settings to get to a more consistent 60 fps, but there seems to be enough performance. The performance at 4K is likely helped by the 8GB of RAM per GPU that MSI uses in the GT80 Titan. For comparison, a typical desktop GeForce GTX 980 will pack 4GB of RAM.
There are a couple of weak points of the GT80 Titan, though some may disagree. The first is the panel. It's an 18.4-inch panel at a pedestrian resolution of 1920x1080. With this much graphics grunt, gaming at 1920x1080 practically handcuffs the pair of 980 cards. The good news is, the laptop is set up to support three monitors in surround mode using a pair of miniDP ports and an HDMI port.
The other weakness will bug those who intend to use the GT80 for CPU intensive tasks. Despite its bulk, the GT80 Titan is really no faster than the HP Omen and Razer Blade Pro 2014.
That's a little disappointing. For gaming loads, it's really no big deal. In fact, for someone who is primarily interested in a gaming laptop, I generally say skimp on the CPU and throw it all at the GPU. Still, to see the thick GT80 pull even with the thin-as- hell HP Omen is, well, a letdown. It's like stomping on the gas pedal in your vintage muscle car at a stop light, laying some rubber, and then arriving at the next light to see the funny electric car you thought you burned sitting right next to you. And yes, I included the encoding performance of the AVADirect X99 and its 8-core beast to show you who is large and in charge.
Amazing MSI GT80 Titan battery:
