MSI GE75 Raider 17.3″ Gaming Laptop Review
Powerful processors, dazzling display, and a below-par battery, this is the MSI GE75 Raider 10SFS-225 at a glance.
You can also throw in a brilliant Per-key RGB keyboard backlight and a resounding audio delivery into the mix, and sneak in a bold price tag in addition to rackety fans, and you get the complete narrative.
With a 10th Generation Core i9 processor and an NVIDIA RTX 2080 Super graphics card on our review device, this is the laptop for the immersive thrills of high-end gaming and high-res entertainment.
Design and Appearance
With the rugged but striking aura that it gives off at first blush, the GE75 Raider will not be mistaken for anything other than a gaming rig. There’s the aluminum-cast blackness of its bulky build, and the prevalence of red coloring around the chassis, typical of the MSI gaming laptop. From the color of the USB 3.0 ports to that of the backlit dragon shield logo at the lid and the anodized strips that flank it in diagonal stretches, red is the dominant theme.
The lid is pivoted by a duo of sturdy hinges at the extremes of the keyboard, both of which allow for a 160° rotation of the lid with both hands.
It flips open to reveal a trim bezel surround at the sides and the top, with a 720p webcam at the fringes of the latter. And when you steal a glance at the Per-Key RGB backlit keyboard, the brilliant flourish of lights on parade will hold your gaze and capture your attention.
Ports and Connection
The port selection on this laptop is pretty robust; four USB 3.0 ports, one of which is a Type-C port, and all of which are highlighted with red LED lighting. Then there are ports for HDMI and Mini DisplayPort, with which you can output to external monitors with higher resolutions for a more vibrant display.
You’ll also find an SD card slot and a charge connector at the right edge, while there are separate slots for the microphone and headphone jack, with the security lock rounding up the port ensemble.
For wireless connectivity, the GE75 Raider puts its best foot forward with the Wi-Fi 6. It runs on the 802.11ax standards, which translates to a speedy and stable internet connection that will cut through all your gaming or streaming tasks.
Keyboard and Input devices
The keystroke on this laptops’ keyboard is registered against an actuation of 70g, travel of 1.9mm, and significant feedback, all of which come up to scratch with gaming laptop standards. All but one of the keys from the ensemble follows the all-cap font standard to the letter, except for the letter “n” key.
The key buttons from the lineup include one designated for ramping up the fan speed via the Cooler Boost and another for switching between the keyboard’s pre-set RGB lighting profiles. Notable omissions include a left windows key and dedicated keys for the home and end function, all of which can be reassigned to other low-traffic keys via the Dragon Center and Steelseries Engine software in that order.
Then there is a Numpad with lesser-sized individual keys that will come in handy for the data crunchers, and to the star attraction, a per-key RGB backlight that puts any other thing in the shade. MSI touts a whopping 16.8 million color backlight for this keyboard, customizable via the Steelseries Engine 3 software to blend in with the flow of your music or the thrill of gameplay.
Then there’s a touchpad with a 4.2 x 2.4-inch footprint, offset to the left of the wrist rest by a few inches away from the center. It also sports two equally-sized, clicky-sounding buttons at its bottom part, which relegates the remaining part of its surface to non-clickable functions. Its surface is rendered with a material smoothness and a matte finish, replete with precision drivers from Windows gesture support for all your multi-finger maneuvers.
Audio
From the massive bottom-firing speakers to the class-leading Dynaudio sound system, MSI pulls all the stops to produce a resounding audio output. It gets even better when you tune in to the Nahimic software, with the Surround Sound and the Volume Stabilizer features making for the rich and immersive sounds that you get in return.
What the speakers lack in above-ground clearance, they make up for in their impressive size, and in the support of powerful software. And Although the bass is not groundbreaking, the treble turns out fine, and the same goes for all the ranges.
Display
With a Full HD resolution display and an IPS-level panel, the massive 17.3″ screen of the GE75 Raider will be the focal point of movie binges and gaming marathons. It is hard to look past the minuscule bezels across all but the bottom part of the screen at first glance, and there’s even more.
While the panel is rated at an IPS-level offering, the viewing angles are no less comprehensive, and with a 3ms response time, you can watch the action unfold right in front of you without skipping a beat. And as the 144Hz refresh rate of our review laptop ordinarily makes for smooth visuals in gameplay, you can only imagine the heights that will be scaled with the 300 Hz display of other configurations.
The color space is also pretty much extensive with this laptop. With a 160% value for the sRGB color gamut, you can splash colors all over your on-screen content and the visuals will catch the eye at every turn.
If you want even more flexibility with your display, the MSI True Color software paves the way for a host of customization options. You can switch from the default sRGB mode to the beaming lights in Game mode, and the more conservative showings of the Anti-blue mode, or three other modes for good measure.
All of these modes offer varying degrees of brightness, contrast, detail, and color consistency, but the result is still impressive across the board.
Graphics
With the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card pulling the strings, the graphics department of this laptop is in a good place. From its base speed of 1650 MHz and its 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM to the pick of the litter, a “Ray Tracing” feature, this GPU is packed to the rafters with all the requisite resources and even more. It bestows on its host laptop the capacity to smoothly process some of the most graphics-intensive tasks on the offing.
Whether you’re making a go at the latest Triple-A games or applying multilayer shading and 3D effects on your visuals, this laptop is equal to the task. While it will most likely draw up tons of battery juice and whip the fans into a frenzy at the thick of the action, it will most definitely chew up a majority of the graphic workloads that you throw at it.
Gaming
The GE75 Raider is tailor-made for raiding tombs with Lara Croft and hunting monsters with The Witcher. Many of the biggest and most recent titles from the AAA repository will be played on this laptop at frame rates well above the required benchmark.
You’ll be able to play Metro: Last Light and Borderlands 3 at frames approaching 90fps and 100fps respectively, even at high graphic settings.
Admittedly, the frames will drop with games that incorporate ray tracing and virtual reality, but it will not make the games to be any less enjoyable than they should be. And with the provision for customizing the per-key backlight, the thrill of gameplay will be elevated to even greater heights.
You can assign a key to glow with red light at the whiff of advancing enemy fire and shed a green light on keys that glow at the sight of health bars or create a spectacle with the glut of colors on the keyboard.
Battery
The battery in this laptop, as with a vast majority of other high-end gaming laptops, is nothing to write home about. It struggles to keep up with the blistering pace and heavy power draw of the powerful processors that file out beside it.
It is no surprise, perhaps even a bit flattering, that its 65 Whr Li-ion power reserves dry up as soon as you approach the 4-hour mark, an hour less than the MSI GL65 Leopard.
And when you start the heavy lifting, as with Full HD in gameplay or media streaming, the runtime is even further cut down by a huge chunk. You’ll be best served by being almost continually plugged into a power outlet, a real bummer, but an inevitable one at that.
Cooling and Noise Emission
MSI arms this laptop with an efficient cooling system in anticipation of the heat-exerting computing that it will most likely be regularly subjected to. With a total of 8 heat pipes, four exhausts, and 31 fan blades from MSI’s Cooler Boost 5+ module, deployed in the firm offensive against heat build-up and dissipation, the GE75 Raider will almost always remain cool and unbothered.
The underside of the laptop and the core of the keyboard area are some of its most vulnerable parts, with hotspots constantly waiting in the wings to make an unwanted appearance.
The fans steal a march on the heat challenge, making their presence felt and heard in such a way that many will find to be a little disturbing while making sure to keep things cool and comfy in the process.
Performance
Our review laptop is equipped with the 10th Generation Intel Core i9-10980HK chip, a powerful processor with which you’ll pull trees and blaze trails along the path of your computing endeavors.
With a clock speed that revs up from a base of 2.4 GHz to a turbo boost of 5.3GHz, this laptop will be driven to the heights of intense computing.
Then there is a 32 GB DDR4 in cahoots with a 512 GB NVMe-PCIe SSD and 1 TB HDD for our review laptop, more than enough props on paper to buttress the fact that this laptop is well stocked for firepower.
All of these raw data translates to a power-packed performance for all your high-res media streaming and gameplay, 3D visuals content creation, and a host of other demanding tasks.
You can load tons of web pages while working on Google Docs and streaming music on Spotify in one breath, and the laptop will not pause to catch a breath.
With 6 cores to bank on and an equally powerful graphics card to boot, the GE75 is fit to meet all your entertainment and enterprise needs.
Final Verdict
The MSI GE75 Raider pieces together a powerful hardware and software ensemble to deliver an enthralling gaming experience. From the catchy but sturdy build design to the per-key RGB backlight and the big-screen display, this laptop looks the part.
And when you get down to the business of gaming, the processor matchup will provide all the speed and power to take on the biggest titles in the game.
It is still dogged by the battery problem, and the fans can create a scene on occasions, but these are the bane of the typical gaming rig. If you can look past that, and the bold price tag, then there is sufficient value to be found in this laptop, or you can opt for the less pricey and lesser sized MSI GF65 Thin laptop.
Device Specifications
Screen display size
17.3 Inches
Screen Resolution
1920 x 1080
Processor
2.4 GHz Core i9-10980HK
RAM
32 GB DDR4
Storage
512 GB SSD
Hard Drive
1 TB Flash Memory Solid State
Graphics Coprocessor
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super
Series
GE75 Raider 10SFS-225
Operating System
Windows 10 Home
Item Weight
5.25 pounds
Product Dimensions
14.17 x 10.43 x 0.91 inches