1. Introduction2. MSI GE73 Raider RGB 8RF Specifications3. Testing Methodology and Configuration4. Tests: 3DMark5. Tests: Maxon Cinebench R156. Tests: Gaming7. Tests: Storage8. Tests: Battery Life9. Test: Acoustics10. Closing Thoughts11. View All Pages

The MSI GE73 Raider RGB 8RF is a great gaming notebook. You are sacrificing a little on the portability side to achieve gaming performance that will surpass even quite decent desktops. But if you're looking for a laptop you can take to a LAN and not feel at a disadvantage, it fits the bill very nicely indeed.

The new six-core Intel Coffee Lake mobile Core i7 gives you CPU abilities that are on par with all but a premium desktop. Likewise, the mobile NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is providing gaming performance that is pretty much desktop equivalent. Couple that with a built-in screen capable of 120Hz and 3ms response, and you won't even need an external monitor at the LAN.

If we're going to quibble, NVIDIA G-Sync support and 1ms response would have been the icing on the cake. The battery life is the least impressive feature, however, thanks to the bevy of powerful components. Although this notebook is a little more portable than some of the most high-end laptops we've tested, in reality it's still meant to be easily carried from one mains-powered location to another rather than for deathmatches on the move.

It's not exactly cheap, either, with the review specification costing over £2,000 inc VAT, which is nearly twice that of the desktops we used for comparison (although these, of course, don't include screens). But if you're willing to pay the premium for a brilliant notebook gaming experience, you'll get what you paid for with the MSI GE73 Raider RGB 8RF.

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Pros:

• Gaming performance to equal a premium desktop.
• Desktop like six-core CPU performance.
• 120Hz screen with 3ms refresh
• Fun per-key RGB lit keyboard with custom settings.
• Healthy 1.5TB (total) storage.
• Reasonable 16GB of memory.

Cons:

• Expensive.
• Short battery life.

KitGuru says: The MSI GE73 Raider RGB 8RF gives you gaming and CPU performance equal to or better than a decently specified desktop, although it's pricey and the battery life is limited.

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