The MSI GT80 Titan Review: The Broadwell Gaming Laptop Your Desktop Envies
by Brett Howse on June 26, 2015 8:00 AM ESTBattery Life
Normally on a notebook review, I would consider battery life to be one of the key aspects of the experience. However the GT80 Titan is not a typical notebook. This is really a device designed to sit on a desk and be used in lieu of a desktop computer. But if you ever feel the need to pick up this 10 pound laptop and lug it to the coffee shop, I suppose we should see what kind of battery life you can expect.
The GT80 Titan lacks NVIDIA’s Optimus technology, so it can’t switch from the discrete graphics to integrated graphics on the fly. MSI has included a hardware switch to change to integrated graphics, but it does require a reboot in between. Just to see how much of a difference this makes, I ran the light test first with the GTX 980Ms active, and then again leveraging Intel’s integrated GPU.
Our light test is light web browsing with the display set at 200 nits. The 80 Wh battery inside the GT80 Titan is really no match for the hunger of the SLI graphics cards, and with those enabled the battery life is a mere two hours and twenty minutes. However once you disable the GPUs and switch to the integrated GPU, the result is actually a pretty respectable four hours and nine minutes. Considering the size of the display and the power underneath the covers, I was actually shocked it was that high.
The heavy test ramps up the amount of pages browsed, adds in a 1 MB/s file download, and a movie is played back using the Windows 8 Video app. On most devices, the light test result is often dictated by the display power, and the heavy test shifts that balance over to the CPU and I/O. However with the power hungry components in the GT80, the difference between the light and heavy tests results is less than normal with it getting just about an hour less overall. Even though it is just three hours fifteen minutes, it actually ties the Sony Vaio Haswell based Ultrabook in this test, but it does have over double the battery capacity of that much smaller notebook.
Looking at the normalized graphs, the GT80 shows just how much energy is needed to power the CPU and large display. Once you turn on the GPUs though, the power usage really gets ugly and the light result with the GPUs enabled is one of the worst we have seen. Even though NVIDIA has been improving power efficiency and idle draw of their GPUs, they still are not in the same league as the 14nm Intel GPU when discussing minimum power draw.
Charge Time
In order to provide enough power for the two GPUs plus the quad-core CPU, MSI ships the GT80 Titan with a massive 330 watt A/C adapter. This power brick alone weighs more than some notebooks, but it is necessary to keep up with the insane power requirements of this notebook. With that much power available, MSI could have chosen to reduce the charge time pretty substantially.
Looking at the time though, the GT80 charges in roughly the same time as most notebooks. Even though they could have provided more power to the battery, this may have required beefed up circuitry, and even if that is there, it can be hard on the battery due to the heat generated. MSI was fairly conservative here but the end result is a fine 2.5 hours.
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mr_tawan - Friday, June 26, 2015 - link
Actually I like the fact that the touchpad is on the right side, and wonder why no manufacturer does this for a second. I realized afterward that this layout does not work (at all) for those left-handed.Still, just like the article suggested, the user would go with a mouse anyway.
andrewd18 - Friday, June 26, 2015 - link
Many of us left-handed users have become accustomed to mousing with the right hand. I, for one, wouldn't mind the trackpad being on the right.Refuge - Friday, June 26, 2015 - link
I'm glad you have been able to adapt so well.I'm right hand dominant, but I'm also ambidextrious because I cut my fingers off when I was younger, so I had to adapt.
But I feel bad for all the dominant lefty users out there, you guys always get the short end of the stick on quite the regular when it comes to the gaming market.
DanNeely - Friday, June 26, 2015 - link
Razer Has been selling a few lefthanded mice for years. So much better than the ambidexterous mice I had to use before.Ktracho - Friday, June 26, 2015 - link
I would think having the trackpad on the right could be a benefit for left-handed users, since they could then have a mouse on the left side, and not have to move their hand so far. I dislike having a keypad on the right, and then having to put the mouse even further to the right. I used to have an IBM keyboard that allowed one to put the keypad on either side of the keyboard, so I would put it on the left. As someone who plays piano, I can type numbers well enough with my left hand. My current keyboard does not have a keypad at all.Gonemad - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link
I bought a logitech G5, and back then it was the first right-hand oriented mouse I ever bought. However, I had no issues with it, even being left handed. Turns out it is even better, because I use it at an angle that matches the space on the desk, and all those buttons for DPI changing end right below the other 4 fingers, not the thumb, which allows some stunts right handed folks can't pull. I end up using the middle finger very often on the main button, leaving one finger for right-clicking, adding insult to injury, so to speak.I still have that mouse.
Ian Cutress - Saturday, June 27, 2015 - link
I think I read at one point the CEO of Razer said that only 10% of left handers actually use the mouse in the left hand, and given that 10% of people are left handed that accounts for 1% of users. Depending on which market you're talking about, that's either good or bad. I think he also said that because of the design differences, they never sell enough left handed mice to make a proper profit and are glad if they break even on those designs.Zak - Friday, June 26, 2015 - link
Expensive. Powerful. No G-SYNC support? At that price point there is no excuse not to have G-SYNC. There is no excuse not to have G-SYNC or Freesync support in anything you put a "gaming" label on these days.Refuge - Friday, June 26, 2015 - link
At that price, there is no point for it not to come with a Blowjob too if you ask me.MVM upgrades aren't an answer to laptop longevity if you ask me. They are so absurdly expensive to source, I would much rather just but a new laptop and sell my old one.
sabrewings - Friday, June 26, 2015 - link
Very interesting bit of kit from an engineering standpoint. However, in the looks department it looks like a 90s laptop:https://cdn2.content.compendiumblog.com/uploads/us...
Not sure I would want to be seen with such a thing. And no, it doesn't make my desktop jealous. ;-)