MSI’s Raider GE76/66 and Stealth GS77 notebooks are the best deal for gamers who rely on Intel Alder Lake-H under the hood and RTX 3000 Mobile. “The Dragon” features improved cooling and sound, but its displays are also a real eye-catcher.
Intel has a challenge ahead of it with the launch of the Ryzen 6000 for laptops, but we’ve already seen that it’s not as big as expected. And that’s because manufacturers like MSI have shined with a carousel of gaming laptops with Intel’s 12th generation chips. MSI improves cooling, audio, panel, and noise, doesn’t it?
The MSI Raider GE76 comes with a 17-inch panel and the GE66 with a 15-inch panel and is considered the TOP series in gaming. Now the naming order has been changed: Raider GE76 comes first, instead of GE76 Raider.
The main processors are the Intel Alder Lake-H processors, specifically the i7-12700H and the i9-12900HK, with the cheapest option being the i7-12700H combined with an RTX 3060 and DDR4. The rest of the laptops will have DDR5-4800, and we believe the price will be high, given the DDR5 situation.
The most interesting GPU will be the 16GB GDDR6 RTX 3080 Ti at full power, but MSI doesn’t specify if we’ll enjoy Dynamic Boost and that’s a very interesting topic if the GPU consumes that much.
For the screen, there are several options:
- FHD panel with 144 or 360 Hz.
- QHD panel with 240 Hz and high DCI-P3 coverage.
- 4K panel with 120 Hz and Adobe RGB.
MSI improves cooling with a high-quality thermal pad that is solid at room temperature, but when the CPU reaches 58°C, it melts to fill the gaps and cover the entire IHS. MSI claims that better heat transfer is achieved and claims that it offers up to 10% more performance than normal pads.
It looks like MSI hasn’t changed the chassis of these notebooks, at least the aesthetics look the same with the thick RGB strip on the front, backlit keyboard, and straight corners.
Another newcomer is the MSI Stealth GS77 and GS66, which come with a redesigned chassis with improvements in strength and lightness. The Taiwanese have installed a hinge in the center of the laptop to increase stability, and the screen cover is made of machined aluminum.
The Intel Alder Lake-H processors selected are the i7-12650H, i7-12700H, and i9-12900H, which will be paired with up to 32GB of DDR5-4800 dual channel. There will be several GPU options from NVIDIA: RTX 3060, RTX 3070, RTX 3070 Ti, and RTX 3080. Although the weight has been reduced and it is lighter than the Raiders, they have the same GPUs.
The panel will be 17.3 inches or 15 inches and the configurations will also vary:
- 1080p at 360 Hz.
- 1440p at 240 Hz and DCI-P3.
- 4K at 120 Hz and Adobe RGB.
It has a Full HD webcam, a fingerprint reader for Windows Hello, a keyboard with larger keys than the previous generation (users criticized it for being too low), and the USB, HDMI, and power ports have been moved to the back.
Pricing and launch
Let’s get down to business, and MSI has given us the details:
- 17-inch MSI Raider GE76 :
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- RTX 3060 starts at $ 1599.
- RTX 3070 starts at $ 2249.
- RTX 3070 Ti starting at $ 2499.
- RTX 3080 Ti starting at $ 3599.
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- 15-inch MSI Raider GE66.
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- RTX 3070 starts at $ 2249.
- RTX 3070 Ti starting at $ 2599.
- RTX 3080 Ti starting at $ 3499.
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- 17-inch MSI Stealth GS77 :
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- RTX 3060 starts at $ 1799.
- RTX 3070 starts at $ 2399.
- RTX 3070 Ti starting at $ 2699.
- RTX 3080 Ti starting at $ 3699.
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- 15-inch MSI Stealth GS66 :
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- RTX 3070 Ti starting at $ 2499.
- RTX 3080 starts at $ 3099.
- RTX 3080 Ti starting at $ 3499.
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