This powerful MSI gaming laptop is wildly expensive, but I can almost justify it

Price When Reviewed

$4,499

Best Prices Today: MSI Raider 18 HX AI

The MSI Raider 18 HX AI is the very mannequin of a “desktop replacement” laptop. It’s large, it’s not a lot to have a look at, and it has a mediocre touchpad that suggests customers are actually anticipated to attach a mouse.

That would possibly depart some customers asking, “What’s the point?” That query is answered as soon as the laptop computer is tossed right into a demanding sport or utility. It may be thick, however the MSI Raider 18 HX delivers top-tier CPU and GPU efficiency. It even has gobs of RAM and a PCIe 5.0 strong state drive.

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: Specs and options

The spotlight of the MSI Raider 18 HX AI’s spec sheet is undoubtedly the Nvidia RTX 5080. This new cell GPU is destined to develop into the brand new go-to alternative for avid gamers on the go, and right here it has entry to a formidable 175 watts of graphics energy.

But the story doesn’t finish there. The Raider 18 additionally has Intel’s new Core Ultra 9 285HX, which packs 24 CPU cores, and the mannequin I reviewed had 64GB of RAM alongside a 4TB PCIe 5.0 strong state drive. It has a Mini-LED show, too.

• Model quantity: A2XWIG-418US
• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX
• Memory: 64GB DDR5-6400 RAM
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5080 16GB
• NPU: Intel AI Boost as much as 13 TOPS (Int8)
• Display: 18-inch 3,840 x 2,400 120Hz IPS Mini-LED
• Storage: 4TB M.2 PCIe 5.0 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p 30fps digital camera with bodily privateness shutter, twin array microphone
• Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 5, 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x HDMI, 1x 3.5mm combo jack, SD card reader
• Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Biometrics: Fingerprint reader, Facial Recognition
• Battery capability: 99 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 15.91 x 12.09 x 1.26 inches
• Weight: 7.94 kilos
• Operating System: Windows 11 Pro
• Price: $4,499 MSRP

Cutting-edge {hardware} doesn’t come low-cost, and the Raider 18 I examined rings up at an intimidating $4,499. That’s lots, however for those who glanced on the spec sheet and thought, “Eh, could be better,” MSI additionally gives a extra extravagant configuration with Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics at $4,899.

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: Design and construct high quality

IDG / Matthew Smith

The MSI Raider 18 HX AI isn’t the corporate’s largest and strongest laptop computer—that’s the MSI Titan—nevertheless it’s nonetheless a beefy boy. We’re speaking practically 8 kilos of heft and a profile that’s about 1.25 inches thick. That’s commonplace for a giant, high-performance gaming laptop computer just like the Raider 18, nevertheless it’s vital to notice. You’re going to note when this laptop computer is in your bag, and it received’t even slot in many mid-sized backpacks.

Size apart, the Raider 18’s design is cohesive however not outstanding. It’s clad in black plastics with crimson accents, and whereas the supplies look fantastic, they’re definitely not as luxurious as laptops that goal for a extra skilled look, similar to Razer’s Blade 18. It’s additionally noticeably much less extravagant than MSI’s Titan, which is extra of a showpiece.

While it doesn’t make a powerful first impression, the Raider 18’s construct high quality is strong. The plastics don’t present the sense of solidity aluminum would supply, however the chassis is inflexible when the laptop computer is dealt with, and the show doesn’t considerably warp because it’s opened and closed. Pressing exhausting on the keyboard reveals some flex, however that’s widespread for laptops of this measurement, and it didn’t stand out in regular use.

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: Keyboard, trackpad

IDG / Matthew Smith

A spacious keyboard with a numpad stretches throughout the MSI Raider 18 HX AI’s inside. While just a few keys, like Caps Lock, are nonetheless ever-so-slightly smaller than typical, most keys are giant. This contains the numpad keys, which, not like so many laptops’ keyboards, are the identical measurement as the first alphanumeric keys. So, whereas the Raider 18 is focused at avid gamers, it may additionally attraction to accountants (that’s a joke).

Key really feel, nevertheless, is a miss. Although it has a SteelCollection-branded keyboard, the typing expertise doesn’t really feel a lot totally different than with any variety of aggressive gaming keyboards. That’s to not say it’s unhealthy. A big laptop computer just like the Raider 18 has sufficient house to supply good key journey. However, it’s not outstanding. I’ve used far cheaper gaming laptops with keyboards not less than pretty much as good (Lenovo’s Legion 5 line involves thoughts).

The keyboard does supply RGB-LED backlighting, nevertheless, which will be custom-made per-key. This is the place the SteelCollection branding is most related, as RGB-LED customization is dealt with by way of the SteelCollection GG app. I prefer it. The app seems to be good, is simple to make use of, and supplies the power to save lots of each RGB-LED customization profiles and macro key configurations. These options aren’t distinctive, however some rivals (like Gigabyte and Acer) are a bit behind the curve in relation to the software program used to manage these options.

The touchpad has its ups and downs. It’s fairly giant at about 5 inches broad and 3 inches deep, however that’s solely about as giant because the touchpad on a typical 14-inch shopper laptop computer. The touchpad didn’t really feel particularly responsive, and the bodily button motion struck me as springy but hole. It works, however the laptop computer is finest used with a mouse.

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: Display, audio

IDG / Matthew Smith

The MSI Raider 18 HX AI has a uncommon 18-inch Mini-LED show. This kind of show combines an IPS-LCD panel with an array of LEDs that may change brightness independently.

That permits the show to realize an successfully infinite distinction ratio like OLED rivals. It’s not fairly pretty much as good as OLED, as Mini-LED can endure “blooming,” a difficulty that may trigger a halo impact round small, vivid objects on darkish scenes. Still, it’s nearly pretty much as good.

Contrast apart, the Raider 18 seems to be nice in video games and day-to-day productiveness apps. Sharpness is a perk, because the show’s 3,840 x 2,400 decision works out to about 252 pixels per inch (ppi). That’s extraordinarily excessive (for comparability, a 27-inch 4K monitor usually has 163 ppi).

The show additionally has a large shade gamut and may develop into extraordinarily vivid, which makes the Raider 18 an honest alternative for HDR. Note, nevertheless, that HDR is just not supported when the laptop computer is on battery energy.

Listening to music on the Raider 18 isn’t as nice as watching motion pictures, although it’s nonetheless respectable. The built-in audio system are upwards-firing and ship good quantity, whereas a pair of 2-watt woofers supply some low-end oomph. I discovered the treble slightly grating, nevertheless, and the sound is muddy with the amount cranked all the way in which up. Still, it’s good for laptop computer audio.

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

MSI ships the Raider 18 with a 1080p webcam. It supplies good video high quality in a well-lit to reasonably lit room. Viewing the webcam’s output on the Raider 18 itself sells it brief, as 1080p is to this point beneath the show’s 3,840 x 2,400 decision. On Zoom calls, nevertheless, the webcam seems to be good. As a bonus, the webcam supplies a bodily privateness shutter.

Microphone high quality is respectable, as nicely, with good voice pick-up and respectable noise cancellation from the twin microphone array. The Raider 18 additionally helps Windows’ AI-driven Studio Effects, so it’s straightforward to blur your background.

Biometric login is supported by way of Windows Hello. Both facial recognition and fingerprint recognition can be found and work nicely. 

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: Connectivity

Connectivity is among the many MSI Raider 18 HX AI’s strengths.

It has two Thunderbolt 5 ports, every supporting USB-C, DisplayPort, and Power Delivery. Their excessive knowledge bandwidth (80 Gbps bi-directional) and versatile function set make them perfect for connecting to a Thunderbolt dock or Thunderbolt-compatible monitor. From there, these ports can deal with a number of downstream peripherals or shows. The laptop computer additionally has three USB-A ports, all supporting USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds (10 Gbps).

In addition to the Thunderbolt 5 ports, the Raider 18 additionally has an HDMI 2.1 port. It’s rated for 8K output as much as 60Hz and 4K output as much as 120Hz. A 3.5mm combo audio jack and a pair of.5G Ethernet port spherical out the choices.

I do have a nitpick. While the twin Thunderbolt 5 ports are wonderful to see, they’re each on the identical aspect of the laptop computer (the suitable flank). I’d want to see one of many ports on the rear, as it might assist decrease cable muddle when connecting the laptop computer to a dock.

Wireless connectivity is robust, too. The laptop computer helps Wi-Fi 7E and Bluetooth 5.4, that are the newest variations of every customary.

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: CPU Performance

While the Raider 18 HX AI gives many notable options, together with a Mini-LED show and Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, efficiency is the rationale to purchase the laptop computer. It has an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX processor with a complete of 24 CPU cores (8 efficiency and 16 environment friendly cores) with a most turbo clock of 5.5GHz. That’s paired with Nvidia’s new RTX 5080, which has a complete of 7,680 shader cores, 240 tensor items, and 16GB of GDDR7 reminiscence on a 256-bit reminiscence bus.

That’s not all. The Raider 18 HX AI helps gobs of RAM; the mannequin I examined had 64GB of DDR5-6400 reminiscence. It additionally shipped with a 4TB PCIe Gen 5 strong state drive.

Unless in any other case famous, the outcomes proven beneath signify the Extreme Performance and Discrete Graphics mode, which have been the default when the laptop computer arrived.

So, how does it carry out?

IDG / Matthew Smith

PCMark 10 places the Raider 18 off to a modest begin with an unimaginable but barely underwhelming rating of 8,538.

This is a particularly excessive consequence that’s about 1,000 factors increased than related high-end laptops bought final 12 months. However, a number of older laptops, just like the Lenovo Legion 9i, achieved a better rating.

IDG / Matthew Smith

The MSI Raider 18 HX AI completely buzzsaws by way of our Handbrake, a long-duration check that transcodes a feature-length film.

Well, it’s normally an extended length. The Raider 18 destroyed the check in simply over six minutes, a really unimaginable consequence. Intel Core i9-14900HX methods, the quickest we’d examined up till this level, required greater than 8 minutes to finish the identical activity.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Cinebench R24, a closely multi-threaded benchmark, proved that Handbrake wasn’t only a fluke. The Raider 18 achieved a rating of two,195, which is a number of hundred factors higher than Intel Core i9-14900HX laptops. As the graph exhibits, the Raider 18 is roughly twice as quick as laptops just like the Asus ProArtwork P16 and MSI Stealth 16 AI, neither of which I’d name sluggish.

In abstract, the Raider 18’s common efficiency is great and led by an extremely fast CPU. The laptop computer will crank by way of multi-threaded, CPU-heavy duties with ease.

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: GPU efficiency

Clearly, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX is a little bit of a monster. It slams by way of multi-core benchmarks to ship record-setting outcomes. Despite that, it arguably performs second fiddle to the true star of the present: Nvidia’s new RTX 5080 cell, which, on this laptop computer, can faucet right into a most of 175 watts of graphics energy. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

The RTX 5080 will get the Raider 18 off to a terrific begin with a 3DMark Time Spy rating of 21,152. That squeezes by older RTX 4090 laptops, just like the Lenovo Legion 9i, to set a file amongst laptops we’ve examined.

3DMark Port Royal, a ray-traced benchmark, is sort of as favorable to the Raider 18. Here the laptop computer scored 14,044. While that’s barely behind the Lenovo Legion 9i, which scored 14,485, it’s an enchancment over laptops with Nvidia RTX 4080 cell, which generally scored 11,000 to 12,000 on this benchmark.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Moving on to actual video games, I fired up Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Though an older title, it’s consultant of the perfect of the PS4/Xbox One console era and nonetheless seems to be wonderful on fashionable {hardware}.

Unsurprisingly, the RTX 5080 can actually crank by way of this title even with out DLSS enabled. It achieved 194 frames per second at 1080p and Highest element with ray tracing turned off. That’s not fairly pretty much as good as an RTX 4090, nevertheless it’s a little bit of an improve over the RTX 4080 (how a lot so depends upon the wattage of the GPU).

The RTX 5080’s efficiency offers the MSI Raider 18 AI lots of headroom for improved settings (for instance, enjoying at 4K and Highest element resulted in a median of 100 FPS).

IDG / Matthew Smith

Next up is Metro Exodus which, although additionally getting on in years, is notoriously tough to run at its increased element settings. As the graph exhibits, nevertheless, the Raider 18 with RTX 5080 supplies a top-flight consequence, averaging 94 FPS at 1080p and Extreme element. That principally ties the Lenovo Legion 9i with RTX 4090, and it’s a terrific consequence.

Let’s wrap up with a extra fashionable graphical showcase: Cyberpunk 2077. Though it’s now a number of years outdated, CD Projekt Red has launched quite a few updates that embrace the newest graphics options from AMD and Nvidia, and it stays a troublesome sport to deal with at 4K decision with ray tracing turned on.

I started by testing Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS turned off at 1080p decision. The Raider 18 spat out a median of 149 frames per second (FPS) on the Ultra preset (with out ray tracing). That was drastically slashed to a decrease, however nonetheless playable, 42 FPS within the Overdrive ray-traced preset. While 42 might sound low, the MSI Stealth 18 AI Studio with RTX 4080 solely hit 32 FPS on the identical settings.

With that out of the way in which, I modified the decision to 4K (3,840 x 2,160) and tried the benchmarks with DLSS 3 (together with 3x body era and the brand new DLSS Transformer Model) turned on. In this case, Cyberpunk 2077 averaged 172 FPS with the Ultra preset and 129 FPS with the Overdrive ray-traced preset.

Overall, the RTX 5080 cell seems to be sturdy, although precisely how sturdy depends upon your perspective on DLSS and expectations for gen-on-gen efficiency positive factors. Without DLSS, the RTX 5080 within the MSI Raider 18 is about 10 to 20 p.c faster than related RTX 4080 laptops. With it, the RTX 5080 can enhance efficiency considerably.

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: AI efficiency

I loaded LM Studio to provide some widespread AI giant language fashions a spin. Here, you face two potentialities.

The great amount of system reminiscence (64GB) means you possibly can load slightly giant fashions, like Google’s Gemma 3 27B and even Llama 3 70B, although this requires that they run on the CPU. This offers you entry to some succesful fashions, however the per-token efficiency received’t be nice. Gemma-3-27B averaged 6.29 tokens per second.

Alternatively, you possibly can load fashions on the RTX 5080. This route will present a lot sooner responses, nevertheless it’s solely potential to load smaller fashions because the RTX 5080 solely has 16GB of reminiscence. Deepseek-R1-Distill-Qwen-7B blazed away at a outstanding 100.21 tokens per second and had a time to first token of .22 seconds, which is a really clean expertise.

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: PCIe 5.0 strong state drive efficiency

The MSI Raider 18 is among the many first laptops to supply a PCIe 5.0 strong state drive. In truth, the Raider 18 I examined had a pair of 2TB PCIe 5.0 SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration.

And wow, it’s quick. CrystalDiskMark’s SEQ1M QT1 check reported learn speeds of 13,031 MB/s and write speeds of 9,140 MB/s. For reference, most laptops with a PCIe Gen 4 drive will obtain about 4,000 to 7,000 MB/s, relying on the drive used.

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: It’s loud and sizzling

Clearly, the MSI Raider 18 HX AI is a performer. It completely demolished CPU benchmarks and scored nicely in GPU benchmarks. However, this additionally leads to lots of fan noise and sizzling floor temperatures. If you propose to play demanding video games, like Cyberpunk 2077, you’re going to need noise-canceling headphones.

This isn’t MSI’s fault. Modern {hardware} is extra power-hungry than it as soon as was, so elevated fan noise and warmer floor temps are inevitable. And, to MSI’s credit score, I believe the cooling system within the Raider 18 has an inoffensive acoustic profile. It’s not grating or high-pitched—nevertheless it’s definitely loud.

Choosing a much less aggressive efficiency profile, like Balanced, will cut back fan noise a bit, nevertheless it’s nonetheless noisy when the CPU and GPU are getting hammered. Shoppers who plan to totally use the Raider 18’s spectacular efficiency ought to put money into noise-canceling headphones.

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: Battery life

The MSI Raider 18 HX AI tries to supply satisfactory battery life with an enormous 99 watt-hour battery, the biggest capability out there in fashionable laptops (as a consequence of FAA restrictions on battery measurement for carry-on objects).

However, the laptop computer ships with a 400-watt energy adapter, and MSI says it might probably make the most of a complete energy of 260 watts. It received’t use that a lot energy when on battery, however nonetheless, you possibly can start to see the issue. 260 watts is much more than 99.

IDG / Matthew Smith

And, nicely, the outcomes are apparent.

I measured a bit lower than 4 hours of battery life in our customary battery check, which loops a 4K file of the brief movie Tears of Steel. I examined the laptop computer within the Hybrid Graphics mode.

This is just not a demanding check, nevertheless it nonetheless put the Raider 18’s battery life nicely into the only digits and behind most related laptops.

MSI Raider 18 HX AI: Conclusion

The MSI Raider 18 HX AI is a {hardware} showcase. It has an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX that units new data in a number of benchmarks, and an Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU with efficiency near RTX 4090, and a pair of PCIe 5.0 strong state drives that hit blistering learn speeds of simply over 13,000 MB/s. It additionally has a vivid Mini-LED show.

These benefits come alongside sensible downsides. The Raider 18 is heavy, and the battery doesn’t final lengthy. I wasn’t a fan of the keyboard or touchpad, both.

The MSI Raider 18 HX is an honest worth. That may be exhausting to consider given the laptop computer’s practically $4,500 MSRP, however for those who take a tour by way of Newegg or Best Buy product listings, you’ll discover most comparable 18-inch methods with RTX 50-series graphics have much less RAM, smaller strong state drives, and sometimes a much less succesful model of the Intel Core Ultra 9 processor. The Raider 18 HX feels constructed to supply top-tier efficiency throughout as many duties as potential, whereas its rivals (such because the Gigabyte Aorus Master 18 and Asus ROG Strix 18) are extra targeted on gaming efficiency.

Of course, not everybody wants top-tier CPU efficiency, 64GB of RAM, or 4TB of PCIe 5 storage. But if you’d like a laptop computer that pushes the bounds of efficiency throughout CPU, GPU, and storage, the Raider 18 HX is a superb alternative.