Review MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG

MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG: The MSI GT76 

Titan DT 9SG is an excellent choice if you:

• Are a gamer and want to play all games with ultra quality settings

• Want the best in terms of hardware

• Don't mind paying a premium price for a premium device

     BUY NOW

Pros and cons

There are many good things to say about the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG gaming laptop:

• It features one of the best desktop processors of the moment (Intel Core i9-9900K)
• The graphics card can handle both 4K gaming and VR experiences (Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080)
• The display on the model we tested has a high 240 Hz refresh rate, which is great for competitive gaming
• The chassis is well built, with high-quality materials
• Its oversized cooling system can keep the hardware cool, even in the most demanding situations
• Support for Wi-Fi 6 means fast network connections
• There's a good selection of ports
• Showcases plenty of RGB lights, on its front, back, and keyboard
• The battery is unexpectedly good considering how powerful this laptop is
• Offers a lot of upgrade options (SSD, HDD, RAM)

There are also a few downsides to consider:

• The display does not have support for Nvidia G-Sync
• The cooling system is noisy when the fans are running at full speed
• The price is not for everyone
• The laptop is heavy, and it has two power adapters

Verdict

The MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG is a monstrosity that definitely earns its Titan name. We can't really think of it as a laptop, because it is huge and tough like a tank, and appears to be working on steroids. MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG features a desktop processor and its top of the line graphics card can handle any game at maxed visual settings. Together with the SSD setup and the large (and upgradeable) RAM, this beast can't be stopped by anything, whether you're into competitive gaming or if you need to run demanding software for video editing or CAD. If money is not something that you're concerned about, the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG is an excellent desktop replacement that you should consider buying.

Unboxing the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG

The MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG comes in a large box, made from premium hardened cardboard. Its design is minimalist, showcasing only the MSI logo and some thin red lines.

The package of the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG

Inside the box, there's the laptop tucked inside a protective textile bag, along with two power adapters, two power cables, a power adapter converter (to which you connect the two power bricks, and its plug goes into the laptop), a cleaning cloth, a SATA adapter, useful if you want to add a hard disk drive, a few screws, the user documentation, and the warranty.

MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG: What's inside the box

Unpacking the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG is a straightforward experience. Once you take everything out of the box, you can see that the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG looks impressive and feels like a tank. :)

Design and hardware specifications

The MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG is not a laptop for those who can't live with a BIG computing machine on their desks. This laptop is larger than life, both in terms of performance and in sheer physical size. It has 15.63 x 13 x 1.65 inches or 39.7 x 33 x 4.2 cm in size, and it weighs 9.25 pounds or 4.2 kg.

The MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG gaming laptop

And that's without the two 230 watts power bricks, each of them weighing about 1.65 pounds (0.75 kg), thus adding another 2.3 pounds (1.5 kg) to the total weight you have to carry. That means that if you want to take the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG with you, you're going to have to transport at least 11.55 pounds (5.7 kg).

The MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG has two power adapters

Both the size and weight are justified if you take a look at the hardware inside this laptop. It features a very powerful Intel Core i9 desktop processor and the best mobile graphics card available at this point: Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080. They run fast, and they create quite a lot of heat, so the laptop needs an efficient cooling system. To tackle this issue, MSI mounted some oversized heat pipes and coolers on the laptop, and those add a lot of weight and volume. If you're looking at the back of the laptop, you can see what we're talking about. That is where the laptop has a large protrusion with huge heat exhausts.

A view of the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG from the back

It's also worth taking a look at the bottom of the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG, where it has a large air grille through which you can see just how many copper heat pipes are found inside it.

The bottom of the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG has a large air grille

Also, regarding the design, we would like to point out that, even if the laptop uses rather subtle black and gray colors all over, there are plenty of RGB lights on it, that are going to draw a lot of attention. There are RGB lights on the front edge of the laptop, on its bumpy back, and also on its SteelSeries keyboard.

MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG has RGB lights on the front, back, and keyboard

The display on the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG is a matte LCD with a diagonal size of 17.3 inches, built using the IPS technology which means large viewing angles, good contrast, and vivid colors. Furthermore, there are two types of IPS panels that you can choose from: one with a 4K resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels and a 60 Hz refresh rate, and the other one with a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels but a much higher refresh rate of 240 Hz. We've tested the latter, which is especially recommended for competitive gameplay, because of its extreme refresh rate. The only thing missing here is the lack of G-Sync support.

MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG can have an ultra-fast display with a refresh rate of 240 Hz

This laptop is called Titan for a reason: the hardware inside is what you'd call larger-than-life. You can equip it with various 9th Gen Intel Core processors, up to Intel Core i9. MSI doesn't enumerate all the CPU models on the laptop's specifications web page, because they differ depending on your region.

The MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG that we tested was equipped with an Intel Core i9-9900K processor running at a base speed of 3600 MHz and at an impressive turbo speed of 5 GHz.

MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG: Details about the processor

However, the CPU appears to have been limited to a maximum frequency of 4.8 GHz by the manufacturer. That's not an issue because you can manually change its configuration, as this specific CPU model has an unlocked multiplier and was designed for desktop computers, not for laptops, so it's even more impressive that MSI managed to use it in a laptop and keep it cool!

MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG: The Intel Core i9-990K usually reaches 4.8 GHz

This beast of a gaming laptop supports a maximum of 128 GB of DDR4 RAM running at a frequency of 2666 MHz. To fit all that memory inside it, there are four DIMM slots that you can use: two of them are under the backplate, and the other two are found under the keyboard. The MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG that we reviewed had 32 GB of RAM, which is more than enough for any game.

MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG: Details about the RAM

And we've arrived at the graphics cards. There are two of them on the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG: the onboard Intel UHD Graphics 630 that's built into the processor, and a discrete, top of the line, NVIDIA Geforce RTX 2080 with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory.

MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG: Details about the Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 graphics card

This laptop is also impressive when it comes to the storage options that it offers. It has one M.2 SSD slot with support for NVMe PCIe Gen 3, and two M.2 SSD Combo ports with support for NVMe PCIe Gen 3 and SATA. Additionally, there's yet another port available for mounting a 2.5-inch SATA hard disk drive. The sample that we tested came with two 1 TB Samsung solid-state drives in RAID 0 configuration.

MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG: Details about the two SSDs in RAID configuration

The MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG is also well positioned at the top of the ranking ladder in terms of network connectivity. It comes with a Killer E3000 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet card that's capable of data transfers of up to 2500 Mbps, and also with a Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650x 160MHz wireless network adapter that can run data transfers at up to 650 Mbps. The Wi-Fi module also offers support for Bluetooth version 5, which is useful for connecting peripherals and other Bluetooth devices such as wireless mice, keyboards, or speakers.

The audio is handled by a set of powerful built-in stereo speakers, each with a power of 2 watts, and a 3-watts subwoofer. The speakers are made by Dynaudio, and the software is delivered by Nahimic.

The MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG has a 2.1 Dynaudio speaker system

Regarding ports, you get quite a few on this gaming laptop, and all of them are positioned on its left and right sides. On the left, there is one microphone port, one headphone port (HiFi / SPDIF), one USB Type-C port with support for USB3.2 Gen2, DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt 3, two USB3.2 Gen2 Type-A ports, one RJ45 Ethernet port, and the AC adapter plug.

The ports found on the left side of the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG

On the right side of the laptop, there's one USB3.2 Gen2 Type-C port, two USB3.2 Gen2 Type-A ports, one microSD card reader, one HDMI port with support for 4K resolution at 60 Hz, and one mini DisplayPort.

The ports found on the right side of the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG

When it is not connected to an electrical power source, the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG gets its autonomy from an 8-cell Li-Ion battery that can produce 90 watts per hour. Although this is a powerful laptop, meant as a desktop replacement rather than a portable device, it's good to see that MSI equipped it with a large battery. It's also nice to see that, although the laptop has two power adapters, they both connect to a converter, from which only one plug goes out into the laptop's power plug.

The two power adapters connect to a converter that merges their cable into one plug

Regarding the operating system, MSI delivers the MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG either with Windows 10 Home or with Windows 10 Pro. The manufacturer's recommendation is to go with Windows 10 Pro.

For more details about the features and technical specifications of this laptop, visit GT76 Titan Specifications

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The MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG laptop has all the specs it needs to earn its title of Titan. It's a monster laptop that can handle anything and run any game at maxed graphics quality.