MSI GP76 with 140W 3070 + MUX

​

MSI’s 11th generation GP76 Leopard rocks the same design as the ever short lived 10th faded behind the mirror. With a very simple design and color selection, the angular design at the back brings it with a little flare inside. From the outside, it may just look like an ordinary laptop but the power and performance that hide itself will blow a lot of the competition out of the water.
This MSI’s GP76 model that I have come with the latest 11th Generation Intel Core i7-11800H CPU paired with the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 runs at 140W (including Dynamic Boost 2.0 Technology). It also has 16GBs of RAM & 512GB of PCIe Gen4x4 SSD storage.

​

MSI’s built quality has never been lackluster and I could say the same for this generation for the GP76 despite it is just a refresh, yet is still striking to look at. The chassis looks very solid and very well build all around. The hinge on this laptop doesn’t allow the display going all the way back but still at a respectable 145 degrees.
The I/O Port selection comes with 3x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x HDMI, 1x MiniDP 1.4, 1x headphone & microphone combo and a DC in port.

​

The GP76 Leopard offers 2 display panel options namely a FHD 240Hz IPS-level or a QHD 165Hz IPS-level panel. Both panels are commendable, particularly with QHD being considered a trend in the coming years. With these panels, playing any games will not have any issue if you are a gamer looking to push the graphics to its limit.
Other than the visual aspect of the display, this GP76 Leopard dresses up with a MUX switch – nice though. This feature enables the switch between MSHybrid and Discrete Graphics Mode in the MSI Center. If you are on the move and not always plugging in the wall, MSHybrid can save you a bit of energy. However, if you switch to Discrete Graphics Mode, which requires a restart, you can unleash the full potential of the GPU without the bottleneck of the iGPU connection via the panel. This GP76 Leopard is definitely and uniquely catered for gamers.

​

The MSI GP76 Leopard gets one of the best coolers MSI can provide in their entire lineup of products. It has 2 high-capacity fans alongside with 6 heat pipes to carry out the heat from the CPU, GPU and the VRMs. Speaking of heat dissipation, the bottom of the chassis has a multiple cutouts for the ventilation for cool air to bring into for the fans to push heat out of the 4 exhaust vents.

​

MSI’s GP76 is using the keyboard similar to the ones on the GE76 Raider. The layout for this keyboard is added with a smaller Numpad area with a full-size arrow keys. Powering on the laptop greeted me with an orange or white color indicator on the power button to indicate which GPU is running which is indeed thoughtful.
The SteelSeries keyboard is quite nice to pair with a Per-Key backlit keyboard that is customizable in the SteelSeries Engine app on a laptop. The keys are some mushy but since it is a dome shape with 1.9mm key travel, it is pretty nice to type on once you get used to it after using it for a while.

​

​

Given it’s packed a full RTX 3070 with 140W TGP and an Intel Core i7-11800H, the MSI GP76 Leopard is an absolutely monster of a gaming laptop for any games you try including in its max out settings.
For the GPU’s configuration, the NVIDIA RTX 3070 laptop chip is running at 140W with Dynamic Boost 2.0 and also is resizable BAR support to help boost even more performance out of the GPU. You can play games like Shadow of Tomb Raider and Witcher 3 with over 100fps with max out settings. In another game, Cyberpunk 2077, you can see an average of 53fps on max out settings with DLSS on auto and Ray Tracing on.

​

For the CPU, the i7-11800H was featured a respectable CineBench R20 Single core score of 572 and Multi core score of a 5357 as well as CineBench R15 coming in with Single core score 229 and Multi core score of 1943. GP76 Leopard is a very suitable choice for any workload. The CPU or GPU doesn’t slouch in terms of power availability. Furthermore, in MSI Center, you can select different user scenario from Super Battery, Silent, Balance and Extreme Performance for any situations fits from the tiniest to releasing all of its performance with one click of a button.

​

The MSI GP76 Leopard achieves a really good results with our PCMark 10 & 3DMark TimeSpy and FireStrike for system performance. With these scores, this gaming laptop runs very smooth in everyday u
se and no micro stutter or delays while using this machine on a day to day basis.

​

All in all, this MSI GP76 Leopard is one of the laptops to purchase if you are looking for a subtle yet astonishingly fast machine. Being able to fit a 140W power on the NVIDIA’s RTX 3070 graphics card, a very fast Intel i7-11800H CPU paired with a very good thermal solution, a MUX switch that enables to switch to an even more powerful discrete graphics mode and a 240Hz FHD display is absolutely no brainer. It fits for any hardcore gamers.

​

 

After owning the GE76 Raider for around 1 week.
when I select the GPU Switch setting in Dragon Center software as Discrete GPU, the laptop must restarts.
Is it issue?
Does anyone have the same problem?

 

That's normal and intended.

 

Thanks for telling me!
Do u recommend undervolting?
Is there any app or method to know ?
Just curious about performance before and after undervolting.

 

Does G-Sync work when running discrete graphics?

 

You can try if you want to, MSI doesn’t block any undervolting setting in BIOS. The performance should better for sure but make sure you know what you do to avoid any problems. I ran several benchmark with -100 undervolting and used the setting for gameplay without any issue.

 

Not for this model but it can support G-sync monitor if you have any.

 

The scores in the OP were ran with the -100 mV undervolt right?

Also, with all the drivers installed, does your Power button work when the laptop is on? As in when you single press the Power button, does it do what you set it to do in the Power Options? Because mine doesn't seem to do anything (can't sleep/turn screen off/shutdown laptop).

 

The score isn't with undervolting, I ran with performance mode and with discrete graphics (you can select between hybrid mode and discrete mode with MSI software).

Btw, I don't have same power button issue as you mention.

 

UPDATE: I found that the power button options do indeed work, but you have to press them down for like 2 seconds, rather than the instant single press like before.

My older laptop was the GL73 (i7-8750H), which has the power button separated from the keyboard. Single instant press worked here.

This new laptop is the GP76 (i7-11800H), where the power button is part of the keyboard. Now I have to press down for a good 2 seconds.

 

MSI GP76 11ug with crucial 32gb (2x16gb) 3200mhz cl16 ballistix

Stock:


GPU OC 200/200:


Time spy oc 200/200:
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/21912101

 

Hello!
I have a MSI GP 66 11 UG with 11800H, What voltage do you use for the ram?
Was it easy to configure your new ram in bios?

 

@BergLake crucial works with 1.35v. My cl16 settings:

 

Thanks for sharing this!
I will order the same ram.
GEAR 1 works to?

 

Yes GEAR 1 also.

 

Thanks for this review.
If I understand correctly, the MUX switch only has 2 modes: dGPU only, or dGPU + iGPU through optimus.
Do you know of any gaming laptops running a true MUX switch (i.e, either completely discrete or completely integrated)?

 

My GT73VR at least. Always on Nvidia...

 

If You use optims (iGPU + dGPU) a dedicated graphics card is practically not used unless you run some 3D application. This way saves battery.

 

My current laptop uses Optimus. I simply hate it. Sometimes the switching algorithm 'hangs' and keeps the dGPU on (I see it through a red power led instead of white), and the stuttering happens even when I'm on desktop/battery only. I'm looking for something that runs like a ultrabook (iGPU only) and a discrete mode separately.

 

Does your laptop run on 'iGPU only', whenever you need the battery life?

 

Yes, but I never needed it so far.

 

Yes, but never needed it - so far just for gaming and always on AC. My older GT70 is for general use - and it has a blown GTX 680M ...

 

Here is my GP76 3070 11800H

4.6GHZ allcore
-70mw undervolt
Crucial Ballistix 3200mhz cl16 2x16gb XMP

+220 gpu core
+1500 gpu memory

Total 12082
GPU 12119
CPU 11878

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/23494108

 

I can relate to this. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get rid of it on Windows : sometimes it decides to power the dGPU on without asking and some things freeze during the process, like when I bring the notification panel, or when I log in/out, launch/quit the task manager, etc...

On Linux (Ubuntu 21.04 right now, but 21.10 soon), I achieved this though. There are three profiles available : intel, on-demand and nvidia. I set intel, and I remove the dGPU from the OS database too, otherwise it still tends to power on/off too often imo. Then whenever I want to fire up the dGPU I set the nvidia profile and rescan from the PCIe controller where the dGPU is connected, logout, login and that's it. (I use a slightly modified profile selection tool, so that the initrd doesn't get modified each and every time I change my profile)

I don't use the mux on Linux, I know Optimus introduces some latency but for now I'm OK with that. Plus I don't know how Dragon Center performs the switching procedure, so I don't know how to reproduce on Linux. There must be some BIOS mailbox command that's sent, but I don't know which one... That being said, it's possible to do the switch from the BIOS setup directly, so, should I need it, I know where to go, no big deal since a reboot is required anyway. (btw it's possible that the BIOS mailbox command is shown in the BIOS option description, in which case I may be able to achieve this from the OS directly, as is the case on Windows)