Raider GE68 HX 13V (240Hz QHD, Intel Core i7-13700HX, RTX 4070, 32GB RAM, 2TB SS

At the recently held CES 2023, MSI unveiled its latest lineup of RTX 40-series gaming laptops—including the new Raider GE78 HX. It is the successor to last year’s Raider GE77 HX and builds on it with new Intel “Raptor Lake” chips and changes to the display, thermals, audio, and more. So, let’s get into the specs, features, expected price, and availability of the MSI Raider GE78 HX gaming laptop in Nepal.

MSI Raider GE78 HX Overview:

CPU and GPU

The new Raider GE78 HX is not the most powerful laptop in MSI’s portfolio — that title goes to the Titan GT77 HX. But it is no slouch either. It packs the latest 13th Gen Intel “Raptor Lake” mobile processors. You can configure it up to the top-of-the-line Core i9-13980HX. The 24 cores of the chip include 8 Performance and 16 Efficient ones—with a maximum clock speed of up to 5.6GHz and 5.2GHz, respectively. MSI expects a 45% performance boost compared to Intel i9-12900HX last year.

MSI has not compromised on the graphics front either. The Raider GE78 HX packs the three most powerful GPUs off the new RTX 40 series mobile. This base variant of the laptop ships with RTX 4070 clocked at 140W with Dynamic Boost. Stepping up a bit gives you the RTX 4080 that can draw up to 175W power. Finally, the flagship model of the Raider GE78 HX pairs the Intel i9-12900HX with the full-fledged RTX 4090 with the 175W TDP.

All the Intel Core i9-13980HX variants will support MSI OverBoost Ultra Technology— allowing the maximum CPU-GPU power of 250W based on the workload.

Thermals

MSI has also made some changes to the cooling setup on the Raider GE78 HX. The new CoolerBoost 5 brings a new shared pipe design. There is a total of 6 heat pipes, including two heat pipes shared across the CPU and GPU and a dedicated pipe for VRAM.

Design and Display

Other than the high-end performance, design is the other factor that makes the MSI Raider GE78 HX really stand out from its colleagues. You will often spot MSI using the “Light ‘EM UP” tagline in Raider GE’s promotion. That is because these laptops come with a dedicated light bar. While last year’s GE77 HX had a smooth uninterrupted aurora light bar, MSI has replaced it with a new “Mystic Light Bar” with matrix cells.

Users can customize the lighting of the light bar as well as the per-key RGB keyboard through MSI Center or SteelSeries GG. Talking about the keyboard, the WASD and arrow keys are now translucent, which was not the case last year.

That aside, you get an all-black aluminum chassis with the red MSI dragon at the center. Lifting it will give you a proper view of the 17” IPS display. Here, you are offered the choice between 240Hz QHD and 165Hz FHD. MSI has finally changed to a taller 16:10 aspect ratio, giving users that extra bit of vertical space for productivity tasks.

Rest of the Specs

Fueling the new Raider GE78 HX is the industry-standard 99Whr battery with four cells. The RTX 4090 and 4080 variant ship with a 330W adapter, whereas the RTX 4070 models do away with a 280W adapter. Connectivity-wise, you get 3x USB-C, 2x USB-A, 1x HDMI, 1x SD card reader, 1x RJ45, and 1x combined audio jack. These ports are distributed across the side and rear panels.

Over on the audio front, you now get a 6-speaker setup consisting of four woofers—tuned by Dynaudio.

MSI Raider GE78 HX Specifications

• Design & Build: Aluminum build with “Mystic Light” bar, 380 x 298 x 23-mm (W x D x H), 3.1 kg
• Color Options: Core Black
• Display: 17″ IPS-Level, 100% DCI-P3, 165/240Hz
• Resolution: FHD+ /QHD, 16:10 aspect ratio
• Keyboard: Per-Key RGB Keyboard by SteelSeries
• Trackpad: Precision touchpad (130 x 82)
• Processor: up to 13th Gen Intel “Raptor Lake” Core i9-13980HX, 24C/32T, 5.6GHz Max Turbo Frequency
• Graphics: up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (175W with Dynamic Boost)
• RAM: up to 64GB DDR5-5600 RAM
• Storage: up to 2TB SSD
• Audio: 2x 2W speaker + 4x 2W woofers, Tuned by Dynaudio
• Battery: 4-cell 99.99 Watt-hours
• Power Supply: 280/330W Adapter
• Webcam: 1080p FHD camera with IR sensor
• Connectivity: Killer AX WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
• I/O Ports: 1x Thunderbolt 4, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (DisplayPort), 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (DisplayPort, Power Delivery), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet, 1x Micro SD card reader, 1x 3.5mm audio jack