MSI's Titan 18 Pro Ryzen Edition ships with monster specs — Ryzen 9 7945HX3D returns alongside RTX 4090

News
By
published

3D V-Cache comes back to laptops in a major way

MSI Titan 18 Pro Ryzen, from MSI JD store
(Image credit: MSI)

MSI has launched a new flagship gaming laptop: the Titan 18 Pro Ryzen Edition. The new laptop brings the familiar high-end performance and stylings of the Titan 18 line, powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D. This marks the second-ever appearance of the 7945HX3D in a laptop after its first release in the Asus ROG Scar 17 X3D one year ago. 

Spotted by VideoCardz on Chinese shopping website JD.com, the laptop's specs match the original Titan 18 Pro, with the same RTX 4090 graphics card and the Intel Core i9-14900HX processor replaced with the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D. The storage and RAM see upgrades over both the Pro and HX variants of the Titan 18, with the Ryzen Edition launching at a max spec of 96GB RAM and a 4TB PCIe Gen5 SSD. The original Pro and more expensive HX variants of the laptop have a maximum of 64GB RAM and PCIe Gen4 SSDs, though the Intel variants run two 2TB SSDs paired in RAID-0. Another sacrifice for leaving behind Intel processors is the loss of Thunderbolt 4.

The display remains the same: an endgame-worthy 18-inch 240Hz IPS panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio (2560x1600 resolution) and DisplayHDR 1000 certification. The SteelSeries RGB mechanical keyboard is a slight downgrade from the top-of-the-line Titan 18 HX's Cherry MX Brown Ultra-Thin switches. The laptop is currently only available for purchase through JD.com for sale in China and starts at 21,999 RMB ($3,030); this starting price will get you only 32GB RAM and 1TB storage. 

The Titan 18 Pro Ryzen Edition laptop is releasing at an odd time. While the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is a powerful chip, and it is exciting to see it released on another computer, it may only be AMD's highest-end laptop chip for a few more weeks. Strix Point will hit shelves with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 mobile APU on July 15th, and early Geekbench results show it beating the 7945HX3D in single-core performance even while not hitting max clock speeds. That said, the 7945HX3D still handily takes the lead in multi-core performance, and Strix Point is not likely to ever see a laptop release alongside an RTX 4090 and nearly 100GB of RAM. 

For an idea of the performance of the MSI Titan 18 Pro Ryzen Edition's older brother, you can read our review of the MSI Titan 18 HX here. We outfitted it with all the fixings for an eye-watering $5,400 and certainly weren't disappointed with its performance.

Dallin Grimm
Dallin Grimm
Contributing Writer

Dallin Grimm is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has been building and breaking computers since 2017, serving as the resident youngster at Tom's. From APUs to RGB, Dallin has a handle on all the latest tech news. 

See more Gaming Laptops News
3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • KnightShadey
    Admin said:
    MSI launches a new super high-end laptop on Chinese e-commerce site JD.com sporting the second-ever sighting of the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D, making it the second-ever laptop with 3D V-Cache. The new model will be in the $3,000 range, with specs to match.

    MSI's Titan 18 Pro Ryzen Edition ships with monster specs — Ryzen 9 7945HX3D returns alongside RTX 4090 : Read more
    'bout time, the 17" models are lacking (keyboard sucked too buf Titan is CherryMX like Alienware) and odd configurations with most 4080/4090s gone a couola weeks ago, and just 4070s left here north of the 49th.

    If AMD's strix has a bug or gets delayed, will likely be getting a dozen of these... but would prefer they were selling for the Same price as dell's Alienwares... but that's unlikely given the newness in the 18" chassis. Would still prefer a good strix solution for ppwer and efficiency, but we can't always get what we want.... so... Tryin' Real Hard... to get what we need. 😎🤙

    Edit: Oooh and 96GB of RAM as an OEM option likely means I can upgrade them all to 128 (2x2R like Alienwaare) probably for less than 64GB would cost from MSI. OK,,so still no TB4, but hope at least a single USB 4, as it's the only thing Alienware is sorely missing.
    Reply
  • The original Pro and more expensive HX variants of the laptop have a maximum of 64GB RAM and PCIe Gen4 SSDs, though the Intel variants run two 2TB SSDs paired in RAID-0. Another sacrifice for leaving behind Intel processors is the loss of Thunderbolt 4.

    The display remains the same: an endgame-worthy 18-inch 240Hz IPS panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio (2560x1600 resolution) and DisplayHDR 1000 certification.

    FYI, MSI has several Titan 18 models, some exclusive only for the Asian markets. So the specs are not consistent either, and a direct comparison would be tricky.

    The original Titan 18 HX Intel series models feature 4 DDR5 memory slots for up to 192GB expansion, and 3 M.2 SSD slots (1 PCIe Gen5, 2 PCIe Gen4).

    So yes, they also have support for Gen5 SSDs. Again this depends on which model we are comparing here.

    Titan 18 HX Intel model: "2x M.2 SSD slot (NVMe PCIe Gen4), 1x M.2 SSD slot (NVMe PCIe Gen5) Compatible"
    The display remains the same: an endgame-worthy 18-inch 240Hz IPS panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio (2560x1600 resolution) and DisplayHDR 1000 certification.

    Depends on which Model we are comparing this Ryzen laptop with. The original comes in two flavors:

    18” UHD+ (3840x2400), MiniLED, 120Hz
    18” QHD+ (2560x1600), 240Hz, IPS-Level

    The original Pro and more expensive HX variants of the laptop have a maximum of 64GB RAM

    No, the Intel HX variants support either 128GB, or max 192GB DDR5 memory. Even the review page says so, 128GB DDR5-5600 (32GB x 4):

    https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/gaming-laptops/msi-titan-18-hx-review

    While the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is a powerful chip, and it is exciting to see it released on another computer, it may only be AMD's highest-end laptop chip for a few more weeks. Strix Point will hit shelves with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 mobile APU on July 15th, and early Geekbench results show it beating the 7945HX3D in single-core performance even while not hitting max clock speeds.

    But do realize that we are talking about a high-end gaming Laptop here from MSI. That's why this is paired with a 175 Watts GPU like the RTX 4090, with max TDP varying between 250-270 W depending on the model.

    That's also why the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D's graphics capabilities are pretty weak, with the CPU only sporting a 2 CU count "610M" graphics processor.

    Strix Point CPU Laptops on the other hand, target a different market segment. High-end gaming is most certainly not one of them, IMO. Yes, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 can easily beat the above "Dragon Range" APU, but Strix Point laptops won't come paired with high end discrete laptop GPUs.

    And the 16 CU count 890M iGPU in the flagship in itself is powerful than the 2 CU count 610M igpu.
    Reply
  • KnightShadey
    Metal Messiah. said:
    FYI, MSI has several Titan 18 models, some exclusive only for the Asian markets.
    Agreed, but still hopin' for a break in our luck these past few weeks.
    I didn't know about the 192GB config for the intel variant, good to know.🤙
    Hope for anything above 64GB is always nice.
    Reply