I ditched my office desktop PC for a gaming laptop, and it’s a serious productivity upgrade

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Usually, when I start reviewing a new gaming laptop, I get lost in the experience. I’m a huge gamer, and there have been many times when I’ve burned one of these machines out of work because I enjoyed playing my favorite titles on it. My budget desktop cannot be compared. I had that a few weeks ago when I was testing the MSI Raider 16 Max HXone of the company’s latest models.

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What makes this laptop particularly attractive is the purposeful hardware upgrade. It still suffers from some of the same issues that are common in its category, but Raider 16 does an excellent job of mitigating those issues while providing the experience players expect.

Smart design

To me, it seems that MSI took inspiration from the latest design trends. Over the past few years, I’ve seen manufacturers turn to smaller gaming laptops. The stereotypical bulky design is slowly becoming a thing of the past. The Raider 16 measures 14.29 x 10.62 x 0.86 inches and weighs 5.73 pounds. For comparison, the old Raider GE68 HX measures 14.97 x 11.73 x 1.09 inches and weighs 6.06 pounds.

That said, it’s still a big machine with a thick black frame. Traveling with it can be cumbersome, although I appreciate the wide I/O coverage its size allows. The larger size appears to be due to the new cooling system MSI installed on the Raider 16.

I’ll go deeper into the cooling system later, but first I want to highlight one of my favorite features: the Quick Access Panel. Found under the chassis is a small panel held in place by two small screws. Removing it gives users direct access to SSD and memory slots. You will find pre-installed parts of the device there, as well as additional slots for upgrades.

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Installing an additional drive or memory stick is very easy. All you have to do is remove the small mounting screw, slide in the new parts, and secure them in place. That’s all. The SSD I installed was already formatted, so I was able to use the extra 4TB from scratch. For people planning to upgrade their systems, this is a great quality of life feature, and something I wish more laptops offered.

Bright illustrations

Befitting a high-end gaming laptop, the MSI Raider 16 Max HX features a 16-inch, 2.5K Quad HD+ (2560×1600) OLED screen. It’s surprising. Colors are vibrant, the panel displays impressive detail, and, thanks to VESA DisplayHDR True Black 1000, contrast is deep. The display isn’t a 4K resolution, which may disappoint some, but I don’t think that’s a big deal given the fast 240Hz refresh rate. In my opinion, a high refresh rate is more important than resolution, as it ensures that the in-game animations work well. This is important in titles where having smooth gameplay is the difference between winning or losing.

I had a great time playing Monster Hunter Wilds on this monitor. It made the game’s monsters look incredible.

In one scene, I fought this huge, stone monster, and the display showed amazing detail on its scales, wings, and claws. I could clearly make out the wear and tear of the stones embedded in its skin, alongside the visible damage that appeared as the battle progressed. My experience was further enhanced by the powerful speakers. The sound feels dense and weighty. I could hear the guttural sound behind the creature’s roar, adding more immersion.

In addition to gaming, the display is well suited for content creators working on visually demanding tasks, from graphic design to photo editing and video production.

Elite performance

MSI Raider 16 Max HX is powered by hard-tier hardware. My review unit was equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU. Below, you’ll find a benchmark comparison table that shows how the MSI Raider 16 Max HX stacks up against other high-end laptops.

As you can see, the results are sky high, outperforming other high end machines like Alienware 16 Area-51 and Lenovo Legion 9i. In everyday use, it’s incredibly fast, easily handling resource-hungry games without stuttering while simultaneously pushing frame rates into the triple digits. Outside of gaming, the Raider 16 is more than capable of high-resolution video projects. I edited a video of an old drone to see how it handles creative work in real time. Timeline parsing felt responsive, video playback was smooth, and sending the finished file took no time.

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One of the biggest strengths of a laptop is its ability to maintain stable performance for long sessions without excessive shaking. MSI’s Raider can double as a workstation, even if it isn’t one.

To ensure that the Raider 16 performs well, MSI has redesigned several internal components. The company told me it made the motherboard more compact, allowing for larger fans. It has “vacuum-enhanced heat pipes” that move heat towards the cooling fins, and a series of fans that pull in cool air and push warm air out of the five vents. I must say, everything works well. No matter how hard I pushed the laptop, it remained cool to the touch.

Another benefit is the reduction of fan noise. MSI claims the fans produce less than 50 decibels of noise under load. To test this claim, I used several decibel meter apps downloaded from the Google Play Store. Fan noise is around 50 decibels, according to these apps. One had it high, one low, and another 50 decibels, so the claim seems strong. To give you a better idea, 50 decibels is equal to the hum of a refrigerator.

ZDNET shopping advice

If you would like to take my configuration review of the MSI Raider 16 Max HX, available at Micro Center for $3,500. Micro Center also offers affordable Raiders 16 the price is about $2,500. That version keeps the same Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and 32GB of RAM, but replaces the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 with an RTX 5070 Ti GPU.

No matter which configuration you choose, expect exceptional performance. I highly recommend MSI’s Raider 16 for its consistently strong performance, excellent cooling system, and OLED display. It’s the best option available right now for people looking for a machine for high-end gaming and work-intensive tasks.