MSI Titan 18 HX is a completely new gaming notebook design from a Taiwanese manufacturer. Not only the casing itself has been redesigned, but also the cooling system to better cope with the currently most powerful components in the form of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU as well as the Intel Core i9-14900HX processor. In addition, there is also a new screen that looks great on the back of the vast majority of notebook matrices. In terms of performance, we can also count on a lot in the presented MSI Titan 18 HX device. The most powerful graphics system from the Ada Lovelace generation is additionally supported by NVIDIA RTX technologies, which in turn strongly benefit from machine learning and dedicated 4th generation Tensor cores.

MSI Titan 18 HX is a notebook aimed at the most demanding gamers. Top specification, access to NVIDIA RTX technology and an excellent quality 4K+ screen with Mini LED make it a solid piece of equipment.

MSI Titan 18 HX test – Gaming notebook with Intel Core i9-14900HX, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 and a great HDR screen

MSI decided to thoroughly refresh the appearance of the flagship Titan series and as a result, the new Titan 18 HX practically does not resemble its predecessors at all. First of all, it has become neater, more minimalist and at the same time much nicer than before. In addition, there is also a changed appearance of the cooling system and the outlets themselves – the latter have blue visual accents that fit perfectly with the black and silver casing of the notebook. The cooling system itself now has two fans connected to a large vapor chamber that ensures the smooth operation of both the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU and the Intel Core i9-14900HX processor. Suffice it to say that when loaded with games, the Ada Lovelace system heats up to a maximum of 63 degrees.

MSI Titan 18 HX also has a completely new screen on board and, at least for now, the matrix used here cannot be found in devices from other manufacturers. This time, the Taiwanese company is focusing on an 18-inch IPS display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a resolution of 3840 x 2400 pixels. The IPS screen is supported by advanced, zoned backlighting with Mini LED diodes. In addition, there is almost 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space and a 240 Hz refresh rate. The average luminance in SDR mode reaches 700 nits, while in HDR it can exceed the threshold of 1000 nits. In addition, the HDR quality in games is excellent, which is mainly due to the very high contrast and excellent black quality. All this makes the image in the MSI Titan 18 HX an absolute pleasure to look at.

MSI Titan 18 HX, in addition to the top graphics system and processor, also has many advantages in terms of RAM and SSD media. Thanks to the use of 14th generation Intel Core chips, the new MSI Titan 18 HX supports a maximum of 192 GB of DDR5 RAM, placed in a total of four SO-DIMM slots (4x 48 GB). For demanding users who need super-fast SSD media, the manufacturer has prepared three M.2 slots, including one compatible with the PCIe 5.0 x4 standard, while the other two support PCIe 4.0 x4 SSD media. This makes it possible to create an extremely fast platform not only for gaming, but also for creative work (preparing videos or editing photos).

MSI again uses a keyboard with mechanical switches in its flagship notebook, although this time the numeric block has been slightly modified, which also affects the arrangement of individual keys. The mechanical keyboard has a much deeper and more perceptible key travel and is perfect especially for games. Additionally, there is an extensive backlight system, compatible with the MSI Mystic Light system. The backlighting of each key can be programmed separately, thanks to which we can achieve a highly personalized effect. In addition, there is a unique touchpad whose surface has been almost completely integrated with the rest of the housing (in the area under the keyboard, of course) and which also has an advanced 5-zone backlight that can be adjusted in the application included with the notebook.

We can adjust the performance of the MSI Titan 18 HX using the MSI Center application, where we can smoothly switch between several operating modes: Extreme performance, balanced mode or a mode focused on longer battery life. In the application, we can also decide whether we want the graphics system to be directly connected to the screen (physical MUX button offering maximum dGPU performance) or whether we want the switching to take place automatically between the integrated system and a separate GeForce RTX 4090 (lower power consumption for undemanding activities at the expense of slightly lower gaming performance). As we have the most powerful NVIDIA system at our disposal, there is support for all NVIDIA RTX technologies, including DLSS in a triple formula: Super Resolution, Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction. Not to mention Ray Tracing or Path Tracing.