Verdict
A powerful machine for big - screen , high - refresh - rate gaming , though not one of the best all - rotund gaming laptops .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The MSI Pulse GL76 is a peachy laptop for a specific mathematical group of gamers . It ’s canonical spec is a piffling dated by the standards of some 2023 laptops , with the last - gen Intel Core i9 - 12900H CPU and an RTX 3070 GPU .
It has a thumping 17 - inch screen , but with a everyday 1920 x 1080 resolving . It ’s a decent - looking machine with the kind of belligerent styling hardcore gamers screw , but it does n’t have the flashy RGB inflammation you might see from some other MSI or Asus models . The MSI Pulse GL76 miss the wow ingredient .
It does have a projection screen with a ridiculous 360Hz refresh rate and a specification that ’s tight enough to keep that fed in the most popular eSports title . It ’ll flirt the likes ofElden Ringor Dead Space Remastered with the options middling much maxed out , but to see this laptop at its out-and-out safe , you really require to see it runningRainbow Six : Siege , CS : Go , Fortnite , Valorantand League of Legends . When chassis rate counts , it ’s an right-down smasher .
Design and Keyboard
MSI apparently based the design of the Pulse GL76 on a titanium grey armour design by construct creative person Maarten Verhoeven . you may sort of see the linkup between the sculpture plates of the gunmetal lid and the aegis of the armour , or the way of life the base of the machine and its vent are form , but the end upshot is n’t staggeringly different from other gaming laptop computer . The construction is square , if operose on the plastics , and a twosome of the edges feel slightly unsmooth at the bottom boundary of the base . In damage of primed and finish , it ’s not quite up there with more premium gaming models .
For connectivity , you get two USB Type - A ports on the odd - hand side , one USB 3.2 Gen 1 , one USB 2.0 , with another USB 3.2 Gen 1 on the right - hand side , along with a USB 3.2 Type C and an HDMI 2.1 . MSI has also squeezed in a Gigabit Ethernet port there , along with a 3.5 mm audio socket for a gaming headset . It ’s a bit disappointing not to see USB 3.2 Gen 2 x 2 or Thunderbolt 4 onboard – either would be useful for fast external storage – but at least you get Wi - Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 . I ’d really ask to see Wi - FI 6E on a laptop computer at this price point , but vanilla Wi - Fi 6 is immobile enough for on-line gaming .
I ’m in two minds about the keyboard on the Pulse GL76 . On the one hand , the actual action of the straight , flat - lead keys is pretty good , with a reasonable amount of travelling and a prissy crispy bounce back when released . They ’re not clicky , but that also entail they ’re tranquil if you ’re playing late at nighttime .
The layout seems unnecessarily cramped , particularly on the right - hand side where MSI has packed in a numeric computer keyboard with funnily undersized keys . This may be a groovy plus in some MOBA or RTS games , but I keep back thinking I ’d rather have a more talkative layout and give the numeric launching pad a miss . It labour your ripe manus to the left field when you ’re typing where you expect it to be , particularly with the way the base is sculpture to point your hand towards the cursor key
The customisable RGB backlighting does help a lot with visibleness and MSI has some utile Hotkey kindling presets for many secret plan , adding these profiles into the MSI Center app ’s Gaming Mode when you instal or head for the hills a game .
I ’m just as unconvinced by the touchpad which , at roughly 10.5 x 6.7 atomic number 96 , seems a little smaller than you ’d expect from a 17 - in laptop . It also has a moldable feel , though it ’s perfectly responsive when you actually apply it if you do n’t just attain straight for your favorite gaming mouse .
Screen
The Pulse GL76 ’s screen is n’t double-dyed in every way , but it ’s pose it where it counts . At 17.3 inches , it ’s very grand , give you copious space for immersive gaming and even regular productiveness program . It ’s a great size of it if you drop a lot of your time with two window receptive , side by side . However , the 1920 x 1080 resolving power means you ’re not getting the crispy text or the most detail when you ’re reckon at photos or telecasting , and the same goes when you ’re playing games .
It ’s not the burnished or punchiest of video display , especially if you ’ve been try out laptops with flashy OLED or mini LED screens , but the image timber is very enough . I valuate the maximum brightness at 322 nits , which is n’t bad , and decent black levels go forth us with a contrast of 1223.5:1 . color truth is up to excise as well , with an intermediate Delta E of 1.5 . Throw in the colour gamut coverage of 99.8 % sRGB and 76.9 % DCI P3 , and – beyond the solving – it ’s a whole all - circle performer .
What really makes it exceptional , though , is the 360Hz refresh rate . Personally , I ca n’t really see any deviation between 240Hz and 360Hz , and I would n’t care to wager on my acuteness with 144Hz and 240Hz . But then I ’m not playing eSports title at anything like contest level . If you ’re confident that every last frame counts , then you might find the supernumerary 216Hz over the more mutual 144Hz is worth every centime , in which case the 1080p resolution make sense . There are n’t many CPU and GPU combos that can spew out 240fps or more at 1440p , let alone 4 K , but with eSports statute title at 1080p you’re able to get aside with comparatively low-cost components .
Audio is reasonable , with a fiddling more bass and shotgun - blasting boom than your average laptop , but it does n’t have the roominess or clearness we ’ve heard from some play laptop computer latterly . It ’s good enough for casual gaming , but if you need to set other players from the sound of their shots and footsteps , then you ’re really going to demand to punch some headphones in .
Performance
Rather than be adrift the budget on an RTX 4080 or even 3080 , MSI has hold up for a balanced specification aim at return high physical body charge per unit , pairing a Core i9 - 12900H with an RTX 3070 . With six P cores operate at up to 5GHz and eight E cores run at up to 3.8GHz for a amount of 20 thread , the central processor is still a formidable processor , more than capable of keeping up with the NVIDIA chip . And while the latter might fight to keep ultra - eminent frame rate at 1440p or 4 K resolving , it ’s got more than enough oink for Full HD .
Of course , much depends on the games you bleed , and whether you adhere with MSI ’s Balanced or Smart Auto performance modes or tack to the Extreme Performance modality using its MSI Center software . Set to Smart Auto , I hit 79fps with Ultra preferences in Borderlands 3 and 88fps in Horizon : Zero Dawn . change over to Extreme Performance , I could up that to 81.99fps and 90fps severally , or 114fps in Horizon with DLSS Favour Quality turn on . These are good results for a gaming laptop at this form of price point , but they ’re not going to push that 360Hz screen .
Run Rainbow Six : Siege , and it ’s a different taradiddle . Even with background at Ultra and firmness of purpose scaling at 100 % , I could get an average frame charge per unit of 261fps . At 50 % solving scale I could advertize this to 333fps . That ’s ludicrously smooth . With Counter - Strike : GO , it ’s something of a challenge to get much lower than 300fps when there are n’t smoke or fog effects on screen . You ’re also go to get great public presentation in League of Legends , Valorant , Warzone 2.0 and more , and I even install and booted up Doom Eternal just to see it run at high frame rate on a 17 - in covert . It was well worth the effort .
Beyond gaming , the Pulse GL76 is also more than good at handling productivity and creative software . It ’s not quite up there with the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 and its monster 13th gen Core i9 i9 - 13980HX , but it ’s on a similar floor to other Core i9 powerhouses like the MSI Raider GE77 . If you require to run heavyweight creative apps , the screen resolution is more likely to be a roadblock than its execution . SSD pep pill are also more than tidy ; with consecutive read speeds of 3.609MB / s and successive write hurrying of 3438.96 MB / s you wo n’t be left waiting while loading game or applications .
Battery Life
Big screens and battery life seldom mix with big result , and the Pulse 76 survived for just five hr and 35 minute in PC Mark 10 ’s Modern Office battery bench mark with the luminance fix to around 60 % . Streaming video recording with the cleverness turned up to full come across the battery drained in just under four minute , while gaming will have it running out of puff within an minute . You really need to quell within reach of the briny with this one .
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Should you buy it?
It has the oink to keep high frame rates coming , especially on less demanding eSports titles , and with 360Hz to play with you could push them as gamy as they will go .
RTX 40 - series options are becoming available , limiting the appealingness here . The Pulse GL76 is a knock-down machine for high flesh - pace gambling , but not the most well - rounded .
Final Thoughts
This is a fantastic gaming laptop computer if you ’re in its particular niche . The compounding of high FPS counts , a 360Hz refresh and a big 1080p screen makes a lot of sense if you ’re a militant FPS thespian and feel that even 144Hz or 240Hz is n’t quite enough , and the spec delivers enough horsepower to meet those needs .
However , less free-enterprise gamers might prefer something with a high - resolution screen , better sound , more up - to - date connectivity and a slenderly more insurance premium build . Potentially a gimmick like theLenovo Legion 7 ( 2022 ) , orAcer Nitro 5 ( 2022)at a lower toll . If you ’re not in that corner , there are in spades better option out there .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every play laptop computer we review go through a serial of uniform checks design to approximate key things including build timbre , carrying into action , screen quality and battery biography .
These let in formal synthetic benchmarks and written tryout , plus a series of substantial creation check , such as how well it bunk when course a AAA game .
FAQs
The exhibit of the Pulse GL76 is passably colour exact , with our tests express an modal Delta E of 1.5 , colour gamut coverage of 99.8 % sRGB and 76.9 % DCI P3 .
RTX 3070 and 3060 example of the Pulse GL76 have a maximal graphics power of 105W. 3070Ti models dispatch 140W.
Test Data
Full Specs
