Hands On with the MSI Raider 18 HX AI A2XW

The MSI Raider 18 HX AI A2XW is a high-end 18-inch desktop replacement laptop built for people who want the best performance possible from a laptop. Armed with NVIDIA's RTX 5080 mobile GPU, Intel's Core Ultra 9 285HX processor, and even lightning-fast PCIe Gen 5 storage, the Raider 18 targets gamers and creators who refuse to compromise, even on the go. 

But cramming beefy hardware into a laptop inevitably forces some compromise on size, weight, and battery life.  Price can also vary greatly, depending on the exact GPU and RAM you want. I tested a configuration with the RTX 5080 and 64GB of RAM. Right now, you can get a nearly identical config with 32GB of RAM for $2,999 or 16GB of RAM for $2,499, or trade up to a version with the RTX 5090 GPU and 64GB of RAM for $4,399. 

NVIDIA RTX 5080 joins the fight

The MSI Raider 18 is designed to help the RTX 5080 live its best life, as the laptop is configured to deliver up to 175 watts of graphics power when factoring in Dynamic Boost to make the most of NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell architecture. The Raider 18 can handle a total system power of 260 watts (CPU and GPU) and ships with a gigantic 400-watt power brick. 

The RTX 5080 brings many improvements over the RTX 4080, some big, some small.  Perhaps most importantly, the GPU’s memory is upgraded to 16GB of faster GDDR7 VRAM running on a wider 256-bit memory bus, up from 12GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus. And, of course, the RTX 5080 can use new AI features, such as the new DLSS4 Transformer Model and DLSS multi-frame generation.

But how does it perform?

Benchmarks

These figures, much like the rest of NVIDIA’s RTX 50-series line-up, are excellent, though come with a caveat. 

The good news is that the RTX 5080 mobile in the Raider 18 basically ties with NVIDIA’s RTX 4090 mobile. Some laptops with RTX 4090 that target a lower system power will typically under-perform the Raider 18 with RTX 5080.You can expect about a 10% to 20% improvement over an older RTX 4080 laptop that can also deliver up to 175 watts of graphics power. Up to 20% improvement is significant, but it’s not always going to be enough to generate an obvious improvement in-game. But I suspect not too many people are looking for a one-generation upgrade. If you’re looking for the latest and greatest so you can future-proof or if you’re upgrading from an older generation of mobile graphics hardware, you will find the RTX 5080 is a fantastic all-around choice. 

Games that lack ray tracing often average near 120 FPS even at 4K and maximum detail. Ray Tracing knocks that back quite a bit; Cyberpunk at 4K with Overdrive RT averaged just 33 FPS. However, in those cases (which are among the most demanding games and detail settings currently available), DLSS can often swoop in to boost framerates above 60 FPS — as happened in both Cyberpunk 2077 and Fortnite.

It’s not all about the GPU

The RTX 5080 might be the headliner in the MSI Raider 18 HX AI A2XW, but it's far from the only high-end hardware in this laptop. MSI took an "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to the Raider 18, and it pays off.

CPU performance is a huge strength and, for some, will be the real reason to buy the laptop. The Raider 18 equips the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, a 24-core processor with 8 Performance cores, 16 Efficient cores, and a max turbo frequency of 5.5GHz. And it's a monster.

For comparison, laptops with Intel’s Core i9-14900HX (the company’s quickest mobile chip of its prior generation) score around 2,750 in Geekbench 6 single core and 17,500 in multi-core. An AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D scores about 2,750 and 16,500, respectively. 

AMD has a set of new high-end AMD Ryzen 9 mobile chips right around the corner (and, in fact, MSI will eventually offer a Raider 18 with configuration with the AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D). But they’re not out yet so, as of mid-April 2025, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX leads the pack.

The Raider 18 is also among the first laptops to offer PCIe Gen 5 solid state storage, and it looks to take performance a step further by pairing two 2TB solid state drives in RAID0. It’s hard to argue with the results.

• CrystalDiskMark 81 Read/Write: 11,118 / 9,052 MB/s
• Atto Disk Benchmark 8MB Read/Write: 11.03 / 7.36 GB/s

Yes, we're looking at read speeds that easily exceed 10 GB/s and write speeds that aren't far behind. 

In fact, this is the first time I've personally tested a laptop to hit read speeds over 10GB/s. Laptops with a large PCIe 4.0 solid state drive usually score read speeds between 5,000 and 7,000 MB/s, and write speeds around 4,000 to 6,000 MB/s.

It’s all about the power

MSI positions the Raider laptop line as a slightly more affordable and practical alternative to MSI’s flagship Titan line (which we reviewed in its RTX 4090 generation). However, there are a few things that are not as premium as the Titan.  

The keyboard and touchpad here feel a tad under-baked. There’s nothing inherently wrong with them, they just don’t wow. Thankfully, as this is a gaming machine, you probably won’t be using the trackpad much and can easily attach an external keyboard of your choosing. 

Battery life isn’t very long, either, which is to be expected of gaming machines of this caliber. I saw about 3 to 5 hours of life in the Hybrid Graphics mode, which can dynamically switch off the RTX 5080 when its full grunt isn’t needed. The Discrete Graphics mode, which keeps the RTX 5080 engaged, can chew through a charge in 2 hours.

The display, however, is a bright spot -- literally. It’s an 18-inch 120Hz Mini-LED display. While gamers might instinctively prefer OLED, Mini-LED has its perks, including higher brightness and a non-gloss finish. The Mini-LED display also provides an ultra-sharp 3,840 x 2,400 display resolution and vivid color.  

The MSI Raider 18 HX AI isn’t the laptop for everyone, but it’s easy to recommend to a specific audience. 

This is a laptop aimed specifically at users who want a desktop replacement (typically a laptop with extreme performance and a big screen). It can handle modern games at 4K resolution with all the features turned on. It will also appeal to content creators who need top-tier performance across all aspects of the laptop including not only the GPU and CPU but also storage.

If that sounds like you, the Raider 18 is a solid choice.