MSI introduces workstation laptop with VR-ready NVIDIA graphics

By John Callaham
published

With the first virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive finally shipping, more PCs are being released that can handle their high-end hardward requirements. MSI has just announced the WT72, which it says is the first NVIDIA VR Ready mobile workstation equipped with NVIDIA's newest mobile GPU, the Quadro M5500.

MSI says:

"Designed for maximum performance, MSI's WT72 is powered by NVIDIA's Quadro M5500 GPU, Intel's 6th generation Core-i7 and Xeon processors, and up to 64GB of DDR4 memory. The latest in professional graphics design technology, the Quadro M5500 is the world's fastest mobile GPU, delivering up to 35% performance increase over previous models, with 2,048 cores for optimum speed and power."

The cost for getting this 17.3-inch notebook is definitely on the high end of the scale. Pricing for the WT72 begins at $5,499. A release date has not been annnounced.

John Callaham
John Callaham
35 Comments
  • ouch, that's one hell of a machine, with a price tag too :P
  • Build it and people will buy it
  • true true
  • I never thought that "one hell of a machine" would ever be an understatement. This beast has specs that make it look more like a cloud game-streaming server than a laptop! I also love how they say that pricing "begins at $5,499"... so that's the lowest-end model? Posted from Windows Central for Windows 10
  • A cloud gaming server wouldn't even need a quadro card.
  • Actually, that's not true... I work in this industry. I said a "cloud game-streaming server". What I meant by that is a system that runs games and renders all the video in the cloud and streams the video to a thin client. This really is a thing, and has been supported by Hyper-V for the last few versions, and also by VMWare more recently. This is how some cable companies provide casual gaming directly to their customers without any gaming box. If you don't believe me, go to https://www.windowscentral.com/e?link=https2F%2Fclick.linksynergy.co... for just one example... #DoNotDownvoteWhatYouDoNotUnderstandYourself Posted from Windows Central for Windows 10
  • You expect people to know what they are downvoting..or actually read articles??? You must be new here.
  • You do know that Quadro cards run games worse than regular gaming cards, right?
    #IDidNotDownvoteYou
    #DoNotDownvoteWhatYouDoNotUnderstandYourself
  • Depends on the game. The cards are optimized for parallel execution. Anyway, could we please just agree to end this discussion as it's not really contributing anything meaningful anymore. Was fun, though.
  • Who in the hell would pay $5,500 for a laptop?
  • Its easy mate, all you need is a small loan of one million dollar from yo dad.
  • Dump Trump haha. Bu yeah that is a beast of a system my birthday is coming up.
  • People who spend company money
  • There are people who spent more than that on a first-gen Apple Watch.
  • People that use this to earn a living that are looking for a mobile solution. These are meant to replace hardcore content creation workstations.
  • It's not just for gaming...is what people will be saying trying to justify it for "work" lol
  • Quadro GPU are not very good for gaming. You can get better performace from consumer cards in gaming. This is more for CAD and other content creation.
  • There are high end Quadro cards that function better than a GTX 970M.
  • Well till this w10/8.x bs these were great gaming investments. Bought a m18x r2 still runs fine for most games
  • Now you can look stupid and be broke wherever you are. Nice machine though.
  • this reminds me how poor i am
  • Quadro cards are normally associated with content creation. Perhaps this laptop is targeted more at people creating VR than gamers.
  • Lol yeah expect AWs been stuffing quadros for a long time
  • $399 PS-VR or $5499 MS-VR, hard choices..
  • This is not MS-VR.  This is a CAD workstation for business or for the ultimate in mobile gaming/VR. Really nice machine.
  • Lol at comparing a workstation with a gaming console.
  • MSI doesn't mean Microsoft
  • So its portable server?
  • No. It's a graphics workstation. Basically, quadro drivers are optimized for the tasks related to graphics content creation. Creating huge 3D worlds in Maya or 3DS MAX? Then this is probably a decent mobile choice.
  • Oh man, if only I wanted a $5500 laptop that weighs 8 pounds and.... uhhh... well it's a laptop.
  • Maybe you would appreciate it if you did any work in the related fields that need that much horsepower and a relatively mobile solution. Posted from Windows Central for Windows 10
  • Great price, I'll grab 3. Just need something to surf the net and play solitaire.
  • Does not appear to have a touch screen. Once you have a touch screen you can't go back to a non touch screen.
  • Try alienware