By If your preferences for laptop purchases go toward the size of a family-sized platter of meat and cheese, 2025 is looking to be a fantastic year. Performance could top the charts with the release of new Nvidia RTX mobile graphics, including the top-tier RTX 5090 with 24GB of VRAM. AMD’s Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, a 16-core CPU with the company’s renowned 3D V-Cache—an additional stack of L3 cache that might be helpful in games—has now joined it.
Both new chips are combined within a single chassis in the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W. Additionally, it includes a 2TB PCIe 5.0 solid-state drive and 64GB of memory as a bonus. Although the laptop has amazing hardware, its MSRP of $5,099.99 is as amazing.
Specs and features
The highlight of the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W is undoubtedly the combination of AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D processor and Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics. Each is an undisputed heavyweight in its category and should deliver a killer one-two punch of CPU and GPU performance. With that said, however, this MSI Raider A18 HX A9W still must deal with the power and thermal constraints faced by every laptop—and it will be interesting to see the results.
Other technical characteristics of the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W are the 4K Mini-LED display and the PCIe 5.0 solid state drive.
- Number of model: A18 HX A9WIG-082US
- AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D CPU
- Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5090 (Max 175W with Dynamic Boost); Memory: 64GB DDR5-5600
- NPU: Not present
- Display: 18-inch Mini-LED with HDR, 3840 x 2400, 120 Hz
- One 2TB PCIe 5.0 SSD for storage
- Webcam: 1080p, 30 frames per second webcam that supports Windows Hello
- Communication: USB-C four and two Thunderbolt 5 ports with DisplayPort and power delivery 3.1, one SD card reader, three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, one HDMI 2.1 (up to 4K @ 120Hz), and one 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45) port
- Networking: Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 7.
- Biometrics: fingerprint readers and facial recognition
- The battery has a 99-watt-hour capacity.
- 15.91 x 12.11 x 1.26 inches in size
- 7.94 pounds in weight
- System software: Windows 11 Pro
- The MSRP is $5,099.99.
Naturally, features like this are expensive, which is why the Raider A18 HX A9W costs $5,099.99. A substantial sum of money! For a high-end gaming laptop, the price isn’t out of the ordinary, though. From fully customized Apple MacBook Pro 16 configurations to the most expensive Razer Blade, Alienware, and MSI Titan laptops, a wide range of high-end laptops is available at retail at higher costs.
For $4,099.99, MSI offers a setup with Nvidia’s RTX 5080 if $5,099.99 is a bit much for you. It is a good option for gamers who do not intend to use the laptop’s GPU for creative or AI tasks, and it is essentially identical to the model described here.
Design and build quality
The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W is a powerful piece of hardware that shares a chassis with its Intel-powered sister. It weighs almost eight pounds, is 1.25 inches thick, and is almost sixteen inches wide. Even a standard messenger bag or backpack designed to hold a laptop won’t fit it. A specific bag made for the purpose is required, and MSI offers one for sale.
In addition to its intimidating bulk, the Raider 18 has a practical but unimpressive appearance. Red accents break up the black plastic build, giving it a respectable appearance but not quite the high-end impression of more professionally designed devices like Razer’s Blade 18. Additionally, it lacks the eye-catching flair of MSI’s Titan laptop, which is more of a statement piece and costs much more. The LED lights at the laptop’s front is the most noticeable visual oddity, but other high-end devices imitate that technique.
The Raider 18 feels reliable, though. Even at conventional weak points like the middle of the keyboard, there isn’t much flex, and the laptop doesn’t groan or creak under pressure. Because of their size, bulk, and the multiple internal PCBs and chassis components they are made of, machines in this category may feel a little wobbly. Although the Raider 18 seems more sturdy than the majority of laptops in its class, it is not as sturdy as the Razer Blade 18.
CPU Performance
On paper, the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W is among the priciest, most unique, and most potent laptops ever offered. It offers two powerful players. The first is AMD’s Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, a 16-core, 32-thread processor that may enhance gaming performance thanks to AMD’s 3D V-Cache. The most potent RTX-series mobile GPU in Nvidia’s lineup, the RTX 5090 mobile, joins it, making it the most capable mobile gaming GPU on the market at the moment.
As previously stated, PC World also evaluated an MSI Raider 18 laptop that has Nvidia’s RTX 5080 and Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285HX. At $4,499, it was slightly less costly. Does the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D with RTX 5090 offer a beneficial improvement, then?
The comprehensive system benchmark PCMark 10 gave the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W a score of 8,581. Although it doesn’t quite equal some of the Intel-powered laptops we’ve lately evaluated, that is very competitive with other laptops in this category. This benchmark by itself, however, is insufficient to draw any clear conclusions regarding the performance of the AMD Radeon 9 9955HX3D and Nvidia RTX 5090 because the results are so similar.
GPU Performance
The 9955HX3D is primarily intended for gamers, though, as the chip’s 3D V-Cache frequently offers a competitive edge in this market. Additionally deserving of attention is the RTX 5090. Let’s now discuss the 3D benchmarks. The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W finally prevailed due to the mixed results from 3DMark, the industry standard for 3D gaming benchmarks.
The Nvidia RTX 5090 and AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D did not significantly outperform each other in 3DMark Time Spy, an older (but rigorous) benchmark that does not measure ray tracing. But the Raider A18 HX A9W jumped ahead to a score of 16,416 in the Port Royal benchmark, which tests ray tracing. When compared to the fastest Intel/Nvidia RTX 5080 laptop we have evaluated so far, it is about 11% faster, setting a new benchmark in PC World’s testing.
Next up is Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which bestcomputerfinder examines with ray-tracing disabled at 1080p and highest detail. Here, the MSI Raider achieved a great average of 230 frames per second. There isn’t much of a benefit to choosing the RTX 5090 over the RTX 5080 in this game, though, as it’s not the finest we’ve seen.
AI performance
However, the RTX 5090 is slightly more attractive in terms of AI, and this primarily depends on the amount of RAM. With 16GB of VRAM, the RTX 5080 is a good amount for gaming, but it’s a little small if you want to run AI models on your laptop. On the other hand, the RTX 5090 has 24GB of VRAM. Larger models such as the Google Gemma 3 27B and Qwen3 32B can now be offloaded to the GPU thanks to this boost. Both are somewhat more than 16GB, which is more than the VRAM that the RTX 5080 can offer.
Three questions and responses totaling roughly 1,000 tokens each were generated by Google Gemma 3 27B at an average rate of 12.67 tokens per second. Given that the laptop, which was tested using an RTX 5080, lacked sufficient VRAM to run the model on the GPU, that is a good result and more than twice the speed of the Raider 18 HX AI.
Furthermore, models such as the Google Gemma 3 27B are smarter than their younger siblings. Thus, the RTX 5090 can improve the speed at which replies are created as well as the quality of the model.
SSD performance
Special attention should be paid to the solid-state drive performance of the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W. The A18 features a PCIe 5.0 solid state drive, just like its Intel-powered sibling, the Raider 18 HX AI. It’s the Samsung PM9E1 2TB in this instance.
And it’s amazing how well it performs. In SEQ1M Q8T1, I recorded read and write CrystalDiskMark rates of 14654 MB/s and 11046 MB/s, respectively. Those are enormous numbers. You can get storage performance with the MSI Raider.
Battery life and portability
Special attention should be paid to the solid-state drive performance of the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W. The A18 features a PCIe 5.0 solid state drive, just like its Intel-powered sibling, the Raider 18 HX AI. It’s the Samsung PM9E1 2TB in this instance.
And it’s amazing how well it performs. In SEQ1M Q8T1, I recorded read and write CrystalDiskMark rates of 14654 MB/s and 11046 MB/s, respectively. Those are enormous numbers. You can get storage performance with the MSI Raider.
USB-C can power the laptop; however, the power brick has a proprietary connector. However, that won’t provide enough power to run the laptop at full capacity under all load conditions, so you can notice a battery drain when using USB-C power.
The battery life of the Raider A18 isn’t very good, but it’s not significantly poorer than that of other laptops in this class. Generally speaking, you will receive no more than four or five hours. The Razer Blade 16, which extended battery life to almost 10 hours, is the lone notable exception. This is because of its AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU, which is far more power-efficient but far less powerful.
Conclusion
The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W is a powerful CPU, GPU, and storage system. From multi-core sustained CPU workloads to ray-traced gaming and even AI huge language models, it performs admirably across the board. In terms of gaming and storage performance, the A18 is marginally better than its Intel-powered competitor, the Raider 18 HX AI. The 24GB of VRAM in the RTX 5090 helps the A18 achieve a significant improvement in AI performance.
This laptop isn’t flawless. The Raider A18 is unattractive, hefty, and thick. In addition to having a subpar keyboard and touchpad, it can be noisy when fully loaded, as one might anticipate. At $5,099.99, the RTX 5090 version is also very pricey. In many cases, the less expensive RTX 5080 model, which costs $4,099.99, is a better deal because it has the same AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D CPU and just marginally lags behind the RTX 5090 in games.
Performance is ultimately important, though, and if you want the highest performance available in a contemporary laptop, the Raider A18 HX A9W is a clear pick. It broke several records and remained competitive in benchmarks where it didn’t reach the top of the charts.
MSI Raider A18 HX A9WJG-037CA 18″ UHD+ mini LED 120Hz Gaming Laptop, AMD Ryzen R9-9955HX3D, RTX 5090, 64GB (32GB*2) DDR5 6400MHz, 2TB Gen 5×4 NVMe PCIe SSD, Win 11 PRO
