A detailed investigation of the model predictive current control (MPCC) for a three-phase voltage source inverter (VSI) with an output RL filter is examined in this manuscript. The investigation on VSI and its operating conditions such as dynamic, steady state, transient state condition with balanced and unbalanced loads are explained. The parameter variations such as sampling time, filter inductance and DC-link voltage variations are also explained in terms of load current Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and inverter switching frequency. During each sampling period, the discrete mathematical model of the system is used to predict the load current for all the inverter switching state. These predictions are estimated using cost function, and so, the switching state which gives minimum cost function is selected and applied to the inverter. The effectiveness of the control technique is verified in MATLAB software and also in real-time hardware setup using Xilinx XCS500E Spartan 3E FPGA board. The detailed simulation and hardware results are included to investigate the implementation. Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.