Last night, NVIDIA launched their new GPU platform they nickname the Ampere. They also tout that this is their greatest generational leap in performance ever. Welcome to the NVIDIA’s second-generation Ray Tracing GPUs.
For now, they have announced the availability and launch of three new GPUs that is meant to blow even the fastest GeForce RTX 20 series GPU, the GeForce RTX 2080Ti away. We are only talking about the GeForce RTX 3070 mind you. There is still the high-end GeForce 3080 and mind-bending GeForce RTX 3090.
Supposedly the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series are supposed to be about twice as good in performance than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 series while offering nearly twice the power efficiency. That puts the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 about on par with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 that was launched two years ago. Which also means that the GeForce RTX 3080 is miles away from the GeForce RTX 2080Ti.
What’s New with Ampere?
Source: NVIDIA
Just saying that it is faster though, may not mean that much to you. In this case, bear with us a little bit as we go a little more technical than usual in identifying what is new with the new GeForce RTX 30 series cards. NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang also did say in the launch that it might be time for you to upgrade your GPUs if you are still on the GTX platform with this second generation Ray Tracing GPU.
New Multiprocessors
If you think of a GPU, it is actually a mini computer on its own that you dedicate on graphics processing. It sort of works on a piggybacking system on top of your main logic board for your PC. By principle, it is just its own processing unit separate to what the CPU and regular RAM does. In layman terms, the GPU is an additional calculator lodged in your PC.
The multiprocessor that is on the GPU is technically its heart, its cores. The new processor on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series is technically the same size as the older NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 Series cores. That is to say that Ampere did not gain in size for more performance over Turing.
They simply unlocked more power from the chip itself with new technologies and architecture. We will talk about that a little bit more later though. For now, you just have to know that it is now twice as powerful as before, it is twice faster in calculations.
New Generation Ray Tracing Cores
NVIDIA says that new generation consumer graphics standards is their new Ray Tracing technology that is introduced two years ago. The technology, technically, is not new. It has been a technology used in plenty of 3D rendering applications and even machine learning applications.
With the first-generation Ray Tracing cards, that is the GeForce RTX 20 Series GPUs, ray tracing is used to make graphics even more stunning and realistic by correctly predicting reflection and shading models based on virtual lighting positions. That means that graphic artists do not need to predict where the light is coming from or how it interacts with an object, it just simply does. That is why you do not get great mirror reflections, glass reflections, or water textures in older video games up until the late 2018s.
The said technology requires a separate core to the regular GPU cores that we are used to on older GeForce GTX cards though.
The second-generation Ray Tracing core is technically not that much different from the first-generation. In terms of size and build at least, it is about the same. They managed to extract even more performance out of it, they claim twice more performance out of it too. That allows the GPU to render reflections and shades correctly even faster.
In the previous generation Ray Tracing core, they could render shades, reflections, and even physics correctly at about 720p at 60fps. The new generation that was just introduced is supposed to be able to render smoothly at 1440p at 60fps. That is a large leap, about twice according to NVIDIA.
Even Newer Tensor Cores
Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and machine learning has been a part of NVIDIA’s repertoire for a long time now. They started looking into implementing A.I. cores in their GeForce GTX 10 Series GPUs. They were successful and the cores worked to a certain degree in GTX GPUs.
In the new GeForce RTX architecture though, A.I. took a bigger stage and Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) was born. The first generation DLSS allowed calculations and processing to be offloaded from the GPU and pushed to a different server. That allows graphics to look even better than what the GPU is actually capable of physically. Of course, that takes a lot of processing power.
At the same time the DLSS technology is used as a prediction model as well, to anticipate calculations and render them beforehand. In terms of gaming, the cores allow your games to render at 720p on your own GPU but deliver 1080p or 1440p graphics to your eyes via the display. This is all part of the NVIDIA RTX IO experience as well though.
NVIDIA RTX IO
So, you have watched the demo of the upcoming Sony PlayStation 5. You saw the next generation console load open world maps and transition between places in no time, with no load screens. That technology is achievable through the clever use of SSD and processing power.
That is what NVIDIA RTX IO is going to replicate though. It allows plenty of the processing loads on the CPU and on board RAM from modern SSDs to be offloaded to the GPU itself. Since the GPU, in some cases, have spare processing capacity anyway, you get an improved processing performance for your games anyway and even improved data transfer and read speeds.
That means that game designers can try to build games with huge amount of detail in their maps while not thinking too much about load times. Of course, for lesser CPs, load screens are always going to be an issue in games. NVIDIA’s RTX IO is built to solve that.
There is another benefit to this though. Every other PC builder will tell you that if you want a great performing gaming machine, it has to be a combination of great GPU and CPU. The GPU will handle the 3D stuff, while the CPU will handle the frame generation. That is because most of the frame generation is done by the CPU, and therefore your framerate greatly depends on how much your CPU can handle itself. With RTX IO offloading that load to the GPU, you technically can have a slightly cheaper CPU and still achieve high frame rate in games.
New Faster, Nay, Fastest Memory Module in the World
As we mentioned earlier, a GPU is a little bit like a mini computer that piggybacks on top of the main board. It is a calculator that hops on another calculator to make that calculator faster and more powerful. In that sense, the GPU also needs its own memory module, its own RAM unit.
In that, they have worked with Micron to build the world’s fastest discrete graphics memory unit, the GDDR6X. You get up to 1TB/s in bandwidth for any graphics applications. This is where that minimised load times come into play too.
Samsung 8nm Transistors and NVIDIA
Every other tech familiar person knows that there are only a few manufacturers that really know what their doing when it comes to semiconductors and chip making. Samsung is one of those manufacturers in the circle of ‘the best of the best’. The new GeForce RTX 30 Series GPU benefits from Samsung’s know how in chip making.
The new GPU multiprocessing chips are built with 8nm standards and technology by Samsung. Smaller transistors also mean that you can fit more in a certain surface area. More transistors mean more power naturally.
This is technically how NVIDIA managed to achieve double the power from the previous generation GeForce RTX 20 GPUs while still retaining the sizes, just about. Less space and size also means that there is less power requirements from the transistors themselves, which leads to a much higher power efficiency. Hence, double the power, double the efficiency.
Better Technology, Better Experience
With more power, comes more enhancements from NVIDIA. They have done audio before already with RTX noise cancelling, which never cease to amaze us. This time though, they are turning their focus toward competitive gaming and other parts of content creation.
Source: NVIDIA
NVIDIA Reflex
It is exactly what it sounds like. It measures reflex. It does not measure your reflexes though.
Instead, NVIDIA Reflex measures latency between your input and the display’s output. From that measurement, NVIDIA’s Reflex algorithm will then optimise the game’s latency. In some sense, it is meant to reduce the latency between your input and the PC’s output.
This impacts eSports titles mostly. In video games with built in NVIDIA Low-Latency Mode, the technology reduces latency by about 50 percent. Every millisecond counts in eSports environment. That is also why NVIDIA’s Reflex Analyser also can calculate and tabulate the time it takes for you input to be translated into output. The Reflex Analyser is coming to most of the new 360Hz NVIDIA G-Sync eSports displays from its partners later this year.
NVIDIA Broadcast
Streaming is a huge business. It is gaining in popularity as well. As such, it would not be right for NVIDIA to ignore the market completely. In the sense of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series, the extra power can also help with a single PC stream set up with NVIDIA Broadcast. The A.I. noise cancelling is already clever enough. NVIDIA Broadcast though is much cleverer than that with webcam auto framing and even virtual background effects for your stream.
NVIDIA Omniverse Machinima
Forget trying to create new stories with game engines. Forget spending hours on character creations and animations codes. Now, you could do all that for storytelling via NVIDIA Omniverse Machinima. You can use existing models or assets and even create your own via a webcam, amazingly. This is the power of NVIDIA’s new GeForce RTX 30 Series, and NVIDIA’s new storytelling tool.
Well, then again, this is still an early access tool. You might want to check back on this. If not, you can be a part of it by signing up for early access.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, GeForce RTX 3080, and GeForce RTX 3090 is Here!
Source: NVIDIA
The first GPUs that comes out from the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, a technical replacement of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070. Thanks to the technological advancements, the GeForce RTX 3070 is way more powerful than the GPU it replaces. In certain benchmarks it is more powerful than the GeForce RTX 2080. With up to 8GB of GDDR6X RAM, 4K and 1440p resolution should be comfortable enough.
Then there is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 which is way more powerful than the current generation GeForce RTX 2080Ti. It just blows the older GPU away. All that, while costing less than the GeForce RTX 2080Ti. It has up to 10GB of GDDR6X RAM to deliver 4K resolution at 60fps.
The daddy of the lot is what NVIDIA refers to as the “BFGPU” – Big Ferocious GPU. We would expand it to a different thing, but that is just us. This is the spiritual successor to the NVIDIA GeForce TITAN RTX, technically. This is supposed to be 10x quieter, and up to 30°C cooler. Of course, it is a big one, occupying three PCIe slots. Within the large body is an enormous 24GB of GDDR6X RAM and performs up to 50% faster than the TITAN RTX. It can easily support 8K resolution up to 60 fps in Control.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is priced at US$ 499 (MYR 2,399*) and will be available in October 2020 onward. The GeForce RTX 3080 is priced at US$ 699 (MYR 3,360*) and will be available 17th September 2020 onward. The GeForce RTX 3090 is priced at US$ 1,499 (MYR 7,208*) and is available 24th September 2020 onward. Keep in mind that these are release dates for the Founders Edition cards. Of course, partner manufacturers will have their custom boards and own clocks later on or the same date.
The Movement Control Order, as we know it in Malaysia, or the sanctioned quarantine at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (it is not over, by the way) really opened our eyes to plenty of things. It revealed the human ability to adapt to any situation and still survive. It also proved that our technology is ready to handle the situation and give us the kind of flexibility we need in that time of need.
But it also opened a whole other can of worms. Once we started working from home, we realised just how easily we can be productive without being in a professional environment. We also realised that the line between work and leisure is blurred to the point that we cannot see it. In that sense, we tend to be workaholics at home. Time for a change of lifestyle then, a new schedule.
You realised something too. You do not have much entertainment at home. You did not buy a TV because you tend to not be home until quite late in the evening. By that time, you just want to relax, wind down, watch a video or two on your smartphone or notebook, and then sleep. A TV is unnecessary at the time.
Other forms of entertainment get neglected too. Your gaming PC at the corner has collected so much dust that it looks like an ancient relic. You stopped playing that much games because you tend to stay out until its dark and you are sleepy. You want to play games, but you just do not have the energy for it in the past. In the current work-from-home situation though, you realise you have plenty more time to play games. But your Gaming PC is now old and slow. Time to buy a new Gaming PC.
You decide that its best to get a Gaming Notebook because it is the most convenient form of gaming PC to date. You can bring it around when you need to move, you can use it for work, you can watch movies on it, you can play music on it, you can have a LAN party at your friend’s place. It is the most versatile entertainment powerhouse in the world of entertainment powerhouses.
Which one do you go for though? What kind of budget do you stick to? There are so many choices out there at this point? What if you do not have more than MYR 6,000 to spend on one? What is the latest one in the market?
One of the latest gaming notebooks to arrive in Malaysia is the Acer Predator Helios 300. We heard somewhere too that the device was actually planned for an earlier release to no avail. That was due to the COVID-19 pandemics and its disruption toward the logistics industry globally. We do not blame them. It is also priced below MYR 6,000 at MYR 5,199, way below. In short, it sounds like one of the best deals to get if you are in the market for a gaming notebook. Is it though? Let us find out.
Design
The Acer Predator Helios 300 for the 2020 has been updated a little bit from before. The Acer Predator Helios 300 2020 gets pretty much the same GPU set up as before, same RAM size as before, and the same cooling internals. That is where the similarities end though.
The Predator Helios 300 is now packing more power with an Intel Core i7-10750H. With that, it also gets a slightly updated look. Gone is the ‘PREDATOR’ word logo on the cover. You get a much cleaner look on the back of the display now, which is the top clam of the notebook. The mascot logo is still there though, giving you some hints of the power contained within the all-aluminium body.
The power lines that frames the logo is still there too. The powerlines are as iconic as ever, in Predator’s signature blue. Sadly, only the logo in the center of the clam lights up with LED. We feel that the power lines deserve their own LED array to let others know that it means business.
The angled edge still stays, a staple now to Acer’s gaming line-up, including their Nitro series. The angles on the display clam is still a little sharp, but that is not a huge issue, considering that you rarely have contact with that part of the notebook.
The sharp edges that lines the palm rest surface though has been chamfered. They are still a little sharp on the ends, but at the same time the chamfered edges does make it a bit more comfortable for your palms and wrists. That chamfered edge is now chromed all the way too though, to add to some flair to how the device looks on your desk.
Open it up, and you will find, greeting you, is an expansive 15.6-inch IPS panel. With bezels remaining as thin as ever, but not too thin that it becomes awkward for Acer to find creative ways to mount their 720p HD webcam. Of course, we are still hoping that manufacturers include their own window or cap for the webcam just for our safety. At this point of time though, webcam spaces are a premium, so we may not see a webcam window anytime soon.
Look down and you find a full-size keyboard with proper physical number pad section. Instead of a single colour backlit keyboard, it is now a 4-zone RGB keyboard you can control with Predator Sense built into the notebook. There is a dedicated Predator Sense key too on the keyboard for you to access it quickly. I would have preferred a separate dedicated button though this arrangement by Acer makes everything look cleaner and more compact.
If you look closely too, you will see a ‘Turbo’ button on the top left corner of the typing surface. The new slits at the forehead of the keyboard are not speakers, by the way. They are extra cooling vents for the powerful 4th generation 3D Aeroblades. The ‘Turbo’ button is nestled right beside the vents.
This ‘Turbo’ button now lights up when you press it. Instead of just relying on your ears to see if the cooling fans go crazy or not, you can leave your headphones on and check the button instead. Although, the LED is not an expected Predator blue. Instead it is a plain white LED backlight. I would have liked it if it was Predator blue LED backlit. Then again, it could be less visible.
Around the sides, you find all the right interface ports, including a full HDMI out port and a Mini DP port. The charging port though has been moved to the back of the notebook. That also means that there is a big plate now in the middle of the back of the notebook, sacrificing some cooling vent space (hence the extra vents on top of the keyboard). We prefer this set up though, at least the charging cable will not cover anymore ports or vents. The large plate that houses the charging mechanism is quite large and sparse though. We would have liked to see an HDMI port moved there, the Mini DP port should belong there as well, and maybe an extra USB port on the plate.
Other than these things, the changes in design is now more internal. Instead of having an extra HDD slot on top of the 512GB SSD on the device, you now get an extra SSD and HDD slot on top of the 512GB SSD. Because of the new I/O layout too, they have to move the 3D AeroBlade fan a little bit, further apart to the sides. But they have also redesigned the heat pipes and tweaked their routing to make them a bit more efficient and effective, resulting in an improved cooling performance, despite the reduced intake vent surface area.
Hardware
Within the redesigned body, you are getting the same Intel Core i7-10750H as the Acer Nitro 5 we reviewed earlier. You can opt for a cheaper Core i5 edition, but we would suggest that you consider the Acer Nitro 5 then. Still, this one is in a league of its own. It is a Predator, and this one is just MYR 300 more than the top-of-the-line Acer Nitro 5.
For that MYR 300 extra, you are getting a better GPU too. It is just a step up from the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti, but the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is still a much more superior GPU with DLSS 2.0 capabilities and proper ray tracing. In those alone, we do think that the Acer Predator Helios 300 will be a better buy.
If you are in the market for a thin and light though, you might want to look away. It is quite a hefty package, this Helios 300. It weighs 2.5kg and is just about as thick as the Acer Nitro 5 that weighs in at 1.8kg. Remember though that this Helios 300 is mostly constructed with Aluminium.
15.6-inch IPS LED-backlit (1920 x 1080) ComfyView 144Hz
Memory
512GB NVME M.2 SSD 8GB DDR4 RAM
Networking and Connections (I/O)
3 x USB Type-A 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C 1 x Standard HDMI 1.4 1 x Audio combo jack 1 x Network RJ-45 Intel Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ (802.11ax) Bluetooth 5.0
Battery
4-cell Li-Polymer
Operating System
Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
Miscellaneous
DTS:X Ultra Audio
Features
As we have mentioned before, most of the changes are in the internals of the Acer Predator Helios 300. The size has not changed, nor the weight. Plenty of the changes seem quite minor at first, but they do add up to an improved product over its previous one though.
For starters, we like how much cleaner the new Helios 300 for 2020 looks compared to the rest of the previous generation Acer predator notebooks. We can expect this kind of design as well moving forward with other Acer Predator products. The chamfered edges are a big plus in our books because it does help with typing comfort a little, despite the still sharp angle at the ends. But there are more to this notebook than just small improvements.
New Body, New Positions
Like the Acer Nitro 5 that we reviewed earlier last month, the Acer Predator Helios 300’s charging port is now at the back. This, in our opinion, is a big ergonomic improvement. Because of the angled design of the charging cable from Acer (slightly wider power brick for the 2020 version), the cable tends to cover either your I/O ports at the side or the exhaust vents.
You either restrict airflow, or block your ports, which gets very annoying in plenty of cases. Acer will not completely overhaul the cables a well, because a straight plug will disrupt your mouse experience, especially when you game. To right handers, it is a simple solution of moving the charging port to the left side of the device. That is discriminating left-handers though. So, the back is the most sensible choice.
The only complain we have, as mentioned is that the back plate that houses the charging internals is a little on the sparse side. We felt that the Mini DP port and HDMI port should be moved to the back alongside a full-sized USB port or USB Type-C port. Yes, go with what Lenovo has done with their Legion line-up, we like that.
4-Zone RGB Keyboard That is Even Better
Typing essays on the previous Acer Predator Helios 300 was not really a chore to begin with. We find that the keyboard on most gaming notebooks have improved tremendously, especially on Acer Predator notebooks. We feel like they have started understanding that gaming notebooks are still productivity machines when you need them to be. Typing experience is still an important part of a notebook PC.
In that sense, the 2019 version of the Helios 300 is a comfortable typewriter. The key travels cannot be compared to any mechanical keyboards, but they are still easy to work with. They give you enough feedback with some very soft tactile feel. We somehow feel also that the keyboard would be the best that they could have made it.
The 2020 variant though has a better keyboard than before somehow. The keys somehow feel a bit more tactile than we are used to with Acer’s island type individual keys. There is no difference between key travels between the 2019 variant and 2020 variant. The softness and mushiness are much reduced, and the typing experience somehow is made much more comfortable. No, you still cannot compare it to a mechanical keyboard, but it is a good keyboard to work with when you are out and about. Not everyone carries their mechanical keyboards in their bags.
You still get highlighted ‘WASD’, arrow, and Predator Sense keys on the Acer Predator Helios 300. Instead of choosing a single backlight colour though, you can go for multiple colours across four zones on the keyboard this time. You simply fire up Predator Sense to change the settings.
The chamfered edge that lines the bottom of the keyboard plate, is a life saver. At least the edges do not cut into your palms or wrists anymore. We think that rounded off edges or chamfered edges on notebooks should be a thing. It is a small difference that really changes your comfort levels with the device.
Predator Sense + 4th Gen 3D AeroBlade = Stone Cold
The subtitle might be a little of an exaggeration. But to be fair, the combination of the two really works. Because you do not have the restriction of space like you get in a Triton notebook, the Helios 300 can work with bigger intake and exhaust fans and vents. That allows even more air to pass through your hot internals and keep them properly cool.
If you’ve read our review of the Acer Nitro 5, you would have noticed that we mentioned that Nitro sense is not quite as powerful as Predator Sense. That is because Nitro Sense does not do overclocks, while Predator Sense does.
Strangely you cannot really tweak the overclocking settings on your own, not that this information is anything new. Acer do not really want you to cook your internals just for the sake of proving a point. This is as much about protecting you as it is protecting the PC and themselves.
Predator Sense clocks up your CPU and GPU to speeds that the manufacturers deem safe and plausible enough for their fans to keep them at their optimum temperature. Of course, this is done when you kick ‘Turbo’ mode on. The fans go at its fastest too, to ensure maximum airflow for the Helios 300. Nope, you cannot turn the fan down.
In default mode though, the fan is relatively quiet and peaceful. It is still powerful enough technically to run Horizon Zero Dawn at ‘ultimate’ settings and not go overboard with the noise. It does get hot though after a while and you still might want to kick ‘turbo’ mode on, just to manage its temperature.
In any sense though, we never got the feeling that the Acer Predator Helios 300 is ever going to overheat, especially when you turn on ‘Turbo’ mode when ou need a little bit of horsepower. We turn on ‘Turbo’ mode even when we are editing our videos. We also think that the full aluminium top of the Helios 300 does help a little bit in heat dissipation.
Performance
You can safely expect this generation of Acer Predator Helios 300 to really perform. Will it be that much more powerful? I doubt, but it will still be powerful. It is still one powerful device with a 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10750H processor that replaces the older 9th Generation six-core processor. But you still get the same NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 on the graphics end, which is still something of a powerhouse.
Gaming
Of course, we have to talk gaming, this is a gaming notebook after all. We tried games like Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Horizon Zero Dawn, Assassin’s Creed: Origins, and Two Point Hospital on it. They are not the latest or most demanding games in the market, but Ghost Recon: Breakpoint can be quite taxing on even the most modern of hardware.
The latest, in terms of PC release date, among all the games is Horizon Zero Dawn. It is not the most demanding of games, but we were still excited to play it on the powerful Acer Predator Helios 300. For Horizon Zero Dawn though, you do not necessarily need an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, it could be just slightly overpowered even when you go on ultimate settings. Technically you will do fine even with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti to get the game on ultimate settings.
Of course, for titles like Assassin’s Creed: Origins and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, hardware will be a little taxed. Still, if we leave the game to decide the best settings for the Helios 300, you are sure to be getting smooth gameplay without too big of an issue. Ghost Recon: Breakpoint can be a little buggy on certain hardware though, so we might have to take that with a pinch of salt. Still, the game clocked at least 40fps in most cases only dropping frames in very few occasions.
Assassin’s Creed Origins is quite an old title to be fair. It is still a beautiful game to work with and requires quite a little bit in rendering power thanks to the vast open world that is ancient Egypt. Still, everything went down smoothly at high settings with fps reaching 120 at some points.
The last title we tested the Helios 300 is Two Point Hospital. That is a game that does not require that much at all to be fair, so you can expect it to run as smoothly as possible with near zero hiccups other than the game’s bugs. You can safely leave the settings at the highest for the game and you will still have no trouble running it even without ‘Turbo’ mode on. Of course, thanks to IPS display and 144Hz, Two Point Hospital looks excellent on the Helios 300.
Bye Bye Wave NX, Hello DTS: X Ultra
The previous generation of Acer’s Predator Helios 300 comes packing Acer’s own Wave NX audio technology. They are not bad, per se. They are just not as polished as we would like them to be.
With Wave NX in the previous generation Acer Predator notebooks, you get Virtual 3D audio if you are using your headphones. Regardless of the headphone make and type, Acer’s Wave NX solution, by default, will adjust the audio according to your head’s placement and movement. This is done via the webcam as well. To create an audio room for you.
While it sounds great in concept, and works nicely to a certain degree, it is inconsistent at times. That feature is removed in favour of conventional speakers. Except, the speakers are not that conventional thanks to DTS: X Ultra tuning.
While audio from notebooks generally lack low-frequency punches, the Acer Predator Helios 300 does have a little bit in thumping. It is not as powerful and defined as what you get if you have proper sub-woofers, but it is enough to enjoy your music with. You do want to have the DTS: X audio software turned on though to make full use of the DTS: X Ultra tuned speakers.
The software allows you to choose between a few audio profiles that is designed for specific uses. If you want to, you can tune the audio on your own too and save is a custom profile. Still, the pre set profiles does a stellar job on their own though. Unless you know what you are doing, best to leave the settings alone.
The speakers are quite loud at full chat, which could be a big distraction to other people in the same room as you are. Thank goodness they still have a 3.5mm jack for you to plug your headphones in for a more personalised listening experience. DTS: X will adjust the audio to that too.
Overall, there is technically not much to shout about in the sound department. Audio is crisp, and you can push it to maximum volume without getting your music to tear at the top. While it could use more low-end grunt, it is still respectable considering that the notebook does not pack a sub-woofer.
Battery
While they did quote that the new 10th Generation Intel Core processors are more efficient in power consumption, we did not actually notice that much in terms of power efficiency bump. There are no specific mentions on the battery life you can get out of the 4-cell battery within Acer Predator Helios 300 from Acer themselves. We did however get about 4 hours of battery life on average with the Acer Predator Helios 300.
Our average use on battery does not include gaming. We mostly have our browser on, sometimes you get 20 tabs out of Firefox, some email checking via Thunderbird or the browser itself. Spotify is on most of the time while we are on the go, of course with earphones plugged in. We did watch some YouTube videos on battery as well, that could take a little bit of toll on the battery life. Oh, we also tend to turn our display brightness settings all the way up.
Still, we managed nearly six hours of battery use at one time before it goes flat. In that case, we turned on battery saving mode immediately after we unplugged it from the charger. In that use case, we did not have Spotify on, the browser was closed as well, and we were only using Microsoft Word in full time in the lowest possible display brightness that we can work with.
Display – 144Hz IPS Dream Like Before
The display, as mentioned, is still similarly sized. It is also still a 144Hz display like before, not a 240Hz unfortunately. Acer did claim that the 15.6-inch display is an IPS panel. That also means that you are getting vibrant and accurate colours for your viewing pleasure.
Of course, you have to remember that this is a gaming notebook. It will not be the most accurate display that you will find on a notebook. IPS display still offers a great viewing experience though. It is still good enough for you to work with colours in videos and photos though. Of course, if you want something with better colour accuracy, you might need to get a secondary display to attach to your PC.
Still, the colours are still quite vivid for a gaming notebook. That also means that you might be able to really enjoy movies and other forms of media on this gaming rig. Thanks to the DTS: X audio too, you do not need to plug in your headphones to enjoy movies on your own.
While 144Hz may not be the fastest display that you might be able to get on a notebook PC it is fast enough for most to enjoy. In this case you get to load up games at up to 144fps. If you are thinking of titles like GTA V or DOTA 2, you will get about 120 to 144fps easily with the kind of hardware The Helios 300 has.
Of course, if you are into competitive gaming, you might want something even higher than 144Hz. Thing is, you may not really need that kind of speed on your display. Your eyes might not even be able to tell the difference between a display refreshing at 120hz and 240hz. In that sense, 144Hz is more than enough for most of us. If you go for the modern AAA titles, you might not even hit 120Hz.
As we said earlier too, the bezels have not really changed from the 2019 Helios 300 to the 2020 variant. They did not go the route of completely redesigning a gaming notebook from the 2019 to 2020 models. They technically did not have to since the only big difference between the two generations is the processor. Still, we do think that they should stick to a slightly wider top and bottom bezel area just so that you can fit properly sized keyboards and properly placed webcams.
The webcam is still a 720p HD webcam though. Nothing too wrong with that, technically. Plenty of notebooks still work with 720p webcams. But we are in 2020 now, 720p is so last decade. We think that notebooks should move to a Full HD webcam format now.
The Acer Predator Helios 300 – Seriously, Why Not?
For MYR 5,199, we seriously think that this package is quite hard to beat. Its closest competitor, we think, is the ASUS ROG Strix G15. While that particular device comes with a 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM, you are paying a hefty MYR 6,699 for largely the same internals. That is more than MYR 1,000 compared to what you are paying for the Acer Predator Helios 300. If you do opt to get another 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD to match, you are still paying less for the Acer Predator Helios 300.
You may be getting less too, in terms of outrageous looks on your PC. The whole point of the Predator Helios 300 though is to blend in a little bit. It is to make sure that no one takes a second look at you when you sport the notebook in your favourite cafés. Plus, you can have your lightshow with the 4-zone RGB keyboard that you can set different profiles on anyway.
By default, the PC is relatively quiet anyway, that also means you can use it in the library and the person next to you will not complain about excessive wind noise. It can be within your production room not too far away from your recording mic too and you barely notice its there. It is only when you decide to ‘accidentally’ hit ‘Turbo’ that all hell breaks loose.
It is not a flashy hardware and it is not meant to be. In that sense, we love it. We love how it looks, how unassuming it is. We love that some may not be able to tell it apart from other Predator products. We love how Predator has stuck to one design choice and work with that identity. We love that we can change the RGB to a single colour the whole way (I am not that big of a fan on RGB). We love the price, as it is you are not paying an absurd amount of money for a top performer. We love its value, its versatility, and its practicality. We even love how it sounds (audio, not the cooling fans), though most of the time I use headphones with it.
Yes, there are some things we do not like too much about it, but we are nitpicking. We would like it to be a little lighter, for example. We also would like to start seeing notebooks coming with 1080p webcams. Maybe a 240Hz display would be really nice too, but that will push its price point up by a little bit.
Would we recommend this package? We would, very strongly. At MYR 5,199, nothing can come close to this performer. You really do not want to pass this up. You can even get your hands on it without going out of home within their online store. At this time, you really do not want to be leaving your homes too much. In that case; get this gaming notebook, and lock yourselves in for days with nothing but you and your games.
Gaming notebooks seems to be the sort of notebook PCs that everyone is going for these days. There is a good reason for that. Gaming notebooks do not look that much more outrageous these days. They look quite good and svelte in most cases today. They look stealthy, and regular with just a little bit of cues of the power that lies inside.
You combine that polished, stealthy look with the amount of power that these things come with these days, and you are looking at a very compelling package. Oh yes, cool too – temperature wise. There is a small problem, however.
Gaming specific products are not cheap. This is because the powerful hardware that is packed into these portable mean machines are not cheap on their own. So, if you are in the market for a new notebook with gaming capabilities with the latest hardware, best be prepared to spend a little bit more money.
Still, you still can go for entry-level gaming PCs today and you are going to be okay mostly even with AAA titles. Entry-level gaming notebook PCs have come a long way. You are not getting sub-par devices with cheap prices and plenty of compromises. Which also means that entry-level gaming PCs are the gaming notebooks to go these days.
One of the ones you want to look at is the Acer Nitro 5 we have here. The Acer Nitro 5 we have here is the top-specced Acer Nitro 5 you can get your hands on. It packs the latest Intel Core i7 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti. It also comes with 8GB of RAM – like finally. It costs MYR 4,899 – more expensive than the entry level Predator Triton 300. Is it worth the asking price then? Let us find out.
Design
The Acer Nitro 5 has never been a bad looking notebook of a thing. While they are not the most svelte looking stuff, they are not bad lookers. The previous Nitro 5 has a faux carbon fibre treatment on the top of the case, which could be a thing for some people. We also understand that it may not be for everyone.
We do quite like the overall design of the Acer Nitro 5 in general though. They retain mostly the same shape since the first generation of the Nitro 5 a few years ago. You get the angular mouth that is reminiscent of Predator’s famous curves these days. You also get plenty of space for cooling purposes while maintaining a Plain Jane look.
The new one still retains the general shape and thickness of the older one. You lose the carbon fibre design from the old one though. Instead, you get some power lines that folds inward on the top of the clam. It mimics the lines that you get from the Helios line-up of the Predator family. They are, after all, cousins. Instead of the carbon fibre look, this retains the cleaner aluminium look mixed with some brushed steel look. Overall a cleaner look on the top.
But there are some extra flares that you get at the exhaust ports to indicate that this is still a serious piece of kit. It is more serious than ever too with the power it contains. There are some warnings of hot surfaces too, which might be quite necessary for any gaming rigs these days. There is no notable reduction in thickness of the hardware though, which may be a good thing. You still get full sets of I/O ports like HMDI and multiple USB Type-A ports with this standard of thickness. Of course, it is sturdier too.
The DC in port though, or the charging port is now moved to the back of the notebook. We especially love this because it frees up plenty of space on the sides. Most importantly it does not interfere your mouse movement which ever side you prefer it to be. It is ambidextrous now, is what we are saying.
That does create a little bit of a problem with the exhaust port though. There are now two smaller ports at the flanks of the backplate covering the charge mechanism. Acer seems to think that they have solved cooling issues with improved heat transfer pipe placements and bigger heatsink plates on top of the GPU and CPU. We shall find out later.
Open it up and what greets you is a 144Hz Full HD display at 15.6-inch. That seems to be a staple size for gaming notebooks these days. Of course, you want that 144Hz too, to take advantage of the Intel Core i7’s power to push fps to higher than 100. We will talk about the display a little more later.
The keyboard is now a 4-zone RGB instead of a single colour backlit keyboard. Again, I am not actually that big into RGB, so I usually set the backlight to a single colour. I chose white. But for you who are fans, you can customise the colours via Nitro Sense software included in the PC. It is even easily accessible via the Nitro Sense dedicated button on the keyboard. No ‘Turbo’ button on this thing like the Predators. Still, largely similar in layout with the previous notebook PCs.
Hardware
The Acer Nitro 5 you see here is the top-of-the-line model (AN515-55-79CU) that sports a 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10750H high performing CPU. That CPU is backed by an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti GPU and 8GB of RAM. Of course, you can upgrade that to however much you think you need. But let me say that 8GB is quite enough to run most games these days. Of course, a quick upgrade will never hurt. With 512GB of SSD storage, you are looking at MYR 4,899 for this model.
Of course, if you do not think that you need that power, you can opt for an Intel Core i5-10300H variant (AN515-55-52Z1) with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650Ti GPU. You still get the same amount of RAM and SSD storage too. That will set you back MYR 1,100 less than what you are paying for the one we review.
As usual, you only get one extra RAM slot so if you are planning to plug in two 16GB RAM sticks, you would have to pull out the original 8GB RAM. Make sure your RAM is compatible too. Then there is the upgradability on the side of storage. Traditionally you get a single SSD slot and an HDD slot. These days you get SSDs stuck in the notebook. Which means with the traditional set up you only get an HDD expansion slot.
In this though, you get two SSD slots. This is a new standard for notebook PCs too. Which also means that you get an extra SSD slot to upgrade your rig with an SSD and extra HDD for both extra storage and speed.
Specifications
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-55-79CU
As Tested
Processor (clock)
10th Generation Intel Core i7-10750H (2.6GHz)
GPU
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti
Display(s)
15.6-inch IPS LED-backlit (1920 x 1080) ComfyView
Memory
512GB NVME M.2 SSD 8GB DDR4 RAM
Networking and Connections (I/O)
1 x USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A 2x USB 2.0 1 x Standard HDMI 1.4 1 x Audio combo jack 1 x Network RJ-45 Intel Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ (802.11ax) Bluetooth 5.0
Battery
3,560mAh 4-cell Li-Polymer
Operating System
Windows 10 Home
Miscellaneous
Audio certified by DTS:X 1.8kg
Features
To be fair, there is not that much that has changed since we saw the slightly older generation of the Acer Nitro 5. The most notable changes are that on paper. It is more powerful with newer generation processors and GPU. But somehow it does carry a slightly higher retail price tag for that. We suspect that the COVID-19 situation might play a small role in its pricing.
That is not to say that this is a gaming notebook PC that does not stand out with its own features. There are somethings that we appreciate in the new Nitro 5. While they are quite minor things that we may have already touched on earlier, they do matter.
Nitro Sense – Not Quite Predator Sense
There was one software that made Predator devices stand out in the last generation. That software is their Predator Sense that allows you to control every part of your rig. You can set the fan to its loudest and fastest settings. This is required mostly when the GPU and CPU is being pushed to their limits in gaming. To get games to play out smoothly and beautifully, these things tend to be pushed to their limits and more.
In the previous generation of the entry-level gaming PC, we did not see much of Nitro Sense. Nitro Sense in the new Nitro 5 takes a larger stage. The dedicated button is easy to reach and recognise. It is placed in the same part of the keyboard as the Predator PCs since 2019. This also means they are using the same sort of keyboard in the Nitro 5, which is also good news.
There is no ‘Turbo’ button that you can expect to find on Predator PCs though. Still, it is not to say that Nitro Sense is useless. It is quite the contrary.
By default, you Acer Nitro 5 is programmed to run as quietly as possible. This would be important in places like meeting rooms maybe. But when you are gaming, you want to unlock the fans a little and from the Nitro Sense app, you can turn on CoolBoost. That function allows the fan to adjust itself according to the GPU and CPU operations and heat dissipation requirements. Of course, when you run the processors harder, the faster the fan spins to dissipate more heat.
Because there is not ‘Turbo’ button, you can only control the ‘boosts’ within Nitro Sense as well. While certain games like Grand Theft Auto V, Two Point Hospital, and Re: Legends may not require plenty of GPU or CPU power, you might need more in games like Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, or Red Dead Redemption 2 to get them to play as smoothly as possible.
Most games though will do well enough with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1660Ti. Still, it is nice to know you can tap into more power when you want to, especially when you need to render videos and such. Nitro Sense is a big welcome here.
Smooth Operator 4-Zone RGB
I may not be a big fan of RGB. That does not mean that others cannot enjoy RGB. I know plenty of people who loves RGB and cannot get enough of it. For me though, single colour all the way.
For those who enjoy a good RGB, the Acer Nitro 5 now comes with a four-zone RGB backlit keyboard array. I have to say though, it is nice to have the option to show off and turn on your RGB backlight and set the to ‘dynamic’ settings and watch the rainbow colours go. When you do that too, it does not seem like a four-zone RGB.
You cannot map each key to any colours of your choice individually. Not that it mattered that much anyway. But that also means you cannot colour code your WASD keys to their own colours. Still, the WASD keys are made so that the RGB can highlight them a little, which is still something.
Even this is controlled via Acer’s trusty Nitro Sense. This goes back to how useful the Nitro Sense is for Acer’s Nitro 5.
Back-to-Back Power
We had a small issue with the older models of Acer Predator notebook PCs. Their charging port is awkwardly placed in the middle of the right side of the device. This creates a few persistent problems.
If you are placing your power brick out of the way in the back of the notebook PC you are placing the cable in the way of an exhaust port at the side which causes heat to build up a little. Move the cable to push toward the front for better ventilation and you realise the cable covers a USB port and a headphone jack, a USB Type-C port maybe. This is for those L-shaped power cables. If you have it plugged with a regular straight power plug, you are going to be restricting the movement of your Mouse in gaming sessions, not ideal when you are in an online game situation.
So, for the 2020 version of Acer’s Nitro 5, they have moved the power charging port to the back of the device. This is a delight because now the power cables do not have to be in the way. Out-of-the-box though is the L-shaped head which kind of makes sense since Acer do not have to change their whole production supply. While it does create an avenue for bent cables and even blocked exhaust ports, it does tuck the back in a little so that you can push your notebook PC a little further away from you on the desk.
We do find that somehow the back plate that houses the power supply peripherals a little sparse though. Other than they charge port, there is no other useful features at the back of the PC. We would appreciate the HDMI port to be moved to the back. We might also appreciate one Thunderbolt enabled USB Type-C at the back. The LAN port should also be pushed to the back with the HDMI and power ports, in our opinion. Of course, that might happen while sacrificing the convenient I/O on the sides of the device.
Cool Kits
No, not extra accessories. The new Acer Nitro 5 for 2020 comes with a set of newer, more advanced cooling system. Thing is, this is not a large improvement over the previous cooling system. That is also not to say that the cooling system is not great. The cooling system on the Nitro 5 has always been good.
The new Acer Nitro 5 for 2020’s cooling system layout sort of mimics the Predator Helios 300’s cooling layout. With their 3D Aeroblade technology trickled down from the Predator notebooks, the Acer Nitro 5 should not face any issue with cooling really. In our use case, we never had in issue with cooling even when we are playing games like GTA V for an extended period.
While the rear radiators have shrunk in favour of the more ergonomic rear side power input, there are virtually no difference in cooling with the Acer Nitro 5. That is also thanks, mostly, to bigger copper plates, better routing, and wider heat pipes too. Of course, there is the more efficient CPU too.
Performance
With Intel’s 10th Generation Core i7 and NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1660Ti, this gaming Notebook PC should be able to handle nearly any modern games you can throw at it. You technically can play The Shadow of Tomb Raider in lower settings that you would want to and still get decent FPS performance out of it.
Gaming
If you are thinking of playing DOTA 2 on it, you should not be too hesitant. The 144Hz does help with FPS in MOBA type games. Even competitive first person shooters would benefit from the smooth graphics. Of course, do not expect your new Call of Duty: Warzone or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare games to be as smooth at higher graphics settings.
Still, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint and Assassin’s Creed: Origins play smoothly as long as you leave them on their default settings. In that regards alone, this is a worthy choice to get into most games of today. If you are planning to only play things like Two-Point Hospital, or Motorsport Manager, or even Football Manager, you should have nothing to worry about anyway.
Doing the Work Stuff
We are not talking about doing things like word or powerpoint processing. You do not even need this kind of pulling power if you are just looking to work on those. With this thing, you want to do heavier work – video rendering stuff, photo editing, or even low-level animation work.
Sadly, the Acer Nitro 5 does not have a boost button or even a convenient one-touch max-out function. In this case, the fans and processors will spool up when necessary. At a maximum, it will not even touch the Acer Predator models.
Still, it has a decent video processing capability. You have to expect some lags and stutters while scrubbing through 4K videos. Though it is much improved, you might want to spend on more expensive rigs for 4K video processing. This is not to say you cannot, it still works, but you might want something faster.
For Full HD 1080p vidoes though, the process is buttery smooth. Of course, this is also a contribution of the speedy SSD speeds too. You can easily drag your cursor around to any point of the video and start playing it at the program monitor. We use Adobe Premiere Pro, by the way.
To render a 5-minute Full HD 1080p videos, it does not take that long actually. It takes probably about 15 minutes at the maximum. This is also considering that we were scaling down from 4K resolution, which is extra workload for the PC. We unfortunately do not produce enough 4K resolution contents to test out the Acer Nitro 5.
Sound By DTS
Acer Harmony was great, it was not the best though. Sometimes, it is best to leave some things done by experts. That is why The Acer Nitro 5 now comes with some support by DTS with DTS: X. This is probably one the notebook’s biggest improvements.
DTS: X was seen on a few devices before. In effect, DTS makes things sound better. Then again, that is their business.
The Acer Nitro 5’s speakers are not the loudest in the world. They still pack quite a punch though, and they are louder than before. Despite the louder speakers, you are not getting much of difference in terms of sounds profile. Until you open the DTS app that is.
With the DTS app, sound profile changes a little bit. The trebles are more distinctive, the bass more pronounced. That changes a whole lot of experience when it comes to music. When you hear the vocals, then you can start appreciating the new DTS: X speakers. Vocals are still as crisp as before, if not crisper. It does not overpower the other range of frequencies though, rather the DTS app cleverly balances everything out. Everything completements each other, is the best way we can describe it.
The DTS app has several preset settings within the app though. You can go on the default dynamic profile for the app to cleverly detect your medium and adjust itself properly. Either that or you go into specific preset profiles like music or gaming to get the best tuning for each activity.
We appreciate good audio and the Nitro 5 was able to deliver on the speakers. The same can be said when you plug in your headphones too. With DTS:X, you are getting a completely different experience when it comes to headphones too. The only sad part? It does not come with 3D audio or spatial audio like the Acer Predator notebooks. I guess there are still some things that the Acer Nitro 5 cannot do.
Battery
The battery life of any gaming PC is quite appalling. Because of the amount of power you get in a gaming PC, you usually cannot expect more than two hours away from the charger before it needs another charge. The situation has improved though, and the Acer Nitro 5 for 2020 is a testament to that.
The Acer Nitro 5 for 2020 boasts about 8 hours in battery life. In our tests, we never really gotten close to that number. We can safely say that your gaming notebook can go past 4 hours now on battery.
At least for the Acer Nitro 5, we could get battery life at a maximum of 6 hours with balanced settings. We had Spotify on with earphones plugged in, we use Firefox as our internet browser, and we had about 20 tabs open at the same time. Most of the time though we got about 4 hours of battery life. We did try to game on it without plugging it into a power socket and still got an hour of battery life on it though. That was quite impressive for us. Of course, on battery, your gaming is a little compromised because the hardware within the Nitro 5 tends to turn itself down in favour of preserving its battery life.
Display
You are really not getting a bad deal with the new Acer Nitro 5. The one we have here sports a 3ms 144Hz refresh rate display. I cannot tell whether the display panel is a TN panel or IPS, but the colours look good still.
Still, this is a gaming display, which means colours are not its main priority. While the colours still look better than most notebook PCs you can find these days, you are not getting the most colour accurate display in town. Still, that is not what the Acer Nitro 5 is about though.
This is about speed, and competitiveness. The Acer Nitro 5’s 144Hz display helps with MOBA games and FPS games in a competitive environment. Motion blur is less of a thing with 144Hz at least. This also means you get a better competitive advantage when it comes to games like Counter Strike. You see better. In competitive games too, every millisecond count towards getting the first hit or getting hit first. That 3ms response time is crucial for your kills.
We are not competitive gamers though, so that matters less to us. We still appreciate a fast display though. Games generally look better with 144Hz. We could see that in effect with games like GTA V. While 3ms response time does not do much too, we do appreciate having a fast responding display, a near instant display, more like.
That said, it is not a brand-new display unit. It is technically the same display panel that you get in previous generation Acer Predator notebooks like the Triton 300. Which also means you get about the same performance from the display as the older Predator notebook. It may not be a bad thing though.
We still really like that notebook PCs come with minimal bezels. The bezel size has not increased on the Acer Nitro 5 compared to the old one, which is a good thing. It has not shrunk either though. That is not necessarily a bad thing. We still like webcams to be where they are supposed to be, above the display.
The Acer Nitro 5 – Best Value Got Better
Entry-level gaming notebooks are never that great in the earlier days of mainstream gaming notebooks. The thing is, entry level gaming notebooks have come a long way in 2020. With more powerful processors on offer, they can really replace all the gaming needs you have. Of course, if you want the best of the best performance in class, you are still better off with a desktop PC.
There is an appeal to gaming notebook PCs though. They are plenty more portable, and more convenient. You do not need to be sitting where your PC is to start gaming with notebook PCs. You just need to sit anywhere you like, and turn it on, and start playing at any time; your gaming comes with you.
Entry level gaming notebook PCs are exactly just that, but at a much more accessible price point. Thing is, the Acer Nitro 5 gaming notebook that we have is not exactly budget friendly at MYR 4,899. There is a cheaper variant with an Intel Core i5 and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, which is quite a bit less.
At MYR 4,899 though you are not getting something compromised, you are getting something that will work. The Acer Nitro 5 at this spec easily handles plenty of AAA titles, albeit not at the highest settings. You get 144Hz display too, so games with less graphical requirements will perform and look beautiful on the display.
Prices for notebook PCs are not very encouraging at this point due to the whole global pandemic situations though. While the Acer Nitro 5 is a great notebook PC to have, it may not be the best time to get a new gaming notebook PC. Sill, we do think that the MYR 4,899 asking price for the Acer Nitro 5 with Intel’s 10th Generation Core i7 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is worth it. Considering an equivalent Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i will cost nearly MYR 1,000 more than the Acer Nitro 5, yes the Acer Nitro 5 is the entry-level gaming notebook PC for you.
Video games and budget does not usually go together. Gaming notebook PCs are usually a little bit more expensive than the usual notebook PCs you can find in the market. That is usually because these things are high-powered thingamajis that you can carry anywhere you go. You can take your games anywhere with you. Because of more powerful internals, gaming PCs become a little more expensive. So up until a few years ago, budget gaming PCs do not really exist.
The advancement of technology is a wonderful thing however and makes gaming more accessible to the market. That translates to products like the Acer Nitro 5. The Acer Nitro 5 has always been Acer’s entry-level gaming notebook PC. They have a new one this year, and it is even better than before.
The Acer Nitro 5 has always been a looker, so it is no surprise that the new one still looks good. This time though, you get RGB keyboard that can be customised via NitroSense. There is a new thermal solution within the body of the Nitro 5 for better cooling and airflow. Added with the proven CoolBoost technology, you can squeeze a little bit more power from the Acer Nitro 5.
Source: Acer
Of course, all these are just enhancements in the minimal sense. To get the most out of theese cooling solutions, you need better hardware inside. This entry-level gaming notebook PC packs more power than before with 10th Generation Intel ‘Comet Lake’ Core processors starting with the Core i5 up to the Core i7. Paired to the new, powerful CPUs are the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPUs (up to GTX 1660Ti).
Of course, price is always a concern. The Acer Nitro 5 starts at MYR 3,799 and tops out at MYR 4,899 for the top specced NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti. Considering the entry-level Predator Triton 300 packs an Intel Core i7 paired to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, the Nitro 5 is a real bargain.
Source: Acer
The Acer Nitro 5 will be available on the 15th June onward. You can get your hands on one via Acer’s official online store and official Lazada store. From the 15th to 19th June 2020, Acer will have some online exclusive promotions for these two notebook PCs. Among the free gifts that you can expect are Predator Gaming Chairs, predator gaming headset, gaming mouse, and backpacks. For more information on the Acer Nitro 5 gaming notebook PC, do check out Acer’s website.
Acer wowed us a little bit last year when they launched their new Predator Triton 500 package. When it was released in its Navy coloured aluminium body with a super thin body profile, it was quite a remarkable powerhouse you can take anywhere without breaking your back. What is even more amazing is that the power brick that comes with it is smaller than most power bricks that comes with notebook PCs with that kind of power.
The new one is technically no different from the old one. When we say that though, we are just talking in terms of appearance. Compared to the older Predator Triton 500, you are looking at roughly the same body shape and size. Same package, if you might. But inside packs more power than ever before.
What you get inside is the latest 10th Generation Intel Core i7 (up to) to unlock the true power of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super (up to) Max-Q GPU you get in a 17.9-inch think body. The all-metal body weighs about 2.1kg. That is not to say that it is a light package, but it is lighter than most gaming PCs. It packs plenty of power in less weight and smaller package than a pack of rice.
Source: Acer
While the older Predator Triton 500 only packs a display with 144Hz, the new one for 2020 is a performance powerhouse with 300Hz refresh rate. Who needs 300Hz? We do, with Full HD to make sure everything is smoother than a baby’s bottoms. It is fast too at 3ms response time and G-Sync enabled. Of course, colours are important, so the display gets up to 100% in sRGB colour gamut coverage.
The cooling solution in a body this thing has not changed all that much really. It is still the proven fourth generation AeroBlade 3D fans pulling hot air out of the internals of the notebook. Why fix something that is not broken, right? Still, to ensure that you do not burn up the PC when you game intensely or even edit videos, there is CoolBoost with Vortex Flow to ensure the Predator Triton 500 is at its maximum cooling capacity. You can see all these things and control your RGB lighting effects on the keyboards in Predator Sense.
Source: Acer
Source: Acer
The Acer Predator Triton 500 will be available from Acer’s own online store and Lazada from the 15th June 2020. You can find it in stores starting 20th June 2020. The Predator Triton 500 will be available with online exclusive promotions though, starting from the 15th June 2020. The new 2020 updated version of the Acer Predator Triton 500 will start at MYR 7,999 onward. For more information, you can check out Acer’s Predator Microsite.
When HONOR launched their MagicBook Pro last year, the world went a little wild. There is a good reason for that. They offered the MagicBook Pro at a price point where no one has never seen before. It was still basically a HUAWEI MateBook X Pro. It was sold at a lower price point though. That also means that it is one of the most affordable notebook PCs in its class.
The new one continues that ethos of a powerful notebook PC for not very much money. The HONOR branded premium notebook PC is still an all-aluminium bodied wonder packing plenty of power. For starters it packs Intel’s latest 10th Generation Core i7 processor (up to). Specifically, the HONOR MagicBook is powered by an Intel Core i7-10510U processor. That main CPU is supported by NVIDIA’s new GeForce MX350 GPU too.
Source: GSM Arena
Storage wise, you are getting 16GB on board RAM. That also should mean that this notebook PC should play well with Adobe’s suite of software. You get up to 512GB of storage too with the MagicBook Pro. That 512GB SSD is fast but may not be enough to keep all the high-resolution media that you might enjoy though.
You do want to put some movies and videos in there with the Full HD display that is rated at 100% sRGB. That also means images and photos would really pop on the MagicBook Pro. That display measures at 16.1-inch in size. That is quite an unusual size, but its larger display also means that you would be able to appreciate the Full HD resolution even more. It even has a performance mode when you hit the function (fn) key and the ‘P’ key on the notebook; for when you play games, they say.
Source: GSM Arena
Source: GSM Arena
Source: GSM Arena
Source: GSM Arena
The HONOR MagicBook Pro will be available in Russia September 2020 onward. For Malaysia, we can expect the HONOR MagiBook Pro to arrive somewhere in the third quarter of 2020. That guess is based on the arrival of HONOR’s previous generation MagicBook Pro. The HONOR MagicBook Pro with Intel’s Core i5 will sell for RMB 5,999 (MYR 3,668) while the Core i7 variant is available for RMB 6,699 (MYR 4,096). Those are not Malaysian prices, we know.
Creators, in a lot of sense, are like gamers. Before you deny, let us look at the facts. People in the creative industry, especially designers, videographers, photographers, or 3D artists need a powerful PC. The more power, the better. Gamers need a lot of power as well to get the best sort of experience in the gaming world – a sort of immersive escape from the real world.
Creators, especially ones that are in the 3D design space needs a lot of computing power to render 3D spaces and designs. Gamers play a lot of 3D games and need plenty of rendering power from their PC to render whatever that is coded into the game smoothly and beautifully, as intended by the designers. Conclusion? Gamers and creators are nearly the same people.
The difference is that gamers prefer a display that does not glare into their eyes. Colours, although important, are quite secondary. They prefer higher refresh rates than colour accuracy because that may affect their performance in an online multiplayer match up. Creators on the other hand prefer colour accuracy, quality and resolution over anything else. The more accurate the colours and resolution, the better. They need a true to life representation of colours to do their jobs.
That is the reason why creators need PCs with specialised monitors to work with. The old days of the creative industry was to get a gaming PC and hook it up to a colour accurate monitor. Not anymore.
Source: MSI
With the new MSI Creator 17, you are now getting a display like no other. They call it a Mini LED display. The technology of which, we have not understood fully yet. What we know though is that it is supposedly better than OLED and IPS displays in terms of colour reproduction. It is DCI-P3 100% certified, which also means you get very accurate colours.
The 17.3-inch Mini LED display pushes up to 4K in resolution. It is also a Display HDR 1000 display with a peak brightness of 1,000 nits. That is bright; really bright. You might want to consider lowering the brightness in a dark room, else you get blind.
The MSI Creator 17 packs the power too with an NVIDIA GeForce 2080 SUPER (up to) and Intel’s 10th Generation Core i7-107875H processor. You can choose to slot in two SSD’s within the notebook for an uninterrupted workflow. They did not mention how much RAM you can get it with, but we can safely assume that you can slot in at least a 32GB RAM stick into it.
For more information and pricing of the Creator series notebook PCs, you should contact MSI directly for a quote. If not, you can find more information on MSI’s products in their website.
