Acer has just announced some new additions to the Predator Gaming Series. One of them is an enhanced version of the Predator 17 laptop (which we have done a review recently). How can you top an already impressive hardware list for a gaming laptop? By adding an Nvidia 980. Note the lack of “M” in the name, implying it’s a desktop graphics card.
It’s common knowledge that mobile versions of the graphics card are inherently a weaker version to their counterparts, but their usefulness comes from them being cooler and uses less power. More recently, there’s been a few laptops that have used a desktop graphics card and looks like Acer is joining the party. With that addition, the Predator 17X will use a triple-fan cooling system instead of just two (which is already impressive to begin with). The Predator 17 has excelled in terms of cooling, and we are eager to see if it can handle a desktop graphics card.
With the improvements coming from the graphics card, the Predator 17X is VR-ready. This means that the laptop is powerful enough to run VR games and experience using the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive. VR games use more computational power as it needs to render two screens (one for each eye) and maintain a steady 60fps. Don’t even think about running VR below that threshold, as it will just lead to motion sickness or experiencing lag in real life.
The full specs have yet to be announced, but it is confirmed that the Predator 17X uses a 6th Generation (Skylake) Intel Core i7-6820HK processor, and choice of 1080p or 4K display resolution with G-Sync.
The Predator 17X will be available in May for China and June for US and Europe, with a price tag of $2,799 US Dollars. As with the Predator 17, don’t expect it to be cheap, but if you’re looking for a VR solution without the hassle of building a rig of your own, give this a look when it’s available on our shores soon.