Acer’s Predator Triton 500 gets a 300Hz panel and beastly internal upgrades

Intel and Nvidia blitzed the technology world with the simultaneously launch of 10th-gen Core CPUs and GeForce RTX Super GPUs on Thursday, and now Acer’s Predator Triton 500 gaming laptop is adding to the shock and awe.

The Predator Triton 500 has long been coveted for its fairly light weight and thin body. The newest iteration takes it to the next level with Intel’s latest 10th-gen Comet Lake H chips. The 14nm Comet Lake H CPUs bump some Core i7 chips up to 8-cores, and bumps up the boost clock on the Core i9.

What’s inside of the Predator Triton 500 wasn’t made clear though—does the Triton 500 feature an 8-core chip or 6-core chip like its predecessor? We hope it moved up the chain, as the Triton 500’s nemesis—MSI’s GS66 Stealth—will offer an 8-core chip in a similar 4.6-pound frame.

Acer

The previous Triton 500 offered up to a GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q so the GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q in the latest Acer may not impress at first glance. But the Super-series packs more CUDA cores than their vanilla counterparts, and Nvidia made some key advancements in this new generation of Max-Q tech to improve both performance and power efficiency, so the new model could be a good step faster.

The 15.6 screen in the Triton 500 also gets a nice buff courtesy of a 300Hz IPS screen, Acer said. That screen, interestingly, supports Nvidia’s G-Sync, but it’s not clear if it supports Nvidia’s new Advanced Optimus feature that lets you switch from G-Sync (which consumes more power since the GPU is on all of the time) to the integrated graphics chip. Advanced Optimus was introduced as part of the Max-Q enhancements in this new breed of GeForce GPUs, but it’s an optional feature for laptop makers.

Killer

A nice touch for people into high-speed networks is the inclusion of Killer’s E3100G ethernet chip, which supports 2.5GbE. Plain old wireless people will also get Wi-Fi 6 using a Killer AX1650i controller.

Acer said the laptop will be offered with up to 32GB of DDR4 and also up to 2TB of space using NMVe RAID 0. That pretty much tells us there’s space for two drives inside.

For those who want something a little more down to earth, Acer is also offering the Nitro 5 with Intel’s newest 10th-gen Comet Lake CPUs. Decidedly more affordable, the Nitro 5 will offer options up to a GeForce RTX 2060 as well as a more wallet friendly GeForce GTX 1650 Ti GPU. Even though it’s friendlier to your credit card, the Nitro 5 will still pack up to two M.2 SSDs, plus a 2.5-inch drive. RAM tops out at 32GB in standard SO-DIMM slots and the 15.6 FHD IPS screen will be offered with both 144Hz and 120Hz options.

The Predator Triton 500 will hit the streets in May starting at $2,200, while the Nitro 5 will start at $750 and also be available for sale in May.

Acer