Acer Predator 17 G9-793 Notebook Review

As we mentioned earlier, the chassis is very similar to that of the predecessors. The only visible difference are the fan grills, which look a little more "playful" this time around. For our comparison, we'll reference the review of the G9-791.

The weight of the chassis - noted as one of the negative aspects before - has increased even more and the G9-793 now tips our scale at 4.23 kg. The substantial depth of the notebook hasn't changed, either. While other manufacturers still keep an eye on the mobility aspect, Acer seems to ignore it completely. Since high-end notebooks larger than 15 inches are actually to large for frequent traveling and oftentimes offer much less performance while running on battery power anyway, we can only applaud Acer's decision. The Predator belongs on a desk and the construction confirms it. 

Manufactures of office and business notebooks rely on more or less uniform construction with few visual highlights. Acer goes a different route and no matter where the eye falls, it encounters red accents galore: there are red illuminated decorating strips which flank the Predator-logo on the lid and the extravagant, triangular power button above the keyboard. All ventilation grills as well as the speaker grills are either red or feature red borders. The edgy and futuristic design likely appeals to youthful men, but might also be too obtrusive for some. The colorful keys contribute here as well.

The predecessor's chassis left us with a positive impression and the new version isn't any different. The construction quality of the base unit is without fault; the notebook is very solid and doesn't yield even when fairly substantial pressure is applied in the middle of the keyboard. As before, the display lid isn't very stiff and emits some creaking sounds when twisted. The hinges a very stiff, so display bouncing is minimized even when the notebook is jostled around. It's still easy to open the lid with one hand, however. The rubberized surfaces offer a lot of grip, but are susceptible to fingerprints, which are not easy to clean off, either.

The width, the height and the weight of 4.2 kg are really not that unusual for a gaming notebook, but the depth - at 322 mm - certainly is. The Asus G752VS, however, is wider, deeper, thicker, and heavier by about 300 g. All other competitors weigh less and 3 cm less deep.

There isn't much to report about the physical ports and their distribution. We don't have any reasons to complain: in addition to the 4x USB 3.0, the Acer comes with a USB Type-C connector supporting a full-fledged Thunderbolt 3 interface - which means that DisplayPort for USB 3.1 Gen2 is supported as well. Adapters of course have to be purchased separately. External monitors can also be hooked up via HDMI and DisplayPort. Cabled Gigabit LAN is of course essential for a gaming notebook and thus on board as well. We should also mention the traditional and separated audio ports. We can't find any faults with the position of the ports, either, as they are all located towards the rear of the notebook and on the sides, which is ideal.

As the diagram below shows, the card reader transfers data at medium-fast rates of 70 to 90 MB/s. Even the faster (up to two times the transfer speed) Schenker XMG U716 and the MSI GT72VR don't quite reach the full potential of our Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II reference SD card, however.

Wireless connectivity is provided by the WLAN module Killer Wireless-AC 1535, which was specifically designed for gaming notebooks. The module can either use the - often times overly crowded - 2.4 GHz or the less-utilized 5 GHz band along with the faster ac standard. Since the use of two antennas are supported (MIMO 2x2), the theoretical data throughput rate is 867 MBit/s. The Killer Network Manager (screenshot farther down below) software allows the user to tweak the settings. The manufacturer lists specific features and characteristics of the module here. 

One meter away from the router, the Acer notebook only averaged 322 MBit/s when receiving data. The Asus G752VS with Intel Wireless-AC 8260 (ac, MIMO 2x2) is up to 76 % faster. We don't quite know what's going on here: the Acer transmits at 528 MBit/s, which outperforms the aforementioned Asus. It's possible that a driver update will remedy this issue (if we can even call it an issue) down the line.

Aside from the usual accessories (like the power adapter, now rated at 230 watts vs. 180 watts, the quickstart guide, and the warranty information), the box also contains an additional FrostCore fan, which can be inserted into the slot for the optical drive (also included) and is supposed to provide additional cooling.

In Germany, the Predator is covered against defects for two years via a Pick-Up & Return warranty. An additional International Travelers Warranty is provided for one year.

The results of the PCMark 8 benchmark tests were erratic with the scores sometimes way too low and changing from one run to the next. Since we can't rely on the scores, we will forgo an analysis. Subjectively, the notebook ran smoothly with exceedingly quick load times even during heavy multitasking-sessions or when running demanding software titles.

The GeForce GTX 1070 is a very high-end GPU from Nvidia's Pascal-series of graphics card. At the time of writing, only the (much more expensive) GTX 1080 is faster. In addition to the blazing fast chip itself, the card also features 8 GB of GDDR5 RAM, which are connected via 256-bit interface - so the GPU should be fairly future-proof as well. While the desktop version of the GPU features a somewhat higher clock speed, it only has access to 1920 shaders - the notebook variant has 2048. According to GPU-Z, the base clock speed is 1443 MHz. The Turbo can overclock to at least 1645 MHz if needed.

The results of the 3DMark 11 benchmark test show that the Predator 17 performs about as well as the other GTX 1070-equipped notebooks we've tested so far. The Acer is about 5 % slower than the Asus G752VS, but Asus actually overclocks the GPU even further. According to the Fire Strike portion of the newest 3DMark, the Predator 17 is slower by about 6 %, which can likely be attributed to the way Acer manages the clock speeds. With the notebook running on battery power, the 3DMark 11 score dropped from 15153 to 7037 points. 

Even demanding games at Full-HD resolution with maximum settings and active MSAA are no problem for the GPU. Most Triple-A titles even run stutter-free at the native 4K resolution with the settings on high - the previous-generation GTX 980M had no chance here. For our tests, we kept the factory setting with Cool Boost deactivated. A quick check with Cool Boost enabled didn't show a noticeable improvement.

Our review notebook did have some problems with the Far Cry Primal benchmark: with the Ultra-preset (FHD) selected, the Predator trailed the Asus G752VS - equipped with a faster processor and a higher-clocked GPU - by about 16 %. More critical for FPS games is the 4K resolution - here, the Acer was slower by only about 5 %. The Predator also trails the G752VS slightly when running Rise of the Tomb Raider, but is ahead when playing The Witcher 3.

The sound system consists of four speakers and two subwoofers and is quite impressive. The maximum volume level is high and sufficient even for large rooms. The Dolby Audio menu allows the user to select different presets and tweak various settings like the equalizer. For our evaluation, we chose the standard setting. Music sounds pretty natural, full and detailed, but also slightly harsh - the upper frequency range appears to be slightly over-emphasized.  

The Predator 17 seems to handle lower frequencies better than most notebooks, although true bass is lacking (the enclosures are not large enough). The soundstage is pretty deep and the sound fairly dynamic, however. At maximum volume levels, the speakers distort at times; too many low-frequency instruments at the same time muddle the sound somewhat. We didn't notice any sound fluctuations during the review period. Since games sound decent, we don't think that headphones are necessary. Overall, the sound system is very usable and the quality appropriate for the high price point.

Frequenzdiagramm im Vergleich (Checkboxen oben an/abwählbar!)
Wert 2: Pink Noise 100% Vol.; Wert 1: Audio aus

The Schenker XMG U716, which is equipped with a desktop processor and GeForce GTX 980, has the highest power draw in our comparison. The Predator 17 is actually more comparable to the MSI GT72VR, since it features the same CPU/GPU combo and an SSD (although the display resolution is lower at 1920 x 1080 pixels). Noteworthy is the fact that the Acer consumes from 12 - 53 % more in our three different idle-scenarios. Under load, the power draw is about as expected, but at maximum load levels, the Acer once again consumes more power (+9 %) than the MSI. The original power adapter (180 watts) was not nearly powerful enough; the current power adapter supplies 230 watts, which is also borderline, since the maximum power draw reaches 223 watts.

During the practically relevant WLAN test with the display set to medium, the Predator lasted only 200 minutes - last in our comparison. Thanks to automatic graphics switching, the Alienware 17 R3 – with a slightly weaker GPU and a marginally higher-capacity battery – lasted significantly longer and shut down after 7.5 hours. Mobile gaming of course means a significant reduction in performance, but if the user should be so inclined, we expect the notebook to last around 1.5 hours, similar to the competition.