Acer Predator Helios 300 (i5-8300H, GTX 1050 Ti, Full-HD) Laptop Review

Because Acer has not made any changes to the case, we shall skip the sections in this review that deal with the case, connectivity and the input devices. You can find all the missing information in the review of the predecessor model.  

The competing devices include other low-priced 17-inch gaming notebooks such as the Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC (AMD Power), the Asus ROG Strix GL753VE and Acer’s own Aspire V17 Nitro BE. Can the Acer Predator Helios 300 get a spot in our “top 10 budget gaming notebooks” list?

Even though the Acer Predator Helios 300 uses the same panel as the predecessor (LG Philips LP173WF4-SPF5), the contrast ratio and the brightness are slightly different. Such deviations are quite natural. However, the panel inherits the same strengths and weaknesses.

The response times are quite ordinary. It takes the display 22 ms to switch from black to white and 36 ms to switch from gray to gray. This is typical for IPS panels.

Thanks to a high boost clock of 4.0 GHz (single core), the Core i5-8300H is able to beat top-end processors from the Kaby Lake generation. In the multicore section of the Cinebench R15 benchmark, it actually manages to beat the Core i7-7700HQ by 10%. It beats its predecessor, the Core i5-7300HQ, by almost 60%.

As often happens, the Core i5-8300H cannot maintain its full performance over an extended period of time. In our Cinebench R15 benchmark loop, the CPU runs at 3.9 GHz during the first benchmark run. In the subsequent benchmark runs, the clock rate fluctuates between 3.2 and 3.9 GHz. All in all, under continuous load, the CPU loses almost 5% of its performance. This kind of drop in performance will be noticed.

Even though the base configuration comes with only 8 GB of RAM (two sticks of DDR4 2666 MHz RAM), the Predator Helios 300 performs surprisingly well in the system benchmarks. The 17-incher takes first place in the “Work” section of the PCMark 8 benchmark and second place in the “Home” section. 

Because the SSD has such a small capacity, you will have to rely on the secondary drive most of the time. The 1 TB 5400 RPM HDD from Western Digital offers more than enough space for video games and movies.

Those who identify as casual gamers should be more than happy with the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. The DirectX 12 model belongs to Nvidia’s Pascal family of GPUs and has 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM and a 128-bit wide bus.

The Predator Helios 300 performs as well as the competition in the GPU benchmarks. In the “Fire Strike” section of the 3DMark 13 benchmark, the 17-incher slots in between the V17 Nitro BE and the Asus GL753VE, both of which feature a  GTX 1050 Ti. Notebooks with a GTX 1060 are almost 60 % faster. The Radeon RX 580 in the Asus GL702ZC is about 50% faster than the GTX 1050 Ti.

Having observed the CPU behavior under load, we move on to examine the GPU behavior. To be more exact, here we look at how the clock speeds behave under continuous load. For this, we run “The Witcher 3” for one hour on the highest settings. The Helios 300 performs very well in this test with the average core clock coming in at 1658 MHz (base clock: 1493 MHz, boost clock: 1709 MHz).

The GeForce GTX 1050 Ti should be able to run most modern titles on high to maximum settings at 1080p. Having said that, the graphics settings will have to be reduced in extremely demanding or poorly optimized games such as “The Evil Within 2”.

If you want to be able to run games at higher resolutions or if you want some future-proofing, then you should get a notebook with a high-end GPU such as the GeForce GTX 1060 or the Radeon RX 580. These graphics cards will last much longer.

When idle, the 17-incher is relatively quiet. However, the fans spin up from time to time. Here, we measured an average sound pressure level of 31 dB(A). This is a pretty good result. At times, both the fans and the hard drive become inactive. When this happens, the notebook is absolutely silent (expect for the coil whine that we assume is coming from the SSD). 

Now let us take a quick look inside the case: After our 60-minute stress test with FurMark and Prime95, the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is moderately hot at 77 °C (170.6 °F), whereby the clock speed is slightly reduced (1392 MHz). The Core i5-8300H cannot maintain its full performance under continuous load. The CPU reaches almost 100 °C (212 °F) when it runs at full speed and 80 °C (176 °F) when it operates at 2.3 GHz (the base clock of the CPU).

Thanks to Nvidia’s Optimus Technology (which enables automatic switching between a dedicated and an integrated graphics adapter), the Helios 300 is very energy efficient at idle. It draws only 6 to 13 watts when idle, which is a very good result. However, things are different under load: An average power draw of 95 watts in the first scene of the 3DMark 06 benchmark is quite high for a GTX 1050 Ti-based notebook. Here, the Asus GL753VE draws only 82 watts. In “The Witcher 3”, the Helios 300 draws almost as much power as the competition (102 watts). During the stress test, the power consumption peaked at 134 watts. The included 135-watt AC adapter should have no trouble supplying the laptop with enough energy.

Besides an outstanding price, the Helios 300 also offers an outstanding battery life. The Predator Helios 300 can last for 100 minutes under full load (maximum rightness) and up to 12 hours when idle (minimum brightness). In our Wi-FI test, in which the brightness is set to medium, the laptop lasts for about 6 hours. The 48 Wh battery in the Helios 300 is not especially large.