The Acer Triton 900 has some powerful hardware inside a thinner chassis, so just how hot
does it get, and how does this affect performance? In this detailed thermal testing you’ll
see how hot it runs and find out what simple changes can be made to improve temperatures
and performance.
My configuration of the Triton 900 has an Intel i7-9750H CPU, 180 watt Nvidia RTX 2080
graphics, 32gb of memory in dual channel, and a 17.3” 4K 60Hz screen with G-Sync,
you can find updated prices linked in the description.
Air is pulled in underneath the machine through the intake vents towards the back, and through
the vents above the keyboard on the left. Air then gets exhausted out of the back left
and right corners, as well as from the vents on the back left and right sides. There are
a few heatpipes shared between the processor and graphics, and both fans are made out of
metal blades.
The Acer Predator Sense software allows us to swap between normal, fast and extreme modes,
and these overclock the graphics and adjust power limits as listed here. The software
also allows fan control, and I’ve tested with the fans either on the default auto speed,
or at maximum. By default the Triton 900 undervolts the CPU by -0.1v, so all testing was done
with this default configuration in place, and as this is already pretty decent I haven’t
bothered pushing it further.
Thermal testing was completed in an ambient room temperature of 21 degrees Celsius, so
expect different results in different environments.
Both the CPU and GPU were looking good at idle.
The rest of the results are from combined CPU and GPU workloads, and are meant to represent
worst case scenarios as I ran them for extended periods of time.
The gaming results towards the upper half of the graph were tested by playing Watch
Dogs 2, as I find it to use a good combination of processor and graphics. The stress test
results shown on the lower half of the graph are from running the Aida64 CPU stress test
with only the stress CPU option checked, and the Heaven GPU benchmark at max settings at
the same time to fully load the system.
The CPU was thermal throttling any time I’ve got it listed at 90 degrees Celsius, as this
seems to be the limit Acer have defined. To be fair, this is usually a pretty good option
compared to letting the CPU just run away up to 100 degrees or something. When under
stress test, the CPU thermal throttle was only removed once I added in a cooling pad.
With this particular game, we see more of an improvement to CPU and GPU temperatures
simply by setting the fans to max speed, and then again with the cooling pad.
These are the average clock speeds for the same tests just shown. Normal mode saw the
lowest CPU performance due to the lower power limit, while the GPU clockspeed was down as
it’s not yet overclocked. Fast mode overclocks the graphics a little, while extreme mode
overclocks the RTX 2080 even further and raises the power limit. Going from normal to fast
mode also raises the fan speed, which is why we see the CPU clock speed change with fast
mode enabled, as it helps address the CPU thermal throttle. The fan goes even faster
in extreme mode, which is why there was still an improvement to CPU clockspeed under stress
test. At this point it’s only just barely thermal throttling as it’s not far behind
the 4GHz all core turbo boost speed of the i7-9750H, while the cooling pad is able to
get it all the way. Meanwhile in this game, extreme mode with auto fan was almost able
to get us there.
These are the average power levels reported by hardware info during these same tests.
In normal and fast modes the RTX 2080 graphics is capped to 150 watts. In Extreme mode, the
limit rises up to 180 watts, however in the stress tests it averaged a little under this,
while this particular game doesn’t seem to benefit from more GPU power. The CPU power
limit at normal is on the lower side due to thermal throttling that was taking place,
however it rises as the fan speed improves. Despite the thin laptop and the already power
hungry RTX 2080, it was good to see that the 9750H could run above 55 watts in combined
CPU and GPU workloads.
In CPU only workloads like Cinebench, the 9750H would run up to 77 watts before being
capped to the 70 watt PL1, so much higher is possible when the GPU is idle. There wasn’t
much of a difference between fast and extreme modes, however 3000 points is about as good
as you’ll see from a 9750H.
To see how these different settings actually affect gaming performance I’ve tested Control
with the highest setting preset. There’s not that big of a difference between normal
and fast, probably as both still cap the GPU power limit to 150 watts, then there’s a
larger boost with extreme mode.
If you want to see more gaming benchmarks on the Triton 900, check the card in the top
right where I’ve tested a bunch of different games at 1080p, 1440p and 4K resolutions.
Here’s how the external temperatures look where you’ll actually be touching. At idle
the keyboard and touchpad were below the usual 30 degrees I typically see with most laptops.
With the stress tests running in normal mode, the keyboard and touchpad are similar and
still cool. Similar results in fast mode even though the fans are going faster now, and
then again in extreme mode. Although the back area is hotter, it’s still only warm to
the touch. With the fans at max speed it’s barely getting to 40 degrees worst case, which
is quite impressive given the performance that’s on offer. Here’s how the fans sound
in the different modes.
The fans were only just audible at idle. With the stress tests in normal mode the fans are
below average when compared to most other gaming laptops I’ve tested while performing
significantly better due to the high end specs. Fast mode is then a little above average,
extreme mode is quite loud, then at maximum you’ll probably want some headphones.
Overall the results from the Triton 900 were quite impressive. Sure, the CPU was thermal
throttling in many instances under worst case stress test, but personally I prefer the CPU
be limited to 90 degrees Celsius than being able to run higher just for marginally improved
performance. Having it undervolted out of the box was also a nice bonus, I doubt most
people do this themselves so it means regular users will see improved performance. Having
the heat generating components towards the back also allows for improved cooling while
keeping the areas you actually touch cooler than most other laptops. When you consider
we’ve got RTX 2080 graphics that can run up to 180 watts in a 2.3cm thick machine,
I don’t think that’s too bad at all, plus as we saw, it was possible to make improvements
easily by simply increasing fan speed.
Realistically the performance before raising fans too loud was still pretty good, so you
definitely could play games with high enough levels of performance while maintaining a
more reasonable operating volume.
Despite the RTX 2080 graphics, the Triton 900 just has a single 330 watt power brick,
however during my testing after an hour of gaming the battery did dip down to 91%, though
that seems to be pretty normal with many laptops.
These differences in performance shown aren’t hard and fast rules, there are different factors
which will vary results, primarily the temperature of the room you’re running in, application
of thermal paste, and even the specific hardware which comes down to the silicon lottery. Different
hardware will have different limits with regards to overclocking and undervolting, it depends
on the chip and its specific power requirements, so you should do your own testing to confirm
the defaults Acer are providing are stable. I did find some games to crash with extreme
mode for instance, and had to lower the overclocks a little with MSI Afterburner. I still needed
extreme mode though, as it’s the only way of boosting the power limit of the 2080.
It may be possible to further improve temperatures by swapping the thermal paste, however as
this is a review unit that I have to send back I’m not able to change the paste, otherwise
the next reviewer will unknowingly report different results due to what I’ve done.
Raising fan speed and using a cooling pad are much easier for most people to do than
changing paste anyway, and as we’ve seen these tweaks did help improve performance
and temperatures with the Triton 900.
Let me know what you thought about the performance and thermals from the Acer Triton 900 gaming
laptop down in the comments, and if you’re new to the channel you’ll definitely want
to get subscribed for the upcoming full review to see everything this machine has to offer.