The Acer Triton 500 is a powerful gaming laptop in a thinner body, but just how well does
the highest specced config actually perform in games? I’ve tested out 20 different games
at all setting levels and also compared it against other laptops to help you decide if
it’s worth it.
The configuration I’ve got has an Intel i7-9750H CPU, 90 watt Nvidia RTX 2080 Max-Q
graphics, 32gb of memory in dual channel, and a 15.6” 1080p 144Hz screen with G-Sync,
you can find updated prices linked in the description.
At CES 2020, Acer announced the Triton 500 would also have an optional 300Hz screen,
so we’ll see if any games will actually be able to utilize this.
The Acer Predator Sense software lets us disable Optimus, which is required to use G-Sync,
and doing this will give us a performance boost in games so I’ve done all testing
like this. I’ve also tested with turbo mode enabled, which basically overclocks the graphics
by this much and sets the fans to maximum speed. The Triton 500 also comes undervolted
on the CPU by default, so that should further help boost performance.
I’ve reviewed the Triton 500 in the past, but that was with RTX 2060 and I figured it
would be interesting to see how the highest specced version performs. We’ll start out
by going through all games at all setting levels, then afterwards we’ll see how the
Triton 500 compares with some other gaming laptops.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using the game’s built in benchmark tool. High settings
was still giving good results, however ultra wasn’t able to hit 60 FPS in this test even
with these higher tier specs for a gaming laptop.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode, and I’ve got RTX on shown by the green bars,
and RTX off shown by the purple bars. With RTX on, it was still playable with high and
ultra settings, however at these setting levels the frame rates were more than twice as good
with RTX off.
Control was tested with RTX on or off, and was performing well enough with the high setting
preset with RTX off. I tested RTX with high settings, and it wasn’t too bad as the game
still seems to run fine even below 60 FPS, but personally I preferred it with RTX off
for the higher frame rates.
Apex Legends was tested with either all settings at maximum, or all settings on the lowest
possible values, as it doesn’t have predefined setting presets. The 144 FPS frame cap was
being hit at minimum settings, and we’re close to this maxed out too, the bigger difference
was to the 1% low.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare was tested in campaign mode, and I’ve also tested it with
the settings either maxed out or at minimum. It was still playing well with everything
maxed out with above 100 FPS, however the 1% low saw a bigger drop off compared to average
frame rate.
Borderlands 3 was tested using the game’s built in benchmark, and even with max settings
it was still possible to hit above 60 FPS averages, with around double this possible
at lower setting levels.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, and the results were
very impressive when compared to other laptops, even with the same specs, we’ll check how
this game and others compare against other laptops soon.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint was also tested with the benchmark tool, and even the highest setting
preset was able to average above 60 FPS, with even very high settings scoring 100 FPS.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and as a less demanding game epic settings
was able to get frame rates not too far behind the refresh rate of the screen. High settings
would be a great match up for 144Hz, where even the 1% low was near the refresh rate.
Overwatch is another less demanding game and was tested in the practice range. The 300
FPS frame cap was being hit at low and medium settings, so if you got the Triton 500 with
the new 300Hz display then you could utilize it here.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and the results are much better here when
compared to most other laptops with similar specs due to the option of disabling Optimus.
Again this is another esports title that hits high frame rates, and would be a good game
to pair with the optional 300Hz display.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane, and as more of a CPU heavy test the frame
rates are pretty similar to most other i7 based laptops, however interestingly at ultra
settings the performance was down a little more than I expected, but that said it still
played very well without issues.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark, and even with the ultra setting
preset the average frame rate is higher than the 144Hz display I’ve got, while low settings
is just able to average 300 FPS, so could be a game to play with the 300Hz panel option.
Metro Exodus was tested using the built in benchmark, most parts of the game perform
a fair bit better than this, so don’t take these results as a good indication of what
to expect throughout the entire game, it’s more of a worst case.
The Division 2 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and although it was possible
to average above 60 FPS at ultra settings, the 1% low performance at ultra to medium
was down significantly, though this is something I’ve seen from other laptops too so likely
some issue with the game.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature. The game was getting great frame rates regardless
of the setting level in use, even with ultra settings these are great results for a laptop,
and up to 180 FPS at very low settings is well above most other machines I’ve tested.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark, and as a resource
heavy game the frame rates aren’t all that much better compared to many other laptops
despite having much better hardware and being tuned well out of the box. That said, it was
still possible to hit 60 FPS averages at max settings, which I think is great for this
game.
Far Cry New Dawn was also tested with the games benchmark, and the results are pretty
similar compared to most other i7 based laptops that I’ve tested on the channel, just a
little higher at the higher setting levels due to the 2080 max-q, but realistically not
that big of a difference.
The Witcher 3 was playing great with ultra settings, however simply dropping down to
high settings would push the average frame rate closer to the refresh rate of the display.
F1 2019 was tested using the game’s benchmark tool, and although max settings had decent
average FPS, the 1% low performance was down substantially, however stepping down just
one level to high increased performance significantly where even 1% low performance was now ahead
of the average FPS of max settings.
Let’s also take a look at how this config of the Acer Triton 500 compares with other
laptops, use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested at different times
with different drivers.
In Battlefield 5 I’ve got this Triton 500 highlighted in red near similarly specced
machines, I’ve also got the Triton 500 with RTX 2060 too, but we’re not concentrating
on that here. These results are seriously impressive, they’re a fair bit higher than
any of the other RTX 2080 Max-Q laptops that I’ve tested. To be fair though, this game
has seen a number of updates over time, so it would be interesting to do updated testing
on those other machines. Nevertheless, excellent results from the Triton 500.
These are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark.
Again the results were ahead of the other machines with similar specs. It is worth noting
that the Triton 500 I’m testing here has the 9th gen i7-9750H CPU while the other 2080
Max-Q laptops I have data for have the older 8750H, and although this is a CPU heavy test,
the 9th gen chip is only 100Mhz faster in multicore workloads. Honestly I think the
default undervolt is giving it more of a boost than that difference.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings. Again the results were well above the competition, only being beat by more expensive
and thicker machines with Max-P 2080 graphics, very impressive results from the Triton 500
here.
So why are the results a fair amount better than most other laptops with similar specs?
In short, the Triton 500 is tuned well out of the box. By default, it’s got a -0.1v
undervolt on the CPU, and turbo mode overclocks the GPU core and memory speeds. With the 2080
Max-Q version I’m testing here, we’re also given the option of disabling Optimus,
which is a requirement to use G-Sync, and this further helps improve performance. This
last component unfortunately doesn’t translate to the lower specced 2070 or 2060 Triton 500,
as these aren’t available with G-Sync. They’ll still be undervolted and overclocked, just
no option of disabling Optimus like was possible with this 2080 Max-Q version we’re looking
at here.
Due to these tweaks, we’re seeing excellent performance from Acer’s Triton 500. Although
the laptop was updated with an optional 300Hz refresh rate screen at CES 2020, even with
all this power it’s worth noting we’re only seeing high enough frame rates to take
advantage of this in esports titles, as expected, however even with these esports titles like
CS:GO, Fortnite, Overwatch and Rainbow Six Siege, low settings are still needed at 1080p.
Let me know what you thought of the gaming performance from the Acer Triton 500 gaming
laptop down in the comments, and if you’re new to the channel get subscribed for future
tech videos like this one.