The Acer Predator Triton 700 is a thin and powerful gaming laptop. It’s been out for
a while now but is still a great machine that a lot of you have requested I check out, so
let’s get started.
Starting with the specs my unit has an Intel i7-7700HQ CPU, so 4 cores 8 threads with a
3.8GHz single core turbo and 3.4GHz all core turbo boost.
I’ve got 32GB of memory running at DDR4-2400 in dual channel.
For the storage it’s got two M.2 drives, both with NVMe support. In my configuration
there are two 256GB SSDs in a RAID 0 array, giving us fast speeds and 512GB of usable
storage, no room for a 2.5” drive here though.
For the graphics there’s an Nvidia 1080 Max-Q, a powerful laptop GPU. It’s similar
to a desktop 1080 in terms of CUDA cores and memory, but it’s got a lower TDP and lower
clock speeds, and it’s this which powers the 15.6” 1080p 120Hz IPS panel.
For network connectivity there’s a gigabit ethernet port, support for 802.11ac WiFi and
Bluetooth.
The Triton 700 features a solid metal build making it feel very premium, both the lid
and interior are the same matte black aluminium. The metal edges are a little sharp, but due
to the lower keyboard placement this wasn’t really an issue while using it.
The dimensions of the laptop are 39.4cm in width, 26.7cm in depth, and just under 1.9cm
in height, so quite thin for a gaming laptop with these specs.
Testing the weight my unit came in just under 2.4kg. With the 230 watt power brick and cables
for charging the total weight increases to around 3.5kg.
As mentioned it’s got a 15.6” 1080p 120Hz IPS panel with G-Sync. The viewing angles
were good, colours looked clear to me on any angle, side to side or up and down.
I’ve measured the current colour gamut using the Spyder 5 Pro, and my results returned
97% of sRGB, 67% of NTSC and 73% of AdobeRGB, so not bad for a gaming laptop.
At 100% brightness I measured the panel at 286 nits in the center, and with a 680:1 contrast
ratio. Overall I thought it looked pretty good while playing games.
I’ve taken a long exposure photo in a dark room as a worst case backlight bleed test,
it looked pretty good to my eyes but the camera does pick up a little bleed, although this
will vary between laptops anyway.
The screen was fairly sturdy while trying to flex it, owing to the metal lid and hinges
found out towards the far corners. It could also just be opened with one finger, it’s
got a fairly even weight distribution with the battery up the front which helps weigh
it down.
Above the display in the center is a 720p camera.
I found both the camera and microphone fairly average in terms of quality, but you’ll
be able to judge both for yourself.
As you’ve probably noticed by now, the keyboard is right down the front where the touchpad
would usually be. By doing this Acer are able to put all the heat generating components
right up the back, keeping this area cool. The keyboard has individual key RGB backlighting,
and there are a number of effects available through Acer’s Predator Sense software.
The lighting colour of the fan on the left hand side under the glass can also be customized
through here too.
The keyboard is apparently mechanical, and although it definitely sounds like one it
doesn’t quite feel that way, to me the keys felt a little strange as they bottomed out
quickly, here’s how it sounds to give you an idea.
There was minimal keyboard flex while pushing down fairly hard, it was quite sturdy thanks
to the metal body.
The touch pad is found in the center of the glass, so right up the back. I found it pretty
difficult to use, especially when swapping between it and the keyboard, it worked alright
but I’d definitely prefer to use a mouse. To the right hand side of the touchpad there’s
also an air intake vent for the fan right below it.
The two speakers are found towards the front left and right corners on either side of the
keyboard, they sound pretty decent for laptop speakers, quite clear to begin with but at
higher volumes the body of the laptop did make some vibration sounds.
Speaking of sounds, like some other Acer laptops it plays this sound on boot by default.
Luckily this can be disabled through the BIOS.
For the IO on the left there’s a kensington lock, a USB 2.0 Type-A port hidden behind
the square plastic cover, two USB 3 Type-A ports, and separate 3.5mm microphone and headphone
jacks.
On the right there’s the power button, USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3 port, third USB 3 Type-A
port, and gigabit ethernet. The ethernet port did seem poorly placed for me, if you’re
right handed and using a mouse it can get in the way.
On the back there’s a full sized DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0 output, as well as the power
input and air exhaust vents towards the corners.
There’s nothing at all on the front, just smooth metal.
On the back of the matte black metallic lid there’s the Predator logo in the center
with a silver brushed finish.
Fingerprints show up quite easily on both the metallic interior, glass and lid, but
they’re easy to wipe away as it’s all smooth surfaces.
Underneath there's some rubber feet which did well at preventing sliding, as well as
air intakes toward the back.
The laptop can be opened up easily with a phillips head screwdriver, once the screws
underneath are removed the panel on top can be removed, just be careful to remove the
two ribbon cables that connect the keyboard to the motherboard. From left to right we
get easy access to the WiFi card, two M.2 slots, which are covered with a metal heat
spreader, the battery, and two memory slots.
Powering the laptop is a 3 cell 54 Watt hour battery, and with a full charge and just watching
YouTube videos with the screen on half brightness, keyboard lighting off and background apps
disabled, I was able to use it for only 2 hours and 2 minutes, although that was with
G-Sync enabled. Even with G-Sync disabled however, the discrete Nvidia graphics were
still in use, it didn’t appear possible to make use of the integrated Intel graphics,
which would generally last a lot longer.
While playing the Witcher 3 with medium settings and Nvidia’s battery boost set to 30 FPS
the battery lasted for an hour, and was able to sit at 30 FPS the entire test without dipping.
While gaming the battery life was alright, as that task makes use of the discrete graphics
anyway, but outside of gaming the overall battery life was fairly poor.
Thermal testing was completed with an ambient room temperature of 19 degrees celcius, so
expect warmer temperatures in a warmer environment.
Starting towards the bottom of the graph in light blue, at idle the CPU was actually quite
warm, probably as the fan was running quietly, as you’ll hear later. Moving up to gaming
in the green bar, the temperatures were still acceptable, and this was after temperatures
stabilized from an hour of playing. After manually maxing out the fans in yellow, the
CPU and GPU temperatures both drop back a bit. With the CPU undervolted by -0.150v,
but fans back on default, the CPU temperature was a little cooler than by just maxing out
the fans only, shown in orange. With the CPU undervolt and max fans combined we get the
best temperatures yet, shown in red.
The stress tests were done by running Aida64 and the Heaven benchmark at the same time
in order to attempt to fully utilize both the processor and graphics. Moving up in the
graph and starting with the dark red bar the CPU peaked at 87, honestly not too bad for
extended load, especially considering how thin the laptop is. By maxing out the fan
and applying undervolting, shown in the pink, purple and dark blue bars, the temperatures
get significantly better.
These are the average clock speeds for the same temperature tests just shown, not really
much to show here, as there was no thermal or power limit throttling the 7700HQ was able
to boost to its 3.4GHz all core turbo speed without any problems, even in these stress
tests.
These are the clock speeds I got while just running CPU only stress tests without any
GPU load. Again no difference from before, absolutely no throttling at all on the CPU
under any of my testing, refreshing to see from the 8750H laptops I’ve tested recently.
I’ve got some Cinebench CPU benchmarks here, I was getting the same results with or without
the CPU undervolt applied, as shown earlier there was no throttling at all here, so no
problems getting full performance with the out of the box configuration. Just for reference
or comparison I’ve also noted the score of the newer i5-8300H, the quad core laptop
CPU from the newer 8th generation. Although the performance doesn’t change, the undervolt
can still be used to drop the temperatures, as shown previously.
Here are the GPU only clock speeds while under a graphical only stress test. Acer’s Predator
Sense software lets you apply GPU overclocks easily in two different levels known as faster
and turbo. The “Faster” profile overclocks the GPU core by 75MHz and the memory by 200MHz,
while the “Turbo” profile doubles this to 150MHz on the core and 400MHz on the memory.
I was able to get a little further improvement by manually overclocking it with MSI Afterburner,
up to 200MHz on the core and 800MHz on the memory, as shown in red, but this may vary
between laptops as it depends on the particular chip.
As for the external temperatures where you’ll actually be putting your hands, at idle the
body was sitting in the low 30s, quite cool. While gaming we can see that only the rear
of the laptop warms up to around 50 degrees celsius, as that’s where the CPU and GPU
are located, the keyboard area stays cool though. Fairly similar results with the stress
tests running, and then with the fans manually maxed out and CPU undervolted the external
temperatures lower by a few degrees.
As for the fan noise produced by the laptop, I’ll let you have a listen to some of these
tests.
At idle it was fairly quiet, and while gaming it was about as loud as any other gaming laptop
I’ve tested. Under stress test this rose a little, and with the fans manually maxed
out it gets quite loud.
You’ve got the option of controlling the fan speeds of the CPU or graphics independently
through Acer’s Predator Sense software, so that should help in finding a good balance
between temperatures and fan noise.
Overall the temperatures and performance were pretty impressive when you consider the thin
body of the laptop, I expected it to run hotter with the 1080 Max-Q graphics, but for the
most part the 7th gen CPUs seem to run cooler than the newer and faster 8th gen options.
Finally let’s take a look at some gaming benchmarks, all games were run at 1080p with
the latest Windows updates and these Nvidia drivers.
Fortnite was tested using the replay feature, and it was performing very well even with
max settings, over 100 FPS on the averages and the 1% lows aren’t that terrible, while
at lower settings the 1% lows are around the refresh rate of the 120Hz panel so it played
very smoothly.
Overwatch was tested playing in the training area, and again very good frame rates at all
setting levels. The game caps at 300 FPS and we were able to reach this at low and medium
settings, while ultra settings still resulted in 1% lows above the refresh rate of the panel,
so again very smooth gameplay.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, I’ve only just recently
added this game to my testing so I’m not too sure how well it compares to other specced
laptops, but the frame rates look pretty good.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and despite this being an unoptimized and
poorly performing game we’re still able to average above 100 frames per second at
ultra settings, pretty good results, and still above 60 FPS for the 1% low.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical benchmark and the results are pretty decent in this
test, well above 200 FPS even with all settings maxed out.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark, and even with ultra settings
the 1% lows are above the 120Hz refresh rate of the display, so even maxed out it’s running
very well, perfectly smooth with no issues.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and the results are fairly good
for this specific test, averaging above 60 FPS in terms of 1% lows at ultra which aren’t
too far behind the average frame rates, so the dips in performance aren’t too low.
Assassin’s Creed Origins was another game that was tested with the built in benchmark,
and once more the frame rates in this benchmark are pretty good, for comparison at ultra the
averages are about 35% better than the Helios 300 that I recently tested.
Dota 2 on the other hand was actually performing worse than the Helios 300, which I suspect
is because it has a faster 8th gen CPU. In any case, these are the results with the Triton
700, keep in mind it’s an intensive replay that does not represent real world game play,
this is a worst case scenario test.
Ghost Recon was tested with the built in benchmark and is another resource demanding game, still
playable at ultra settings but it was noticeably better at just about any other level.
Watch Dogs 2 is also a pretty resource demanding game, but it was running well even with ultra
settings, averaging above 60 FPS, although there wasn’t much practical difference between
ultra and high settings.
The Witcher 3 was averaging around 100 FPS at ultra settings, it was running quite well,
although the 1% low result was quite a bit lower, although this could be improved quite
a bit by lowering the settings.
I’ve got a few more games covered in the dedicated gaming benchmark video if you’re
interested.
Now for the benchmarking tools, I’ve tested Heaven, Valley, and Superposition from Unigine,
as well as Firestrike, Timespy, and VRMark from 3DMark, just pause the video if you want
a detailed look at these results.
Despite the Triton 700 featuring the slightly older Intel 7700HQ, which isn’t even as
good as the 8th gen i5 CPU, the results in all games tested are still very good, owing
to the 1080 Max-Q graphics. The CPU is still pretty good for gaming in any case, but in
most games the graphics usually make a larger difference to performance, especially at higher
settings or higher resolutions. Many games were able to get fairly high frame rates,
a great combination for the 120Hz G-Sync display which could actually be utilized well.
As we saw earlier we’ve got the option of overclocking the graphics, so let’s see
how this actually helps improve gaming performance. I didn’t bother undervolting the CPU here,
as there was no difference as no throttling was taking place.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, and at the highest
settings the overclocks were just getting us a small 6% performance improvement to the
average frame rates.
Fortnite was tested using the replay feature, and in this test the overclocked results are
slightly better, 8.5% faster than running at stock speeds when running maxed out at
epic settings.
So there was a little improvement with the GPU overclock applied, but it will vary between
game and settings.
As for storage, in Crystal Disk Mark the 512GB RAID 0 array which is made of two M.2 NVMe
SSDs was performing quite well, excellent read and write speeds.
For updated pricing you can check the links in the description, at the time of recording
here in Australia this model goes for around $3800 AUD, while in the US it goes for around
$2600 USD. Compared to other thin and light laptops it’s about the same price of the
Razer Blade, which has a newer 8th gen CPU, although slightly lower 1070 Max-Q graphics,
either way not cheap.
So what do you guys think about the Acer Predator Triton 700? Overall it’s a very nice gaming
laptop, quite thin with powerful specs, although this combination is always associated with
a higher price. Despite the thinner body there was absolutely no throttling of any kind in
any of my tests and it performed well in all games tested, especially when combined with
the 120Hz display with G-Sync. The only things I personally didn’t like was lower battery
life outside of gaming, low profile mechanical key switches, and the strange placement of
the touchpad, I get that the design keeps the heat up the back but I found it difficult
to use, I’d always want to stick to using a proper mouse.
Let me know what you guys thought down in the comments, and leave a like to let me know
if you found the review useful. Thanks for watching, and don’t forget to subscribe
for future tech videos like this one.