Gaming Laptop Analysis

Is the Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 good as a gaming laptop? Good

Processor - This Core i7-9750H 6-Core 2.6GHz processor in the laptop is an excellent gaming CPU choice for 2021 gaming. The 6 cores that this processor has is excellent and very capable for today and future AAA gaming.

Graphics Card - Today’s AAA 2021 gaming is dealt with well by the GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile. Not perfect but certainly this is a good gamer laptop choice of graphics card. This laptop has 6GB of VRAM available. This graphics solution has a good amount for today’s gaming.

System Memory - The 16GB is an excellent amount of system memory for modern gaming in 2021.

Screen Size - This laptop screen size is capable of meeting 2021 gaming, making it a step closer to being a good laptop for gamers. Larger laptop screens normally equal less squinting at on screen text, providing the resolution is set inline with the screens native pixel count. We normally look to the 17 inch panels for focused gaming laptops, but this 15.6" screen is the most common and popular in the market, due to portability versus viewability. A gaming laptop screen size, in our eyes, would be 17 inches. We would certainly consider the more portable 15inch, but value gaming viewability and user experience over the slightly improved portability with the smaller screen sizes. A bigger laptop means heavier and harder to move around but more screen space to view games with.

Refresh Rate - A gaming laptop wants to have a higher refresh rate to accommodate more frames per second(FPS) in the games it runs. The refresh rate is like a hard cap on the games deliverable FPS. The better the refresh rate the more FPS the laptop can deliver in games, up to the panels refresh rate hertz, and then the sharper the in game play is when the player moves about. This laptop can be found with a screen refresh rate of 144Hz. This laptop’s high refresh rate would make it excellent for serious gaming.

GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile graphics card gaming performance in the Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop

No two laptops are the same. But one of the primary gaming laptop components is of course the graphics card. Often a slightly weaker mobile solution, when compared to its desktop equivalent. Today we will consider this laptop's hardware, when running modern popular and sometimes demanding games, like Far Cry 6, New World and Battlefield 2042 which will help us know if this mobile graphics card and the overall laptop hardware is considered a good price to performance point. We consider it running these titles at its native 1080p resolution, and at Ultra video settings. A good way of considering performance of this mobile graphics card is by seeing how many of today's 500 most demanding games can be run at recommended graphics settings by the GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile found in this laptop. We can also then look at the weaker minimum requirement to see how many this laptop card can run of them, and it is 491 games at their min specs and then 298 games can be run at recommended graphics requirements.

Comparing Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 to today’s best price to performance laptop ranges

We really want to see how the Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 will compare across all permutations of the Predator Helios 300 model range. This will give us a good sense of how well it sits in terms of cost to performance within its own lineup, and will better help us decide if this laptop represents good value to us today.

A 7.4 P2P score rating out of 10 has been allocated today to the Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2. This value will adjust automatically as hardware and modern performance requirements from laptops improve over time. Today the Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop sits at 4th place compared to all the other permutations of the Predator Helios 300 range. Laptops placed nearer to 1st place in the P2P list of the model range will be better value for your money when looking at gaming laptops in this range.

The best performing laptop for Price to Performance is currently the ASUS TUF A15 R7 4800H GTX 1660 Ti 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop. So if we compare this Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop to that laptop we can see that it performs 128% worse on Price to Performance rating. Out of interest, the top P2P laptop currently has a recorded price of $999. Second on the Price to Performance laptop ranking at the moment is the MSI Bravo 15 R7 4800H RX 5500M 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 which we have a recorded price of $1049. If we compare our laptop to this one then our laptop returns with 100% worse performance/ price rating figure than it.

How does the Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop compare to the best CPU performance focused laptops and today’s most popular games?

One of the key components in a laptop is of course its CPU. So let's see if our Predator Helios 300 laptop compares favourably when placed against the laptop that has one of the most powerful CPU’s around today. This comparison will at least help us know how this laptop performs against the top end CPU laptop and we can then see the amount of money we might have to pay to get that sort of laptop. We have chosen our comparison CPU focused laptop today as the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 R9 4900HS RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2, which comes armed with the Ryzen 9 4900HS 8-Core 3.0GHz laptop CPU. This top tier CPU is currently delivering 43% better performance when benched against our own review laptop’s Core i7-9750H 6-Core 2.6GHz.

Today there are 429 games recommended system requirements that are worse than our CPU’s performance capability, this is when we look at the top 500 most demanding games right now. This figure becomes 497 games, when we look at the 500 demanding games for minimum processor system requirements.

A game’s listed recommended CPU requirements are a good way to compare the performance of our laptop CPU. Lets see today's popular titles up against our laptop processor. First off let's look at New World which shows our laptop CPU has 37% better performance than it. How about Battlefield 2042, where we see our CPU is 24% better. Then there is 3% better performance when compared against today’s most popular title, Far Cry 6.

How does the Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop compare to the best graphics card performance focused laptops and today’s most popular games?

Wondering how strong this laptop is in the GPU department, then let's have a look at it compared to one of the current best GPU performing laptops available today and this should show us the relative graphics performance of our review model. Our comparison GPU focused laptop today that we have selected is a MSI GT76 Titan i9-10900K RTX 2080 Super 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K, which comes loaded with the GeForce RTX 2080 Super 8GB card. This top end GPU is currently delivering 59% better performance when stacked against our own review laptop’s GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile.

Our laptop GPU beats 298 games recommended system requirements when looking at today’s top 500 most demanding games. This number changes to 491 games if we compare to the top 500 most demanding games for minimum system requirements.

When compared to the most popular games around today, against their recommended graphics requirements, our laptop graphics card performs as follows - Far Cry 6 our laptop video card is 19% worse and then looking at New World our laptop GPU is 31% better and finally compared to Battlefield 2042 it has a performance difference : 29% worse.

The Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 has a 1080p screen resolution, should I get a 4K resolution gaming laptop instead?

With a 1080p native screen panel our Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 has a 15.6" physical screen size. This inch panel size is measured starting in one corner, say the top corner and then across the middle of the screen down to the bottom corner on the other side. And in our case it has a fixed number of pixels in that screen that are 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall, or 1080p resolution. Screen refresh rate on a 4K panel laptop will normally be 60Hz and this will cap out any game’s Frames Per Second at 60 even if it’s hardware could deliver more FPS. Along with that upset most AAA games would struggle to reach that 60 FPS at 4K Ultra graphics settings on most laptop hardware today. Our review laptop, the Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 has 144Hz monitor screen refresh rate of versions available.

It would be more likely that we would have to lower the AAA game resolution to 1080p or maybe 1440p and by doing so get back some of the FPS to a playable level. But by doing this the game moves away from its native 4K resolution and starts to look unclear. If your 1080p laptop has the hardware to run today’s AAA games comfortably at 4K, then plug your laptop into your desktop 4K monitor, when you are at home for some serious gaming sessions. As that desktop monitor probably isn't 60Hz restricted and is physically larger than the relatively small 17inch laptop screen size. We do just that here, with a 27inch 144Hz Nvidia GSync 1440p desktop monitor and an Alienware 51M laptop sporting a desktop RTX 2080.

However, you could be after watching 4K streaming content on your laptop, while on the move. Then perhaps the 17inch laptop screen and 4K resolution is going to net a more enjoyable experience than a 1080p alternative.

We think don't spend your extra cash on getting a 4K laptop to game on, as it's likely to feel disappointing to buy a super shiny new 4K laptop, then have to lower the resolution while playing your games, delivering a blurry in-game experience, and only getting up to a maximum 60FPS due to the usual 60Hz 4K panel restriction.

Today’s best 1440p desktop monitor for a laptop is - ASUS ProArt Display PA278QV 27 inch 1440p 75Hz 5ms IPS

A well priced 1440p gaming monitor with 75Hz, is the ASUS ProArt Display PA278QV 27 inch 1440p 75Hz 5ms IPS, which is currently priced at $311.99 and would work well with our Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop. We like to price track our favourite laptop hardware and peripherals. And as a point of note the lowest tracked price for this 1440p monitor was recorded on 9th Mar 2021, which was priced at $229.99.

Today’s best 4K desktop monitor for a laptop is - Asus Predator XB273K 27 inch 4K GSYNC IPS 1ms 144Hz

A well priced 4K gaming monitor with 144Hz refresh rate is the Asus Predator XB273K 27 inch 4K GSYNC IPS 1ms 144Hz. It has a price today of $618 and should be a nice accompaniment to the Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop. During these past 2 weeks, this 4K monitor’s price has gone up by $618. Reviewing tracked prices for our suggested 4k monitor, its lowest price was recorded on 13th Nov 2020, where we spotted it for $549.99.

[Note - check that monitor display connectors are compatible between a monitor and a laptop before purchase]

If you are looking to view 4K streaming content, while keeping yourself mobile with your laptop, then maybe a 4K resolution panel would be a better experience than the normal 1080p. In general, we think it's probably not worth the extra money for any visual gains you might not spot, without a direct comparison, especially if you are thinking to game on your laptop as well.

As you can probably gather from the information above, it's probably not worth the extra cash for a 4K laptop if gaming is your Laptop purpose. 1080p is likely plenty and has enough alternative gaming options for when you want better resolution. It feels like you might not get what you were after if you picked up a shiny new 4K laptop, then was needing to lower game resolution, while getting blurry in-game experience and achieving a max 60FPS when you could push the hardware into better frame rates.

Today's Best Priced Mouse and Headset for Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop

The gaming mouse with today’s best price to value that would go well with the Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop is the Kayinuo M738 Gaming Mouse 3200DPI wired 6 Buttons. Its current price is $12.99. Over the past couple of weeks this mouse has dropped its price by $32.26, giving us extra confidence in matching it with today’s laptop as a good purchase. Another point of interest was that we saw this mouse priced at $11.99, which we tracked on 15th Aug 2020.

A headset that is well priced at the moment and could accompany the Acer Predator Helios 300 i7-9750H RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop is the Corsair HS45-7.1 Surround. Of the headsets we price track, it is one of the best valued headsets today and currently priced at $36.99. Checking our records our lowest tracked price for this headset was on 28th Nov 2019, which had it priced at $34.99.