Gaming Laptop - ASUS vs Acer vs MSI??

[GalileoSeven]

Hey all - wanted to reach out and get some input on gaming laptops here. I’ve usually been a homebrew guy - when it comes to gaming, I’ve built both of my rigs from scratch (and upgraded components in the second one about 3 years ago).

My living situation has changed somewhat in the past few months though, the somewhat confined accommodations I’m now in, turning me into something of a minimalist (causing me to ditch my MacBook Air for the iPad mini I’m currently typing this on). Aside from a bit of space at a dining room table here, there’s no room to set up my desk and get said desktop rig up and going again. So, I’ve elected to go all-in on a capable gaming laptop.

About the only caveat I have is that it has to come from this certain retailer (who I’ve got a CC and can finance it with). So while I’m waiting for them to bring back extended financing (they frequently do 24+ mos interest-free), I’m examining my options and have narrowed it down to 3 - a GTX 1660ti-equipped ASUS ROG machine with an AMD chip and then machines from MSI and Acer with identical specs (9750H, RTX 2060 and 512 GB SSDs)

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The current crop of games I play (GTA V, LA Noire, Max Payne 3, Far Cry 5, CoD: Black Ops) don’t really stress the 1060 in my desktop too much I don’t think - even CoD: WW2 isn’t too bad on it - which is why I’ve been looking at that ASUS.

Because I’m shelling out a good chunk of change, I’d like something that would be able to keep up with future titles and tech (like ray tracing) though too (the only ones I’m looking to buy at this point are the new CoD and RDR2), which is why I’m also considering the MSI and Acer as well.

Any and all input on this would be most welcome. Will be sure to come back and update this after I’ve pulled the trigger as well.

 

[maflynn]

Of the three, I seem to be partial to the MSI. The off-centered trackpad of the Predator is annoying to me.

I think the Republic of Gaming is just too underpowered, both CPU and GPU wise.

 

[GalileoSeven]

After heading to the store and getting some time to mess around with my top candidates in person, I elected to go with the Acer (Predator Triton 500)


I have an old Logitech G500 I'm going to use along with an XBox 360 game pad and trusty pair of Sony MDR-7506's, so that takes care of the peripheral side of things and I do have a cooling pad on order (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DQBNTS8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Haven't really got to put it through it's paces though - spent last night getting the basics set up and downloading windows updates and for most of the morning, thanks to the relatively fast internet at work, am getting RDR2, GTA V and LA Noire downloaded on Steam (temps are stable at 45-52C)


I always like to keep an additional 1-3 titles on my rig at any one time, so given the space constraints on this (512GB SSD), I'll probably be getting a Samsung T5 at some point down the line (1TB probably).

Other than that, my initial impressions are pretty good. Coming from mechanical keyboards, the keyboard on this is solid, reminds me just a tad of the one on my MBA (now decommissioned).

I haven't used touchpads on anything aside from Apple machines before, so there's no point of reference for me there (it's functional at the very least - doubt I'll use it much though).

The screen also seems pretty good. I might come back with some additional thoughts after I start gaming, but under normal lighting conditions, colors/clarity/sharpness etc at least equal the Dell E2417H on my work machine.


Together with my iPad mini, this will constitute my new "minimalist" setup for the foreseeable future.

 

[Reflej0]

Let's agree that the 3 notebooks are very good, making objective comparisons:

• Intel processor is better than AMD (Approx 20%).
• It seems that the GPUs are at the same level, only that the 2060 has Ray Traicing.

They do not specify the SSD model or the speed of the memories but that would not make much difference.
I would discard the first option for the processor and the 8GBs Ram.
Either of the other two options would be fine, unless there is some other important factor for you.

 

[GalileoSeven]

Spent most of Friday downloading my usual favorites from Steam and bought RDR2 (which is on sale until 10AM PST today).


I did a lot of research into the RTX 2060 and its mobile variant and was slightly apprehensive at the kind of performance I would get. All that was for naught though - I left the graphics settings at the default for my system and RDR 2 ran smooth as butter. I figure the new CoD will be about the same, maybe slightly better. Otherwise, given that I play mostly older titles, this should be perfect.

GTA V is my most-played one though and as I've got more graphical horsepower to work with, I was able to crank some of the settings up to 'Very High'. While there was no noticeable drop in frame rates (compared to my old desktop, which packs a 3GB GTX 1060), this thing ran a bit hot.......81 to 83C while sitting on a cooling mat and with the fan settings left on 'Auto'. I might tinker around with the settings a bit and turn them down just slightly, but given that I only play that for maybe an hour or two at a time, I'm not too worried about it right now.

I do have to say too, the audio performance has been nothing short of phenomenal. 9 times out of 10, I have Sony Headphones (MDR-7506) on and thanks to the 'Waves MaxxAudio', everything is incredibly immersive - easily the best mobile experience out there for this price point. That goes for gaming as well as just normal listening - even with tracks I listen to on YouTube, I'm able to pick up on notes/tones that were muffled or otherwise covered up to me before.

Anandtech offers up a pretty good review (my machine is the base config - they tested it with the top notch RTX 2080)

The Acer Predator Triton 500 Laptop Review: Going Thin with GeForce RTX 2080

www.anandtech.com