Acer Predator Helios 18: Grab It Now for $400 Off!

Gaming PCs lead the race when it comes to sheer performance numbers for the price they’re offered at, and this trend doesn’t seem to be fading away anytime soon. Assembling one yourself gives you control over the selection of parts and is easier to repair if anything goes wrong. But what about gamers who are constantly on the go and want to enjoy the same experience when not at home? Lugging around a gaming PC isn’t an option and that’s where a capable gaming laptop comes into play. Although not on the same level as a full desktop, a gaming laptop can still deliver top-shelf performance which you can carry with you around the world.

Right now you can pick up an Acer Predator Helios 18 for only $2100. That high price is justified by the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 the laptop packs. This is the laptop you’d want if you prioritize raw gaming performance over everything else, and aren’t bothered about the steep price tag.

Acer’s Predator Helios Configuration

The giant 18-inch screen makes the laptop a unit and a half to lug around. Thankfully, the laptop is made of mostly metal and durable plastic. The hinges feel strong, and the screen doesn’t wobble when gaming. If you plan on carrying this laptop to work or school every day, then be advised that it weighs 7.15 lbs. It’s not the most portable gaming laptop out there, but that’s a common issue with these power-packed machines.

The brains behind this beast is the Intel i9-14900HX processor which has 24-cores and 32-threads. It’s safe to say that you can throw any task at it without worrying about performance, be it 3D modeling or AI training. Intensive high-resolution video editing and rendering is also a breeze for this processor. With 32GB of DDR5 RAM running at 5600MHz, your output will not be limited by the memory. However, mass storage is underwhelming with only 1TB of SSD. Luckily, you can add more if needed.

The laptop boasts tremendous graphics processing prowess, thanks to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 with 12GB of VRAM, though it can draw up to 175W of power. Running Cyberpunk 2077 on 2560 x 1600 at high graphics settings will fetch you an average of 98 FPS. Similarly, Red Dead Redemption 2 will yield 121 FPS, making it one of the fastest laptops with an RTX 4080, and even competes with some laptops with an RTX 4090.

The Acer Predator Helios 18 laptop gets a 2560 x 1600 IPS display with a high refresh rate of 240Hz, which is more than adequate for gaming. Only a few games will deliver that many frames per second to utilize the high refresh rate. The screen also gets pretty bright and reaches a peak brightness of about 500 nits. It produces a vivid picture with high contrast and a wide color gamut. Gaming and media consumption is a joyful experience, eliminating the need to hook it to an external monitor.

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2025-03-16 17:06