Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-71) review – the RTX 4080 is absolutely mad
[eBook Guide + Tools] How to MAX OUT your Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-71)
Your Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-71) can be Faster. LaptopMedia has tested thousands of models in the last 15 years, and we’re yet to see a notebook that couldn’t be made more powerful through modifications. And have you seen the most popular search on Google related to “how to make my …”? No? OK, here it is:
As you see, having a faster laptop is more important than having more hair.
Well, the main issue here is that there are thousands of advices on the Web. Some work, some don’t. Some are easy, some are complicated. Some are safe, and some are risky. If only there could be an Easy-to-Follow, Step-by-Step, and Laboratory-Tested guide by a proven organization, right?
That’s what we’ve done. We have hundreds of laptops scattered in our office, and we’ve spent a whole year testing different optimizations. We’ve chosen the ones that really make a difference, that are easy to implement without expert skills, and that are safe for your laptop in the long term.
🚀 What’s the performance boost I could expect?
There’s no general answer but we’ve reached more than 30% GPU Performance boost on some models, while typically it’s between 10% and 20%. You could always go beyond but we want to be sure that our advice will keep your laptop on the safe side in the long term. But you want to get the absolute maximum? We’ll show you how, and then it’s up to you.
We even set several World Records on 3DMark, one being our first Max Out for a specific laptop model – MSI Katana B13V.
We’d be happy to compete with YOU on the 3DMark rank lists, and see what YOUR laptop can do using our guide!
📦 What’s included?
📖 Our eBook includes All the tools you need, along with an Easy-to-follow guide for hassle-free:
⚡ GPU Performance boost by vBIOS replacement, Overclocking, and Undervolting
⚙️ Checking the hardware components and finding if you could get a significant boost by upgrading some of them
💾 Installing a clean Windows OS, with all the base settings you need
📋 Software optimization steps that really give a performance boost
⏩ Building a RAID Storage configuration for doubling sequential read/write speeds or protecting your data
🎯 Display Profiles bundle for a panel of your choice, enhancing the display for accurate colors, better experience, and protection of your eyes
🎁 To receive the Display Profiles bundle as a gift, simply email us your panel model through our “Contact Us” form.
💵 What is the price?
R&D on laptops isn’t easy nor cheap, especially when you’re not using cherry-picked review samples but real units instead. Our idea is to reinvest the profits from the sales back in our laboratory. However, we also want to make it a killer deal for everyone who is planning or has already spent on a gaming laptop, as this product would significantly boost the performance per dollar they get.
🛠️ GPU Modifications: vBIOS, Overclocking, Undervolting
⚙️ Building Fast/Reliable RAID configuration
💻 Hardware upgrade tips for best results
🖼 Display enhancing
💾 OS Optimization for best performance
✖ But if these optimizations are easy, why don’t manufacturers do them?
There are a lot of reasons for the manufacturers to put boundaries on your machine, locking part of its performance:
📊 Market Segmentation: To create different product tiers, manufacturers often limit performance. This allows them to target various market segments and price points, encouraging consumers to pay more for higher-performing models.
❓Unknown Potential: Each unit’s performance varies. Checking each one individually isn’t feasible.
🏢 Regulatory Compliance: Certain regions have regulations regarding energy consumption, and manufacturers often place some boundaries to fit all standards.
🏭 Supply Chain Constraints: Limitations are imposed due to the current availability of components.
🫰 Cost-effective solutions: Often, less popular but important details are overlooked. For example, better RAM types can boost performance by up to 30%, but many users ignore this, and many online stores don’t even provide that info.
🔒 Security concerns: Many protections impact performance while being negligible for regular users. However, manufacturers don’t know if their laptops will be purchased by individuals or large corporations, so they can’t disable these features by default.
Not a bad performance bump in terms of Storage Speeds:
What are the default apps that impact performance the most?
What to do when RAID drives don’t show up?
How to optimize Windows further for maximum FPS gain in games?
Author: Alex Iliev
Author: eng. Kroum NikolovHead of Engineering at LaptopMedia.com, inventor and innovator with 40+ years of experience in electronics and high technology.
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Where’s temperatures/clocks/power in stress test for CPU and GPU?
They said they’ll update it. They can’t at the moment as it’s an engineering sample
I was so suprised that i found a review for Acer Helios 18 but disappointed after that there is no MiniLED version 🙁
well, it’s March when is it coming out? April worldwide?
It’s in the stock in Germany now. 3200 Euro for 4080 and normal IPS display.
Why are you posting benchmarks of the 2023 helios against the 2022 of everyone else. Based on everyone of those benchmarks the acer loses to every other 2023 offering with the same equipment…
Warum die Tests in HD? Das ist Total unrealistisch, zumal das Notebook einen QHD Bildschirm hat 🤷♂️
Does it have 175W TGP? On the acer page and everywhere else I read that it only got 165W!? It would be much more interesting to compare this with other RTX 40XX cards and also other 4080s with the full 175W TGP..
And yes I also agree to others that it does not make any sense to have benchmarks in FHD while the laptop itself come in 1600p…
Would be nice if this could be updated otherwise this test is quite useless..
Hey, laptopgamer 🙂 Check this out:
https://laptopmedia.com/news/acer-claims-its-new-predator-has-a-165w-rtx-4080-its-actually-even-faster/
The tests are in FHD for comparison purposes, we didn’t have the chance to test with more resolutions
how far will the lid go back…. is it maxed in that photo?
How long is the battery life on this laptop?