A few days ago, Intel introduced the Intel Arc G3 series of processors, which are a series of processors specifically introduced for mobile gaming consoles, and the Acer Predator Atlas 8 is the second device shown after the launch of the Acer Nitro Blaze two years ago.
We had the opportunity to go to the Computex Taipei event and today we had the opportunity to see for ourselves a number of new products that will arrive soon, and the Acer Predator Atlas 8 is one of them.
Design
This is not the first time Acer has shown their own mobile gaming console, which they showed the Acer Nitro Blaze almost two years ago. However, the device does not seem to be very popular, and this has caused Acer to rethink its strategy for the device.
In terms of design, in my opinion, the Predator Atlas 8 comes with a frame design that is not too different from the first ROG Ally console offering by ASUS, but still has a little uniqueness of its own. The location of the input buttons and controls looks similar to the Xbox controller, but the L2 and R2 trigger buttons can be adjusted for input depth, and this is a feature that can be seen on the Lenovo Legion Go controller.
In terms of display size, the Atlas 8 console comes with an eight-inch IPS touch display with a resolution of 1920×1200 with a refresh rate of 120Hz. This display is also quite bright, and when I tested games like Forza Horizon 6 on this console, I had no complaints in terms of display brightness.
What surprised me about this console when I tried it was how light this console is. Depending on the model of the processing chip used, it weighs between 770 to 810g only. This is a little heavier than the ROG X Box Ally X console, but it is also worth remembering that the Atlas 8 console has a larger display.
Like all consoles running the Microsoft Windows 11 operating system, the software used to access the computer gaming platform is the Xbox application, and the Atlas 8 will also come with support for Xbox Mode, in which the desktop part of the operating system will not be activated to save memory, and allow games to be played more efficiently.
Predator Sense software was also introduced to allow users to change various settings of this console such as CPU performance, view battery usage levels, update software and components with new drivers and so on.
Specifications and Performance
The Acer Predator Atlas 8 console is the first gaming console announced to use the latest Intel Arc G3 processor series based on the Intel Core Ultra X 300 processor series launched earlier this year. The most significant difference is that this processor chip was developed specifically for consoles like this, and is a competitor to the AMD Ryzen Z processor series introduced a few years ago for the same purpose.
Further explanation of the series of processing chips can be read through this article, and what we know about the Predator Atlas 8 is that it will come with a choice of both Intel Arc G3 Extreme and Intel Arc G3 CPUs, along with 24GB of LPDDR5X memory and 1TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage.
In terms of performance, as mentioned, we tested the game Forza Horizon 6 with this console, at Full HD resolution and medium settings, and the game performance was smooth with an average frame rate of 60FPS. Access to various settings is also easily accessible.
It seems quite interesting that Acer has finally entered the PC console market (Acer Nitro Blaze does not count), but with Intel finally offering a dedicated processing chip for consoles like this, this market seems to be getting even hotter.
