ACER is prepping its high-end Predator Helios series laptops featuring Intel's 14th Gen Raptor Lake-HX Refresh CPUs with NVIDIA's top RTX 40 GPUs.
Intel 14th Gen Raptor Lake-HX CPUs To Retain High-End Positioning In Laptops Such as ACER's Next-Gen Predator Helios Despite Meteor Lake Launch
Intel's 14th Gen Raptor Lake-HX Refresh CPUs have leaked on several occasions and we have seen them featured in multiple high-end laptop configurations. Besides a few SKUs, the CPU lineup will mostly be offering a slight increase in clock frequencies similar to what we have seen on the 14th Gen Raptor Lake Refresh Desktop family. But there's a good reason why Intel is refreshing its high-end HX lineup even though they are also launching Meteor Lake "Core Ultra" CPUs for the laptop segment.
The Intel Meteor Lake-H lineup maxes out at just 16 cores and 45W TDPs (PL1) while Raptor Lake-HX CPUs will max out at 24 cores and 55W+ TDP (PL1). This makes them perfect for the high-end gaming segment. While that doesn't mean that we won't get to see some high-end laptop configs with Meteor Lake like the one we just reported a few hours ago, the 14th Gen HX family will just be the better option for users who are looking for a portable desktop replacement.
As such, ACER will be refreshing its Predator Helios laptop lineup with up to Intel Core i9-14900HX CPUs. The CPU offers 24 cores (8+16), 32 threads, a frequency of 2.4 GHz base, & up to 5.8 GHz boost clocks. The chip also offers 36 MB of L3 cache. The chip will feature a base TDP of 55W and an MTP (Maximum Turbo Power of 157W).
The ACER Predator Helios laptop itself comes in 18" (WQXGA IPS 240Hz) and 16" (WQXGA MiniLED 250Hz) designs with up to 32 GB of DDR5 memory and 2 TB of PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD storage. Both laptops come with a 90Whr Battery and weigh 3.25kg and 2.70 kg, respectively. Both ACER Predator laptops are currently listed at Amazon for:
- ACER Predator 18 PH18-72 - Core i9-14900HX / 32 GB DDR5 / 2 TB SSD / RTX 4080 - £3,199.99
- ACER Predator 16 PH16-72 - Core i9-14900HX / 16 GB DDR5 / 1 TB SSD / RTX 4080 - £2,799.99
We can expect these high-end laptops to be available around the same time as Intel's Meteor Lake lineup which lands on the 14th of December. CES 2024 is also a month away so most OEMs might just want to wait till then to unveil their latest laptop offerings.
Intel High-End Laptop HX CPU Family:
| CPU Name | Family | Cores/Threads | Base Clock | Boost Clock | GPU Cores | TDP (Base/MTP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core i9-14900HX | 14th Gen RPL-HX | 24 (8+16) | 2.2 GHz | 5.8 GHz | 32 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i7-14700HX | 14th Gen RPL-HX | 20 (8+12) | 2.1 GHz | 5.5 GHz | 32 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i7-14650HX | 14th Gen RPL-HX | 16 (8+8) | 2.2 GHz | 5.2 GHz | 32 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i5-14500HX | 14th Gen RPL-HX | 14 (6+8) | 2.6 GHz | 4.9 GHz | 32 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i5-14450HX | 14th Gen RPL-HX | 10 (6+4) | 2.4 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 32 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i9-13980HX | 13th Gen RPL-HX | 24 (8+16) | 2.2 GHz | 5.6 GHz | 32 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i9-13950HX | 13th Gen RPL-HX | 24 (8+16) | 2.2 GHz | 5.5 GHz | 32 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i9-13900HX | 13th Gen RPL-HX | 24 (8+16) | 2.2 GHz | 5.4 GHz | 32 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i7-13850HX | 13th Gen RPL-HX | 20 (8+12) | 2.1 GHz | 5.3 GHz | 32 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i7-13700HX | 13th Gen RPL-HX | 16 (8+8) | 2.1 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 32 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i5-13650HX | 13th Gen RPL-HX | 14 (6+8) | 2.6 GHz | 4.9 GHz | 16 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i5-13600HX | 13th Gen RPL-HX | 14 (6+8) | 2.6 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 32 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i5-13500HX | 13th Gen RPL-HX | 14 (6+8) | 2.5 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 16 EU | 55 / 157W |
| Core i3-13450HX | 13th Gen RPL-HX | 10 (6+4) | 2.4 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 16 EU | 55 / 157W |
