Acer Predator Orion 9000 Gaming PC with Intel's i9 7980XE?
Acer recently announced their new Predator Orion 9000 Gaming PC and I have to say it looks good. No doubt there will be many configurable options and processor choices but can it really be considered a gaming PC if paired with an Intel i9 7980XE processor?
The reason I ask, imagine throwing in a Formula 1 racing car engine into a Ford Fiesta and then claiming its a super car akin to a Lamborghini Huracán Performante. What about all the other aspects to consider such as aerodynamics, an efficient drive train able to put down all that power, suspension setup, braking system, cooling and the list goes on. With this in mind, are there design aspects that in some way hinder or act detrimental to the idea that you can make a gaming PC using Intel's i9 7980XE?
Lets look at the specification.
A base frequency of 2.6GHz, 18 cores, maximum turbo frequency of 4.4GHz meaning depending on the load only 2 cores have the potential to run at 4.4GHz at any given time. 3 cores lower than this, 4 cores lower and so on. Finally, a whooping TDP of 165W.
In essence this is not a gaming processor, it is a workstation processor intended for intense multi threaded applications. I say that because of the very low base frequency coupled with a 18 cores. At the moment we are at a point where gaming has no substantial benefit with anything over 4 cores but since AMD released their Ryzen series a new craze of more cores has become the new trend, and Intel decided to follow taking it to an extreme level.
The i7 7740X with its higher base frequency of 4.3GHz is more of a gaming processor than the i9 7980XE at a fraction of the price and with a TDP of 112W you are not going to have any issues keeping the temps in check or prematurely kill your motherboard's VRMs. And you will notice the difference in terms of FPS due to that higher base frequency.
So why have Acer decided to market the i9 7980XE as a gaming CPU?
Well, the i9 7980XE can be used for gaming. I don't think it is ideal or gives the majority of gamers the best performance unless you are a minority running a quad GPU setup at a crazy high resolution only possible with many monitors and you have to sit a few meters away to see everything, gaming whilst encoding your latest Battlefield 1 frag montage...
They have used it simply for bragging rights, so they can say we offer the most powerful gaming PC on the market, indeed they do but equally its not the best because there are going to be issues using the i9 7980XE.
Probably very few customers will go with the i9 7980XE processor due to the big bump in price it adds but in any event we will have to wait and see.
The reason I ask, imagine throwing in a Formula 1 racing car engine into a Ford Fiesta and then claiming its a super car akin to a Lamborghini Huracán Performante. What about all the other aspects to consider such as aerodynamics, an efficient drive train able to put down all that power, suspension setup, braking system, cooling and the list goes on. With this in mind, are there design aspects that in some way hinder or act detrimental to the idea that you can make a gaming PC using Intel's i9 7980XE?
Lets look at the specification.
A base frequency of 2.6GHz, 18 cores, maximum turbo frequency of 4.4GHz meaning depending on the load only 2 cores have the potential to run at 4.4GHz at any given time. 3 cores lower than this, 4 cores lower and so on. Finally, a whooping TDP of 165W.
In essence this is not a gaming processor, it is a workstation processor intended for intense multi threaded applications. I say that because of the very low base frequency coupled with a 18 cores. At the moment we are at a point where gaming has no substantial benefit with anything over 4 cores but since AMD released their Ryzen series a new craze of more cores has become the new trend, and Intel decided to follow taking it to an extreme level.
The i7 7740X with its higher base frequency of 4.3GHz is more of a gaming processor than the i9 7980XE at a fraction of the price and with a TDP of 112W you are not going to have any issues keeping the temps in check or prematurely kill your motherboard's VRMs. And you will notice the difference in terms of FPS due to that higher base frequency.
So why have Acer decided to market the i9 7980XE as a gaming CPU?
Well, the i9 7980XE can be used for gaming. I don't think it is ideal or gives the majority of gamers the best performance unless you are a minority running a quad GPU setup at a crazy high resolution only possible with many monitors and you have to sit a few meters away to see everything, gaming whilst encoding your latest Battlefield 1 frag montage...
They have used it simply for bragging rights, so they can say we offer the most powerful gaming PC on the market, indeed they do but equally its not the best because there are going to be issues using the i9 7980XE.
Are there design aspects that in some way hinder or act detrimental to the idea that you can make a gaming PC using Intel's i9 7980XE?The biggest problem is heat and keeping the i9 7980XE cool, at the time of writing I couldn't find any reviews on the internet about this chip (plenty on the i9-7900X, thermals don't look good at all) and based on what Acer have chosen to cool the i9 with, a CoolerMaster 240mm radiator I suspect its going to run very hot (80c?) especially when gaming. Other issues arising out of this will be the motherboard design, particularly the VRMs. The i9 will be pulling a lot of current through the VRMs, naturally they will also run hot and reach insanley high temperatures if not cooled adequately. Will Acer take this into account or will customers have a high end PC with a very short lifespan due to the thermal issues? Are gamers going to be unhappy due to the processor throttling?
Probably very few customers will go with the i9 7980XE processor due to the big bump in price it adds but in any event we will have to wait and see.
