Tech Advisor – October 2019

12 TECH ADVISOR • OCTOBER 2019

REVIEW

while thermal throttling means the CPU is bumping

rightintoitsthermallimits.Bothareindicationsthat

thePredatorHelios 300 operatesrightatthemargin

ofits design.

Looking inside this laptop and its design presents

a few thermal challenges. To the right of the two fans

(only one is shown in the picture below), you can see

that the heat pipes make direct contact with the GPU

first, and then the CPU.

In other gaming laptop designs, the fans are

typically arrayed on the corners of the laptop,

whichgivestheCPUorGPUwithdirectaccessto

thecoolingfans.Moreextremedesignskeepthe

GPUandCPUontheirownseparateheatpipesand

coolingfans.Withthedesign,theCPUis always

goingto get waste heat from the GPU.

One potential sticky point with the

Acer Predator Helios 300 is its shared

heat pipe design, which means the

CPU gets hot air off the GPU