Acer unveiled its range of premium ConceptD laptops for creators earlier this year, and now the company is already refreshing them with Nvidia’s latest Quadro GPUs. The flagship device, the ConceptD 9 Pro, is now an RTX Studio laptop with a 17.3-inch 4K display, up to Quadro RTX 5000 GPU, and 32GB of RAM. The previous model used an RTX 2080 GPU, and the hinge was similar to Acer’s Predator Triton 900 gaming PC, making it more of a gaming laptop than one specifically targeted at creators. The addition of a Quadro GPU and Nvidia’s focus on RTX Studio laptops with Creator-Ready Drivers makes it much more aligned with the video and photo editing workflows of many creators.
While the main market is heavy video editing and creators, Acer is also targeting this ConceptD range at virtual reality developers, big data analytics, and even artificial intelligence applications. So there’s a variety of laptops available as a result. Acer’s ConceptD 7 Pro includes a 15.6-inch 4K display, a 9th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, and Nvidia’s Quadro RTX 5000 GPU. It ditches the unique hinge found on the 9 Pro for a more traditional clamshell, and at 4.6 pounds it’s a little more portable for the type of power you’re getting inside.
Further down the line there’s also the ConceptD 5 Pro, another RTX Studio laptop. It will be available in both 15.6- and 17.3-inch 4K display options, with 9th Gen Intel Core i7 processors and Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 GPUs. Acer is aiming this particular model at creators that work in CAD design, animation, and smaller design studios.
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Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
If you don’t need all the power of Nvidia’s Quadro RTX GPUs then there’s the ConceptD 3 Pro, which also includes 9th Gen Intel Core i7 processors, and Nvidia’s Quadro T1000 graphics. This type of GPU power will be more suited to lighter video editing and photography work. Acer is also updating the ConceptD 5 with RTX 2060 GPUs, and the ConceptD 3 with a GTX 1650 GPU.
You’ll notice that all of these updated laptops still include 9th Gen Intel Core i7 processors. Acer isn’t opting for Intel’s 10th Gen processors just yet, but we’d expect to see a lot more laptops with 10th Gen processors in the coming months and at CES 2020. Acer’s range of creator-focused laptops certainly don’t come cheap thanks to these powerful GPUs. The ConceptD 9 Pro starts at $5,799.99 and will be available in November. Acer’s ConceptD 7 Pro will be priced from $2,699.99 and available in September, while the ConceptD 5 Pro starts at $1,999.99 and will be in stores in December alongside the $1,799.99 ConceptD 5. At the slightly more affordable end of the line, the ConceptD 3 starts at $999.99 and will be available in November, with the Pro version starting at $1,699.99.
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If you’re looking for regular thin and light laptops without much GPU power, Acer is also refreshing its Swift 3 and Swift 5 this week. The Swift 5 and Swift 3 both include Intel’s 10th Gen Core i7 processors, up to 512GB of SSD storage, up to 16GB of RAM, a 14-inch 1080p display, and support for Wi-Fi 6. You can also configure them with Nvidia’s MX250 GPU, and the Swift 5 is a very lightweight option at just 2.1 pounds. The Swift 5 will be available in November priced from $899.99, and the Swift 3 launches in November priced from $699.99.