Acer has opened pre-orders for its new Predator Atlas 8 system, with a $1,299 asking price. Available through Best Buy, this handheld is $500 cheaper than the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ despite offering the same Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip, though the two PCs do differ in other respects.
Across both devices, you’ll find an Intel Arc G3 SoC, featuring 14 Panther Lake CPU cores, and 12 Xe3 GPU cores. However, while MSI bundles 32GB LPDDR5X-8533 memory into the Claw 8 EX AI+, Acer drops down to 24GB. That’s still plenty of RAM to share between the processor and graphics, as other handhelds like MSI’s Claw A8 have proven.
The other major difference between the two handhelds comes down to storage, with the Claw 8 EX AI+ packing a 1TB SSD, double that of the 512GB you’ll find in the Predator Atlas 8. While this means you’ll need to exercise greater discipline with your installations on the latter, both systems support microSD cards for some expansion. Alternatively, you could just replace the SSD outright.
These small changes likely make up the bulk of the $500 difference between Acer and MSI’s offerings, considering the ongoing NAND and RAM crises. Importantly, neither difference should affect performance, with the Predator Atlas 8 matching its more-expensive rival save in fringe cases where the additional 8GB gives the Claw 8 EX AI+ in memory-heavy titles.
In terms of performance, as per YouTuber ETA PRIME‘s benchmarks, the Predator Atlas 8 delivers up to 80fps in Forza Horizon 6 at FHD+ (1200p) using medium settings sans any upscaling. Meanwhile, Spider-Man can hit up to 70fps at 1200p using medium settings and XeSS quality.
Comparisons aside, the Predator Atlas 8 features a 8in 1920×1200 IPS touchscreen rocking a 120Hz refresh rate and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support, which should net sharp and smooth gaming on the go. The system also arrives with a sizeable 80Whr battery hall-effect triggers, TMR analogue sticks, Wi-Fi 7, and Thunderbolt 4.
