Club Benefits
Windows gaming handhelds got a shot in the arm with Intel Arc G3 silicon, and I got to test the Acer Predator Atlas 8 sporting this chip. It’s a solid piece of kit (and I’ll go into it more later), but what surprised me most is what I got to play on it.
As you probably already know, I got to test the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ behind closed doors here at Computex 2026. With a lot of events like this, you get shown demos in controlled environments with specific games to make the handheld look good.
Well, over with Acer, the one game MSI told us not to play was on show: my favorite of the year so far in Forza Horizon 6.
And after playing it, I’m honestly baffled why MSI's handlers didn’t let us get into it, because it’s a real showcase of how much of a breakthrough the Arc G3 really is.
By the numbers
On the face of it, I can see why MSI may not have wanted us to play Horizon 6 — it supports XeSS 2.1 rather than the full-blown third-generation version with multi-frame generation. But even with that, I managed to squeeze a surprising amount of graphical prowess out of this system.
At 1200p resolution with no ray tracing, the game can run at 66 FPS on the charger and 45 FPS when you reduce the wattage from the plug socket. I played for about 20 minutes off the charger and saw the total battery capacity drop by 5% during that time, which shows impressive power efficiency.
Then I decided to go a bit wild with it, turn the graphics settings up to ultra, turn on ray tracing, and XeSS (because I’m not a madman). Even with this, I was getting 42 FPS, and with the 8-inch display squishing this game down, there was no visible ghosting, and in gameplay, I felt no latency.
A (mostly) great handheld
Acer’s always been on the periphery of the handheld space, usually dominated by Asus, MSI, and Lenovo.
But with the Atlas 8, this feels like a real coming-to-power moment for them because it is a sturdy system with decent ergonomics, a nice, bright screen, adjustable triggers that can be either one-press or full analog, and good cooling with that world-first metal fan in a portable like this.
That being said, I do give the edge to the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ for snappier buttons (Acer’s D-pad and face buttons feel a bit mushy) and ergonomics, as the Claw has better-defined handgrips that fit the hand better and have a grippy texture.
All this aside, though, the Predator Atlas 8 will have its audience as another great handheld to get. The adjustable triggers do make this a versatile handheld that can be adjusted to any particular play style.
Throw in the Arc G3, and you’re onto a surefire winner. The question now, of course, is price. Acer (just like MSI) is a little hesitant to talk about cost, given the whole RAMageddon thing happening right now. But I’m hoping that, given Acer has always been the value-for-money brand, they can do something good here.
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