Introduction
Acer Predator Apollo & Acer Predator Talos RAM Review
Those familiar with the PC hardware space will probably recognize the name ‘Acer’ easily enough, and some may know their ‘Predator’ line of products. These are gaming-focused products that usually carry a price tag to match the likes of other manufacturers’ more expensive line-ups. the kits have been manufactured by BiWIN (who supplied these kits). So, imagine my surprise when Acer Predator branded RAM landed on my doorstep for a look over. Not just one though, but two… Also, as an ‘FYI,’ to cut down on unneeded words I’ll simply be referring to the kits by their given name throughout this review, e.g., ‘…the Talos’ or ‘…the Apollo.’ The first product we have is the Acer Predator ‘Talos’, a 3600Mhz 16GB kit that features an attractive white heat spreader with Acer’s logo etched in silver prominently on the face of the modules. Like many other kits, Acer claims support for Intel XMP on the front of the product box, and with timings of 18-20-20-42, we should see decent performance, if not 100% ideal for my current CPU, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT. AMD claims the sweet spot (for Zen 2 and Zen 3) is 3600Mhz CL16, so we’ll see if we can manually tweak the Talos kit to tighter timings in order to improve performance from default.
The second kit we have on hand, however, just so happens to cover the above ‘issue’ of timings. Named ‘Apollo’, this is clearly intended to be a halo product, and that is evident for reasons apparent from the moment you look at the main sub timings and – though covered later on in this review – the packaging quality. The Apollo features RGB support for every major vendor’s software suite, i.e., Asus’ Aura Sync, MSI’s Mystic Light, Gigabyte’s RGB Fusion 2.0, and AsRock’s Polychrome Sync.
The Apollo kit ships with the same rated XMP speed as the Talos kit, i.e., 3,600Mhz. However, those timings… 14-15-15-35 is what you’ll find the Apollo rated for. This is in line with some of the best in the business when it comes to 3,600Mhz RAM. Again, Acer claims Intel XMP support (but, then again, show me a RAM kit above JDEC specification that doesn’t) and ‘Support for Intel/AMD Motherboards’ on the back of the box. Beyond that, however, there is no further mention of AMD or any kind of Ryzen specific optimization. Time will tell, therefore, whether Houston, in fact, has a problem. In terms of pricing, as it happens, I don’t have one for either product. The product pages for these memory kits are still not live. If I had to hazard a guess, I suspect the Talos kit will be priced between $100 to $120 USD based on other kits of ‘roughly’ similar spec. I predict, however, that the Apollo kit will be notably more expensive. Again, with me guessing, I would price it at $200, perhaps up to $220. If that is indeed what Acer intends, then this is a halo product designed to compete with the best memory kits out there.
Before I move on with the rest of the review, I should note that I am not going to compare the two kits being reviewed at any point. They are two different products at what I assume will be radically different price points. One is meant for a ‘higher-end build', and the other is targeted higher still.
