Though it may not feel quite the same without the taco bar and amuse bouche being passed around in person, Acer took to the virtual e-stage at its annual [email protected] conference today to unveil a completely refreshed line of gaming monitors. Spanning its Predator and Nitro families, the wave of new panels covers nearly every tier of PC performance and gamer budget.

One thing in common, though? Super-high refresh rates for gaming displays are here to stay, and you’ll need a whole heap of graphics power to push the limit on these models.

Filling Out the Esports Set: Predator and Nitro

Acer looks to be making a much bigger push than in years past to capture every segment of the gaming-monitor market. The difference: These days, the top-selling options across almost every resolution have a refresh rate of 144Hz or higher. Not a single monitor announced today is being released at an overclockable refresh rate of anything less than 165Hz, which means most esports players will be happy with Acer’s latest entries.

These new models include the $549.99 Predator XB273U NV, a 165Hz 27-inch panel. It has a native resolution of 2,560 by 1,440 pixels, and it supports HDR 400. The display features a screen technology the company calls “Agile-Splendor IPS,” which looks to combine several eye-care-related features, like Acer’s Eyesafe-certified VisionCare dynamic blue-light-blocking system. Paired with response times of just 1 millisecond, this midprice model has the specs and extras to appeal to gamers who want to retain their vision and still be fragging at 80 years old.

Next up is the $899.99 Predator XB323U GX, a 32-incher that also has a 2,560-by-1,440-pixel native resolution. The panel refresh rate is the special sauce on this one: It’s rated for a whopping 270Hz maximum (overclocked) refresh, making it the fastest-rated 1440p gaming monitor we’ve seen yet.

After that is the $429.99 Predator XB253Q GW, a 1080p panel (1,920 by 1,080 pixels) that fills out Acer’s ultra-performance segment. This 24.5-inch IPS display is the preferred size for most esports professionals and amateurs alike, who need a smaller screen they can get up close and personal with, seeing the whole span in their field of vision. Its lofty 280Hz refresh rate will keep seriously motivated owners of this monitor hitting headshots with tuned precision.

Acer’s more budget-focused new entries fall under the Nitro branding. The $399.99 Nitro XV272U KV and the $279.99 Nitro XV272 LV are 27-inch displays, but that’s where the similarities end. The first model features a 2,560-by-1,440-pixel panel that uses the Agile-Splendor IPS tech mentioned earlier. The peak refresh rate is 170Hz, with a 1ms gray-to-gray response time.

The second new Nitro, the 1,920-by-1,080-pixel Nitro XV272 LV, falls a smidge shorter on the refresh rate (a max of 165Hz, overclocked) but also advertises a Delta E rating of <1, an excellent measure for color accuracy and highly unusual in a budget-price gaming panel.

Ultrawide Undercutting: The Predator X34 GS

We’ve reviewed multiple monitors in the Acer Predator “X” line, and each has been an impressive entry into the world of ultrawide-panel gaming for newbies and enthusiasts alike.

The Acer Predator X35 has anchored Acer’s premium tier of ultrawides for around a year now, but the new Acer Predator X34 GS aims to give premium options like the Editors’ Choice-award-winning Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ a run for their money. While that monitor still goes for the same $2,499 price it launched at back in June 2019, the X34 GS packs a near-identical feature set at just $999, making it a serious contender, from the look of it, in the market for ultra-premium, ultrawide gaming displays.

Sure, versus the Asus model it may be missing an inch, is 20Hz slower, and doesn’t have as high an HDR rating. But those could be acceptable trade-offs for anyone who, say, is trying to buy a new monitor and a new gaming PC at the same time, and has only $2,500 to spend among all the disparate bits, not just for the monitor.

What, No New 4K Predators?

With the launch of multiple graphics cards (such as the GeForce RTX 3080) that are now pushing many popular game titles well into the range of possible play at 4K resolution and 144 frames per second (fps), it’s surprising that Acer didn’t step up with some new models to meet that elite set, too. That could be because the company already has a line of stellar 4K 144Hz options on shelves, including the Acer Predator X27 and the Acer Predator XB3. But the lack of new ones may reflect the rarified nature of that market, plus the early scarcity of the new GeForce cards.

This goes doubly so since both the Sony PlayStation 5 and the Microsoft Xbox Series X are purported to support games at 4K while running up to 120fps. This is why many display makers like LG have started offering a true 120Hz refresh rate (with support for Nvidia’s G-Sync) on its recently released line of 4K home theater gaming displays.

All monitors shown off at today’s event will hit US shelves starting in December, with a staged rollout that will extend into January 2021, depending on the model.

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