Does switching to 750W PSU improve performance on Acer Predator PO3-650?

Hello guys,

I bought this computer about months ago (I believe all the model is on the subject but if I'm missing something please tell me). This model comes up with

Processor 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13700F (24CPUs), ~2.1GHz. According to CPU-Z it's a Raptor Lake
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
32 GB of RAM

After buying and checking the community here, I made the following upgrades / changes:

Got Noctua NH-U9S Chromax Black (only 1 fan so far, I'm thinking about putting a second just in case but need to buy the fan). Very much appreciate a video linked here on the forums where a French kid was saying what he was doing switching the original coller for the new one with some help 😂. I don't understand French at all, just needed to see for myself how it was done since I had to get the specific M3 12 mm screws. On this note I have to say the original ACER cooler is just plain bad.
Upgraded to 64 GB of RAM

I have to say that the cooler change was a huge quality of life improvement. It reduced the temperature a lot as well as the fan noise significantly! Feels very good and peaceful while gaming!

Now, as I'm not knowledgeable I'd like some help on the following points:

Searching the forums here, it is my understanding that any sort of overclocking is locked on the BIOS by ACER, as they were the ones that made it. So my question is if it's completely out of the question ACER releasing a new BIOS that allows such overclock. Personally I'm not having that much hope since with the original cooler the CPU easily reached 90 degrees Celsius and a bit more while playing unless I made a custom fan control where the CPU fan was always at about 3000RPM I believe. But regardless, I'd like you guys opinion on this.
Is it possible that if I switch the power supply to the one of 750W (I have the default 500W), PC performance will improve a bit as the components will have more power available to draw from it? My reasoning for asking the is because of how ACER built this PC and potentially decreasing some performance aspects of Memory / CPU / GPU. Just a conspiracy theory though 👀
Still regarding the power supply, I've seen the prints of the power supply on other threads but for the life of me I'm literally not finding it anywhere to buy. I'm European (from Portugal). If you guys have some tips I'll really appreciate it. For now I'm just contemplating getting a new PSU. The current PSU isn't giving me any problems at all even when pushing the RTX 4070 with stable diffusion. Although she gets to 80 degrees Celsius. On this note I tried to make than GPU fan run at 100% and jesus, it looked like a plane taking off 😂
You guys know of any motherboard that fits the case? This just for information purposes for now. The objective was a motherboard compatible with the CPU and the RTX 4070. I'd provisionally switch the RAM to the new board but the objective was to: 1 - Motherboard supporting overclocking; 2 - Motherboard supporting faster RAMs. I believe the current motherboard doesn't support RAMs faster than 4800 MHz? I'm also unsure if the CPU will allow for faster RAM. Naturally, a new motherboard may require a different PSU due to its power pins. I didn't do a deep research on this topic so far.

My interest on this questions is simply because I'm a bit of a gamer myself and like to be prepared for future changes if there's a need to.

Really appreciate any help from you guys.

Thank you!

Best regards to everyone,
Amorim

Accepted answers

All comments

chiucs123

Hi Amorim5,

Overclocking is a subject that is beyond normal usage, but certainly some people/gamers would do that to squeeze every performance out of the machine. However do have in mind overclocking increases cooling demands and shortens hardware lifespan so that's on your own risk. If the motherboard isn't designed for such a purpose, you should consider upgrade options otherwise.

I don't think there's any industrial conspiracy there having Acer is already the cleanest option on the market from my observation. An overclockable motherboard requires additional high-tolerance capacitors on the circuit to maintain the power supply stability. If you intend to upgrade motherboard than you have to take note on that as well. You can swap SSDs over to keep your OS and data.

Upgrading power supply likely do you no change as the components are already well-fed, they don't need that extra power, nor would they suddenly perform better just by giving more power, it would consume power as per specs. Overpowering (not overclocking) can cause burn issues if not handled properly, however in normal cases, the unused power is simply not outputted and wasted depending on how you wire things up.

If fan solutions aren't doing enough, you might want to look into liquid cooling solutions. Fan performance differs a lot if you use your computer with or without air conditioning, or whether proper cleaning maintenance is done regularly.

Cheers!

billsey

The power supplies shipped with the PO3-650 models include:

So they have some SKUs with a 750W supply. You should be able to search on that part number for suppliers. I believe the system shipped originally without overclocking support, then they upgraded the BIOS to allow XMP memory overclocking. Someone will have to verify that for you however, I don't have a PO3-650 to test with. If you have the current BIOS and there is a section in there to enable eXtreme Memory Profiles then it is supported. As with all the PO3s the motherboard is designed to fit that small case, which adds that diving board out the front to bring the ports out to the case front. Putting anything other than a PO3 motherboard in there will lose you access to front ports, unless you have some really mad cabling skillz. :)

Amorim5

Thank you for your answers guys! 😄

So safer choice for more performance would be to eventually upgrade the processor? In that case do you guys know any compatible processors for the motherboard? Let's imagine I wanted to put here a intel core i9 14900K. Would it be compatible with the motherboard? Although that would inevitably mean making sure there's enough cooling for it along with new power supply.

Regarding XMP, latest BIOS updade for this model is R01-A2. This BIOS does not provide any sort of XMP support. I believe it was the PO3-640 model that got its latest BIOS available for it. So I'm curious if ACER will provide a new BIOS for this model that supports XMP.

Also, in the case ACER provides XMP support, if for example I wanted for example to switch to a corsair vengeance 5200 MHz, do you guys know if the motherboard supports such speeds?

billsey

CPU changes are pretty much the last step when trying to squeeze more performance out. The big difference in memory between the 650 and earlier models was the change to DDR5, so it's not surprising they didn't do the XMP support switch at the same time as the DDR4 systems, it's different code in the BIOS. With the system specs you have now, you are pretty close to the maximum. I wouldn't pony up for the bigger PSU unless you really want to up the GPU to something like a 4080 or maybe 4090. If it were me and I was serious about getting more performance I'd be looking at the next gen Predator in the larger case, so PO5 or PO7 rather than tweaking a PO3. The case is a bit of a limitation on the PO3 models, but it does keep the costs down on them.

Raees2k3

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/708824/predator-po3-650-questions-after-some-changes-by-changing-the-psw-will-the-perfromance-be-better

Hey, I know this is a bit late but I'm having the same issues as you, I have the same specs except mine is a 3060 GPU. I've already upgraded my fans to Noctua however I want to upgrade my RAM and I've been seeing everywhere that I cannot just get any DDR5 RAM. So I was wondering what RAM you have and is it true that 4800 Mhz is the max ram speed? If so I was thinking of changing the motherboard and case. If anyone can assist me id appreciate it. Thanks.

billsey

Upgrading the memory size is easy, the machines ship with 4800 DDR5 in either 8GB or 16GB sticks from several different vendors, and when fully populated with 16GB sticks you should be at 64GB. If your model supports XMP overclocking it will be visible in the BIOS under the Advanced; Integrated Peripherals section. I don't believe they have that enabled on the PO3-650 models though. So, you could put faster memory in, but it will run at the base rate for the chipset, not at the overclocked speed.

Raees2k3

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1317181#Comment_1317181

Thanks for the response, the thing is everyone is saying 2 different things. I’ve seen forums of where people have bought higher sped Ram and then have trouble booting the computer and then I have people saying they stick anything in there. I’ve seen the “compatible” memory sticks page and that’s got me acknowledging that I cannot get any ram stick and it has to be those specific ones. Please could someone clarify this for me.

billsey

Remember that different Predator Orion models use different chipsets and have different specs, so you have to try to be comparing oranges to oranges. For the PO3-650 you want DDR5 4800 MT/s memory to match he stock. Here are the specific modules Acer has used:

and here's another reference for modules that were actually tested:

But most any DDR5 4800 should work fine. With the newer PO3-655 models, which also use the B760 chipset, they ship with either 4800 or 5600 modules. I believe those also end up running at 4800 and they are purchasing 5600s due to supply chain issues with the 4800s.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/708824/predator-po3-650-questions-after-some-changes-by-changing-the-psw-will-the-perfromance-be-better

Your Predator Orion PO3-650 desktop does not have ram overclocking provisions in its bios and this desktop Intel 13th Gen cpu does not work with XMP ram as its 13th Gen cpu is limited to a max speed DDR5-4800MT/s design from intel. Good luck and hope this assist you further.

This is additional the ram listed Acer that was tested with this desktop 9to the list above) that Acer reconned that you should use for best results and performance.

This is the only mobo listed by Acer for the PO3-650 desktop which is an Intel B760 chipset mobo

If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍

billsey

I just noticed you didn't get one of your questions answered… No, a different sized power supply will make no difference in system performance. A larger supply is only needed when you have a larger load than the stock supply can provide, so with a GPU that pulls more power. The system will only use when it needs, so if yours is using 475W when doing full on gaming, a 1200W supply will still be only giving it 475W. The rest of the potential power in the supply is just not used… Your system was designed to work within the power budget of the 500W supply, even with memory maxed and a full complement of HDDs (HDDs because they use more power than a SSD). If you have less than the maximum memory and fewer drives then you are actually using less power than the supply could provide.

Quick Links

Top Members

Weekly

Puraw 220

StevenGen 100

poooooooooop69 60

GR08 57

Dimm 45

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™