Two desktop computers, three laptops, two monitors and a Windows Mixed Reality headset make the Acer ConceptD brand, designed to mark a new chapter for creativity.

Acer launched this month, during a special presentation in New York, ConceptD, a new brand of high-end Windows 10 desktops, notebooks, and monitors that are optimized for graphic designers, filmmakers, engineers, architects, developers and other creators. ConceptD enables designers to get immersed in the creative process and build remarkable things, says the company.

“The ConceptD product portfolio was conceived to give creators the tools to focus on the creative process and make beautiful things,” said Jerry Kao, Co-COO, Acer Inc. “As the foundation of a full line of creator products, we’ve designed PCs with high-performance processors and graphics that can handle extreme workloads, and put them inside quiet, minimalist designs to inspire creators to unleash their creativity.”

Intel CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs

The two desktop solutions now announced ConceptD 900 and 500, feature a range of NVIDIA GPUs up to the Quadro RTX 6000, enabling high-end visual effects rendering, complex 3D modeling, simulations, as well as AI and deep learning development. On the CPU side, Intel is the chosen brand, a choice that extends to the laptops too. NVIDIA GPUs are also the choice for the three laptops.

“Intel continues to champion the needs of creators in their PCs by delivering the premium performance and platform technologies needed to speed workflows and enable their best,” said Chris Walker, Vice President and General Manager, Client Computing Group, Intel.  “Across notebook and desktop form factors, and capability from 9th Gen Intel Core i7 and i9 along with Intel Xeon processors, ConceptD from Acer is a prime example of combining design, features and peripherals to deliver PCs to meet the highest demands for content creation at all levels.”

For video editors, photographers and broadcasters

The desktop solutions ConceptD 900 and 500 feature, as mentioned, a range of NVIDIA GPUs up to the Quadro RTX 6000, enabling high-end visual effects rendering, complex 3D modeling, simulations, as well as AI and deep learning development. The high core count brings load times down and multitasking to the extreme while achieving enterprise-class reliability, stability, and security. NVIDIA’s latest Creator Ready Drivers bring enhanced app support and performance for studio applications such as Autodesk Arnold, Unreal Engine and REDCINE-X PRO, accelerating creator workflows for video editors, graphics designers, animators and 3D artists, photographers and broadcasters alike.

“With our new Creator Ready Drivers, the NVIDIA Quadro RTX series GPUs will help creators accelerate their workflows on Acer’s ConceptD PCs,” said Sandeep Gupte, Director of Professional Visualization marketing at NVIDIA Corp. “Combined with the reliability of the Quadro GPU platform, Acer’s creator-optimized PCs will help creators focus on letting their creativity flow.”

ConceptD 900: Your “Dream Machine”, if you’re a creator

The ConceptD 900 is presented as a high-performance desktop for professionals running multiple complex and demanding applications. Featuring dual Intel Xeon Gold 6148 processors with up to 40 cores, and 80 threads, an NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 GPU, and 12 memory slots for a total of up to 192GB of ECC memory, it’s perfect for filmmakers, animators, product designers, and architects to get lost in the creative process without worrying about long render times.

The ConceptD 900 stays cool while running compute-intensive applications such as rendering and video production through a thermal design that uses six cooling fans to draw air in through the triangular patterned front air panel, circulating it throughout the chassis.Externally, the ConceptD 900 features a wiry matte-black metal chassis with an amber LED accent on the power button for a sleek professional look appreciated by minimalists.

In terms of storage space, the ConceptD 900 features up to two onboard M.2 PCIe slots, while the efficient chassis design holds up to five storage bays with RAID 0/1-capable drives. Users can expand with extra onboard three PCIe x8 and four PCIe x16 slots. All this comes at a price: the ConceptD 900, which will be available in North America in May, starts at $19,999.

ConceptD 500, a desktop for filmmakers

Featuring the latest 9th Gen Intel Core i9-9900K processor with 8 cores, 16 threads and reaching up to 5GHz, the ConceptD 500 includes up to the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 GPUs to make workloads and multi-media creation smoother and faster on complex projects so users can focus on the creative process. Its multiple CPU cores achieve high single-core speed while staying cool with low heat output and low power consumption. The mix with NVIDIA GPUs, allow it to support four 5K displays (5120×2880 @ 60Hz) with HDR color, making visual effects, motion graphics, and animation rendering a breeze, according to Acer.

Presented as a powerful desktop for filmmakers, animators, product designers and creators, the ConceptD 500 is an expandable desktop designed to grow with users to meet ever-changing workload requirements. With four DIMM slots for up to 64GB 2666 MHz DDR4 memory, it has more bandwidth and capacity for fast performance when working on complex design tasks. The onboard PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD allows for large models and complex 3D rendering in real time.

Optimal thermal ventilation through three cooling fans and a noise level of only 40dB, make it still silent enough to be unobtrusive. Externally, the ConceptD 500’s tower features a white finish and smooth curves for a minimalist-inspired design. The ConceptD 500 will be available in North America in June, starting at $1,699.

Three laptops for creators on the go

Covering 100 percent of the Adobe RGB color gamut, the ConceptD 9, 7, and 5 notebooks are 4K UHD IPS PANTONE validated displays, so creators can be sure that their colors are as accurate as possible. With a wide color gamut,  these displays achieve an impressive color accuracy of as low as Delta E <1. These creator notebooks stay quiet with Acer’s 4th gen AeroBlade 3D Fan with a noise reduction mechanism that emits less than 40 db of noise — equivalent to the sound level of a library — while maintaining high computing and graphics performance.

At the top of the list appears the ConceptD 9, with an innovative form factor. Wit a 17.3-inch Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) display the laptop features up to an all new 9th Gen Intel Core i9 mobile processor, offering users the power and performance to smoothly run multiple tools simultaneously. With NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics, users can accelerate real time video editing or 3D rendering applications, leaving more time to create. It also delivers accelerated ray tracing so renderers can review lifelike graphics as they are created.

Acer says that “the GeForce RTX GPU lets users save time and focus on creativity by accelerating AI features to boost quality and handle tedious time-consuming tasks. Creators can work natively with up to 8K RAW files on the video timeline without dropping frames, pre-caching, or generating proxies. RTX graphics also bring fluid interactivity with large 3D models from the 50 percent performance improvement in raster performance over previous-generation GPUs.”

Real-time 6K RED Video Editing

With up to 32GB of DDR4 memory at 2666MHz and two 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs in RAID 0, creators can store projects and numerous videos, and access large files without needing to fumble with multiple external hard drives. The ConceptD 9 will be available in North America in June, starting at $ 4,999.

The second laptop announced, the ConceptD 7, features up to a new 9th Gen Intel Core i7 processor for premium notebook performance and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics with Max-Q Design, allowing creators to accelerate up to real-time 6K RED video editing and rendering performance on heavy workflows.

Easy to carry around, at just 17.9 mm (0.70 inches) thin, and weighing just 2.1 kg (4.63 lbs.), thje laptop offers a 15.6- inch UHD (3840 x 2160) 4K IPS, PANTONE Validated display, with all the colour precision characteristics mentioned above. Ports available include a Thunderbolt 3 and MiniDP ports for connecting up to three external displays, and the laptop also features Killer DoubleShot Pro for a strong and reliable WiFi connection. The ConceptD 7 will be available in North America in April, starting at $2,299.

New PANTONE validate monitors for creators

The ConceptD 5 laptop is the third solution presented by Acer, and it it is somehow different, featuring an 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor with Radeon RX Vega M GL graphics. Slim and light, it still offers the colour accuracy creators expect, in its 4K UHD PANTONE validated display. With up to 16GB of DDR4 memory and up to 1TB of responsive NVMe PCIe SSD storage in RAID 0, the ConceptD 5 comes with a full range of ports, including a USB Type-C Gen 1 supporting up to 5 Gbps data transfers, as well as DisplayPort and power charging, plus offline charging. The ConceptD 5 will be available in North America in April, starting at $1,699.

Monitors with colour accuracy beyond what most mainstream monitors offer are essential for creators, and Acer has two new monitors, the ConceptD CM7321K and ConceptD CP7271K. These PANTONE validated UHD monitors feature, says the company, “remarkable color accuracy of Delta E <1 and a modern slick, black finish with a wood-patterned base “.

First tailor-made 4K monitors

The ConceptD CM7321K is a 32-inch monitor ideal for 2D creators. Its VESA-Certified DisplayHDR 1000, 32-inch 4K UHD display delivers 1152 zones of local-dimming with Mini LED technology and DisplayHDR 1000, plus 99 percent coverage of the Adobe RGB color space and 89.5 percent Rec.2020 so creators and filmmakers can bring their ideas to life. Acer says this is the “first tailor-made 4K monitor for graphic professionals with precise color accuracy, wide color gamut, and highly detailed local dimming”.

The ConceptD CP7271K is a PANTONE Validated 27-inch monitor optimized for 3D creators. It has an impressive color accuracy of Delta E <1, a wide color gamut of 99 percent of the AdobeRGB color space, and 93 percent DCI-P3 color space. It also features GSYNC Ultimate and DisplayHDR 1000 for unparalleled color and image detail. Acers states that this is the “first tailor-made 4K monitor for CG creators with precise color accuracy, wide color gamut, and high refresh rate”.

The ConceptD CM7321K 32-inch monitor will be available in North America in September, starting at $2,999, while the ConceptD CP7271K 27-inch monitor will be available in North America in July, starting at $1,999.

Acer’s new Windows Mixed Reality  headset

During the New York presentation Acer also showcased a prototype of its new Windows Mixed Reality headset, designed with creators in mind… but which the public will probably also want to try. The ConceptD OJO Windows Mixed Reality Headset features a 4320 x 2160 display, detachable and swappable head strap design, easy inter-pupil distance adjustment, and a classic white finish.

The new headset represents a clear evolution over the previous WMR headsets from Acer, the AH-101 introduced in 2017, and the OJO 500, announced in August 2018, which pointed to some of the developments now present in the ConceptD OJO. From the OJO 500 it gets the patented built-in sound pipe technology, and software-assisted interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment technology that lets the wearer modify the gap between the eye’s pupil and the display distance for sharper, clearer images and a more enjoyable experience. The resolution, though, is a clear step forward, from 1440 x 1440 to 2160 x 2160, which brings the resolution to 4K.

A headset for multiple users

According to the information provided by Acer, the headset’s unique detachable design makes it easy to clean and share among multiple users (family and friends, or in a business environment). The head strap provides a snug yet comfortable fit to keep the headset firmly in place. The ConceptD OJO’s integrated audio system focuses sound on the ears, eliminating the need for headphones, and the patented IPD technology ensures the display is set at the optimal distance from the wearer’s eyes. It’s easy to set up with inside-out tracking and 6 degrees of freedom positional tracking.

Price and availability of the ConceptD OJO Windows Mixed Reality Headset from Acer are not available yet, but as the market moves towards higher resolution Head Mounted Displays in 2019, it is expected that this new solution will be available sooner than later.