Acer Intel 11GI7 2.3GHz 8GB 512GB SSD 15.6" FHD + 4GB/3050 Nitro 5 Notebook NH.QENSA.001

I've had this for around 3 months now, it is excellent. Most games I've played got around 120fps pretty steadily though I capped it at 60 for most to keep temps down. Its perfectly normal and fine for the cpu temp to reach 70-90⁰c on heavy gaming but there are a few work arounds; in the built in nitro sence, you can change the performance mode from high proformance to something like balanced or power saver. I notice no difference with power saver mode to the performance but I get like 10 less ⁰c on the cpu on power save there is a drop in performance but you are best turning it on for battery. Another way to reduce temps is to go into search type "powered plan" then click "advanced option" "processor power management" and slide the minimum down to 5% for battery and ... MoreI've had this for around 3 months now, it is excellent. Most games I've played got around 120fps pretty steadily though I capped it at 60 for most to keep temps down. Its perfectly normal and fine for the cpu temp to reach 70-90⁰c on heavy gaming but there are a few work arounds; in the built in nitro sence, you can change the performance mode from high proformance to something like balanced or power saver. I notice no difference with power saver mode to the performance but I get like 10 less ⁰c on the cpu on power save there is a drop in performance but you are best turning it on for battery. Another way to reduce temps is to go into search type "powered plan" then click "advanced option" "processor power management" and slide the minimum down to 5% for battery and ac, and slide ac max to 90% and battery max to about 40%. This will decrease heat with the slightest performance loss and will make your battery last much longer off charge. Also note: it is not bad to leave your computer on charge or charge it while gaming. This laptop trickle feeds power so it will not harm your battery or decrease its life over time. So far I have had no issues with this laptop whatsoever. It also runs great on blender (3d software) and video exporting.Great for gaming, great for 3d modeling, great for rendering/exporting videos and 3d models.Overall it's a great buy.

A gamer's delight... and deal (steal)

My experiences with Acer have been pretty good over the years. They make solid laptops targeted towards specific audiences. The Nitro line is targeted at the gaming community.Unboxing the Nitro 5 was pretty normal – sturdy box with tight-fitting foam. It gives you the feeling the device has been well protected during shipping and handling. Remove it from the box and first impression is.. it looks like an Acer Nitro. Large, sturdy, slightly pushed forward hinge, with hints of red throughout the design. It has a bit of heft to it, but it’s somewhat to be expected in a gaming laptop. I would prefer it to be a bit sleeker, but I’m not terribly disappointed in the overall aesthetic. There are ports aplenty on this laptop. There are 3 USB-A ports and once USB-C with ... MoreMy experiences with Acer have been pretty good over the years. They make solid laptops targeted towards specific audiences. The Nitro line is targeted at the gaming community.Unboxing the Nitro 5 was pretty normal – sturdy box with tight-fitting foam. It gives you the feeling the device has been well protected during shipping and handling. Remove it from the box and first impression is.. it looks like an Acer Nitro. Large, sturdy, slightly pushed forward hinge, with hints of red throughout the design. It has a bit of heft to it, but it’s somewhat to be expected in a gaming laptop. I would prefer it to be a bit sleeker, but I’m not terribly disappointed in the overall aesthetic. There are ports aplenty on this laptop. There are 3 USB-A ports and once USB-C with thunderbolt in tow. There is an ethernet port, HDMI, and headphone jack. I really like the location of the HDMI port. It is in the rear of the laptop rather than the side. I feel this is more natural for setups where a monitor is added. It gives me more flexibility with device and monitor position and cable routing. Open the lid to find a full keyboard with 10-key on the right. The full keyboard is a welcome sight. The trackpad is large enough. It could be a tad bigger, but it feels about right in use.Power the Nitro 5 on and you are treated to the keyboard servicing as somewhat of a progress bar, or at least I think that was the idea. It begins to light sections in succession from left to right. This went on for a few seconds before the screen came on. It puts you in the mind of a progress bar or bar wait graphic. This laptop came with Windows 11 installed. This is actually great, in my opinion. It is my first experience where I wasn’t asked to upgrade to Windows 11 from a factory Windows 10 install, and the experience was significantly improved. Flawless startup, information capture, synchronization of devices via account sign in, and update process. If you don’t like Windows 11, this may be the one area it shines over its predecessor.The Nitro 5 performs admirably in every way. Games install and load quickly, and in game performance shines for an i5 device – should, with that fire Gen 5 RAM and Gen 4 SSD. I like the high refresh rate on the screen, and prefer it over the higher pixel count. A good 1080p screen with 144Hz refresh is optimal for gaming on a laptop. The smaller screen doesn’t need the higher resolution, and the higher refresh rate gives smooth and solid gameplay. Tomb Raider, Rainbow Six Siege, and Call of Duty perform nicely on the Nitro 5. The Nvidia 3050 lives up to its billing with not only stunning visuals and smooth performance, but fantastic color accuracy and detail. Are there better experiences out there? The answer is yes, but at this price for this hardware it’s gonna be hard to beat. Add to that easy upgrading (lot’s of screws though) and Thunderbolt to enhance your gaming experience – this is great stuff. The keyboard is actually very good as well. I like it much better than my older Nitro, and other gaming rigs I’ve used. The Nitro 5 also performs well when doing video and audio editing. In short, it can handle the heavy lifting needed by gamers and content creators.If you want a strong laptop for gaming, content creation, and more, at a fantastic price, the new Nitro 5 should be under strong consideration.

Amazing Gaming Laptop

I am really impressed with this Acer Nitro 5 computer gaming laptop. It comes with a nice 15.6” full HD screen with 144Hz IPS panel that really brings out the graphics nicely. These graphics are supported by NVidia’s 4gb of memory solely for this purpose. Coupled with this is the Intel Core i5 processor and 16GB of RAM. I was a little disappointed that it only had 512 GB of storage, but then realized that it is plenty enough for my needs and the games that I play.This is a really solid built laptop. The chassis feels really durable and solid, yet not too heavy to hold. The hinge feels really strong and adjusts smoothly. The keyboard is a really gem as it adjust colors, has great key travel and the keys feel really soft to touch. What is really great is that it has ... MoreI am really impressed with this Acer Nitro 5 computer gaming laptop. It comes with a nice 15.6” full HD screen with 144Hz IPS panel that really brings out the graphics nicely. These graphics are supported by NVidia’s 4gb of memory solely for this purpose. Coupled with this is the Intel Core i5 processor and 16GB of RAM. I was a little disappointed that it only had 512 GB of storage, but then realized that it is plenty enough for my needs and the games that I play.This is a really solid built laptop. The chassis feels really durable and solid, yet not too heavy to hold. The hinge feels really strong and adjusts smoothly. The keyboard is a really gem as it adjust colors, has great key travel and the keys feel really soft to touch. What is really great is that it has Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB 3.2 gen 1 port, 2 USB 3.2 gent 2 port, Ethernet, and 3.5mm headphone jack. The plug in for the power adapter is in the rear of the computer which is a godsend so that I can easily move around the laptop without being bothered by the power cord.Now the gaming experience. This has been such a joy to game on. I play only. A few games, mostly the HALO series and I let my son come and play his TF2 and Roblox games. It has been such a great experience, flows well with not throttling or slowing down. The Full HD experience comes with 1920x1080 resolution and looks amazing to play. Playing HALO Reach has been a great re-living experience and the graphics and game play is so amazing. I downloaded the es,ntire Master Chief Collection as well as the Halo RTS games and still had plenty of space.Using as a regular laptop has also been a positive experience. Using it for all my Microsoft Office products, zoom meeting and even searching the web has been fun and fast. The only issue that I had encountered with this laptop has been the battery life, ranging around 2-3 hours when not plugged in. So I recommend having your power brick and charger near by when on this.Overall, great overall laptop that I have enjoyed gaming and doing work related tasks. Definitely one of the best investments.

Excellent Laptop with Upgradable RAM and Storage

Let me first say that I love this laptop! The good far exceeds the bad on this Acer Nitro 5 Laptop. I really like the look of the products, the screen resolution is fantastic, and love the backlit keyboard.Pros: The RAM is upgradable to 32GB - I achieved this by purchasing and installing 2 16GB Acer SD100 16GB Single RAM 2666 MHz DDR4 sticks. There is room for more memory - in installed a SanDisk Ultra 1TB Internal SATA Solid State Drive using the SATA strap included from Acer. I labeled this drive D: but you can call it whatever you want after initialization.Cons: Was not a fan of the back panel - apparently the older version had easy access panels for RAM and additional drives. Now you have to peel the pressure-fitted back panel off using some non-marring ... MoreLet me first say that I love this laptop! The good far exceeds the bad on this Acer Nitro 5 Laptop. I really like the look of the products, the screen resolution is fantastic, and love the backlit keyboard.Pros: The RAM is upgradable to 32GB - I achieved this by purchasing and installing 2 16GB Acer SD100 16GB Single RAM 2666 MHz DDR4 sticks. There is room for more memory - in installed a SanDisk Ultra 1TB Internal SATA Solid State Drive using the SATA strap included from Acer. I labeled this drive D: but you can call it whatever you want after initialization.Cons: Was not a fan of the back panel - apparently the older version had easy access panels for RAM and additional drives. Now you have to peel the pressure-fitted back panel off using some non-marring tool. It wasn't my favorite experience. The other issue is if you do not push the plug in all the way (it clicks when fully inserted) it will not charge the battery, and you would think the initial plug-in was charging your machine. I did not read the quick instructions and not sure if it was mentioned, but have never had a plug for any laptop or computer that needed this extra step. I nearly sent it back until I looked it up online to see what was going on.Those 2 little design flaws should not deter you from enjoying this fantastic product. With the upgrades, I have a really great machine that can run any application.

Great laptop for the price.

I needed to upgrade to a Windows 11 laptop but was discouraged upon discovering that in an effort to achieve maximum "thinness", virtually ALL new laptops lack a sufficient number of USB ports, RJ45 LAN connectivity and an optical drive. Additionally, most lack an HDMI port. My son suggested I consider a gaming laptop and recommended this one. It turned out to be a great choice. It has no optical drive, so I bought a stand-alone external USB optical drive/burner for less than $40. Otherwise, this laptop performs flawlessly and has far more performance capability than I will ever use. It is very fast, boots quickly has awesome graphics display. All my programs and apps installed easily and performed well. My son is somewhat of a "gamer" and was favorably impressed ... MoreI needed to upgrade to a Windows 11 laptop but was discouraged upon discovering that in an effort to achieve maximum "thinness", virtually ALL new laptops lack a sufficient number of USB ports, RJ45 LAN connectivity and an optical drive. Additionally, most lack an HDMI port. My son suggested I consider a gaming laptop and recommended this one. It turned out to be a great choice. It has no optical drive, so I bought a stand-alone external USB optical drive/burner for less than $40. Otherwise, this laptop performs flawlessly and has far more performance capability than I will ever use. It is very fast, boots quickly has awesome graphics display. All my programs and apps installed easily and performed well. My son is somewhat of a "gamer" and was favorably impressed with this one. It came with an internal hard drive add-on kit, so I installed a 2.5" 1TB SSD in short order. Installation was a breeze and I found Acer's support page to be fantastic. Other than the learning curve needed to familiarize myself with Windows 11, this was a smooth exercise, and I am very well pleased. BJ's had an incredible price and shipped it to my home in a timely manner. I highly recommend this laptop if you're in the market for a new one.

POWERFUL, OLD RAM, POOR DISPLAY

INITIAL SET-UP AND CONFIGURATIONThis is one of the first Acer products I’ve received that didn’t give me any hiccups during the initial set-up and configuration. Although, I admit I was a bit concerned upon initial power-up as the keyboard lighting appeared to be stuttering and flaky, but alas it started up without issue. As with most computers, a bios update was available. After downloading all the latest Windows 11 drivers and updates, I installed the firmware aka bios update. Fingers crossed, it installed, and the laptop rebooted with no issues. Awesome.For those hoping for a clean, unaltered version of Windows 11, you will be disappointed. Acer has packed several bundles and trials on the machine. Some are not a big deal and are easily deleted, some are more ... MoreINITIAL SET-UP AND CONFIGURATIONThis is one of the first Acer products I’ve received that didn’t give me any hiccups during the initial set-up and configuration. Although, I admit I was a bit concerned upon initial power-up as the keyboard lighting appeared to be stuttering and flaky, but alas it started up without issue. As with most computers, a bios update was available. After downloading all the latest Windows 11 drivers and updates, I installed the firmware aka bios update. Fingers crossed, it installed, and the laptop rebooted with no issues. Awesome.For those hoping for a clean, unaltered version of Windows 11, you will be disappointed. Acer has packed several bundles and trials on the machine. Some are not a big deal and are easily deleted, some are more intrusive, like Norton. I methodically went through and uninstalled any unwanted programs, attempting to get as close as possible to a clean Windows 11 installation as possible.SPEC HIGHLIGHTSAcer has installed the latest 12th generation Core i5 processor from Intel. It has a total of 12 Cores and 16 Threads. Because this is an Alder Lake based chip, it is divided into 2 sections, performance cores and economy cores. This chip, the Core i5-12500H, has 4 Performance Cores with Hyperthreading, and 8 Economy Cores without Hyperthreading. This is matched to an nVidia GTX 3050Ti graphics card with 4GB of GDDR6 VRAM The laptop contains 16GB of 3200MHz DDR4 RAM, along with a 512GB Micron 2400 NVMe SSD.Port selection includes: a full-size HDMI 2.1 port, 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Port, 1 Thunderbolt 4 Port, 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Ports, and a gigabit Ethernet port, along with the headphone/mic jack. The Nitro also includes Intel’s “Killer” Wi-Fi chipset featuring the latest 802.11ax (not 802.11axe) and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity.GAMINGLike all my gaming PC’s, my favorite go-to testing games are Forza and Call of Duty Warzone. While they probably aren’t the favorite of many users, I enjoy playing them. A nice break from the real world. Downloading Forza 5 was a handful. It measures in at a whopping 111GB. Wow!!! One game alone takes up over 20% of your available hard drive space. Once installed I ran the built-in benchmarking utility. The AI took over and ran a full 3 minute, visually demanding race. At the conclusion, it returned its recommended results of Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, and a visual setting at High. This combination returned an average of 72fps and was very smooth during playback. Hmmm. Not being content with “High”, I tweaked the settings to Ultra and re-ran the benchmarking utility. Ultra-settings returned and average of 41fps and things were no longer as smooth as I had hoped. Hmmm. I was hoping for more. OK, time to queue up the MSI Afterburner software to monitor the laptop in real-time and see what’s going on. MSI reported 100% CPU utilization with only a 31% GPU utilization. How could a laptop be this CPU bound? The limiting factor appears to be the 4GB of GDDR6 VRAM. With only 4GB on the card and 8GB shared (that is ½ the laptop’s total installed RAM), the CPU is playing over time filling up VRAM and swapping between VRAM and system DDR memory. The Nitro needs more VRAM on the graphics card. Forza frequently warned me of low graphics memory.Call of Duty Warzone played much better than Forza. Using the 2nd highest settings available (though downloading the texture packs), the laptop was running a consistent 120fps. Images were smooth and clear. Performance rarely dipped lower than 100fps even during some the most demanding scenes. However, making tweaks to improve details and objects, quickly took me past the available VRAM and into the shared RAM zone, prompting numerous warnings. One huge benefit is that MSI reported a very low CPU and GPU utilization rate. Both averaging somewhere in the mid-30% area. GREAT. Because of the low utilization fan speeds were kept low and were not obnoxious and loud like by 9th Gen Nitro is. A HUGE IMPROVEMENT!!COMPUTE POWERI have no complaints of laptop’s compute power and thermal management. Acer redesigned the cooling system of this laptop compared to my 9th Gen unit. The differences are impressive, and this laptop much more capable than my 9th Gen with less CPU resources. While it is loud at full fan speed, my 9th Gen Nitro is way louder and Acer should be commended on lowering the overall noise level of the Nitro line.The 12th Generation Intel processors have a lot to offer. They are vastly more powerful than their ancestors. My favorite way to test raw CPU power is using Handbrake and transcoding video. Thumbing through a folder of home videos, I found one that was 29:55 in length, which I had recorded in full HD (1920 x 1080) at 30fps and measured in at 2.9GB. I used Handbrake to transcode the video from 1080p to 480p / 30fps standard definition. Using only the CPU for transcoding, I set up Handbrake on 3 different machines to test performance. I compared this Nitro 5 to my 9th Gen Nitro 5 i5-9300H (Core i5 with 4 Cores and 8 Threads, and to a new HP Omen laptop with a Ryzen 7 5800H (8 Cores and 16 Threads). How much power does Intel’s new Alder Lake processors have? They embarrass the competition and their ancestors. The encode times are below:Nitro 5 (Core i5-12500H): Avg FPS: 130.8 Time: 6:56HP Omen (Ryzen 7-5800H): Avg FPS 82.7 Time: 10:52Nitro 5 (Core i5-9300H): Avg FPS: 43.7 Time: 20:32NEGATIVESThe most disappoint part of this laptop is the screen. For anything other than basic email and surfing, it stinks. It is only able to reproduce about 60% of the available color spectrum. Because of this, games and movies look dull and boring. Content creators need look elsewhere as the limited RGB range of the panel makes it unsuitable for this type of work. To be fair to Acer, what limited range of colors it can produce, it does so accurately, but there is just too much left on the table.Acer also let us down when it comes to the NVMe drive and system RAM. The NVMe drive is a Micron 2400. While it does support the latest Gen 4 interface, the overall drive performance is just average. The drive’s performance could be caused by the fact the drive quickly thermal throttles during testing. Benchmarking quickly shot temps to 70C, the upper limit on thermals, causing the drive to slow for self-preservation. None of my other drives exhibited the inability to shed heat like the Micron drive. The Micron NVMe drive couldn’t keep its cool even with the heat sinks built-in to the bottom of the Nitro 5’s case. By comparison, installing a Crucial P3 drive and stress testing it in this laptop netted a maximum temperature of 54C, well below max.The system RAM is my next complaint of the Nitro 5, especially when you compare it to the Nitro 5 available with the Ryzen processors. Why? Because the Nitro 5’s with Ryzen processors come with the latest DDR5 RAM. For whatever reason, Acer chose to give the Intel based Nitro 5’s DDR4 RAM. This is a significant mismatch, and this is now the only laptop I have with a 12th Gen processor and DDR4, all others have DDR5 and perform significantly better.Lastly is the pitiful battery life. I’m not sure what kind of luck other users are having with their Nitros, but I’m only getting about 2 hours of battery life. That 2 hours is best case, with a moderate screen brightness and just basic use like emails and surfing. I popped the back of the laptop off to look at the battery, and it looks like Acer combined 2 smaller batteries together into 1. There is a definite seam in the middle of the pack where there are no cells. These 2 small batteries can’t keep up with the power demands of the laptop and video card. Make sure you bring your charger.CONCLUSIONSThe Acer Nitro 5 represents a decent value for a gaming laptop. It is not without its faults, as no products are. Open one up and give it a go and you will immediately be able to tell where Acer cut corners to keep costs down. The display is average, at best, and the laptop feels considerably cheaper than many of its competitors. Quite honestly, if I were to sit this laptop next to my 9th generation, I would be hard pressed to tell any difference between the 2. If it wasn’t for the different keys on the keyboard (The new Nitro has 4 zone RGB lighting, the older Nitro has all red keys) I wouldn’t be able to tell a difference.Aside from the poor decision to use DDR4 RAM, Acer made the most of where it counts in a laptop. They packed in an impressively powerful CPU and GPU combo along with excellent Wi-Fi 6 performance. One nice thing about the Acer that can’t be said about many of its competitors is the upgradeability. The Nitro has room for a 2nd NVME drive and / or a 2nd 2.5” SATA drive as well as the ability to to swap out RAM for up to 32GB. Nice. I wish all laptops were this easily upgradeable. I’m looking at you Asus.The easiest way to defeat many of this laptop’s shortfalls is to just use it with a high-quality external display. That will eliminate many of the complaints with the machine and will give the user a markedly improved experience. Even so, I still give this laptop 4 stars and a recommended BUY rating. It strikes a decent compromise between price vs performance.RECOMMENDED

Replacing my old laptop and PS4

Have had my Nitro 5 i5-10300h for about half a year now. Upgraded to 16gb of RAM on day one (8gbx2... (Sorry guy that got BSOD)) and have to say im super happy with the display and performance. Has a second SSD storage slot, which is awesome, that I have yet to use. It runs current AAA games easily on high settings with some graphically demanding games (like Control) dropping to 35-40pfs but Star Wars: Fallen Order (same game engine as Control) runs a steady 60fps on my 1080p 60hz display.I was previously playing PS4 and gotta say its a step up when I use the hdmi to my TV and not going back except for exclusives.The only criticisms I have being an entry level /gaming laptop gamer/ is that the fans are rather loud when gaming, which is understandable for two fans ... MoreHave had my Nitro 5 i5-10300h for about half a year now. Upgraded to 16gb of RAM on day one (8gbx2... (Sorry guy that got BSOD)) and have to say im super happy with the display and performance. Has a second SSD storage slot, which is awesome, that I have yet to use. It runs current AAA games easily on high settings with some graphically demanding games (like Control) dropping to 35-40pfs but Star Wars: Fallen Order (same game engine as Control) runs a steady 60fps on my 1080p 60hz display.I was previously playing PS4 and gotta say its a step up when I use the hdmi to my TV and not going back except for exclusives.The only criticisms I have being an entry level /gaming laptop gamer/ is that the fans are rather loud when gaming, which is understandable for two fans close to 10000rpm, which is nice and keeps temps rather low for the i5 model. The other thing is that the plastic construction is somewhat flimsy though the texture and keyboard have a nice feel, though the screens are replace-able and with an option of a slight lower resolution 144hz display if you damage the original one is neat too.Over all, this laptop as a replacement for my previous 2 core 2.4ghz laptop. And to replace my PS4, i'm more than happy. I almost gave 4 stars but the upgradability and replaceable screens, and over all cost brought it back to 5 stars. Obviously isn't the laptop for the most demanding of super hardcore gamers / streamers needing the best possible machine. But for the price and capabilities with current games, im impressed. Speakers are,,, meh, okay, not amazing, but when are the ever for a laptop.

Solid laptop for gamers of all levels

For an affordable laptop that really packs a punch, look no further than the Acer Nitro 5. Whether it's for work or for play, the Nitro 5 stands out as your go-to machine to keep you productive and entertained.Aside from the red corners, the black shell isn't much to look at, but the overall build is nice and sturdy. It has a glossy finish, so unfortunately I already see lots of fingerprints gathering throughout the top lid. On the underside, four rubber grips give the machine a slight lift, to the benefit of the unit's dual fans. It's not the most portable of laptops, so be prepared to set up shop somewhere whenever you use it. Battery life is average, as gaming for long periods of time with optimal settings will really bleed it dry very quickly. The keys have a ... MoreFor an affordable laptop that really packs a punch, look no further than the Acer Nitro 5. Whether it's for work or for play, the Nitro 5 stands out as your go-to machine to keep you productive and entertained.Aside from the red corners, the black shell isn't much to look at, but the overall build is nice and sturdy. It has a glossy finish, so unfortunately I already see lots of fingerprints gathering throughout the top lid. On the underside, four rubber grips give the machine a slight lift, to the benefit of the unit's dual fans. It's not the most portable of laptops, so be prepared to set up shop somewhere whenever you use it. Battery life is average, as gaming for long periods of time with optimal settings will really bleed it dry very quickly. The keys have a soft, rubber feel to them, and some of the button positions need some familiarization, but overall it's a great layout that utilizes its space very well.Performance is top notch. With 16GB of RAM out of the box, the Nitro 5 can handle almost anything you throw at it. The processor itself isn't the most powerful, but multitasking between gaming, streaming, and working is seamless. Most games should run very smoothly with the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti, and on this full HD screen, they look bright and beautiful as well. One thing I think worth noting is the utilization of NitroSense on this machine, allowing you to monitor and adjust your CPU temperatures, fan speeds, and power, as well as letting you customize your keyboard lighting effects among other things. The Nitro 5 runs games well and reliably; it's really that simple.Overall, the Acer Nitro 5 stands out for its reliability, power, and great performance. Highly recommended for serious and casual gamers alike.

Very Nice Gaming Laptop, Also Excels as Office PC

Laptop shopping nowadays comes down to making sure the system you are buying has the components and configuration that will best suit how the laptop will be used. For example, more cores in the CPU means more applications can run simultaneously (and switching between them is more seamless), more memory means components can talk to each other more efficiently (this also helps with gaming), and dedicated graphics (instead of integrated graphics) means all the calculation-intense graphics are handled by a dedicated processing unit (GPU) and dedicated RAM (instead of sharing with the system’s main CPU and RAM). Then there are all the other considerations like ports, screen size and resolution, battery life, weight, keyboard and track pad, etc. Clearly, a system for ... MoreLaptop shopping nowadays comes down to making sure the system you are buying has the components and configuration that will best suit how the laptop will be used. For example, more cores in the CPU means more applications can run simultaneously (and switching between them is more seamless), more memory means components can talk to each other more efficiently (this also helps with gaming), and dedicated graphics (instead of integrated graphics) means all the calculation-intense graphics are handled by a dedicated processing unit (GPU) and dedicated RAM (instead of sharing with the system’s main CPU and RAM). Then there are all the other considerations like ports, screen size and resolution, battery life, weight, keyboard and track pad, etc. Clearly, a system for gaming may not be good for general office computing and vice-versa. However, there is no exception that a good or great gaming laptop must have a dedicated GPU, and that GPU should also be equipped with a good amount of dedicated RAM for the GPU. Skimp too much on this one feature for a gaming system and you’re certain to be disappointed.So where does the Acer Nitro 5 stand? The Nitro 5 is marketed as a gaming laptop, but offers more performance than just gaming. A 12th gen Intel i5 CPU (12 cores and 3.1 GHz speed) powers the system. With this number of cores, a lot of applications can run well simultaneously. Next is the 16GB of onboard memory, which makes those processes work efficiently and helps boost frame rates for gaming. Finally, there is the dedicated Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card with 4GB of dedicated RAM, which delivers great performance for moderate gaming, ample performance for advanced gaming, and great performance for video editing. Couple this with the 512 GB SSD, (4) USB ports (1 of which is USB-C / Thunderbolt and 1 of which offers power-off charging), an HDMI out, a headphone jack, and an ethernet jack, and this is one value-packed laptop.Gaming performance, whether it’s a desktop or laptop, will differ based on the game and the system you’re playing it on. In order to enjoy some of the most stunning graphics with the highest frame rates and without stutter—well, you may need to sink some major bucks into the dedicated GPU. The Nitro 5 has a very impressive price / performance balanced GPU in the RTX 3050 Ti, so you can play just about every game out there, but perhaps not at the highest resolution and highest frame rates. However, I did not run across a game I couldn’t play at least at moderate resolution and very acceptable frame rates, without stutter (most of the games I’m playing are racing games). Some of the racing games have dynamic resolution scaling, which helps, too.Besides gaming, I also tried this laptop with general office computing and video editing / processing for the heck of it. Video editing / processing uses the GPU in many similar ways as gaming, but gaming does tax the GPU much more at higher graphics settings, especially in some of the newer games. For video processing, I evaluated two other laptops in comparison to the Nitro 5 for mp4 to mkv video conversion using Handbrake and a one-hour 1080p video. This comparison showcases how different laptop configurations affects performance and why choosing the right specs makes a big difference. Laptop 1 is a 10th gen i7 (4 cores) with 16GB memory and integrated graphics. This laptop averaged 33 frames per second (FPS) during the conversion and the process took nearly one hour. Laptop 2 is a Ryzen 5500U (6 cores) with 8GB memory and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX450 graphics card (a low-end dedicated GPU). This laptop averaged 70 FPS during the conversion and took about 25 minutes—a marked improvement over laptop 1. The Nitro 5 completed the task in 10 minutes at an average of 133 FPS. Wow, what a difference!General computing applications like Microsoft Office ran very smoothly, and even calculation-intense applications like Minitab and Tableau were very responsive. The fans are mostly whisper quiet with general computing, but do get a bit noisier when the GPU is working hard. Within the NitroSense app (which can be quickly launched with a dedicated hotkey on the keyboard), I took the fans up to the maximum 7500 RPM and it was quite loud, but also understood the fans will rarely run at this speed.The screen offers Full HD and a 144Hz refresh rate, which was appreciated while gaming. Nothing stinks more than having a great GPU paired with a really poor screen. While the screen is acceptably bright and crisp, it does not offer the exceptional brightness and crispness of an OLED or QLED screen. However, at this price point, you’re not going to get everything. The screen is fine.I did appreciate the customization of the keyboard lighting within NitroSense (many colors to choose from), but that customization only takes effect once Windows is fully up and running. The default red keyboard lighting (which is also part of the boot sequence) makes me feel like I’m piloting a Klingon Bird of Prey. Cool for looks, but a bit annoying on the eyes. There are four “zones” on the keyboard, and each can be their own color, if you like. The keyboard does have good feel, and for gamers, important keys have a distinct outline for easy and quick identification. The trackpad is an ample size and works well. The camera, although only 720p, is adequate for video conferencing. The audio is definitely nice for a laptop—crisp, rich, and with decent bass. It compliments well for gaming.The Nitro 5 is bulky and quite heavy, and the power supply is large. In addition, the laptop looks a bit retro with its larger screen bezel. The laptop ships with a SATA hard drive expansion cable and fasteners. This is likely because the stock 512GB SSD will not hold as many games as some might like (this is the biggest limiter to this laptop), and there is a free expansion bay for a SATA drive. The memory slots (2) can each hold up to 16GB, but the laptop comes with (2) 8GB bars, so the memory can be expanded but you’ll need to replace both memory bars. Lastly, with general computing, battery life was just about 4 hours. With graphics processing and moderate gaming, that life dropped to just over 2 hours, so portability is not the greatest. For general computing the laptop runs nice and cool, but when the GPU is being taxed for gaming and video processing, the laptop can get a bit hot to be sitting on your lap.Overall, I think the Nitro 5 offers a really good option for gamers on a budget. In addition, the laptop is more than decent as a general office use laptop. The large number of cores in the CPU, ample memory, and value-packed dedicated graphics card allow this flexibility. The biggest limitation is the hard drive size, but there is room for expansion (and the cables / fasteners are included).

You’ve read the specs, now see how to REALLY runs.

tl;dr It runs great!Acer thought about what people really want with a budget priced gaming machine. They still want good graphics - Check. They still want a color changing keyboard - Check. They still want a fast display - Check. They’re just not looking for a high price - Check! What are you giving up with a budget gaming laptop? Storage space, speed.Acer started with NVidia’s discrete graphics and 4GB of dedicated memory. They added a 12th Gen i5 and 16GB of RAM. The main board supports NVMe Gen 4 and includes a 512GB SSD stick which gets up to 5Gb/s read speed, 40% faster than the max Gen 3 speed of 3.5Gb/s. The drive is about as fast as you can get on a consumer device these days. In testing with a couple of benchmark apps, the promised speed was born ... Moretl;dr It runs great!Acer thought about what people really want with a budget priced gaming machine. They still want good graphics - Check. They still want a color changing keyboard - Check. They still want a fast display - Check. They’re just not looking for a high price - Check! What are you giving up with a budget gaming laptop? Storage space, speed.Acer started with NVidia’s discrete graphics and 4GB of dedicated memory. They added a 12th Gen i5 and 16GB of RAM. The main board supports NVMe Gen 4 and includes a 512GB SSD stick which gets up to 5Gb/s read speed, 40% faster than the max Gen 3 speed of 3.5Gb/s. The drive is about as fast as you can get on a consumer device these days. In testing with a couple of benchmark apps, the promised speed was born out.Do you need the storage? There’s room to expand inside the cover. Either a 2nd SSD, a 2.5” hard drive, or both can be added to the base unit. Acer included a laptop hard drive cable and space inside the case for it. Without expansion, the included drive can only hold 3-4 games. For those games that it holds, the play is nice and fast. On Forza, I was able to get 70+ FPS on high graphics vs 38 FPS using my friend’s Dell G15, which has only Gen 3 drive support. My friend’s machine has an i7 processor and the same graphics processor, so it seems like the storage drive may be the difference.Upgrades are fairly straightforward. There are a lot of screws on the bottom of the case to keep everything solidly in place. However, they’re all about the same size and none are hidden under feet or stickers like I’ve found on some ASUS machines. I found a small wedge was useful when popping the case open after loosening the many, small phillips head screws. Both the memory and storage were easily accessible without taking out any other components. If you need to go beyond the purchased specs, you can do so without having to replace all that you’ve invested in.I have a Razor docking station which supports Thunderbolt 4 which meant I could charge the laptop at the same rate as the native charger while also playing on my larger screen…all through the same cable. My mouse and keyboard were driven off the docking station as well leaving me with a single cable connection to turn the laptop into a desktop machine!When not connected to the dock, the built in keyboard is very comfortable in addition to having some nice color changing customization. There’s enough key travel to make it feel close to a desktop keyboard, but you still know it’s a laptop. The key caps are soft which makes it comfortable to use for long periods of time.Overall, this is a great machine for those looking for an affordable option to play a few games with room to grow in the future.