Acer Introduces the Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop for Budget-minded Gamers

[Raevenlord]

In a bid to increase options for budget-minded gamers, Acer has introduced the Nitro 5 gaming laptop, whose wealth of configurations start at a respectable $800. Choosing any kind of gaming-focused laptop over building your own desktop will always look like bad business, but how much one values mobility mays edge the decision towards one side or the other.

Specs-wise, it's a mix of respectable with the bare minimum: it features a 15.6-inch FHD IPS display, up to 32 GB of DDR4 2400 MHz memory, and is available in configurations featuring Intel's Core i5 or Core i7 processors paired with an NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti graphics card, or your choice of an AMD 7th-gen A-series FX, A12 or A10 APUs, paired a Radeon RX550 GPU. Some models will include PCIe SSDs (up to 512GB) with up to 2TB of optional HDD storage. Ports include 1x Gigabit Ethernet, 1x USB 3.1 Type-C, 1x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0 ports, and 1x HDMI output. The Nitro 5 also supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi with a 2x2 MIMO antenna. The Nitro 5 will be available in North America starting July 1. Acer did not release detailed pricing, so there's no idea of what the $800 configuration will net you spec-wise (though an AMD and RX 550 are pretty much guaranteed). The Nitro 5 will also be available in the EMEA in August, starting at a much less interesting €1,139.



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[plåtburken]

I don't think this AMD laptop is any good.
If it's as the specs say.
I have seen the Asus laptop with FX 9830P and RX460 and played around with it. Nothing remarkable and the laptop did heat up very badly.

 

[techy1]

RX 550 is a winner for laptops (cheap as dirt and can run pretty much anything on 1080 @ 60fps)... tough I just bought lenovo y520 that sells new for sub 900$ with gtx 1050 (not TI) - perfect evwery AAA title maxed out 1080 @60fps all day long (if you are not stupid and know what different games AntiAliasing methods use - and adjust those accordingly)... if I wanted to buy a laptop with similar power just 1-2 years ago - I would need to buy some overpriced, oversized laptop with gtx 970M for 2000$+ that is starting price - without even a single sata ssd (and I did want to buy that - so I remember it clearly)...

 

[Disparia]

I remember that, was really hard to find a laptop in the configuration I wanted. Too many compromises or too expensive. Luckily I received a new ultrabook from work instead. Has Intel IGP, but that's an acceptable compromise when it's free.

At some point I'd like a personal laptop though. The Nitro 5 is a potential candidate, I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[MaMoo]

I don't think this AMD laptop is any good.
If it's as the specs say.
I have seen the Asus laptop with FX 9830P and RX460 and played around with it. Nothing remarkable and the laptop did heat up very badly.

All my Intel/Nvidia-based laptops heat up badly too (~avg 90-97 degrees Celsius CPU under full load). I'm sure it is a nature of the 45W TDP CPU + 45-80W TDP GPU that gets hot regardless of who is making the 45W TDP CPU or 45-80W TDP GPU. All these gaming laptops comes with heatsinks and chassis designed for a certain maximum TDP, you plop in whatever fills that number, Intel/AMD/Nvidia.

 

[plåtburken]

All my Intel/Nvidia-based laptops heat up badly too (~avg 90-97 degrees Celsius CPU under full load). I'm sure it is a nature of the 45W TDP CPU + 45-80W TDP GPU that gets hot regardless of who is making the 45W TDP CPU or 45-80W TDP GPU. All these gaming laptops comes with heatsinks and chassis designed for a certain maximum TDP, you plop in whatever fills that number, Intel/AMD/Nvidia.

Interesting, my aero 14 with i7 6700hq and gtx1060 never reach such temperatures.
Max I have seen it go up, is cpu@77c and gpu@73c and that's running with everything on max and playing BF1

 

[Manu_PT]

You should always undervolt these CPUs. 7700HQ comes with a really high voltage for no reason, I can drop 100mv at least on every laptop I tested. On some 130mv is possible. And the temps drop 10ºC on full load

 

[Tatty_Two]

This is a news piece about a laptop and not a help thread, any individualised advice laptop owners want should be taken to the forums..... thank you.

 

[jabbadap]

Acer, are they any good now-a-days? Last one I had was crappy plastic toy, which overheated a lot and were a bit noisy. But starting at 1139€, plah notebooks with gtx1060 starts from 1190€ even 6GB versions...

 

[Readlight]

My poor friend had cheapest Acer a car drive on his bike he felt and srean cracked it had extra waranty but shop dont wanted to repair he needed to by srean in ebay and now he has spend 700 euro for that cheapest acer shit.

 

[MaMoo]

Interesting, my aero 14 with i7 6700hq and gtx1060 never reach such temperatures.
Max I have seen it go up, is cpu@77c and gpu@73c and that's running with everything on max and playing BF1

I use a consistent methodology for testing, similar to Notebookcheck, who reviewed essentially your rig but with a 7700 instead of thr 6700 (same TDP).

See here, scroll to the mid bottom for the stress load temp picture. You can see that max CPU temps are about 100 degrees Celsius.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Gigabyte-Aero-14-7700HQ-GTX-1060-Laptop-Review.211666.0.html

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

If acer were to make a 14 inch variant, with just the AMD APU (no dGPU) i'd buy it. of a 14 inch dual core i7+1050ti. We have enough 15.6 inch models.

 

[MaMoo]

Acer, are they any good now-a-days? Last one I had was crappy plastic toy, which overheated a lot and were a bit noisy. But starting at 1139€, plah notebooks with gtx1060 starts from 1190€ even 6GB versions...

Still plasticky. But cheap... These plastic chassis fall apart with regular transport over a few years but may stay intact if you use them as desktop replacements.

 

[Melvis]

This looks alot like my Lenovo Y700

 

[jabbadap]

Still plasticky. But cheap... These plastic chassis fall apart with regular transport over a few years but may stay intact if you use them as desktop replacements.

yeah so I'm keep staying away from those.