AFFORDABLE GAMING laptops (and we use
the word ‘affordable’ loosely here) are a
tricky proposition. Of course, you could
spend upwards of $3,000 on a high-end
laptop with a powerhouse GPU and a
4K screen, but plenty of gamers want
a desktop alternative that won’t break
the bank. Unfortunately, many of these
laptops have, over the years, struggled to
perform well enough to justify their price
tags, with GPUs like the GTX 1650 and now
the RTX 3050 just not quite measuring up.
Thank goodness, then, for the GeForce
RTX 3060. It’s the perfect budget GPU,
balancing top-notch 1080p performance
with relatively low power consumption
and a sensible price—assuming you can
get one at RRP. This is the graphics card
at the heart of Acer’s latest Nitro 5 laptop,
a capable and flexible gaming machine
priced at a wallet-friendly $1,129. There
are cheaper (and more expensive) Nitro 5
models available, but our review unit sits
in the middle of the bunch.
Joining the RTX 3060 is a Ryzen
processor, the 5800H, a departure from
the Intel chips more commonly found in
Acer’s gaming laptops. It’s backed up by
16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 512GB SSD. It’s
all par for the course; there aren’t any
components or features here that we
would be surprised to see in a budget
gaming laptop, from the pedestrian
selection of ports to the 1080p screen.
Portable performance on a budget
Acer Nitro 5
7
VERDICT Acer Nitro 5 AN515NITROUS OXIDE Very
reasonable price tag; RTX 3060
performs well; runs quiet and cool.
CARBON MONOXIDE Screen is bland;
underwhelming drive speed; battery life
should be better.
$1,129, acer.comSPECIFICATIONSCPU AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
Graphics Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
RAM 16GB DDR4 @ 3200MHz
Screen 17.3-inch 1080p LCD IPS
screen @ 144Hz
Storage 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD
Ports
1x 3.5mm Combo Audio
Jack, 1x HDMI, 2x USB 3.2
Gen 1 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2
Gen 2 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2
Gen 2 Type-C, 1x RJ45
Connectivity Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Weight 5.95lbs
Size 15.9 x 11.0 x 0.98 inchesFortunately, it works together rather
well. Gaming performance at 1080p
is solid in just about every game, only
dipping below 60 frames per second at
maximum graphical settings in the most
demanding titles. Ray-tracing is an option
for those who want it, with DLSS serving
to provide more stable performance
while RTX features are enabled. The
CPU is also strong, with excellent
performance in multicore workloads and
plenty of oomph for CPU-bound games.
Thermals were impressive too, with the
laptop not feeling hot to the touch, even
after stress testing, and the dual fans
rarely making much noise.
The only area of our benchmarking
process where the Nitro 5 fell down was
the SSD speed test. Sequential read
speeds sat at a respectable 2.5GB/s, but
write speeds languished barely above
650MB/s, far lower than we’d expect from
an M.2 drive. It’s not likely to cause any
massive issues but we were surprised
at how slow it was considering that SSD
speeds on gaming laptops are typically
measured in the gigabytes.
There are other problems elsewhere,
but nothing that compelled us to judge
this Nitro 5 too harshly; it still has the
same bog-standard 1080p LCD panel
found on other Nitro 5 models, which is
a little dim and doesn’t have particularly
great color reproduction, but still brings
a 144Hz refresh rate, which is arguably
more important for gaming. The screen
bezel is a bit chunky for our liking, too,
and the black plastic of the chassis is a
fingerprint magnet.The keyboard feels good to use for
both typing and gaming, with only a little
noticeable flex on firm keypresses. Our
review model comes with four-zone
RGB backlighting, which is an optional
extra (the standard model has red LED
backlights). The trackpad is decent
too, with a satisfying click and smooth
surface. The speakers are nothing special
and we’d recommend using a headset, but
they’re good enough for this price point.
Our big bone of contention with this
Nitro 5 is the battery life. Gaming laptops
aren’t known for their battery longevity,
but the Nitro 5’s 53Whr battery simply
doesn’t hold up to extended use. If you’re
doing intensive work on the go, don’t
expect to get much more than a couple of
hours out of this machine, unless you’re
running it on maximum eco settings.
This laptop won’t set the world on
fire but it does offer a fantastic price-to-
performance ratio that isn’t matched by
the majority of budget gaming laptops
on the market. For a first laptop, a cash-
strapped student, or a gaming machine to
get your kid off the family PC, the Nitro 5
is a solid choice. –CHRISTIAN GUYTONOur gaming laptop zero-point is the Acer Predator Triton 500, with an Intel Core i7-8750H, Nvidia GeForce RTX
2060 Max-Q, and 16GB of DDR4-2666. All game tests are performed at 1080p at the highest graphical profile.BENCHMARKS
ZERO-
POINT
Cinebench R15 Multi (Index) 1,030 2,017 (96%)
CrystalDisk QD32
Sequential Read (MB/s) 3,374 2,369 (-30%)
CrystalDisk QD32
Sequential Write (MB/s) 2,530^652 (-74%)
3DMark: Fire Strike (Index) 13,610 17,524 (29%)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (fps) 92 117 (27%)
Total War: Warhammer II (fps) 62 93 (50%)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon:
Wildlands (fps)^49 65 (33%)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%JUN 2022 MAXIMU MPC 81