The Acer Nitro 5 is a popular gaming laptop as it’s available with some decent specs,
so just how well does it perform in games? I’ve tested 20 games at all setting levels
to show you how it runs, and we’ll also compare it against other gaming laptops to
show you the differences.
Just quickly before we jump into the benchmark results I’ll cover off the specs in my unit.
I’ve got the highest specced option, so there’s an Intel i7-9750H CPU, Nvidia GTX
1660 Ti graphics, and 16gb of memory running in dual channel. The Nitro 5 is also available
with different specs, so expect different results with different configurations. You
can find examples and updated prices linked in the description.
The Nitro Sense software only allows us to boost fan speed, there’s nothing to change
to otherwise boost performance.
We’ll only be covering gaming performance in this video, so if you’re new to the channel,
you'll definitely want to get subscribed for the upcoming thermal testing and full review.
Let’s start out by going through all 20 games at all setting levels, then afterwards
we’ll see how the Acer Nitro 5 compares with some other laptops.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode, and it was playing well at ultra settings,
still above 60 FPS even for the 1% low result, with much higher average frame rates possible
at lower settings, but we’ll see how this game compares with other laptops soon.
Battlefield 1 was also tested in campaign mode, and like always it’s running well
and performing better than the newer Battlefield 5 just shown, over 100 FPS averages at max
settings, though I found the 1% low results inconsistent.
Apex Legends was tested with either all settings at maximum, or all settings on the lowest
possible values, as it doesn’t have predefined setting presets. It was playable at max settings,
but we could boost average FPS by 46% at minimum settings. An Nvidia driver update came out
while I was in the middle of testing that improves performance of this game though.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was also tested with the built in benchmark, and even at maximum
settings we’re still able to average 70 FPS, which is a fair result for these specs,
and we’ll see how this game stacks up against other laptops soon.
Far Cry New Dawn was tested with the built in benchmark, there’s not really much to
note except the 1% low and average at ultra settings were a little lower than expected
for this level of hardware, around 10 FPS lower for 1% low than the Lenovo Y540 with
same specs for instance.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and the results were ahead of the
newer Far Cry New Dawn just covered, and we’ll see how this one compares to some other laptops
later.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and even maxed out at epic settings we’re
still able to average above 100 FPS, so it’s still playing well without compromise, with
well above 200 FPS reached at lower settings.
Overwatch is another well optimized game and was tested in the practice range, again great
performance, even maxed out at epic settings the 1% low was easily surpassing 100 FPS,
absolutely no issues at all running this game.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and as is pretty much always the case high
FPS from this test. The results aren’t too different from other machines I’ve recently
tested with similar specs, above 200 FPS even with all settings maxed out seems to be a
fair result.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark. Even with maximum ultra settings
we’re still close to 100 FPS even for the 1% low with a 100% render scale, so again
high frame rates without any issues here.
Metro Exodus was tested using the built in benchmark, most parts of the game perform
a fair bit better than this, so don’t take these results as a good indication of what
to expect throughout the entire game, it’s more of a worst case but does let you perform
the same test to compare against.
The Division 2 was also tested with the built in benchmark. This test was still able to
average around 60 FPS, and unlike other machines I’ve tested the 1% low wasn’t too far
behind, however I think a recent Nvidia driver boosted performance of this game so it’s
hard to compare with my past results.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and while ultra settings were a little lower
than most other laptops I test, the rest of the results are quite high. I’ve noticed
this change over the last few machines I’ve tested, so I’m not sure if it was an update
to the game that resulted in higher FPS at lower settings.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark and seems to be a CPU
heavy test, so as a result the frame rates aren’t that different from others I’ve
tested. When I compare with the Y540 with same specs the averages here are a little
ahead while 1% lows are a little behind, but it varies, either way quite close for the
most part.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane with an average amount of action going on,
and the results were quite good here, with above 200 FPS at low settings and still around
170 at ultra without any issues that I was able to notice.
Watch Dogs 2 uses a lot of resources, however I can play it just fine with a stable 30 FPS,
and as we’re seeing higher than this even for the 1% low at ultra settings it was playing
just fine for me regardless of setting level.
Ghost Recon Wildlands is another resource intensive game and was tested with the built
in benchmark. Generally we need quite powerful laptops to hit 60 FPS in this test at ultra,
but we’re still able to hit this with very high settings without issue.
The Witcher 3 was playable at ultra settings, it still played quite well, the 1% low wasn’t
too far behind the 60 FPS sweet spot, while high settings and below took us to over 100
FPS for the averages.
DOOM was tested using Vulkan, and is a game that pretty much always runs quite well on
modern hardware. Even with ultra settings I was getting 140 FPS averages with easily
over 100 for the 1% low, absolutely no issues here at all.
Strange Brigade was another game that was tested with Vulkan but was tested with the
built in benchmark, and is another test that generally sees high frame rates, though like
Apex the recent Nvidia driver update apparently boosts this game up further, but I have not
tested that here.
Let’s also take a look at how this config of the Acer Nitro 5 compares with other laptops
to see how it stacks up, use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested
at different times with different drivers.
In Battlefield 5 I’ve got the Nitro 5 highlighted in red near similarly specced machines. It’s
right in line with the Lenovo Y540 with same specs, but behind Acer’s own Helios 300
due to the modifications that has out of the box, while include CPU undervolt, boosted
CPU power limit and GPU overclock.
These are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark.
Again the results are quite close to the Y540, just a couple of FPS behind. As a CPU heavy
test it seems to just be ahead of the ASUS Scar II with RTX 2060, my guess is due to
the 9th gen CPU in the Nitro 5, however the Helios 300 is still ahead with same specs,
again due to those customizations Acer give it out of the box.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings. This time the Nitro 5 was coming out ahead of the Y540 with same specs, and
was performing the same as the Scar II with RTX 2060. It’s only just a few FPS behind
the Helios 300 with same specs in this test, so a pretty good result comparatively.
Overall the Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop is performing pretty well here, the i7-9750H
and GTX 1660 Ti make for a great combination and can play pretty much any modern game even
with higher settings. It’s not without its issues though, as you’ll see in the upcoming
thermal testing video, if I leave the fans at auto speed instead of boosting them there
was some thermal throttling taking place that lowers performance, but I’ll cover that
in detail in the next Nitro 5 video.
Let me know what you thought of the gaming performance from the new 2019 config of the
Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop down in the comments, and if you’re new to the channel you’ll
definitely want to get subscribed for the full review to see everything this machine
has to offer.