Acer has refreshed the popular Nitro 5 gaming laptop with AMD’s Ryzen 4000 processors,
so just how well does it perform in games?
I’ve tested out the GTX 1650 config in 22 titles and compared it with other laptops
to find out the difference.
Microsoft flight simulator was a no go at high end and ultra settings, though 30 FPS
or so at medium seems usable, while the low-end setting preset was able to boost this a fair
bit to a whopping 50 frames per second.
This is only the second time I’ve tested death stranding, the first time was on a 2070
so quite a big difference here.
In any case it was still running around 60 FPS with the default setting preset which
looks pretty decent.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using the game’s built in benchmark tool, it’s not
possible to run at ultra settings due to the 4 gig VRAM limit of the GTX 1650 graphics,
otherwise even with the low setting preset we’re under 50 FPS, this is a resource heavy
test.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode, it was just under 60 FPS at high settings,
I wouldn’t want to go with ultra here due to the big drop in 1% low performance, but
no problems with lower levels.
I’ll compare the Nitro against other laptops in this game soon.
Control was tested with RTX disabled as we’ve just got GTX hardware here.
I don’t think this one needs a super high frame rate to play, it felt alright at medium
for the most part, but the low preset was needed to maintain above 60 FPS.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, medium settings was
just below 60 FPS, but we could surpass this a fair bit if you’re willing to run at lower
levels, this is another title I’ll use to compare on other laptops shortly.
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 playing well maxed out, even the 1% low is near the screen’s refresh rate, but
there were big gains to be had at lower settings.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare was tested in campaign mode with either max or min settings
for the same reason.
This time with all settings at minimum we’re only just able to hit 60 FPS.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and as a less demanding game even the highest
settings were above 60 FPS here.
High settings pushed even the 1% low above the screen’s refresh rate, then much higher
is possible at lower levels.
CS:GO was tested with the ulletical FPS benchmark, I mean this game runs on basically anything
so the frame rates are far above acceptable, especially given the 60Hz screen and the 1%
lows not being far off 60.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane with bots, and despite the lower specs compared
to most other laptops I’ve recently tested, the frame rate isn’t that much lower, even
at max settings the 1% low is above the screen’s refresh rate.
Overwatch was tested running through the practice range.
This is another less demanding esports title, even the highest epic setting preset had 1%
lows above 60, so no problems at all.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark using Vulkan, again 1% lows above
what the screen is able to display with averages surpassing 100 FPS.
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 that can be compared
against my other data.
The Division 2 was also tested with the built in benchmark and is fairly resource heavy
too.
Medium settings were needed to pass 60 FPS in this test, though low was hitting a higher
1% low than even the average at medium if you really want to prioritize frame rate.
Monster Hunter World was tested running through the main town.
Mid settings were around that 60 FPS point, and the 1% lows aren’t that far behind the
averages, which means more consistent results.
Borderlands 3 was tested using the game’s built in benchmark, and like many of the other
more demanding games, medium settings were required for that 60 FPS sweet spot.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint was also tested with the benchmark tool, VRAM limits were being
hit at the higher levels, hence the lower results, and again the medium preset was right
on 60 FPS.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is another that was tested with the games benchmark, and yet
again 60 FPS at medium settings.
The Witcher 3 was playing well at high settings, which sees a fairly big jump up from ultra
without looking too different in visual quality in my opinion.
F1 2019 was tested with the benchmark tool and sees similar behaviour, a nice jump dropping
down just one level from max, though that said even at max settings the 1% low is higher
than the screen’s refresh rate.
Far Cry New Dawn was also tested with the games benchmark, not that big of a difference
between the presets, and high settings was still above 60 FPS.
Now let’s take a look at how the Ryzen based Nitro 5 compares against other laptops, use
these results as a rough guide only, as they were tested at different times with different
drivers.
I’ve tested Battlefield 5 in campaign mode at ultra settings, and the Nitro 5 is highlighted
in red.
In this test it’s the lowest result I’ve got for a GTX 1650 laptop so far, not counting
the lower powered Max-Q options of course.
Intel still seems to have a bit of an edge when it comes to gaming for the most part,
so that’s not too surprising as the other 1650 laptops are Intel based, at the same
time though it’s very close to the Aorus 5 with 9th gen i7.
These are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark.
The Nitro 5 moves up a few places this time, and is now the best 1650 result out of the
machines I’ve got data for.
This test is generally more CPU reliant, but in say Cinebench I get similar scores on the
4600H to those 9th gen i7s, it could be the faster DDR4-3200 memory helping the Nitro
along.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was also tested with the games benchmark tool with the highest
setting preset.
Again the Nitro 5 was offering the best result out of the 1650 laptops I’ve tested, and
was just a couple of FPS behind the 1650 Ti in the Lenovo IdeaPad gaming 3 just above
it - review on that one coming soon.
In many games we needed medium settings to hit that 60 FPS sweet spot, which is something
I’ve noticed when testing GTX 1650 laptops in the past.
It of course depends on the game, esports titles for instance do much better, but for
say AAA games for a good experience you’ll need to sacrifice some graphical settings,
or otherwise instead consider a 1660 Ti option.
Unfortunately the Nitro doesn’t offer FreeSync like many other Ryzen gaming laptops, and
as a 60Hz panel the tearing was noticeable.
Here are the screen response time results for the 1080p 60Hz panel in the Nitro 5.
The average grey-to-grey response time was around 23ms, so not great.
Ideally you want 16.66ms for a 60Hz panel like this.
I’ve got a link in the description explaining what all of these numbers mean.
I haven’t had too many 60Hz laptops in for testing since buying the tools to measure
response time, the only other gaming laptop I’ve got to compare with is the Dell G5
special edition which is only just slightly below it.
I hope this has been useful, I wasn’t able to get this laptop in Australia so I had to
buy it and ship it over from the US with my own money.
Shout out to the Patreon members who help me cover popular models like this that you
all want to see, I’ll leave a link in the description if you want to join us in discord
or check out some behind the scenes videos.
Anyway let me know what you thought of the Nitro 5 gaming performance down in the comments,
and if you’re new then again definitely get subscribed for the upcoming full review
video where I’ll show you absolutely everything about this laptop.