Due to the shortage of chips and the almost impossible task of buying a desktop video card, gaming laptops have become more than just an alternative: in some cases, they are the most viable option to access next-generation GPUs.
content
sober design
High performance
Conclusion: an alternative to the lack of GPU?But how good are NVIDIA’s RTX 30 chips for laptops? To find out for sure, we tested the Acer Nitro 5, a computer designed for high-performance tasks like gaming. After two weeks of use, it is clear that, in the absence of desktop cards, laptop cards are an option.
High performance
The important thing in a laptop like this is the performance it can offer. The Acer Nitro 5 in this article is powered by an Intel Core i7-10750H six-core, 12-thread processor clocked at 2.6 GHz. The video card is an NVIDIA RTX 3060, and the RAM is 16 GB; meanwhile, the storage is a 512 GB SSD drive.
By specifications, the Acer Nitro 5 is not short. However, not all games are equally demanding, and laptop chips are always a bit behind their desktop counterparts; the only way to get rid of doubts is to install games and see how they behave.
Control.
First on the list was Control. This title went on sale in 2019, and today it is still a kind of benchmark, being one of the most demanding on the market (without going any further, it barely worked on previous generation consoles). It is essential to mention that the RTX 3060 is compatible with NVIDIA DLSS technology, which titles like this take much advantage from.
Control is generally displayed in the range of 70-80 frames per second with high-quality graphics, ray tracing enabled, and DLSS with a base resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels. This game is very well optimized with DLSS since the loss of sharpness compared to the native resolution is negligible, and the gain in frames per second is significant; without DLSS, the game moves in the range of 48 and 60 frames per second.
Next up was Cyberpunk 2077, a controversial game upon its release. It has several DLSS profiles, but to gain frames per second, I set the performance profile and ray tracing to medium quality; thus, indoors, it reached 70 frames per second, while outdoors or in the open field, the game reaches 50-55 frames per second on average.
In any case, Cyberpunk 2077 brings a large number of graphic adjustments, so these numbers are not closed but will depend on how everything is configured. However, I am left with the impression that the loss of image quality when activating DLSS is much more noticeable than in Control.
The Medium was a bit of a strange case. This recent game graphically doesn’t look as impressive as Control or Cyberpunk 2077. And yet, with DLSS turned on in performance profile, ray tracing, and quality settings maxed out, the game barely reached the 50-55 frame range. Per second. Also, stuttering was a constant problem; Everything seemed to indicate that it was about the game’s optimization.
These four titles are a small sample of products that differ from each other but give good performance and take advantage of NVIDIA’s DLSS options. You could gain some numbers in the frame rate per second by reducing graphical options that do not prevent games from looking good.
And finally, in the synthetic tests of the Cinebench software, the team reached 7,645 points in multi-core tests and 1,172 in single-core tests.
On less measurable but equally demanding issues, the team had no problem with tasks like streaming live video or encoding video files using Handbrake. The Acer Nitro 5 held up very well when loading OBS with various input sources and outputting all of that to a service like YouTube.
Of course, the fan generates quite a bit of noise, but this is not a silent work-oriented computer or anything like that; for that, there are other ranges. Similarly, the temperature was never a problem in all the tests I ran with games and other tasks.
Problem and always remained within the usual standards for a laptop in this segment.
sober design
Before talking about performance as such, it is good to make a few mentions of the aesthetic part. One of the “problems” laptops of this type had a few years ago was that their presentation was far from being frugal: they were all full of lights and details that made them unattractive for users who perhaps did not want to show a device full of colors—neon in a serious meeting.
Acer Nitro is a sober team without too outlandish elements beyond the keyboard lights. Plus, it’s thin and light but has enough room to accommodate a number pad on the right side.
Acer Nitro 5
The screen is 15.6 inches, at 144 Hz and 1,920 x 1,080 pixels of resolution. The panel looks good in general, although its significant advantage over any monitor is only the refresh rate; for everything else, the best thing to have it on the desktop will be to use a second screen.
This laptop includes all the standard ports and is only missing a fourth USB port. These devices are made to be practical, and in that sense, the presence of traditional ethernet, HDMI output, and 3.5-millimeter headphone port is always appreciated.
In summary, the exterior of the Acer Nitro 5 is very functional and without much fanfare beyond the keyboard lights.
Finale
In short, equipment like this Acer Nitro 5 is a perfect option for these times when a high-end video card can cost as much as a complete laptop. Just don’t forget one of the most significant limitations of laptops: they are not upgradeable beyond specific components. In this case, this equipment will be tied for its entire useful life to the Core i7 and the RTX 3060, which would have to perform well for a few years.
pros
The exterior design is very sober and slim.
The performance of the RTX 3060 is excellent.
The screen is at 144 Hz.Cons
An extra USB port wouldn't hurt.
The 512 GB storage version falls short.