System Performance

Acer offers both Intel and AMD powered versions of the Nitro 5, and there’s some significant differences in terms of CPU options due to the limited product stack AMD launched with Ryzen Mobile. The AMD powered Nitro 5 comes with a Ryzen 5 2500U processor, offering four cores, eight threads, and a maximum boost frequency of 3.6 GHz. Being a U series, the TDP is 15-Watts by default, though AMD offers a range of cTDP modes from 12-25 Watts. This is a rarely tapped feature on most laptops, but in this case it looks like Acer has put the Ryzen in cTDP up mode. We’ve reached out to Acer and AMD to confirm the TDP settings, but as you’ll see below this Ryzen 5 2500U performs well ahead of other we have tested.

AMD has recently announced the second generation Ryzen mobile processors, and the product stack is much wider, with a couple of new H series models which will expand the base TDP to 35 Watts. It would not be a shock to see this Acer updated when those are available.

This is the first Ryzen laptop we’ve tested though that’s been paired with a dGPU, so the Acer’s choice to go with the Ryzen 5 2500U isn’t as large of a step down from the 2700U as usual, since the big jump in the 2700U is the bigger Vega 10 GPU. Since any GPU task will be offloaded to the RX 560X, the iGPU performance tradeoff isn’t a concern.

For comparisons, we’ve included the Dell XPS 15 9560 because it came with a quad-core Kaby Lake and GTX 1050, which is the same type of components found in the other model of Acer Nitro 5. We’ve also included the Surface Book 2 15, which had a 15-Watt CPU paired with a GTX 1060, and the MSI GT75 Titan was included only because it’s the only other laptop we’ve tested with the most recent version of our gaming suite so far. If you’d like to compare the Acer Nitro 5 to any other system we’ve tested, please check out our online Bench.

PCMark

PCMark 10 - Essentials

PCMark 10 - Productivity

PCMark 10 - Digital Content Creation

PCMark 10 - Overall

The Nitro 5 holds its own here, performing similarly to the Dell XPS 15, although its not quite able to keep up with a 45-Watt processor in all of the tasks on PCMark 10.

Cinebench

Cinebench R15 - Single-Threaded Benchmark

Cinebench R15 - Multi-Threaded Benchmark

AMD’s Ryzen has always performed well in Cinebench, and continues to here as well. The extra cooling capacity of this gaming laptop lets the Ryzen stretch its legs, outperforming the same Ryzen 5 2500U we tested in the Lenovo ThinkPad A285 by a wide margin.

x264

x264 HD 5.x

x264 HD 5.x

As with the previous tests, the Acer Nitro 5 performs quite well in our CPU based encoding test, but can’t quite match a quad-core Kaby Lake at 45-Watts. It’s still well ahead of the other Ryzen models we’ve tested though.

Web Tests

Web is one of the most important tasks for any system, but is also the least reliable way to check performance, since it is so heavily dependent on the browser, and of course browsers are updated continuously meaning even just using the same browser is more or less a snapshot in time.

Mozilla Kraken 1.1

Google Octane 2.0

WebXPRT 2015

Web performance is one area where Ryzen struggles against the similar Intel Core products, most likely due to the effort Intel has put into their Speed Shift and how quickly the processors can ramp up to their maximum performance level, which is important in web because the tests tend to be short bursts of work.

CPU Conclusion

While not quite able to match the 45-Watt Intel quads, the Acer Nitro 5 with Ryzen 5 2500U still offers very solid performance, offering much more sustained performance than we’ve seen in any previous Ryzen laptop we have tested.

Storage Performance

Unless you buy the lowest-priced Nitro 5, Acer includes SSD storage, as well as a 2.5-inch HDD bay so that you can add extra storage if needed. With a 256 GB OS drive, there’s enough room for the OS and a couple of games though. Acer offers a SATA SSD in the Nitro 5, based on the Micron 1100.

Being a SATA based SSD, peak performance is certainly limited compared to NVMe drives, but it still offers orders of magnitude better performance compared to spinning drives. Considering the budget nature of this device, it’s excellent to even see an SSD, so if it has to be a SATA that is just fine.

Design GPU Performance
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  • PeachNCream - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link

    The 1060's showing inside the Surface Book makes it painfully obvious that Microsoft's cooling solution suffers from some pretty severe limitations. Granted, MS wasn't trying to make a gaming system, but something thin and light to compete in more or less the same category where Apple's laptops live so cooling is going to end up taking a backseat.
  • Brett Howse - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link

    The Surface Book 2 is a 15W CPU and the XPS 15 is a 45W CPU, so in games that are CPU limited, the 1050 can outperform. Dota is a great example of this.
  • 29a - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link

    I would like to see benchmarks with a second piece of RAM also.
  • Quad_Tube - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link

    I was also scratching my head when I saw it only had one-stick, albeit 8 GB capacity. Looking forward to seeing how it runs with two sticks (I think the difference would be huge).
  • kpb321 - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link

    If they were actually using the integrated GPU it would be a huge issue as the integrated GPU is often very memory bandwidth starved but as the article mentions the single stick isn't really a big problem when you are running with a discrete gpu.
  • GreenReaper - Monday, February 18, 2019 - link

    It might potentially use more power and so run slower or louder, and for less time. Laptops are a trade-off. As others have mentioned the bandwidth isn't *as* much of an issue with a discrete GPU.
  • Alexvrb - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link

    That doesn't apply to APUs when you're not even using the integrated graphics. Further, since it's a single CCX, RAM clocks don't even matter. Performance would barely budge if they were running 4 x 2. Margin of error difference.
  • Rookierookie - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link

    The screen hinge design for these laptops from Acer has not changed in a while, and anecdotally it's pretty shoddy, prone to splitting open after a couple of years.
  • Annnonymmous - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link

    I own this laptop. The screen hinge is just fine.
  • TheinsanegamerN - Sunday, February 17, 2019 - link

    Are you from the future? Otherwise, how would you know if your hings will be fine after several years of operation.

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