Acer Nitro 5 review: Solid budget gaming performance | Techy Kings

If you’ve ever shopped for a budget gaming laptop, you’re unlikely to be familiar with Acer’s Nitro 5. Most Nitro 5 units are based around a 15.6-inch display, but this Nitro 5 AN5174-2 model pushes the screen to a wider 17.3 inches. . It will come as no surprise when I tell you that this larger version is heavier and bulkier than the already heavy and bulky 15-inch size. And while the panel may be bigger, it’s not much brighter than the dim display we got on the smaller model.

If getting the best bang for your 3D-pixel-pushing buck is more important than having a sleek design with a bright display, this Nitro 5 AN512 unit offers competitive performance at a great price. For a reasonable $1,199.99, our test system features an octa-core Ryzen 7 CPU from AMD’s latest 6000 series and a mid-range GeForce RTX 3060 GPU. This combination works to produce frames that are often found on expensive systems.

Acer Nitro 5 specifications and features

Our test model (AN517-42-R85S) is based on AMD Ryzen 7 6800H CPU and GeForce RTX 3060 graphics. It retails for $1,199.99 at Microcenter, which is $330 less than its regular price of $1,529.99. Here’s a longer list:

• CPU: Octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 6800H
• Memory: 16 GB
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
• Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
• Display: 17.3-inch, 1920×1080, 144Hz IPS LCD
• Webcam: 720p
• Connectivity: 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, combo audio jack.
• Network: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
• Biometrics: None
• Battery capacity: 96 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 15.77 x 11.59 x 1.1 inches
• Measured weight: 6.6 pounds (laptop), 1.67 pounds (AC adapter)
• Price: $1,199.99

Acer sells several 17.3-inch Nitro 5 AN517-42 models with a Ryzen 7 6800H CPU, priced from $1,319.99 to $2,199.99. All are based on the Ryzen 6800H CPU and the graphics options range from RTX 3050 Ti to RTX 3070. Two resolutions are offered for the 17.3-inch display, 1920 × 1080 or 2560 × 1440.

Big and huge, but quiet

The Nitro 5 AN517 is a large Honken laptop. It measures about 16 inches wide, over 11 inches deep, over an inch thick and tips the scales at 6.75 pounds. And the massive, 280-watt power brick adds another 1.67 pounds to the total carrying weight. This is not a laptop for everyday or even frequent travel.

The larger Nitro 5 follows the same script as the regular 15-inch models. Black shaped plastic rules the day. In addition to the usual red accents that the Nitro 5 has been rocking for a while, this model has some faint blue tones on the lid with bright red highlights. Open the laptop and it’s an all-matte-black affair: black-matte display bezels, black-matte keyboard deck and matte-black keys. Breaking the monochrome matte-black look, the sides of the keys are white. That gives a bit of contrast and visual interest to the overall look of the laptop.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

In addition to the side of the keys, nine keys have a white border on the top surface of the key cap. Eight of these keys are familiar to gamers: the four arrow keys and the WASD keys. The ninth key to get the white border treatment is the “N” key above the number. It launches Acer’s NitroSense service, where you can adjust the laptop’s power mode and the speed of the cooling fans. You can also customize the RGB keyboard backlight with four zones. More expensive gaming laptops offer key lighting, but four-zone keyboard lighting allows enough options to enhance the Nitro 5’s appearance.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

The keys themselves are smooth and quiet, but if you press them off-center, they wobble a bit. I wish the keys were a bit firmer and squishier for faster response. I wish the touchpad was bigger. The laptop’s wrist rest looks ridiculously small for its massive size. Despite its smaller size, the touchpad felt precise with strong and quick click response.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

One advantage of a larger, bulkier chassis is that the laptop’s cooling fans are designed to maintain lower temperatures than they would in a more compact enclosure. The Nitro 5 AN517’s fans kick in and can be clearly heard during games and other graphics-intensive tasks, but run at a whisper during general Windows use.

Dull display, weak speakers

The Nitro 5 AN517 is based on a class 17.3-inch 16:9 display. Available in Full HD (1920×1080) or QHD (2560×1440) resolution. Ours features the former, which matches the RTX 3060 GPU, which is great for 1080p gaming. While you’re not likely to play games at high resolution with the mid-range RTX 3060, the 1440p panel makes the laptop more versatile. A laptop for things outside of gaming.

But 1080p is more than enough for this panel size, with the lack of brightness being the biggest flaw of the display. It’s a dull display with dull colors, perfect for gaming in an underground or other dark environment. In my office, which receives some natural light, the display brightness was always set to maximum, and I often made feeble attempts to increase the brightness button further.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

While many laptops have moved to a 1080p webcam that makes for clearly superior video conferencing, the Nitro 5 has stuck with a mid-at-best 720p camera in the past. It creates a grainy image with poor balance. Details in the brightest and darkest parts of the image are quickly lost. A camera you don’t want to use with any great frequency doesn’t have a privacy cover, which protects against prying eyes during long stretches of non-use.

Despite having room to outfit the system with four speakers, the Nitro 5 uses only a pair of standard stereo speakers. Sound output is somewhat low without subwoofers to round out the volume. Bass was nonexistent and mids and highs sounded muddy. Gamers, keep your headphones out of reach.

The port selection is heavy on USB Type-A ports and light on Type-C, but at least it offers at least one of each type. There’s a pair of USB-A ports on the right and another on the left. Extending the USB-A port on the left side is a headphone/mic jack and an Ethernet port.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

Wondering where the USB-C port might be? Why, it’s on the back edge next to the HDMI port and the power connector. The USB-C port, however, does not include Thunderbolt support.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

The laptop’s 1TB SSD offers enough space to store your favorite games locally, and there’s a free M.2 slot if you want to expand your local storage with a second SSD. The system also has two DIMM slots, both of which are filled with 8GB sticks on our test system.

Performance

To put the Nitro 5 AN517’s performance into perspective, we compared it to other gaming laptops with mid-range RTX graphics, all featuring Intel CPUs. The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, Dell XPS 17 9720 and HP Victus 16 feature RTX 3060 graphics. At the bottom of the RTX pecking order is the RTX 3050 Ti-based MSI Katana GF76, while the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is one step up from the RTX 3070.

Before we get to the good stuff, we’ll first run PCMark 10, which measures performance for everyday computing tasks including office productivity tasks, web browsing and video chats. The Nitro 5 couldn’t keep up with Intel’s competition, all of which scored around the 7,000 mark. That said, all systems here—Nitro 5 included—are eligible for general Windows use. Incidentally, the Nitro 5 felt great during various multitasking situations with dozens and dozens of Chrome tabs open.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

Our Handbrake benchmark tests how well the laptop can handle long CPU-intensive loads—in this case, converting a 30GB MKV file to a format suitable for Android tablets with a free video encoding utility. The Nitro 5 did better on Handbrake than PCMark, finishing in the middle of the pack and edging out the Dell XPS 17, which features Intel’s more powerful Core i7-12700H and the same RTX 3060 GPU.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

Next is Cinebench, another CPU-intensive test but one that renders a complex 2D scene in less time. The Nitro 5 was less competitive on Cinebench, but managed to stay out of last place.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

Graphics performance

After evaluating the machine’s implementation and multimedia performance, we came to a good thing – gaming performance. Before we got to the game itself, we tried out 3DMark’s Time Spy and Port Royal tests. The Nitro 5 fared well in both tests, finishing first among RTX 3060 systems and trailing only the RTX 3070-based Lenovo Legion 5 Pro.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

Moving on to real world games, we first run Rise of the Tomb Raider at 1920×1080 resolution set to very high and in DX11 mode. The Nitro 5 was once again at the head of the RTX 3060 pack, turning in a very playable 107fps frame rate. In the new Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1920×1080 resolution, the Nitro 5 averaged 106fps, which was again the first among RTX 3060 laptops. Finally, with the required Metro output at 1920×1080 on the benchmark’s Extreme preset, the Nitro 5 averaged 31fps, which is in line with other RTX 3060 laptops and 50fps on the RTX 3070-based Lenovo Legion 5 Pro.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

To test the laptop’s battery life, we use a 4K video using the Windows 11 Movies & TV app, with the laptop set to airplane mode and headphones plugged in, and set the screen brightness to a relatively bright 250 nits to 260 nits. Good brightness for watching a movie with the lights on in the office. The Nitro 5’s massive 96 watt-hour battery lasted 8 hours, making a difference in our battery drain test, which is an impressive result for a laptop with such a large screen.

IDG / Matthew Elliott.

A competent budget player

As you’ve just read (unless you skip to the end), the Acer Nitro 5 AN517 is not without its faults. But every budget laptop makes a few mistakes, and this 17.3-inch Nitro 5 is none of our issues. Sure, the plastic chassis is flimsy, the display isn’t very bright, the keyboard is just so-so, the touchpad is small, and the webcam is terrible. These design flaws are why you have to put up with the bang for your gaming buck this Nitro 5 offers. The combination of Ryzen 7 6800H and RTX 3060 graphics at the core of the Nitro 5 CPU-GPU allows it to hang with more expensive gaming laptops. For budget-conscious buyers, this $1,200 Nitro 5 configuration offers solid 3D performance for the price, as well as a classy display, quiet operation, and ample battery life.