Acer’s Nitro gaming pc lineup meets a variety of budget-friendly worth issues and configurations, and the Nitro V 15 (begins at $699.99; $849.99 for the ANV15-51-59MT fashion examined) is a wonderful worth. An Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU and Intel thirteenth Gen Core i5 processor ship strangely secure 1080p gaming functionality for the fee, enabling past a 60-frame-per-second (fps) enjoy for smartly beneath $1,000. The display and pc shell are not anything particular, however they keep away from main problems—even though the 512GB SSD is a bit of restrictive for gaming. Another way, you’d be hard-pressed to seek out identical functionality for this worth or much less. The Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF narrowly keeps its Editors’ Selection award, because of its awesome construct and function for most effective $150 extra, but when spending as low as imaginable is your purpose, the Acer Nitro V 15 is a brilliant select.
Design: This Gamer Embraces a Low-Key Glance
Nitro laptops of the previous tended towards gamer-centric styling and colour schemes, with a large number of black and purple, however the line has steadily evolved a extra staid glance. This is once more the case for this Nitro 15 device and, specifically as a worth and general-use play, the moderately simple styling suits simply superb. This pc can mix in anyplace, with only a sprint of fashion at the lid by means of some tame however visually interesting grey and blue traces.
The construct high quality is appropriate for a funds gaming pc; I wouldn’t be delighted to have the similar chassis as our fashion if I had a specifically dear configuration, however at this worth, it’s serviceable. The graceful-finish plastic lid doesn’t really feel top rate, and you’ll be able to really feel some flex across the keyboard deck in the event you press it, however not anything detracting stands proud in standard use. The device measures 1.06 via 14.3 via 9.4 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.66 kilos—transportable sufficient for an reasonably priced 15-inch gamer.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)Acer’s touchpad is totally reasonable, however the keyboard is one of the vital pleasant a part of the construct. The keys have pleasant commute, some soar, and blank (white most effective) backlighting—plus you’ll be able to discover a quantity pad squeezed into the 15-inch chassis. The pc’s connectivity choices are vast, too: You’ll be able to in finding two USB Sort-A ports, a USB Sort-C port, an HDMI connection, or even an Ethernet jack at the left facet. Any other USB-A port and a headphone jack sit down at the proper.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)Within that 14-inch body is a 15-inch show at the diagonal, with specifications that received’t blow you away, however they are compatible the invoice for the meant target audience. The panel options a normal complete HD (1,920 via 1,080) solution and a 144Hz refresh fee, assembly the minimal expectation for a gaming device in 2024.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)The GPU is the manager differentiator in making the most efficient use of this display, and this fashion is easily supplied to take action in comparison with a few of Acer’s more cost effective configurations. The show high quality itself is simply ok; the panel isn’t the sharpest or brightest round however, once more, it is serviceable for the fee and not using a evident problems.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)This pc helps Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth, whilst the webcam is (most effective) 720p. The video is moderately grainy, nevertheless it handles lights ok—once more, a satisfactory inclusion right here. We all know smartly that 1080p cameras supply awesome symbol high quality, however it’s a must to pay for it, and it’s now not a concern on a gaming pc that is attempting to stay the fee down.
Acer Nitro V 15 Parts and Configurations
You’ll be able to in finding less expensive and dearer variations of this pc, however this configuration occupies a candy spot. Sub-$1,000 gaming laptops are increasingly more uncommon, and whilst different fashions additionally meet that mark, you settle on specifications (maximum particularly the GPU).
The program, at $849.99, straddles the road between a stronger device round $1,200, and graphically inferior configurations that run for only $800. On this fashion, you get an Intel Core i5-13420H processor, 8GB of reminiscence, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, and a 512GB SSD. It is to be had at each Newegg and Acer’s personal on-line shop.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)First, the positives: The processor, even simply on the Intel Core i5 point, is sufficient for this objective, particularly being an H-series chip supposed for extra functionality. The GPU, whilst entry-level for the GeForce RTX 40 collection, remains to be a superb product at this worth—it will have to produce secure 1080p numbers in trendy video games, which is nice for the associated fee.
At the much less sure facet, 8GB of reminiscence is shedding relevance as nowadays’s baseline app and sport calls for sneak towards requiring 16GB, at a minimal. It will have to nonetheless suffice, and I perceive seeing it at this worth, nevertheless it’s bordering on adverse in some use instances. In a similar way, 512GB of garage is tight, however doubling that to 1TB drives up the associated fee significantly.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)To that time, you’ll be able to in finding $999 fashions with Core i7, garage, and reminiscence bumps to be had. That’s nonetheless moderately a slick deal—it’s simply bringing you to the $1,000 mark the place you could have been seeking to keep smartly under it. At the more cost effective facet, every other fashion ($699.99 at Costco, $749.99 on the Acer shop) is going means again to fundamentals with an excellent lower-end GeForce RTX 2050 GPU along the similar Core i5 chip, 8GB of reminiscence, and a 512GB SSD, whilst a $769.99 Acer-store fashion bumps up the GPU from there to a less-aged RTX 3050.
Checking out the Acer Nitro V 15: A Delightful Wonder for 1080p Gaming
To gauge how our fashion plays with context, we’ve amassed the next batch of other gaming laptops to check with.
The Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF and MSI Cyborg 15 are choice 15-inch laptops that still run RTX 4050 GPUs. The Aorus used to be examined with a (somewhat awesome) Core i5-13500H chip, whilst the Cyborg 15 displays us what a leap to a Core i7 chip and 16GB of reminiscence does for you. The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 additionally makes use of an RTX 4050 and Core i5 processor, even though with a bump to an “HX” chip, in a 16-inch chassis. In spite of everything, the Lenovo Legion Professional 5i Gen 8 is the midrange consultant, somewhat pricier and extra tough on paper with a Core i7 HX processor and an RTX 4060 GPU, to turn what a full-tier jump can do.
Productiveness and Content material Introduction Assessments
We run the similar overall productiveness benchmarks throughout each cell and desktop techniques. Our first check is UL’s PCMark 10, which simulates a lot of real-world productiveness and place of business workflows to measure general device functionality and in addition features a garage subtest for the main power.
Our different 3 benchmarks center of attention at the CPU, the usage of all to be had cores and threads, to fee a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 makes use of that corporate’s Cinema 4D engine to render a posh scene, whilst we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to transform a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p solution (decrease instances are higher). We generally additionally display effects from Geekbench 5.4 Professional from Primate Labs, which simulates in style apps starting from PDF rendering and speech reputation to device studying, however the check again and again crashed in this device.
In spite of everything, we run PugetBench for Photoshop via workstation maker Puget Techniques, which makes use of the Inventive Cloud model 22 of Adobe’s well-known symbol editor to fee a PC’s functionality for content material introduction and multimedia packages. It is an automatic extension that executes a lot of overall and GPU-accelerated Photoshop duties starting from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving a picture to making use of mask, gradient fills, and filters.
For such an affordable pc, and one with most effective 8GB of reminiscence, the Nitro V 15 used to be fast sufficient right here. It ended up at the slower finish of this funds batch, make no mistake, however the baseline functionality—in the course of the inherent velocity of Intel’s thirteenth Gen processors, even on the Core i5 point—can be rapid sufficient for overall use. Simply don’t be expecting a media-editing or critical paintings device out of this pc.
Graphics and Gaming Assessments
For gaming laptops and different cell gaming {hardware}, we run each artificial and real-world gaming benchmarks. The previous come with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark: Night time Raid (extra modest, appropriate for techniques with built-in graphics) and Time Secret agent (extra hard, appropriate for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Moreover, we use the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which gauges OpenGL functionality. Two checks are rendered offscreen to deal with other local show resolutions; extra frames in keeping with moment (fps) method upper functionality.
Our real-world sport trying out comes from the integrated benchmarks of F1 2021, Murderer’s Creed Valhalla, and Rainbow Six Siege. Those video games—all benchmarked at 1080p solution—constitute simulation, open-world action-adventure, and aggressive/esports shooter video games, respectively. Valhalla and Siege are run two times (Valhalla at Medium and Extremely high quality, Siege at Low and Extremely high quality), whilst F1 2021 is administered two times at Extremely high quality settings with and with out AMD and Nvidia’s performance-boosting FSR and DLSS options grew to become on.
The belief this is very similar to the processing checks: The Nitro V 15 wasn’t a chart-topper, and slower than different funds pageant, however because the least dear device within the bunch, it carried out smartly. The effects are all fascinating, however the Valhalla body charges power this level house. This device, for smartly beneath $1,000, driven greater than 60fps on a visually hard open-world sport, and it would pass smartly above that in the event you decrease the settings.
Now, extra state of the art video games than this may occasionally push the device more difficult, particularly if you’re even bearing in mind turning on ray tracing. We additionally examined Cyberpunk 2077 on the medium high quality preset with DLSS energetic, and it reported 92fps. (It produced 75fps with DLSS off.) That’s surely spectacular. The RTX 4050 is an eminently succesful 1080p GPU, so long as you stay your element settings expectancies in take a look at. Take care, and it received’t save you you from enjoying video games easily in any respect.
Battery and Show Assessments
We check each and every pc’s battery existence via enjoying a in the neighborhood saved 720p video record (the open-source Blender film Tears of Metal) with show brightness at 50% and audio quantity at 100%. We be certain that the battery is absolutely charged prior to the check, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting grew to become off.
To gauge show functionality, we additionally use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite observe calibration sensor and its Home windows device to measure a pc display’s colour saturation—what proportion of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 colour gamuts or palettes the show can display—and its 50% and height brightness in nits (candelas in keeping with sq. meter).
The display colour protection isn’t that top, even though it’s infrequently on my own on this tier. Few photograph or video pros will use this pc or this show for critical paintings, so it’s now not a deal-breaker, and it appears to be like superb for gaming. In a similar way, the brightness simply clears the 300-nits mark, which is appropriate; that is in no way the brightest show I’ve used, nevertheless it’s simply in need of being an issue.
The scoop at the battery facet may be very sure, and this pc lasted for much longer than maximum funds competition right here. This helps the concept that the Nitro might be your sole pc for each house and commute, with out you searching for the closest charger always. Gaming at the battery will, after all, drain the juice a lot quicker.
Verdict: Secure Gaming With out Busting Your Funds
For the fee, we need to applaud the Nitro V 15 on maximum fronts. Spaces which are continuously main pitfalls in funds builds—the display and the chassis construct high quality—are satisfactory right here, whilst it delivers secure 1080p gaming functionality at a far lower cost than maximum competition.
The Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF does simply sufficient to handle its Editors’ Selection award within the funds gaming class, at the again of a awesome construct, 1080p webcam, higher processor, and somewhat quicker gaming functionality. If saving as a lot cash as imaginable is your precedence, even though, the Nitro V 15 ANV15-51-59MT fashion delivers a equivalent enjoy for $150 much less.