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Three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs' Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better). Next up is a pair of CPU-crunching tests: Cinebench R15 stresses all available processor cores and threads while rendering a complex image, while in our Handbrake test, we time systems while they transcode a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution.
It’s actually a little bit thinner and lighter than last year’s Nitro 5 model. This is thanks to some changes Acer has made to the design, most noticeably by slimming down the bezels around the screen. Acer tells us that the screen-to-body ratio is now 80%, with the bezels narrowed to 7.02mm. Not only does this allow Acer to shrink the overall size of the Nitro 5 (2021) without reducing the size of the screen, but it also makes the new Nitro 5 feel more modern and premium.All that raw power dramatically takes its toll on the Nitro 5’s unplugged stamina, though, which is further exacerbated by its small 58Whr capacity battery. In our video rundown test, the Nitro lasted for just 6hrs 30mins before running out of juice.
This Nitro 5 sports a fast 165Hz, 1440p display that looks great in motion when playing shooters like Call of Duty Warzone. I even dipped into playing through the new Doom Eternal DLC, and it was nice to see that the only tearing on-screen happening was Doomguy ripping some poor demon in half. Turning our attention to the Nitro 5’s gaming benchmarks, it became clear that the GTX 3060 is an ample performer, but it’s a long way from the output offered by its bigger brothers, the RTX 3070 and 3080. The Nitro 5’s potent combination of a 3.2GHz Ryzen 7 5800H octa-core CPU and an Nvidia RTX3060 GPU is frankly astounding for the price, and it came out rather well in our usual array of laptop benchmarking tools.The final test in this section is photo editing. We use an early 2018 release of Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud to apply 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG image, timing each operation and adding up the total. This test is not as CPU-focused as Cinebench or Handbrake, bringing the performance of the storage subsystem, memory, and GPU into play. The main benchmark of UL's PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10's Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of a laptop's storage. This may be the first Nitro 5 to really make an impression with gamers, especially ones who want a great gaming experience, but don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on a laptop. We use two gaming simulations to measure the 3D performance potential of a PC. In UL's 3DMark, we run two tests: Sky Diver (lightweight, capable of running on integrated graphics) and Fire Strike (more demanding, for high-end gaming PCs), both of them DirectX 11-based. Unigine Corp.'s Superposition is the other; it uses a different rendering engine to produce a complex 3D scene.
A good portion of more premium laptops' cost goes toward a thin design, but a chunkier chassis like this is much cheaper. The Acer measures 1.06 by 14.1 by 10.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.51 pounds, reasonably mobile as gaming laptops go but heftier than a modern daily driver. It may not be the first machine you'd want to take with you everywhere, but it's acceptably trim for a budget gaming rig. Explore and enjoy a new level of gaming with the Nitro 5, featuring a powerful Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU combination to provide you with excellent performance. Finally, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 will show you what paying up for a smaller, more powerful system will do, and whether the performance gap is worth hundreds of dollars more. Expect it to lead most if not all of these tests, as it's the most expensive contestant. Productivity TestsThe Nitro 5 comes with Windows 11 pre-installed - with a raft of new features, including DirectX 12 for better graphics, DirectStorage for faster loading and Auto HDR to help enhance visuals in non-HDR games, Windows 11 is the best Windows ever for gaming. Plus, with Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, you can play hundreds for games for a single monthly fee. These games have become largely CPU-limited even at the more demanding presets, so the differences among this group are minimal. That said, the numbers suggest that the Nitro 5 will have performance to spare for running games at its native 1440p resolution. Battery Rundown Test Indeed, the previous Nitro 5 from earlier this year had a different look, and red featured prominently. Its lid corners and rear vents were a bit more geometric, while this new edition has a squarer, cleaner look. The lid is unadorned and smooth, without the muscle lines of the early 2022 version. We test Windows PCs' graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark: Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Two more tests from GFXBench 5.0, run offscreen to allow for different display resolutions, wring out OpenGL operations. Nestled into this frame is a 15.6-inch display, the longtime standard size. Larger 17.3-inch screens have been around for a long time, with 14-inch and 16-inch screens a more recent trend, but this size represents your go-to, still-portable gaming laptop size. It's an IPS panel with full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate.
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