The Acer Nitro 5 embraces AMD Ryzen mobile APUs, making casual gaming a little serious
Acer’s Nitro 5 may be for casual gamers, but Acer’s not skimping on the parts. At CES on Saturday the company announced its refreshed Nitro 5 would add AMD’s latest Ryzen mobile APUs to its processor options. (This is actually something we wondered about when we covered the Nitro 5’s previous version last year.)
After being an also-ran in mobile for many generations, AMD’s latest chips are gaining momentum in performance and battery efficiency. Bringing these chips to the 15-inch Nitro 5 means Acer is serious about giving casual gamers a high-performing machine.
Nitro 5 specs and features
The refreshed Nitro 5 will be available in April with a starting price of $799, though you should, of course, expect the nicest specs to command more cash. Here are the specs we know:
CPU: A choice of AMD Ryzen or Intel mobile processors. Specific AMD part numbers were not named by presstime.
RAM: Up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM
GPU: AMD Radeon RX560 graphics
Display: 15.6-inch IPS, 1920×1080 resolution
Storage: Up to 512GB SSD
Connectivity: Acer mentioned “hyper-fast USB-C,” but we don’t know whether it’s USB 3.1 Gen 1 or Gen 2. You also get HDMI 2.0 and Gigabit ethernet.
Audio: Acer builds in Dolby Audio Premium stereo speaker hardware, complemented by Acer TrueHarmony, which is supposed to help gamers pick up subtle sounds in games that could give away a sneaky rival or deliver a highly satisfying explosion when you hit your target. Will these laptop speakers be decent? We won’t know for sure unless we listen to them live.
Other NitroSense goodies
The Nitro 5 comes with two utlities to help gamers manage the performance and thermals of the laptop. The NitroSense utliity, giving users the ability to monitor CPU and GPU performance, while the CoolBoost utility lets you adjust cooling fan speeds
Gaming laptops aren’t known for their discretion. Acer dresses up the Nitro 5 with a laser texturing on the lid and a matte-red hinge. The keyboard is backlit, of course.
Acer’s Nitro 5 looks like a nice example of mainstream gaming hardware with strong specs—at least at the highest end. We don’t know what the lowest-end configuration has, so manage your expectations. However, seeing the Ryzen Mobile APUs in this product line is good news.