Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-52) review – budget refresh with Core i5-8300H / i7-8750H

It’s been quite some time since the release of the Kaby Lake Refresh CPUs that surprised users with high performance but disappointed them with the fact that they don’t go under the name “Coffee Lake”. Now it’s time for the “real” 8th Gen high voltage processors. They are already here and the most popular two models quite expectedly will be i5-8300H and i7-8750H, which are actually successors to the widespread i5-7300HQ and i7-7700HQ.

Acer Nitro 5 is one of the first lineups to incorporate the new Intel chips and of course, we can’t wait to check how the budget gaming machine handles them – what performance it delivers and whether the CoolBoost cooling is efficient enough to maintain their frequencies for a continuous period of time. Due to the fact that we have already reviewed the series, we are going to focus on the performance analyses and will answer the question of what “engine” is the most optimal choice for the new Nitro 5.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: http://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-nitro-5/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-52 tableau des caractéristiques techniques

Acer
Not available
Afficher
15.6”, Full HD (1920 x 1080), IPS
HDD/SSD
1TB HDD
Fente M.2
1x 2280 PCIe NVMe Voir photo
RAM
8GB DDR4, 2400 MHz
Dimensions
390 x 268 x 27 mm (15.35" x 10.55" x 1.06")
Poids
2.48 kg (5.5 lbs)
Matériau du corps
Plastic / Polycarbonate
Ports et connectivité
  • 2x USB Type-A 2.0
  • 1x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • HDMI
  • VGA
  • DVI
  • Lecteur de cartes SD
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2x2 MIMO
  • Bluetooth 4.1
  • Prise audio headphone/microphone
Caractéristiques
  • Caméra Web HD webcam
  • Clavier rétro-éclairé
  • Microphone
  • Intervenants
  • Lecteur optique
  • Fente de verrouillage de sécurité
  • Dual Fans (+CoolBoost)

Design and construction, disassembly

As we have already mentioned, we have taken a thorough look at the appearance of Nitro 5, as well as the peculiarities of its construction and internals. You can find more information in our previous review.

Display Quality

The screen that Nitro 5 incorporates has already been tested in another Acer model – Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition (VN7-593G). We are talking about BOE NV156FHM-N43 – a high-quality IPS panel with Full HD resolution (142 ppi), high brightness and contrast, and pretty serious gamut coverage – 94% sRGB. However, keep in mind that your device may be shipped with the LG LP156WF6-SPK6, which came with the AMD configuration we tested earlier.

Panel modelMax.BrightnessContrastdE ColorCheckersRGB coveragePWM
BOE NV156FHM-N43308 cd/m²980:15.3 -> 1.694%1 kHz
LG LP156WF6-SPK6286 cd/m²1180:15.2 -> 3.653%No PWM

The color deviation in ColorChecker has an unacceptable value of DeltaE = 5.3 but our Gaming and Web design profile brings it down to dE = 1.6 – a level that will appeal to the amateur graphics designers.

The display has one serious drawback and this is the presence of PWM across all brightness levels under 100%. That’s where our Health-Guard profile comes in handy as it eliminates PWM and also reduces the negative blue light emissions.


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package is meant for Acer Nitro 5 (or Aspire V 15 Nitro) configurations with 15.6″ BOE NV156FHM-N43 (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS screen.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

En plus de recevoir des profils efficaces et favorables à la santé, en achetant les produits de LaptopMedia, vous soutenez également le développement de nos laboratoires, où nous testons les appareils afin de produire les examens les plus objectifs possibles.

Travail de bureau

Le travail de bureau devrait être utilisé principalement par les utilisateurs qui passent le plus de temps à regarder des morceaux de texte, des tableaux ou simplement à surfer. Ce profil vise à offrir une meilleure distinction et une meilleure clarté en conservant une courbe gamma plate (2,20), une température de couleur native et des couleurs perceptuellement précises.

Conception et jeux

Ce profil est destiné aux designers qui travaillent avec les couleurs de manière professionnelle, et pour les jeux et les films également. Design and Gaming pousse les panneaux d'affichage à leurs limites, les rendant aussi précis que possible dans la norme sRGB IEC61966-2-1 pour le Web et la TVHD, au point blanc D65.

Santé-Guard

Santé-Guard élimine le modulation de largeur d'impulsion nocive (PWM) et réduit le lumière bleue négative qui affecte nos yeux et notre corps. Comme il est adapté à chaque panneau, il parvient à maintenir la précision perceptive des couleurs. Santé-Guard simule le papier, ce qui réduit considérablement la pression sur les yeux.

Obtenez les 3 profils avec 33% de réduction


CPU – Intel Core i7-8750H

Intel Core i7-8750H is a direct successor to the Core i7-7700HQ. The new Coffee Lake processors feature six physical cores instead of the just four found on the Kaby Lake CPUs. Moreover, the blue company was able to fit the extra two cores on the same 14nm architecture while maintaining a TDP of 45W. In terms of clock speeds, we have a slight drop in the base frequency from 2.8 GHz to 2.2 GHz but the Turbo one is 4.1 GHz (up from 3.8 GHz), whatsoever. This means around 50% better performance on theory and 9 MB of cache (vs 6 MB on Core i7-7700HQ). However, the new Core i7-8750H will be more cooling-dependent, due to the higher clock count and the wide range of Turbo speeds.

On the iGPU end, there are no particular changes as the Core i7-8750H retains the HD Graphics 630 cores with 350 MHz Base frequency and 1100 MHz maximum Dynamic frequency. The only difference is the support of OpenGL 4.5.

You can browse through our top CPUs ranking: http://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-cpu-ranking/

You can check out all available configurations with Intel Core i7-8750H and their prices here: Acheter sur Amazon.fr (#CommissionsEarned)


GPU – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (4GB GDDR5)

The GeForce GTX 1050 GPU for laptops is part of the latest NVIDIA Pascal lineup of GPUs featuring a brand new architecture design but on contrary to the rest of the GPUs from NVIDIA’s lineup, the GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti feature a Samsung-made FinFET 14nm chip instead of the TSMC 16nm found in the GTX 1060, 1070 and 1080. The graphics card is based on the GP107 chip paired with 4GB of GDDR5 memory via a 128-bit interface.

Since the GTX 1050 is quite dependent on the cooling design, its performance may vary but if the laptop handles the GPU well and shouldn’t be much different from its desktop counterpart. Anyway, the GPU operates at relatively high frequencies (1354 – 1493 MHz) but incorporates the same amount of CUDA cores (640) while the memory is clocked at 7000 MHz (effective). These specs ensure a huge performance boost over the previous generation of Maxwell GPUs. For instance, the GTX 1050 performs better than the GTX 960M and can be compared to the GTX 965M’s capabilities while running at similar to the GTX 960M’s TDP of around 40-50W.

However, along with all the power consumption and performance improvements, the GPU now supports essential features like DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0b, HDR, improved H.265 encoding, and decoding.

You can browse through our top GPUs ranking: http://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-graphics-ranking/

You can find all available laptops with GeForce GTX 1050 here: Acheter sur Amazon.fr (#CommissionsEarned)

 


Gaming tests

With GeForce GTX 1050 you can easily play GTA and Rise of the Tomb Raider at Medium/High settings or Far Cry Primal and Ghost Recon Wildlands at Normal graphics settings.

GTA-V-benchmarks

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5)Full HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Average FPS114 fps55 fps34 fps
Min FPS59 fps35 fps18 fps

Far Cry PrimalFull HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Average FPS52 fps45 fps37 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Average FPS80 fps52 fps24 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Average FPS39 fps36 fps32 fps
Min FPS33 fps30 fps26 fps

Temperatures

We have a new method that evaluates the cooling system and for gaming computers, it includes two tests – 100% CPU load and real gameplay load (Rise of the Tomb Raider).

Max CPU load

In this test, we reach 100% CPU cores load, while monitoring the fluctuations in their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column is indicative of the laptop’s response under a short load (between 2 and 10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), while the third column is a good indicator of whether the laptop is suitable for extended and heavy loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (Base freq. + X); CPU Temp.

 

Intel Core i5-8300H (45W TDP):0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Acer Nitro 53.37 GHz (B+47%) @ 81°C3.40 GHz (B+48%) @ 86°C2.75 GHz (B+20%) @ 75°C
Intel Core i7-8750H (45W TDP):
Acer Nitro 52.89 GHz (B+31%) @ 72°C2.71 GHz (B+23%) @ 78°C2.52 GHz (B+15%) @ 74°C
ASUS TUF FX5042.59 GHz (B+18%) @ 71°C2.64 GHz (B+20%) @ 82°C2.46 GHz (B+12%) @ 74°C
ASUS ROG GL503GE2.89 GHz (B+31%) @ 66°C2.89 GHz (B+31%) @ 69°C2.53 GHz (B+15%) @ 71°C

The cooling system appears to be powerful enough to ensure around 50% higher than the base frequency of i5-8300H (2.3 GHz) for the first minutes of the test, which may lead to a fairly good performance in almost any task. This doesn’t include processes such as video rendering – between the 10th and the 15th minute the average frequency is 2.75GHz (20% above the base), but at a slightly lower temperature of the chip – 75 degrees.

In the battle of the i7-8750H machines, Nitro 5 and GL503 are winners with approximately equal results, the latter having a certain lead in terms of temperatures, and also maintaining slightly higher frequencies in medium-long processes (0:15 – 0:30 sec).

Real gaming

The real gameplay test is longer. Here, the GPU is loaded to the maximum trying to process maximum frame rates per second. Quite expectedly, although the processor is not as needed as in the previous test, its temperature is higher (82° C) because it shares the two fans with the graphics card. The fans aren’t exactly silent so keep this in mind if you love silence during gaming. Of course, if you play with a headset or a cranked sound, you will hardly pay attention to it.

Rise of the Tomb Raider
(Lowest, 1080p)
FPS
(After 2 min / 30 min)
GPU Core Frequency
(After 2 min / 30 min)
GPU Temperature
(After 2 min / 30 min)
Acer Nitro 5 – i5-8300H + GTX 1050 (~90W TDP)75 fps / 75 fps1734 MHz / 1721 MHz70°C / 73°C
Acer Nitro 5 – i7-8750H + GTX 1050 (~90W TDP)75 fps / 75 fps1734 MHz / 1734 MHz75°C / 72°C
Acer Nitro 5 – Ryzen 7 2700U + Radeon RX 560X (~80W TDP)61 fps / 60 fps1144 MHz / 1142 MHz68°C / 68°C

During extended gaming, although quite noisy, Nitro 5 with 8300H/8750H and 1050 manages to maintain good temperatures of its components at over 1.7 GHz GPU frequency. In addition, the stability of the frames and frequencies makes a good impression. However, we wouldn’t recommend opting for a Nitro 5 configuration with GTX 1050 Ti, which would be too much for the cooling system.

On the other hand, the configuration with Ryzen 7 and RX 560X doesn’t encounter any difficulties with the cooling of the CPU and GPU. Actually, for most of the time, the fans weren’t even running at full power.

Rise of the Tomb Raider after 30 minutes gameplay (Acer Nitro 5 with i5-8300H + GTX 1050)

Gaming comfort

Core i5-8300H and GTX 1050 pose a serious challenge to Nitro 5 when it comes to external temperatures. The hottest point reached almost 60°C. Yet another confirmation that the GTX 1050 Ti won’t be a good choice.


Verdict

Acer Nitro 5 continues to be one of the most attractive solutions in the budget gaming segment. If you are a gamer, the difference between the i5-8300H configuration and the i7-8750H one will be hardly noticeable, which would have also included Ryzen 7 2700U, if it hadn’t come only with the significantly less powerful RX 560X GPU.

Interestingly, the Intel option came with a better screen (BOE NV156FHM-N43) and its only drawback is the presence of PWM. However, our Health Guard profile takes care of this issue. In the other tests, the BOE did a great job – 94% sRGB coverage, 1.6 dE color deviation (with our Gaming and Web design profile), high brightness and contrast.

Everything else we have told you about this model from the previous review is also valid here – easy upgrades, nice design, good battery life.

You can check prices and configurations: Acheter sur Amazon.fr (#CommissionsEarned)

Pros

  • Nice design
  • Amazing IPS screen (the BOE version)
  • Easy RAM and HDD/SSD upgrade
  • Good temperatures of the internal components at full load (for the RX 560X and GTX 1050 versions)


Cons

  • Relatively high temperatures of the corpus at full load (for the H-series configurations)
  • The cooling won’t be powerful enough for GTX 1050 Ti
  • Not so comfortable touchpad

Comments are closed.