Acer Updates Nitro 5 And Swift 3 Laptops With 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen Mobile
by Brett Howse on May 23, 2019 12:40 AM EST
Today Acer is announcing some updates to some of their AMD lineup, with the Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop and Acer Swift 3 both being refreshed with the latest AMD Ryzen Mobile processors. We’ve taken a look at both the Nitro 5 and Swift 3 previous with the Ryzen 2500U and 2700U processors respectively. The Nitro 5 is a gaming system, and as such comes with a Polaris based GPU as well, but both laptops showcased that AMD has made tremendous strides in performance compared to their previous offerings.
Acer Nitro 5
The updated Nitro 5 will offer up to a 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen 7 3750H, which offers four cores, eight threads, and a 2.3 GHz base clock with a 4 GHz boost. The default TDP is 35 Watts, with a cTDP of between 12 and 35 Watts. The previous Nitro 5 ran its Ryzen 5 2500U in cTDP up mode, which allowed for up to 25 Watts of sustained power draw, so the Ryzen 7 3750H should allow for even higher sustained frequencies thanks to the extra headroom. As a gaming laptop, Acer also sells the Nitro series with a 45-Watt Intel offering, so there’s certainly enough cooling to handle the extra TDP from the new AMD CPU.
The GPU is still the AMD Radeon RX560X, which we found was similar in performance to a GTX 1050 laptop, although in gaming workloads that were more heavily CPU bound, the performance did drop back some. Hopefully with the new Ryzen 7 3750H that will no longer be the case.
Otherwise, the laptop is more or less identical to the previous model. It still offers a 15.6-inch 1920x1080 IPS display, and an appealing design. Acer’s Nitro 5 lineup offers a lot of value for a gaming system, and with these updates internals, that value should be even better. Acer hasn’t announced pricing yet, but it should be in-line with previous model which started at $669.99.
Acer Swift 3
Acer’s 14-inch Swift 3 also gets an upgrade. The CPU gets a bump from the Ryzen 7 2700U to the Ryzen 7 3700U as the top AMD choice. It features the same specifications as the 3750H, with a four-core, eight-thread design, with a 2.3 GHz base clock and 4.0 GHz boost clock. The major difference is the 3700U has a default TDP of 15 Watts, compared to 35 Watts in the H model. It also offers a cTDP of between 12 and 35 Watts, but as an Ultrabook class of notebook, Acer will almost certainly be offering this at the default TDP.
On the GPU side, the new 3700U comes with a Vega 10 by default, with a 1.4 GHz maximum frequency, but Acer is now offering an optional discrete Radeon RX 540X, which is the same Polaris based GPU as the Nitro 5 offers, but cut down from 16 compute units to 8. This may not be a huge performance update compared to the already impressive integrated Vega graphics of the Ryzen 7 3700U, but it should offer at least a small bump if only for not having to share the TDP with the CPU.
The 14-inch panel is IPS at 1920x1080, and will open to 180° if needed. The Swift 3 features an aluminum design that offers a great finish for a not too expensive laptop. As with the Nitro, Acer hasn’t announced pricing at this time, but expect it to be similar to the original Swift 3 which started around $699.99.
Source: Acer
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nandnandnand - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
Whether or not they reuse the same Zen 2 chiplets for Ryzen Mobile, doubling the core count won't add $1,300 to the price.sorten - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
July is just over a month away.If nothing else wait until the 7nm products are announced in 4 days and then look for sales on the old stuff.
zodiacfml - Saturday, May 25, 2019 - link
Yes. Double core counts and more efficient GPUs. I'd rather wait.uefi - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
I don't get why dumb oems waste precious volume space, available tdp and costs on a second gpu instead of properly equipping the APU with available memory bandwidth to perform optimally in a compact chassis. For the Nitro, I understand it's a gaming solution but the Swift isn't.lmcd - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
What is that supposed to mean? Ryzen Mobile maxes out at dual-channel standard DDR4 memory, which won't ever challenge GDDR5 on a huge GPU bus. Nothing to do with the OEM.Santoval - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
"Nothing to do with the OEM." OEMs *still* have a nasty habit of strangling Ryzen APU based laptops with single-channel memory, often with freaking soldered on the motherboard RAM dies (so both single-channel and fixed size memory)...Krysto - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
It's not like AMD doesn't have a say in it at all. They could mandate minimum requirements. They don't for the same reason Google isn't very quick to mandate minimum requirements for Android either - they want to eat their cake and eat it, too. They want the market share and sales - who cares if a few million users get a little screwed in the process, amirite?!Irata - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
Yes, they could have a say, but based on what (power)? It's not like they have a dominant position in the laptop CPU market or could threaten OEM to cut off the supply... being the small player, you do not have that luxury.Irata - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
the dGPU is optional on the Swift, so if you do not want / need it, you can get the laptop without (this would be what I would go for).This is definitely an improvement from earlier times where at least you get the choice.
fmcjw - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
I agree with uefi. The Ryzen SKU is supposed to deliver above average CPU and GPU capabilities in one SoC instead of 4 chips (Intel Core + MX230 and requisite pair of DDR5 chips), enabling next generation chassis designs featuring better heat pipes, RAM slots, 2nd m.2 slot, or bigger batteries that deliver marked improvements over Intel integrated graphics. It would not make sense to augment Ryzen with anything less than a GTX1050, in which case the thermal design will be over-kill for Ryzen SoC alone. Instead companies are opting for platform agnostic chassis designs that work for both AMD and Intel SKUs to maximize their opportunities in sticking whatever random part combinations they can get, like Ryzen + MX130 SKUs. Worse, not all users are urged to populate that extra RAM slot for dual channel benefits.