You don’t have to go with Intel to get decent gaming performance.
Acer isn’t just sticking to Intel for chips in its latest laptops. The company has rolled out versions of its Nitro 5 gaming laptop and Swift 3 thin-and-light that pack second-generation Ryzen Mobile processors. The 15.6-inch Nitro 5 (above) carries a 2.3GHz quad-core Ryzen 7 3750H and dedicated Radeon RX 560X graphics to handle a moderate amount of gaming. The 14-inch Swift 3 uses the more modest (but still quad-core) 2.3GHz Ryzen 7 3700U and defaults to integrated Vega graphics, but you can get Radeon RX 540X video if you’d like to squeak in some Overwatch when you’re not writing reports.
The PCs aren’t radically different beyond the CPU changes, although that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The Nitro 5 still boasts a 1080p display, CoolBoost to prevent overheating in gaming sessions and a reasonably slim (if slightly flashy) body. The Swift 3, meanwhile, has a 180-degree folding display and shouldn’t burden you between its 0.71-inch thickness and 3.2-pound weight.
Acer hasn’t outlined the configurations, ship dates or pricing for the AMD-powered versions of either system. It often provides that info shortly before release in a given region, though, so you’ll have a better sense of the laptops’ worth before too long.
