Acer’s Nitro V range of gaming laptops is available in a wide range of price points and configurations, but they rarely go beyond the $1500 markup. The ANV15-51-99DR model we’re reviewing is superb value, staying as close to the $1000 price point as possible, but racks up superb gaming performance with its Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics card, Intel Core i9-13900H processor.
The 144Hz display and design are pretty standard with other Nitro V models we’ve reviewed, but its gaming performance for this price that’s a thriller. Ordinarily, you’ll be hard-pressed to find equivalent performance for this price or less. If you’re looking to spend as little as possible for a machine that runs games smoothly at 1080p, the Acer Nitro V ANV15-51-99DR is a smart pick.
About the Acer Nitro V
Here are the specs on the gaming laptop in this review:
- Processor: Intel Core i9-13900H
- Graphics: Nvidia RTX 4060
- RAM: 8GB DDR5 SDRAM
- Storage: 512GB
- Display: 1920 x 1080p @ 144Hz display
- Ports: 1 x HDMI; 1 x USB-C; 4 x USB-A; 1 x Ethernet; 1 x Headphone jack
- Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
- Webcam: 720p
- Battery: 230 W battery charger
- Weight: 4.7 pounds
- Size: 14.26 x 0.93 x 9.44 inches
Though hardly a top-tier gaming powerhouse, the Nvidia RTX 4060 is a modern Nvidia GPU that supports the 40-series’ full range of features. Only a handful of competitors like the MSI GF63 Thin Series offer the RTX at a similar price.
Design & Features
The Nitro V ANV15 may not be the best-looking laptop, but it’s not basic. As far as gaming laptops go, this one is more modest, though it does have some design flourishes on the lid that looks beautiful in the right lighting. The abstract grey and blue steak up top breathes some air of sophistication, and the lack of LEDs ensures that it can be used for work and play.
It’s a smart design approach because this laptop is compact and light enough to take on a daily commute; it won’t take up a lot of space at the coffee shop, the office, or the library. That’s great if you’re the type who likes to use a single laptop for work and still need to play some games later in the day. Unlike the Dell G15 which is available in various colors, the Nitro ANV15-51-99DR and all its variations are only available in black with the aforementioned grey and blue streaks.
Plus, it has a generous number of ports for its size and price: three USB-A ports, one USB-C port, an Ethernet port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a single HDMI port. Most of these ports are located on the right side, with only a single USB-A port and the audio jack on the right side. Practically, an additional USB-C port on the right side would have been nice, but it isn’t a deal breaker.
Display, Keyboard, and Touchpad
The 144Hz refresh rate on the Acer ANV15-51-99DR’s 16:9 FHD display is one of the compelling reasons to spend your money on this laptop. We’ve reviewed notebooks with 165Hz refresh rates or higher, and 16:10 aspect ratios, but 144Hz is pretty fast to deliver immersive gameplay, and it’s something considered a gold standard in the midrange category.
That said, the Nitro V’s 144Hz refresh rate has little use when it comes to productivity. This is 100% gaming-focused, and along with support for Nvidia G-Sync, it means that games incrementally look great, whether you’re running an old favorite or a blazing modern hit.
Granted the panel isn’t overly bright, maxing at 250nits, but it’s not easy to tell the difference unless you have a color monitor handy or another monitor with higher brightness to compare with.
Acer crammed a keyboard with a numpad inside the Nitro V 15’s frame. It doesn’t fit well, meaning you have to do with a few sacrifices like half-sized numpad keys and tiny Shift, Tab, Control, and Caps Lock keys. Still, the Nitro ANV15-51-99DR is a large laptop and there’s lots of palm rest space below the keyboard. The Nitro V’s touchpad isn’t great either. It has the same cheap, simple feel common to most gaming laptops, but it’s reasonably large to easily accommodate multi-touch gestures.
Gaming Performance
The Acer Nitro V is an inexpensive gaming laptop, but it doesn’t cut corners to achieve this price. Intel’s Core i9-13900H processor is a good example – a high-end 13th gen processor with 6 performance cores (P cores) and 8 efficient cores (E cores). Most gaming laptops at this price point use the Core i7-13700H, which features 14 cores and a maximum Turbo Boost of 5 GHz. Acer also equips it with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB solid-state drive.
Gaming performance is impressive, with the RTX 4060 graphics card delivering solid frame rates at 1080p. Running Cyberpunk 2077 on Ultra graphics settings at 1200p results in an average frame rate of 77 frames per second (fps). Enabling ray tracing cuts the framerate in half, but 38 fps still isn’t bad considering the price. Using DLSS 3.0 makes the frame rate jump to 109 fps without ray tracing and 78 fps with ray tracing enabled.
Aside from Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is yet another game that’s unforgiving to graphics cards. With settings set to high, the game plays at an average of 79 FPS. When playing older titles like Metro Exodus Enhanced and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the Nitro V averages 74 FPS on high settings and 82 FPS on medium settings, respectively.
Overall, this laptop will run older games and eSports titles at the native resolution with everything maxed out, but with newer and upcoming games, you’re going to need to either reduce detail settings, forget ray tracing, use DLSS in Performance mode, or drop down to 1080p. Sometimes, you may need to do two or more of the above.
The only thing you’ll find limiting is NitroSense which often forces you to lower settings or wait when attempting to play graphically demanding games. For instance, when you want to play Fortnite, with settings set to high with DLSS, you’ll be locked onto the balanced power plan, making the game run slowly. Lowering the settings doesn’t help either, in fact, the fluctuations in framerate are so drastic that you might have to exit the game.
The idea of locking performance mode until reaching 40% is terrible. Manufacturers shouldn’t throttle performance without a means of overriding the command as it undermines the customers’ desire to do with the hardware as they please. Beyond that, the machine handles 1080p games fluently, something you’re not getting in most sub-$1000 gaming laptops.
Budget gaming laptops tend to struggle with battery life, and the Nitro V is no exception. It lasts slightly more than four hours, which isn’t terrible, but still not enough to manage a full workday or a cross-country flight. In that case, you’ll want to pack the power brick.
Acer Nitro V ANV15-51-99DR Review: Verdict
For the price, we have to applaud Acer for delivering on most fronts with the ANV15-51-99DR. Areas that are often fatal in budget builds – the screen and general build quality – are passable here, and it delivers steady 1080p gaming performance at a much lower price than most competitors.
The Nitro V’s processor performance is good, its RAM and storage are fine, but battery life is mediocre, and the same is true for most price-competitive gaming laptops. Ultimately, your buying decision will be based on price. For a few hundreds more, the Asus ROG Strix G16 delivers even better gameplay with its Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, RTX 4070 GPU, 1TB SSD storage and 16GB RAM.
At the end of the day, your buying decision will hinge on price and gaming performance. The Acer Nitro V ANV15-51-99DR is solid but not spectacular, so look for a sale.