The Acer Nitro 50 N50-640-UR12 is a gaming PC that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg it costs hundreds of dollars less than Samsung’s latest Galaxy Z Fold 4 or pretty every other flagship smartphone released in 2022. When most gaming rigs command hefty prices and don’t necessarily offer good value, the Nitro 50 offers tremendous bang for the buck.
It promises decent gaming performance at a cheap price. But while this Nitro 50 is affordable, it’s the result of a few compromises, including mixed performance and limited upgradability. But it still costs much less than competitors, and that may be enough to swing some.
Our review unit, the Nitro 50 N50-640-UR12 packs a 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400F processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD + 1TB HDD and Windows 11 home pre-installed. Let’s find out if this budget option is a perfect bargain or if you’re better off spending a little more for a better gaming machine.
Acer Nitro N50-640: Specs
- Processor: 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400F
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 with 12GB
- Memory: 16GB
- Storage: 512GB SSD + 1TB HDD
- Ports: 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 4 x USB 2.0
- Connectivity: Dual-band 802.11ax 6E WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet
- Dimensions: 15.2 x 6.89 x 15.43 inches
- Weight: 16.58 pounds
Acer Nitro 50 Review: Design
The Acer Nitro 50 has a gamer aesthetic, but it looks decent without too many RGB lights on the chassis. The front is mostly black with a red, lit-up “V” near the top and a red vented grill at the bottom. On each side of the front of the case are two black panels, the right side holds the power switch and front access ports. The left side doesn’t have the usual transparent tempered glass panel that showcases the neat interior, just some holes to let hot air escape.
At 15.2 x 6.89 x 15.43 inches, the N50-640-UR12 is more compact than the Asus ROG Strix GL10 (16.93 x 16.85 x 7 inches) but slightly bigger than the HP Pavilion Gaming desktop (12.09 x 6.12 x 13.28 inches). Acer includes a standard gaming keyboard in the package, but you’ll have to buy a monitor separately. You can pair it with a 24-inch Sceptre gaming monitor with a 75Hz refresh rate, alongside a Redragon S101 gaming keyboard and mouse combo.
Port selection is excellent as the Acer Nitro 50 offers most ports you’d need daily. On the front panel, there’s a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C and a pair of audio jacks, which is decent connectivity – and they are not hidden behind a flimsy door. Around the back, there are more ports: 1 USB Type-C, 2 USB 3.2, and 2 USB 2.0, as well as an included keyboard and mouse.
Graphics and VR Performance
The Acer Nitro 50 packs a solid feature set designed for anyone starting to take PC gaming seriously. It packs a capable Nvidia RTX 3060 (12GB) graphics card, which offers much better gaming performance than the base RTX 3050 graphics card available on most budget gaming desktops and laptops. Like the rest of the Nvidia RTX 3000 series graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 3060 is based on Nvidia’s Ampere architecture. With the move from Turing to Ampere, Nvidia brings to the core more than just a higher product number.
The biggest change in Ampere is in the Streaming Multiprocessor’s (SM) datapath, whereby, while the RTX 3060 has fewer SMs at 28 than the RTX 2060 with 30, its CUDA core count jumps to 3,584 on the RTX 3060 over its predecessor’s 1,920. That’s a massive boost, and that explains the reason why the RTX 3060 is an excellent performer in gaming workloads.
And the GeForce RTX 3060 in this model comes equipped with 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 192-bit bus. Well, that’s a lot of memory available on a graphics card.
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In real-world gaming, Nvidia’s graphics offering comes into play. For instance, Shadow of the Tomb Raider runs at 153 fps at 1080p on the Acer N50-640-UR12 and 56 fps at 4K. The former ties with the Dell G5, and the latter tails the HP Omen 30L, by a wide margin, but understandable considering it packs the high-end Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card and Intel’s Core i9 processor.
Elsewhere, Far Cry New Dawn leverages the MSI Aegis but pulls ahead at 1080p by 11 fps, scoring 108 fps, which drops to 65 fps in 4K. Borderlands 3 (high settings) at the exact resolution achieves 117 fps, which is impressive. And at 4K, the Acer Nitro 5’s 39 fps is once again a few frames behind the MSI and Alienware systems with the same GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards.
Finally, Nvidia Ampere brings ray tracing and Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), and both of these technologies are available on the RTX 3060. This means that this rig performs especially well at 1080p, but 1440p might not be that fluent, and not all games are going to utilize all that 12GB RAM, after all.
As ever, the RTX 3060 meets the requirements to support VR gaming, meaning it’s optimized for your HTC VIVE and Oculus Rift VR headsets.
Productivity Performance
Acer offers the Nitro 50 in various configurations, but the model we’re reviewing – the N50-640-UR12 packs the latest 12th generation Intel Core i5-12400F processor, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD + 1TB HDD. It comes with Windows 11 Home pre-installed, and these specs are just what you’d need to run most productivity tasks when not gaming.
The Acer Nitro 50, used as a productivity machine, packs enough power to run most tasks, may it be media creation or video editing. Its feature set suggests that it’s perfectly capable of handling tasks that require significant processing muscle. Naturally, an eight-core chip should fare better, but getting one of those in a gaming tower gives you immeasurable value for your buck.
Should I buy the Acer Nitro 50?
The Acer Nitro N50 is small, sturdy, and powerful. The modest price means a mid-tier specification, but it still has enough power to handle 1080p gaming, some titles, and eSports at 144Hz, and the 12th Gen CPU is well suited to handle day-to-day productivity tasks. It also gets some fantastic connect9vity and storage options.
Even with the lower price, the existing compromises such as limited upgradeability aren’t badly off to give anybody considering this machine a pause. It’s a small pc that doesn’t have fancy lighting, great for anyone who’d just like something that can sit under a desk and do its job. It has an excellent port selection, including USB-C and Wi-Fi 6E for wireless networks.
On the other hand, it’s hard to get excited about the Nitro 50 when the Acer Predator Orion 300 (PO3-630-UA15) is on sale for around the same price as the Nitro 50. And while it packs an 11th Gen, processor; its Intel Core i7-11700F (8-core) processor paired with a GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, 16GB RAM, and 512 GB SSD + 1TB HDD make it a better overall value than the Acer Nitro 50, and so are other PCs in this price range.
Bottom Line
As usual with a big-brand PC like this, the Acer Nitro N50 gets an underwhelming motherboard and interior. Buying from a boutique builder – something like the Skytech Archangel will get you better hardware in those departments, even at a lower budget, and a longer warranty. However, the Acer Nitro 50 is an attractive and well-crafted machine and the few downsides are understandable.
If you don’t want to build a gaming PC and need something capable, the Acer Nitro 50 N50-640-UR12 will get you playing most AAA titles at 1080p. But if you save up or have a flexible budget, you can get something faster like our Editors’ Choice, the Alienware Aurora R13 gaming desktop PC.
Last update on 2024-06-30 at 14:52 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Our Pick
Acer Nitro 50 N50-640-UR12 Gaming Desktop | 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400F 6-Core Processor | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | 16GB 3200MHz DDR4 | 512GB SSD | 1TB HDD | Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 | Windows 11 Home
$859.99 in stock
