Acer Nitro 50 Gaming Review

A bare-minimum starter gaming PC. The GTX 1650 is okay for 1080p, but the 8GB of RAM is a crippling flaw. Only worth it if you find it cheap and upgrade the RAM immediately.

The Acer Nitro 50 is a basic gaming tower that gets you in the door. It has a 10th Gen Intel i5 and a GTX 1650, which is enough to run most modern games at lower settings. The included keyboard and mouse are a nice touch, and WiFi 6 is a solid modern feature for a budget rig.

But you're getting what you pay for here. The 8GB of RAM is a serious bottleneck, landing in the bottom 2nd percentile in our database. That's barely enough for Windows and a game to run smoothly together. This PC is a starter kit, not a powerhouse.

The GTX 1650 is a middle-of-the-pack GPU, good for 1080p gaming on medium to low settings in titles like Fortnite or Apex Legends. The six-core i5-10400F CPU is underwhelming compared to newer chips, but it's fine for the target games. The real performance killer is the 8GB of RAM. In 2024, that's a severe limitation that will cause stutters in more demanding games and when multitasking. The 512GB SSD is fast for booting, but storage space is about average and will fill up fast with a few big games.

At the lower end of its price range (around $850), it's a passable deal for a complete, no-fuss setup. At the higher end (over $2300), it's a complete rip-off. You need to shop carefully. For the same money, you could often find systems with a better GPU or more RAM. The value is only there if you find it heavily discounted and plan to upgrade the RAM immediately.

Compared to an HP Omen or Dell Alienware, the Nitro 50 feels barebones. Those brands offer better cooling, more powerful components, and often better upgrade paths for similar starting prices. Even against Acer's own newer Nitro 60, this model is showing its age. The Lenovo Legion Tower 5i often packs more punch for a comparable price. This Nitro 50's main advantage is that it's a complete, plug-and-play kit for someone who doesn't want to think about parts.

If you want to play the latest AAA games at high settings, look elsewhere. The GTX 1650 and 8GB of RAM combo simply won't cut it. Also, if you need a compact PC, this is a chunky tower that scores terribly in portability.

Buy this only if you're a first-time PC gamer on a very tight budget and you find it for a steep discount (under $900). It's a functional starting point for esports and older games. Plan to spend another $50-$100 on a 16GB RAM kit on day one, or the experience will be frustrating.