Acer Nitro 65 review: Solid gaming performance, but skimping on some features

The Acer Nitro 65 vies for a spot among the best gaming PCs, and packs in a Ryzen 9 9900X processor, 32GB of DDR5 memory, and a GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card. Given its hardware pedigree, Acer positions the Nitro 65 as an entry-level 4K gaming system. The mid-tower system features an attractive design with a glass side panel, a curved glass front panel, and the usual RGB trimmings. Acer even includes Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, which is a welcome addition given the $2,069 asking price.

Editor's Note: The first Nitro 65 review unit we received exhibited lesser than expected performance and, upon further inspection, damage to some internal components. Acer sent us a second system, which is used here.

Design of the Acer Nitro 65

The Nitro 65 features a sleek black chassis made of a mix of stainless steel and plastic. The case and right side panel are made of steel, while the left side panel is constructed of tempered glass. Both panels are accessed by sticking your finger into a recessed groove and pulling toward you. Then, each panel pivots out and can be completely removed.

The curved glass on the front is embedded in a plastic housing that extends from the floor to the top of the chassis. The same plastic is used for another trim piece that sits below the left side panel. The two plastic pieces feature an engraved channel that combines additional ventilation holes and an RGB light strip that runs from the side of the chassis to the front.

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Magnetic dust filters are provided at the top of the chassis and on the right-side panel (which houses two 120 mm RGB fans). There are two additional 120 mm RGB fans at the rear of the chassis, which are joined by the 120 mm RGB fan for the air CPU cooler and the RGB DDR5 memory sticks.

The Nitro 65 measures 18.4 x 17 x 9.6 inches and weighs 28 pounds.

Acer Nitro 65 Specifications

Ports and Upgradeability on the Acer Nitro 65

Taking things from the top, the Nitro 65 offers a pretty good selection of ports. You get two USB-A ports and one USB-C port. The inclusion of the latter is much appreciated, and is a point that we harped on in our review of the Nitro 60. There’s also a 3.5 mm audio combo jack along with power and reset buttons.

The rear I/O ports come courtesy of the Gigabyte B850M C motherboard. Here you'll find four USB-A 2.0 ports, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port. That should be more than enough plugs to appease most enthusiasts, but it would have been nice to see at least one Thunderbolt port at this price point ($2,099). You'll also find HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort ports, a 2.5 GbE port, and a trio of 3.5 mm audio jacks. Another interesting addition is a WiFi EZ-Plug for the included Wi-Fi antenna, which is a simple plug-and-play affair rather than the typical screw-in antenna connectors.

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As for expansion slots on the motherboard, the B850M C features one PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. There are also two M.2 slots (1x PCIe 5.0, 2x PCIe 4.0). There are also four DDR5 DIMM slots supporting up to 256GB of memory.

There’s also a tray for mounting additional SSDs and HDDs, accessible by removing the right-side panel. Finally, our review unit shipped with a non-modular 850W power supply. The lack of a modular design is somewhat surprising at this price point.

Gaming and Graphics Performance on the Acer Nitro 65The Nitro 65 review unit that we received features a Ryzen 9 9900X processor, 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, and a GeForce RTX 5070 GPU.

To have some fun with the system before jumping into the standard benchmark suite, I played a few rounds of Battlefield 6. I played the game at 2560 x 1600 resolution with the Ultra preset and DLSS enabled. Performance averaged between 140 and 150 frames per second (FPS) during my fragging sessions.

The systems that we have assembled for comparison are the Acer Nitro 60 (Core i7-14700F, RTX 5070), Asus ROG G700 (Core Ultra 7 265KF, RTX 5070), and the iBuyPower Y40 Pro (Ryzen 7 9800X3D, RTX 5070 Ti).

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Unsurprisingly, the systems equipped with an RTX 5070 were quite evenly matched in the gaming benchmarks, with the iBuyPower Y49 Pro eking out the best numbers in most benchmarks thanks to its beefier RTX 5070 Ti.

In the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (Highest detail preset), the Nitro 65 delivered 209 FPS at 1080p and 70 FPS at 4K. That put it about 5 percent ahead of the Nitro 69 and ROG G700 at 1080p, but on even footing at 4K. The Y40 Pro pulled out to a commanding lead with 228 FPS at 1080p and 89 FPS at 4K.

Cyberpunk 2077 (Ray Tracing Ultra preset) is a more demanding game and can be quite punishing on even the best gaming systems. Here, the Nitro 65 managed 69 FPS at 1080p, compared to 65 FPS and 70 FPS for the Nitro 60 and ROG G700, respectively. Those three systems hovered around 20 fps at 4K resolution. The Y40 Pro, however, flexed its muscles with 87 FPS at 1080p and 29 FPS at 4K. With that said, none of these machines offer playable 4K performance, so you’ll likely want to stick with 1440p/1600p or 1080p to make the most of what the RTX 5070 can provide.

Far Cry 6 (Ultra preset) saw the Nitro 65 top the charts, achieving 132 FPS at 1080p compared to 125 FPS on the Y40 Pro. However, the Y40 Pro turned the tables when cranking the resolution to 4K (102 FPS for the Y40 Pro versus 82 FPS for the Nitro 65).

The Nitro 65 performed nearly identically to the Nitro 60 in Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium preset), with the two systems achieving 141 FPS and 143 FPS, respectively, at 1080p, and the same 54 FPS at 4K. The ROG G700 was half a step behind (120 FPS, 50 FPS), while the Y40 Pro was half a step ahead (161 FPS, 66 FPS).

Finally, we come to Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic preset), where the Nitro 65 actually ended up at the back of the pack at 1080p (50 FPS) and tied for second place at 4K (25 FPS). Not surprisingly, the Y40 Pro led with 66 FPS at 1080p and 32 FPS at 4K resolution.

Metro Exodus remains our go-to for stress-testing gaming PCs, and we run each through 15 loops to simulate 30 minutes of gameplay. During the stress test, the Nitro 65 averaged 143 FPS. Across the 15 runs, the Ryzen 9 9900X averaged 57.7 degrees Celsius, while the RTX 5070 averaged 60.24 C. The fans were quite audible during the stress test (and during general gaming). Acer’s decision to go with air cooling for the CPU at this price point is a bit of a puzzle.

Productivity Performance on the Acer Nitro 65

With a Ryzen 9 9900X, 32GB of DDR5, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, the Nitro 65 wasn’t quite as strong in productivity performance. It came out strong in our Geekbench 6 synthetic CPU benchmark, scoring 3,348 in single-core (the highest of the group) and 18,282 in multi-core (second place behind the ROG G700).

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In our 25GB file transfer test, the Nitro 65 didn’t quite have the juice to climb up the performance ladder. It delivered 1,719.57 MBps compared to 1,816.50 MBps on the ROG G700 and 1,861.60 MBps on the Nitro 60.

Finally, the Handbrake 4K-to-1080p video transcoding test placed the Nitro 65 in third place, with a time of 2 minutes and 51 seconds. The ROG G700 turned in the best time of 2:03, while the Y40 Pro rolled into second place at 2:29. The Nitro 60 was at the back of the pack at 3 minutes and 10 seconds.

Keyboard and Mouse on the Acer Nitro 65

The Nitro 65 ships with a basic wired USB keyboard and mouse. The mouse is designed for right-handed gamers and has a very cheap plastic feel. Yes, it’s lightweight, but I just can’t get past the plasticky feel. The main buttons click with authority, as do the two side buttons. The scroll wheel is rubberized and has satisfying detents as you flick it up and down. DPI is adjustable via a button behind the scroll wheel. There’s also an RGB strip that runs across the top and side of the mouse, and light also peeks out from the scroll wheel.

The keyboard is also rather mediocre and feels cheap. The entire keyboard deck flexes to a high degree when twisting it, and the plastic covering the Num, Caps, and Scroll LEDs wasn’t even aligned properly. The keyboard, however, features an integrated scroll wheel for volume control and single-zone RGB backlighting.

Software and Warranty on the Acer Nitro 65

The Nitro 65 is relatively light on factory-installed bloatware. The biggest offender is a free 30-day trial of the McAfee antivirus suite. This would be the first app to get the boot from me. There is also a small smattering of game demos and subscription apps that Microsoft throws into the Start Menu by default.

The only item of note is Acer Jumpstart, which is nothing but a shortcut that opens your browser to Acer’s homepage.

The Nitro 65 ships with a one-year parts and labor warranty.

Acer Nitro 65 Configurations

The Nitro 65, as far as we can tell, is a Best Buy-exclusive offering from Acer. There is no mention of the system on Acer’s website, and it’s not available from its online store. However, there are four configurations available from Best Buy’s online marketplace.

Our review unit came with a Ryzen 9 9900X processor, 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, a GeForce RTX 5070 GPU, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and an 850W power supply for $2,069.99 at Best Buy. There’s also a configuration that swaps out the RTX 5070 for a Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU (with all other specs remaining the same) for $2,229.99.

There are also cheaper configurations available, starting at $1,379.99 for a Ryzen 7 8700F with 16GB of DDR5, a 1TB SSD, and a Radeon RX 9060 XT. Swapping out the RX 9060 XT for an RTX 5060 raises the price slightly to $1,399.99.

Bottom Line

The Acer Nitro 65 is a well-equipped gaming desktop with strong gaming and mid-pack productivity performance with a Ryzen 9 9900X processor and RTX 5070 processor on deck. With a price tag of over $2,000, we expected a bit more performance. And with systems hundreds of dollars less employing liquid cooling, it’s a bit of a head scratcher that Acer uses an air cooler that can be grating on your ears under load.

The Asus ROG G700 still remains a more compelling offering in this segment (while saving you $70), with similar performance and a water-cooled CPU to help keep noise levels down.