Acer’s 6-Pound Nitro 17 Is a Powerful Gaming Laptop That Won’t Break the Bank

With all the chatter about the artificial intelligence features of Intel’s new Core Ultra CPUs, it’s easy to forget that AMD has been busy doing AI too. AMD has outfitted many of its Ryzen processors with neural processing units (NPUs) since mid-2023, and it’s continued to expand its AI offerings ever since.

Acer’s latest Nitro 17 gaming laptop (model number AN17-42-R9TH) is built atop an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS, which sits near the top of AMD's product line. If you’re engaging with AI on the desktop, you’ll probably bypass the CPU altogether. With the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics processor in the Nitro 17, everything from gaming to AI image generation gets a significant boost. Aside from the processors, Acer hasn’t exactly pushed the specs to the limit here: 16 GB of RAM and a 1-terabyte solid-state drive are more or less entry-level options today.

That’s just what’s under the hood. On the outside, the Nitro 17 is every bit the beast you are probably expecting, with a 17.3-inch screen (resolution limited to 1,920 X 1,080 pixels), a daunting 34-millimeter thickness, and a weight that tops 6.3 pounds. It is the heaviest and thickest laptop I’ve tested since 2018, and that’s without the power brick (another full pound).