Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435: The Value Proposition
by Jarred Walton on July 4, 2012 4:25 AM ESTAcer V3-571G General Performance
We start as usual with our general performance application benchmarks. We still don’t have quite as many laptops available in our updated Mobile Benchmark Suite as we’d like, and there’s not much point in comparing a full-size notebook with several different models of Ultrabook. We’ve tried to stick with the more meaningful comparisons where possible, but we also wanted to flesh out the charts with additional data points. The result is the following selection of laptops, with their basic specs listed in the table, and as always, should you want to make additional comparisons, head over to Mobile Bench.
| Laptop Configuration Overview | ||||
| Laptop | CPU | Graphics | Storage | Battery |
| Acer Aspire V3-571G | Intel i7-3610QM | GT640M/HD4000 | HDD | 48Wh |
| Acer TimelineU M3 | Intel i7-2637M | GT640M/HD3000 | SSD | 55Wh |
| AMD Trinity Prototype | AMD A10-4600M | HD7660G | SSD | 56Wh |
| ASUS N56VM (Prerelease) | Intel i7-3720QM | GT630M/HD4000 | HDD | 56Wh |
| ASUS Zenbook Prime UX21A | Intel i7-3517U | HD4000 | SSD | 35Wh |
| ASUS G74SX-A2 | Intel i7-2630QM | GTX560M/HD3000 | SSD | 90Wh |
| Clevo W110ER | Intel i7-3720QM | GT650M/HD4000 | Hybrid | 62Wh |
| Razer Blade | Intel i7-2640M | GT555M/HD3000 | SSD | 60Wh |
| Sony VAIO SE | Intel i7-2640M | HD6630M/HD3000 | HDD | 49Wh |
| Toshiba P755D | AMD A8-3520M | HD6620G | HDD | 47Wh |
As we’re starting with PCMark results, we again want to note how much of an impact the presence of an SSD has on the results. It makes most of the comparisons between the HDD and SSD equipped laptops meaningless, but it does serve to drive home the point that for some workloads an SSD will make a huge difference. I switched over to a 240GB SSD for my laptop and Ultrabook use, and whenever I have to use and test a laptop that only has HDD storage (like the Acer V3), the difference is painfully obvious.
The placement of the Acer V3 in the above charts isn’t very inspiring, but remember what we said about SSDs. Most of the higher scoring laptops feature SSDs and/or slightly faster CPUs. For general use, any of the laptops will be “fast enough”, and as long as you don’t mind waiting during intense periods of disk activity (e.g. initial boot up of the OS and various applications) even the HDD equipped laptops will work well. Still, one look at what an SSD does for the ASUS N56VM might make you consider splurging on better storage system. Acer adds insult to injury here by going with a 5400RPM hard drive, and the only slower Storage score in the charts comes from the Toshiba P755D—which also uses a 5400RPM Toshiba hard drive, not surprisingly.
If we look at the one PCMark 7 test that doesn’t hit storage at all, the Computation suite, we run into a different problem. Here, all of the laptops that support Intel’s Quick Sync technology get a massive performance boost, and the Ivy Bridge processors are basically twice as fast with Quick Sync as Sandy Bridge parts. It makes for yet another lopsided graph, which makes the overall usefulness of the PCMark scores debatable. As long as we understand what the charts represent, however, we can at least use them to gauge relative performance. The basic summary is that, for general use, a moderate CPU (e.g. Trinity, Llano, or Sandy Bridge) with an SSD will offer a better experience than just about any current HDD-based laptop; similarly, if you want to do hardware accelerated video encoding, there’s no beating Quick Sync.
When we shift over to our more CPU- and GPU-centric tests, the performance results start to look more sensible. As one of two quad-core Ivy Bridge laptops, the Acer V3-571G takes second place in all four of our CPU-based tests, losing out by a small margin to the higher clocked i7-3720QM in the ASUS N56VM. The 3DMark scores tell a similar story, although this time it’s the GTX 560M in the ASUS G74SX that takes first place, with the GT 640M generally falling into second place and trading blows with the Razer Blade and Acer M3-581TG Ultrabook. The latter has the same GPU but a slower ULV Sandy Bridge processor, and we should hopefully have the updated M5 Ivy Bridge model in for testing in the near future.
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bji - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
What is the difference? I thought they were the same thing?earthrace57 - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
They aren't, chicklet is far nicer to type on, it is where the keyboard is more of ingrained into the body of the laptop. Floating island keyboards are well....like floating over the body of the keyboard, one little part sticking down to support the entire key, its really bad for typing, especially if you type with the weight of a feather and don't always hit the center of the keys (I hope this is easy enough to read).JarredWalton - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
Some places have referred to some chiclet styles as "floating island". We have used the term to refer to the old-style Acer keyboards. There's some overlap, of course, but here's a couple closeups of what the old and new Acer keys look like:New Acer V3:
http://images.anandtech.com/galleries/2138/Acer%20...
Old Acer:
http://images.anandtech.com/galleries/2138/Acer%20...
Both keys "float" in one sense (the small connector in the middle), but the spacing between the keys is the real issue with the old style -- without looking, it's easy to lose track of where your fingers are on the keyboard. The feel is just... [shudder].
3dgeneralist - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
I love acer laptops. Bang for the buck! Owned several laptops. Last one I switched from an Asus core2duo laptop to an Acer i7 laptop. My Asus would reboot after 3 years of heavy use in 3d rendering so I sold it. Had a choice to buy a macpro or acer i7. Needless to say I bought the acer instead. The price for the macbook pro was double with only an old nvidia 9600 card and dualcore only. Ridiculous!Now my acer i7 is on its third year and no problems yet. Heavy use in 3d rendering and video editing on the go.
I actually bought a netbook n2600 from gateway knowing its a sister company from acer. Again its a good buy compared to other brands like toshiba, samsung with the same features. I'm not surprised this price point has the most sales for laptops. Only hardcore gamers really buy 1000USD plus laptops.
san1s - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
Some commenters here are ridiculously arrogant. I am part of the population that buys these laptops (I bought a similar one last year, $750 with i7 quad core and GT 540m). I am a college student, and can't afford Macbook Pros that cost twice as much (or more) while only offering the same amount of performance. This doesn't mean that I shouldn't be allowed to use my computer for purposes that usually requires lots of computing power. I use it as my desktop and connect it to an external monitor, and I can take it with me when I need to take notes. I would love a higher resolution matte IPS screen and a larger battery, but I understand that these are compromises required for the price.karasaj - Thursday, July 5, 2012 - link
I like the mid range priced laptops! Did you mention that you will be reviewing the TimelineU M5 as well soon? And hopefully other laptops in that area/range? I like reading about the 800-1k range, since that seems to be what I'll be spending next :PJarredWalton - Thursday, July 5, 2012 - link
We should have a Timeline M5 as well as the Aspire S5 (I think those are the right model names) in for review soon. I also have a Samsung Series 7 coming, should be some ASUS Ultrabooks, and Dell's new XPS 15 among others. For the gamers out there, we're also hoping to have GTX 680M vs. HD 7970M notebooks ready for testing in the near future. :-)karasaj - Thursday, July 5, 2012 - link
Awesome! I imagine it's too greedy of me to ask when these reviews will be up? :) I'm strongly considering the TimelineU m5 and I'm trying to decide if the cheaper cost is worth it over something like the Vizio notebook.JarredWalton - Friday, July 6, 2012 - link
They're supposed to be on their way right now, so hopefully we'll get them in the next few days. Once we have them, 1-2 weeks at most before the reviews are up.karasaj - Friday, July 6, 2012 - link
Awesome!