The Acer Swift 3 SF315-41 Review: Ryzen Meets Laptop
by Brett Howse on May 3, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Acer
- AMD
- Ryzen
- Ryzen Mobile
- Raven Ridge
Final Words
This review is really looking at two things. First, the Acer Swift 3, and second, the AMD Raven Ridge platform based on Ryzen mobile. Let’s start with the laptop.
Acer’s Swift lineup features models from the Swift 1 at the value end, to the Swift 7 at the top end. So, the Swift 3 is closer to the value end than Acer’s flagship models. But that’s somewhat deceptive because Acer’s Swift 3 is a nicely built device, with a great aluminum exterior, an IPS display, SSD storage, and even a fingerprint reader alongside the excellent trackpad.
It’s not all sunshine and roses for the Swift 3 though. The keyboard is not only cramped with the number pad squeezed in on the right, but the keys themselves are also very poor, with a slippery texture that makes it very easy to miss the key you’re looking for. It does feature backlighting, but the backlighting turns off quickly, and using the trackpad doesn’t light up the keys like it does on most laptops.
The small battery also cuts into the maximum life when not plugged in, and that’s purely a cost decision because there’s plenty of room inside a notebook this big for more battery. Plus, the high baseline power draw pulls down the battery life as well. Compared to a couple of years ago, the battery life is still quite good, but it’s definitely not all day by any means.
The display has great grayscale and white levels, but doesn’t even come close to covering the entire sRGB spectrum, which is something that most laptops do now. At 1920x1080, it does offer enough resolution at least, and of course it’s IPS which is a requirement at this point.
AMD’s Raven Ridge platform has done very well though. The CPU performance is much stronger than the outgoing Carrizo notebook platform, although it’s not quite up to the latest Kaby Lake in terms of absolute performance. But the addition of a real GPU onto the SoC is a welcome change, and allows actual 3D gaming even on a 15-Watt processor. The performance of the Vega GPU is so much better than the Intel integrated solution that really adds a lot of capability.
The combination of AMD’s Ryzen mobile, along with a good design, and excellent specifications for the price, really do make the Acer Swift 3 an appealing proposition. We’ve never tested a laptop at this price point with a 512 GB SSD before, and the 8 GB of DDR4 is very welcome as well at this price. If you can get over the poor quality keyboard, there’s a lot of laptop for the dollar here, and the ability to actually run real games is a welcome change.
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Zan Lynx - Friday, May 4, 2018 - link
It might be something to do with power plans. Is it running default Windows Balanced, Ryzen Balanced, or some other thing? It matters.I know that in Linux using the standard cpufreq settings is a bad idea for Ryzen. It disables in-cpu speed setting and limits it to 2 GHz until the driver gets around to noticing the extra load. Just setting the CPU to its maximum allowed speed is better. The CPU can then decide to run slower when there isn't anything to do, but is instantly ready for high speed.
neblogai - Friday, May 4, 2018 - link
On the other hand- Acer Aspire with 2200U runs games better with it's CPU limited to 1600MHz- because then more power is directed towards the iGPU, it boosts higher, and provides better fps.darkich - Saturday, May 5, 2018 - link
See my comment above..the iPhone also crushes it on GPU side.tipoo - Monday, May 7, 2018 - link
"No, it can’t compete with the GTX 1060 in the Surface Book 2, but it does outperform the GT 940MX in the original Surface Book. The GPU in the Ryzen 7 2700U is just impressive."I'd like to see this pitted against the MX150 in its sibling Intel model. That also beats the 940MX by a fair bit per watt.
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lmcd - Wednesday, May 9, 2018 - link
If you still have this laptop, please give us an overview of its Linux performance. Doesn't have to be anything super great and could just be a pipeline piece.Reason I ask: old AMD laptop CPUs stunk. Intel IGPs still stink. Nvidia graphics on Linux stinks. Graphics switching with discrete AMD on Intel stinks. Net result: this might be the best option. Even if you just ran an old bench like Unigine Heaven and did web browser rundown tests or something like that, I would be extremely grateful.
ballsystemlord - Wednesday, May 23, 2018 - link
I am in agreement with Imcd. Linux gets lost when it comes to the laptop.I must point out Imcd, that xonotic and openarena would be better benchmarks by far for linux than Unigine Heaven as they are native programs not requiring the luser to purchase them and are both highly optimized.
As for Linux CPU benchmarks, a linux kernel compile would be standard. A web one would be firefox or webkit based. A pdf render could be done with gv. A few imagemagick benchmarks can use openmp and opencl. Blender is also a native program and can render on both CPU and GPU. You could transcode video with ffmpeg. Audio with the included tool (flac, oggenc, etc.), would also be good.
Jimster480 - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
Personally.... this laptop is actually HORRIBLE for the price.Another work of Intel's anticompetitive hand in the jar.
Ryzen parts are cheaper than Intel parts.... but for some reason they have to make the laptop with bottom-tier specs and a top-tier price... FOr this price I can buy a full 15.6 i7 HQ laptop with a dedicated GPU and a nice IPS screen and M.2 or NVMe drive...
Instead I get a forced 8GB soldered 2133 (probably single channel) memory to gimp Ryzen as much as possible... and atrocious screen and a subpar battery.
Just so that NOBODY will actually purchase this. ANd this type of gimped trash configuration is the same across all brands.
Every company is making the same overpriced garbage, meaning that nobody will buy Ryzen laptops just due to the outragous uncompetitive pricing and performance.
None of these MFG's have a justification for these prices... and every OEM that has announced any good Ryzen laptop.... well it hasn't ever shown up. Just like Acers own Nitro 5 Ryzen laptop (looking to be the first good Ryzen laptop that will launch) and they just pulled the plug on it some days ago after being 40 days late with launching it...