The Acer Aspire R 13 Review: Convertible Notebook With A Twist
by Brett Howse on June 15, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Acer
- Aspire
- Ultrabook
- Broadwell-U
- Aspire R 13
GPU Performance
The Acer R 13 comes with Intel’s HD 5500 GPU which we have seen several times already. The i7-5500U has a GPU with a maximum frequency of 950 MHz which is slightly higher than the Core i5 models 900 MHz. With Broadwell also came the new Gen 8 graphics, and while they are certainly a step up over Haswell’s Gen 7.5 series, the 15 watt models are not going to be enough to run the latest and greatest games at great frame rates.
The Acer Aspire R 13 was run through our standard Ultrabook set of tests for the GPU, which includes a couple of synthetics as well as DOTA 2.
3DMark
Futuremark’s 3DMark has several tests which vary in intensity. We run the Fire Strike, Sky Diver, Cloud Gate, and Ice Storm Unlimited tests, and for Ultrabooks, the Cloud Gate lineup is really where the integrated GPUs can start to make a dent. Ice Storm Unlimited is a cross-platform benchmark also available on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, so it can be used to see where the mobile platforms stand. The Acer R 13 did not give the best results on the GPU tests, which means it may have been running into thermal issues despite the active cooling solution. I’ll dig into this more in a minute.
GFXBench
GFXBench is a cross platform benchmark and for notebooks, we use the DirectX version available in the Windows Store. The Acer comes in slightly under some of the other Broadwell units but is pretty close in this light workload.
DOTA 2
For Ultrabook reviews, we turn to DOTA 2 because it is a very popular online arena game, and the graphical demands are low enough that it can be run comfortably on integrated graphics. In this test, the Acer R 13 falls even farther back of the other Broadwell devices. Since the Core i7 has the highest clocked GPU in the HD 5500 series, I dug into this to see what was going on.
The cooling solution in the Acer Aspire R 13 can’t keep up with the high GPU demands of gaming, and it ends up running the Core i7 package pretty warm and it has to throttle down. I added an extra line on the chart in red to display what the maximum GPU frequency is of 950 MHz, and it is very clear that the GPU does not achieve that frequency very often, and drops down quite a bit to 850 MHz, and sometimes even lower to 800 MHz. We performed this same test on the Dell Latitude 14 7000, with a Core i5-5200U, and it had no problem maintaining its 900 MHz maximum GPU frequency during this test. Clearly Acer has some work to do on system cooling in order to dissipate the entire 15 watts of the processor.
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Gigaplex - Monday, June 15, 2015 - link
Writing off the hardware due to bloatware isn't always the right approach, especially when you can just blow the default install away and install a fresh copy of the OS.meacupla - Thursday, June 18, 2015 - link
The thing I hate most about lenovo is their customer service.followed closely by their super cheap TN panels that have the worst viewing angles ever.
If you want a good product and a company that stands behind it, surprisingly enough, Microsoft is the only company worth looking at.
snolepard - Saturday, October 24, 2015 - link
What about the HP spectre x360 - 12h battery life, 3/4in-thin - better than even the new yoga 3 (yoga 700/900). Similar class are also the Dell inspiron 7000 and lenovo miix 700. Interesting 12in'ers are the HP x2 and Dell xps 12. Wish they'd all have narrow bezels ala xps13.Actually, given the minimal size difference, I'm considering the new skylake r14 R5-471T convertible (although the r13's ezel mode is uniquely compact on my lap when i'm viewing a textbook (or having a meal) on the table.
Terry Suave - Monday, June 15, 2015 - link
"Also, since the touch keyboard will not operate in either of these two unique modes, it really makes it hard to use either of them"Perhaps I'm missing something, but on touch devices with Windows, isn't there always a little button next to the tray for pulling the touch keyboard up?
Brett Howse - Monday, June 15, 2015 - link
I don't mean on the desktop I mean in touch apps, like, Modern IE, system login, that kind of thing.Terry Suave - Monday, June 15, 2015 - link
Oh, that's interesting. I wonder why it doesn't.Brett Howse - Monday, June 15, 2015 - link
I asked Acer about it and was told to reset it to factory, which I did, and it still does it. There's a hardware switch somewhere that's not set correctly.2disbetter - Monday, June 15, 2015 - link
You are correct, and if it's not there, you can right click on the taskbar, go to Toolbars, and then select Touch Keyboard to put it there. (On Windows 8 that is)edirolx - Monday, June 15, 2015 - link
The i5 5th Gen, 128GB, 1080p model is currently selling at the Microsoft Canada Store for $699 and includes the Acer Active Pen. It's a pretty good deal at this price point.FlushedBubblyJock - Tuesday, June 16, 2015 - link
Way too much money for that thing.I see all the whining on video card prices, but there should be a lot more whining on the gigantic markups they all do on these notebooks.