Not every laptop checks out all the boxes of price to performance comparison. Finding such a device that bundles good performance, portability and budget saving is quite challenging. And that is exactly why we will be talking about the Acer Swift 3 SF315-41G. It’s nothing glamorous nor does it contain the latest hardware in the industry but it will sure get the job done. It is without a question an all rounder due to the dedicated GPU, NVMe-SSD, capable CPU and the IPS panel monitor. Not to mention the backlit keyboard. Let’s see how it stacks up against its opponents and why this is much more popular.
Acer Swift 3 SF315-41G Specs
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 2700U Up to 3.8GHz |
| GPU | Radeon RX 540 |
| Memory | 8GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 256GB SSD |
| Display | 15.60 inch 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixel |
| Weight | 4.63 lbs |
| Connectivity | 802.11ac Wi-Fi (Dual-Band 2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.1 |
| Ports | 1 – USB 3.1 (Type-C) port (Gen 1 up to 5 Gbps), 2 – USB 3.0 ports (one with power-off charging), 1 – USB 2.0 port, 1 – HDMI Port with HDCP support |
Acer Swift 3 SF315-41G CPU And GPU
It is not a heavily multithreaded powerhouse for highly intensive tasks but it can accomplish much more than the specs on paper suggests. The Ryzen 7 2700U was released as part of the Raven Ridge family, contains 4 cores and 8 threads and can handle multitasking thanks to Simultaneous Multithreading. The TDP of the Ryzen 7 2700U is 15 watts making it better for power efficiency and longer battery life. Talking about benchmark scores, the Ryzen 7 2700U tends to score competitively in single-core and multi-core tests in the Cinebench tests. However, the Intel i5-8250U outranks it in single core tests. With Turbo enabled, the clock speeds can run up to 3.6 GHz. However, the Cinebench R15 benchmark’s multithreaded test proves that it is not suitable for continuous CPU computation. Again, this is not for high intensive tasks.
The integrated Vega graphics on the Ryzen 7 2700U are capable of handling light gaming and multimedia tasks. It is important to note that this is not a high-end gaming solution, but it provides reasonable performance for integrated graphics. The dedicated Radeon RX 540 is an interesting add-on though and that is one of the main reasons why this laptop is an attractive purchase. The RX 540 is equipped with GDDR5 video memory with varying capacities, commonly ranging from 2GB to 4GB (this case it is 2GB). It can handle casual gaming and multimedia tasks. This GPU is in the same performance category as of Nvidia’s mobile graphics. NVIDIA GeForce MX150 / MX250 / MX330 / MX350 and even GTX 1050 / GTX 1050 Ti are some such examples. I played Battlefield 1 on an MX150 embedded PC and I was not disappointed.
Display And Storage
The display is nothing exciting or extraordinary. Just the standard 15.6″ Full HD IPS panel found in fellow competitive laptops in the same range such HP Pavilion models. Some competitors such as the Lenovo Ideapad 320-15IKBRN 81BG001KGE which has the TN LED panel performs better in terms of response times and refresh rates and also in this case, sRGB coverage for display. Brightness distribution and contrast levels are somewhat below the other similarly priced laptops with the same screen specs. However, the fact remains that the slower response times can be disheartening for gamers although this laptop has won the hearts of many gamers.
The NVMe SSD uses the PCI Express 3.0 x4 so you can expect high data read/write speeds. Of course a better SSD like the Samsung evo could render much higher speeds. But then again you get what you pay for and it is more than satisfactory. Nonetheless, the Acer Swift 3 SF315-41G performs much better than its rivals in the CrystalDiskMark 3.0 test for read/write speeds in 512, 4K.
Battery And Heat
Doesn’t live up to its spec on paper for 9 hours of course when tested in real world usage. Under a balanced settings profile (medium brightness, Wi-Fi on) for casual web browsing notebookcheck says that it lasted for a little over six and a half hours. With the video playback test with power saver on, it lasted for six hours and six minutes. An interesting fact here is that the Acer Swift 3 version with the Intel CPU has better battery life. The reason seems to be more energy consumption for light tasks by the AMD counterpart for light tasks.
Talking about heat emission, it does pass the 40 degree Celsius mark during the stress tests. Keep in mind that these are extreme conditions which isn’t really the case under regular usage. For gaming, if you are playing under maximum graphic settings, then the RX 540 throttles a little when it reaches a certain temperature and the speed reduces. Again, it is entirely dependent on how you choose to run the game.
Acer Swift 3 SF315-41G Overall Performance
In terms of gaming, you can play most modern games such as Far Cry 5, COD Vanguard, Fortnite under low graphic settings with a FPS of an average 30. Remember that the Radeon RX 540 is equivalent to the Nvidia mobile graphics. So you can only play a handful of games under high settings. You can get a FPS count of 60+ on games such as GTA V, Tomb Raider and Rainbow Six Siege under medium settings.
Overall system performance is definitely exceeding expectations for the price paid in this day and age. For casual gaming, regular usage, mid level content creation and programming, this is a perfect companion. What we have to mention is that the other version with the Intel Core i5-8250U processor and a GeForce-MX150 graphics unit performs better in the PCMark benchmark tests than the AMD version. This is the SF315-51G we are talking about with the MX150 GPU. In conclusion, we can safely acknowledge that the Intel version offers slightly better value than the AMD version. It isn’t a significant deal breaker for day to day usage. Just for intensive tasks and heavy workloads, the Intel version offers better performance. Now you can understand why the Acer Swift 3 SF315-41G is so vastly popular and how it would benefit you.
