Acer Nitro 5 An515-42 release date

Red_Sun

4 cell I think? Reading more, it is not a new issue, and I will be doing a clean install of Win10 on a different SSD soon. Intetested to see if it a still does it then. Also, I kinda view nitro sense as bloatware. Am I incorrect?

dclanz

Jimster480 said:

dclanz said:

Jimster480 said:

dclanz said:

Something I noticed, if you go to the task manager, then go to the services tab and sort by name you will see XTU3SERVICE. I was like why is the Intel Extreme Tuning utility running on a Ryzen laptop. Naturally I downloaded and installed XTU and checked but I could do nothing. Also got a lot of trouble to remove it so I reset the laptop and found the service running again along with a nice little folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility. So I decided to snoop around and see what could be using XTU as a service. My initial hunch was that somehow Nitro Sense could be utilizing it to monitor temps (but to make adjustments to the processor would be impossible). Then I thought why did they not use Ryzen Master and I remembered that doesn't recognize the Ryzen 2500U.....yet!

Yea I already tried the Ryzen master utility with no success. I think I wrote that in my review on my website aswell!

I disabled the XTU service easily just go to services and disable it and it will be gone forever.

I'd rather leave the XTU service running as I'm not sure how it would impact Nitro Sense (if it's being used by it at all).

I disabled it and haven't seen anything. This laptop has nothing intel so... why would it be using XTU? that cant even read AMD hardware.

Red_Sun said:

Anyone else notice the cpu locks at 1.5ghz on battery? Must be a nitro sense/power profile thing. I set the latter for the CPU to run at 100% on battery, but it still does it. Might uninstall nitro sense to see what happens

Haven't tested it, but it could be due to battery size? I'm not sure how many cells it is.

This is true, the laptop has nothing Intel related but I can't help but think the XTU service is somehow linked to Nitro Sense. Are there any other apps out there which you recommend that would provide control over the fan speeds in case I decide to disable the XTU service?

Jimster480

dclanz said:

Jimster480 said:

dclanz said:

Jimster480 said:

dclanz said:

Something I noticed, if you go to the task manager, then go to the services tab and sort by name you will see XTU3SERVICE. I was like why is the Intel Extreme Tuning utility running on a Ryzen laptop. Naturally I downloaded and installed XTU and checked but I could do nothing. Also got a lot of trouble to remove it so I reset the laptop and found the service running again along with a nice little folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility. So I decided to snoop around and see what could be using XTU as a service. My initial hunch was that somehow Nitro Sense could be utilizing it to monitor temps (but to make adjustments to the processor would be impossible). Then I thought why did they not use Ryzen Master and I remembered that doesn't recognize the Ryzen 2500U.....yet!

Yea I already tried the Ryzen master utility with no success. I think I wrote that in my review on my website aswell!

I disabled the XTU service easily just go to services and disable it and it will be gone forever.

I'd rather leave the XTU service running as I'm not sure how it would impact Nitro Sense (if it's being used by it at all).

I disabled it and haven't seen anything. This laptop has nothing intel so... why would it be using XTU? that cant even read AMD hardware.

Red_Sun said:

Anyone else notice the cpu locks at 1.5ghz on battery? Must be a nitro sense/power profile thing. I set the latter for the CPU to run at 100% on battery, but it still does it. Might uninstall nitro sense to see what happens

Haven't tested it, but it could be due to battery size? I'm not sure how many cells it is.

This is true, the laptop has nothing Intel related but I can't help but think the XTU service is somehow linked to Nitro Sense. Are there any other apps out there which you recommend that would provide control over the fan speeds in case I decide to disable the XTU service?

I killed the XTU service and nitrosense still is working fine for me. Like I said XTU doesn't interface with anything AMD so they cannot be using it to control anything on this laptop. Likely this just comes from their gaming laptop image and they forgot to remove it.

dclanz

Jimster480 said:

dclanz said:

Jimster480 said:

dclanz said:

Jimster480 said:

dclanz said:

Something I noticed, if you go to the task manager, then go to the services tab and sort by name you will see XTU3SERVICE. I was like why is the Intel Extreme Tuning utility running on a Ryzen laptop. Naturally I downloaded and installed XTU and checked but I could do nothing. Also got a lot of trouble to remove it so I reset the laptop and found the service running again along with a nice little folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility. So I decided to snoop around and see what could be using XTU as a service. My initial hunch was that somehow Nitro Sense could be utilizing it to monitor temps (but to make adjustments to the processor would be impossible). Then I thought why did they not use Ryzen Master and I remembered that doesn't recognize the Ryzen 2500U.....yet!

Yea I already tried the Ryzen master utility with no success. I think I wrote that in my review on my website aswell!

I disabled the XTU service easily just go to services and disable it and it will be gone forever.

I'd rather leave the XTU service running as I'm not sure how it would impact Nitro Sense (if it's being used by it at all).

I disabled it and haven't seen anything. This laptop has nothing intel so... why would it be using XTU? that cant even read AMD hardware.

Red_Sun said:

Anyone else notice the cpu locks at 1.5ghz on battery? Must be a nitro sense/power profile thing. I set the latter for the CPU to run at 100% on battery, but it still does it. Might uninstall nitro sense to see what happens

Haven't tested it, but it could be due to battery size? I'm not sure how many cells it is.

This is true, the laptop has nothing Intel related but I can't help but think the XTU service is somehow linked to Nitro Sense. Are there any other apps out there which you recommend that would provide control over the fan speeds in case I decide to disable the XTU service?

I killed the XTU service and nitrosense still is working fine for me. Like I said XTU doesn't interface with anything AMD so they cannot be using it to control anything on this laptop. Likely this just comes from their gaming laptop image and they forgot to remove it.

Excellent! I'll have a look at disabling it once I get home, thanks!

Red_Sun

"Are there any other apps out there which you recommend that would provide control over the fan speeds in case I decide to disable the XTU service?"

Tried installing ryzen master utility, stated not compatible. I've used speedFan  before. Going to have to find something, because when I did a re-install when I first bought this unit, I wasn't able to get nitro sense working again for some odd reason.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3666967/software-control-fan-speed-based-temperature-cpu-gpu.html

Will report accordingly once I get a fresh OS on the new SSD.  

Red_Sun

Also interesting, to answer my own question about the DD4-2666 ram, is the memory controller looks to be set for DDR-2400...hrmmmm.....

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Zen/AMD-Ryzen 5 Mobile 2500U.html

Jimster480

Red_Sun said:

Also interesting, to answer my own question about the DD4-2666 ram, is the memory controller looks to be set for DDR-2400...hrmmmm.....

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Zen/AMD-Ryzen 5 Mobile 2500U.html

It can support upto 3200Mhz DDR4. I believe the Dell Inspirion 7375 has the ability to adjust this.

intok

Has anyone tried it with Linux? Ubuntu 18.04 is what I would be running without ever booting into the version of Windows that it comes with, that all of the hardware just works is all that matters.

dclanz

intok said:

Has anyone tried it with Linux? Ubuntu 18.04 is what I would be running without ever booting into the version of Windows that it comes with, that all of the hardware just works is all that matters.

No but I plan to try it out but with VirtualBox. Just waiting for the RAM I ordered to get here.

Red_Sun

Jimster480 said:

Red_Sun said:

Also interesting, to answer my own question about the DD4-2666 ram, is the memory controller looks to be set for DDR-2400...hrmmmm.....

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Zen/AMD-Ryzen 5 Mobile 2500U.html

It can support upto 3200Mhz DDR4. I believe the Dell Inspirion 7375 has the ability to adjust this.

Any suggrstions on getting it to run on at 2666?

Jimster480

intok said:

Has anyone tried it with Linux? Ubuntu 18.04 is what I would be running without ever booting into the version of Windows that it comes with, that all of the hardware just works is all that matters.

I will try dual booting it with linux soon.

Red_Sun said:

Jimster480 said:

Red_Sun said:

Also interesting, to answer my own question about the DD4-2666 ram, is the memory controller looks to be set for DDR-2400...hrmmmm.....

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Zen/AMD-Ryzen 5 Mobile 2500U.html

It can support upto 3200Mhz DDR4. I believe the Dell Inspirion 7375 has the ability to adjust this.

Any suggrstions on getting it to run on at 2666?

They need to enable it in the BIOS.

In another note, there are a bunch of fake reviews of this laptop now that it just went on sale at best buy. 10 fake reviews to be precise, with my review being the only real review still on the site.

dclanz

Jimster480 said:

In another note, there are a bunch of fake reviews of this laptop now that it just went on sale at best buy. 10 fake reviews to be precise, with my review being the only real review still on the site. 

How can you tell?

Jimster480

dclanz said:

Jimster480 said:

In another note, there are a bunch of fake reviews of this laptop now that it just went on sale at best buy. 10 fake reviews to be precise, with my review being the only real review still on the site. 

How can you tell?

Its easy to tell, none of these guys know anything about the laptop. None of them are verified purchasers and they are all from the "bestbuy insider network".
One guy claims it has 6 cores and 12 threads. Another guy claims he plays in 720p low/medium with it and that it cannot handle any modern titles.
Another guy claims that it doesn't have near the power of a GTX 1050Ti (when the card in this laptop is basically neck and neck with the mobile 1050Ti).

Yet another review claims that you can "pay a bunch more for the 2500U and 560X but you don't need it".

And like 3 other reviews are just basically long synopsis of the specs themselves without any actual performance numbers or useful data about the laptop.
There is another "gaming" review that talks about PubG but doesn't give a single actual performance number or setting variable, just that you can "play in good settings at good fps".
When you look at the profiles of the "people" who did the reviews they are from everywhere including Trinidad. And they are all posted in the last 72 hours (basically around the same time the sale started).

dclanz

Jimster480 said:

dclanz said:

Jimster480 said:

In another note, there are a bunch of fake reviews of this laptop now that it just went on sale at best buy. 10 fake reviews to be precise, with my review being the only real review still on the site. 

How can you tell?

Its easy to tell, none of these guys know anything about the laptop. None of them are verified purchasers and they are all from the "bestbuy insider network".
One guy claims it has 6 cores and 12 threads. Another guy claims he plays in 720p low/medium with it and that it cannot handle any modern titles. 
Another guy claims that it doesn't have near the power of a GTX 1050Ti (when the card in this laptop is basically neck and neck with the mobile 1050Ti).

Yet another review claims that you can "pay a bunch more for the 2500U and 560X but you don't need it".

And like 3 other reviews are just basically long synopsis of the specs themselves without any actual performance numbers or useful data about the laptop.
There is another "gaming" review that talks about PubG but doesn't give a single actual performance number or setting variable, just that you can "play in good settings at good fps".
When you look at the profiles of the "people" who did the reviews they are from everywhere including Trinidad. And they are all posted in the last 72 hours (basically around the same time the sale started).

I'm from Trinidad and Tobago, I own the laptop, I run many of my games in 720p low to medium settings, I wrote one of the reviews and under my name in the review there is a Verified Purchase logo, not sure how you missed that. However, you sort of took what I said out of context when you said that I said it cannot handle any modern titles. I actually said in my review of the unit "In my experience older titles run well enough (these include Just Cause 2, Styx Master of Shadows, Warframe) while newer titles like Vampyr and Hellblade are a bit sluggish in comparison." I'm not certain how that means it cannot run modern titles at all. Have you done any testing of games yourself? Any particular modern titles you may want to share with us?
Further, you seem to believe quite incorrectly, that because there was a sale and reviews started cropping up that they are fake. These are genuine opinions of people who owned the laptop, many like myself who just got around to writing reviews after using the unit for awhile and no two reviews are the same as we all do things differently.
Finally, it says a lot when a person is quick to condemn the views of others, especially when each experience is unique and gives that particular person's view on the item in question but I'll let consumers decide for themselves what is genuine and what is not. I myself certainly wouldn't take the word of a person who says forget the rest, mine is the best. I'd consider each review carefully, see if the product matches my needs based on the experiences of others and then make a better informed decision about my purchase.....then again, that's just my opinion.

Jimster480

dclanz said:

Jimster480 said:

dclanz said:

Jimster480 said:

In another note, there are a bunch of fake reviews of this laptop now that it just went on sale at best buy. 10 fake reviews to be precise, with my review being the only real review still on the site. 

How can you tell?

Its easy to tell, none of these guys know anything about the laptop. None of them are verified purchasers and they are all from the "bestbuy insider network".
One guy claims it has 6 cores and 12 threads. Another guy claims he plays in 720p low/medium with it and that it cannot handle any modern titles. 
Another guy claims that it doesn't have near the power of a GTX 1050Ti (when the card in this laptop is basically neck and neck with the mobile 1050Ti).

Yet another review claims that you can "pay a bunch more for the 2500U and 560X but you don't need it".

And like 3 other reviews are just basically long synopsis of the specs themselves without any actual performance numbers or useful data about the laptop.
There is another "gaming" review that talks about PubG but doesn't give a single actual performance number or setting variable, just that you can "play in good settings at good fps".
When you look at the profiles of the "people" who did the reviews they are from everywhere including Trinidad. And they are all posted in the last 72 hours (basically around the same time the sale started).

I'm from Trinidad and Tobago, I own the laptop, I run many of my games in 720p low to medium settings, I wrote one of the reviews and under my name in the review there is a Verified Purchase logo, not sure how you missed that. However, you sort of took what I said out of context when you said that I said it cannot handle any modern titles. I actually said in my review of the unit "In my experience older titles run well enough (these include Just Cause 2, Styx Master of Shadows, Warframe) while newer titles like Vampyr and Hellblade are a bit sluggish in comparison." I'm not certain how that means it cannot run modern titles at all. Have you done any testing of games yourself? Any particular modern titles you may want to share with us?
Further, you seem to believe quite incorrectly, that because there was a sale and reviews started cropping up that they are fake. These are genuine opinions of people who owned the laptop, many like myself who just got around to writing reviews after using the unit for awhile and no two reviews are the same as we all do things differently.
Finally, it says a lot when a person is quick to condemn the views of others, especially when each experience is unique and gives that particular person's view on the item in question but I'll let consumers decide for themselves what is genuine and what is not. I myself certainly wouldn't take the word of a person who says forget the rest, mine is the best. I'd consider each review carefully, see if the product matches my needs based on the experiences of others and then make a better informed decision about my purchase.....then again, that's just my opinion.

Yes you are right, I went back and looked at your review to see that yours does have a verified purchase logo.
But your tests still don't offer much information because there is no reason to run games at 720p low when I can play games like Overwatch, HoTS, CSGO, Warframe at 60+fps 1080p HIGH without any problems.

I haven't played anything super heavy on this laptop because I don't even play any super heavy games. But telling consumers that this laptop can handle older titles in 720p is just straight incorrect, and if these are your findings then there is a problem with your unit overall and you aren't using the dGPU in any scenario.

When I tested the above games I could get 40+ fps in 720p in every title, some titles were even around 60fps in 720p especially in medium details.

But the other reviews talking about pubg without any actual useful settings, or the reviews that don't mention anything about the laptop but just talk about the specs? What about the guy who says "you can pay more for a 2500U and 560x but you dont need it", that makes no sense because those ARE the specs of this laptop. the other guy talking about this laptop having 6 cores and 12 threads? These are "his findings"?

I'm sorry but I have the only comprehensive review there, and for all the reviews to be posted in the same span of 72 hours is very suspicious to me especially when these reviews don't contain technical or useful information about the laptop. Especially with the information of the laptop itself being updated ot say upto 6 cores and 12 processing..... which I'm not sure when/why they updated it to the incorrect specs. But when you have a review with the same incorrect data, it makes it look more like you had the spec sheet and you just made the review based on that same spec page.

But what is even more interesting is that since this morning when I commented on these reviews and I even wrote on AMD's twitter about them, some of the reviews have been edited and there are 4 more reviews posted.

Only your review is "verified purchase" which is interesting since obviously I ordered mine from Best Buy aswell and the rest of from the "insider network", which literally says that people are given products for free to review. So essentially exactly as I claimed, that they are paid reviews.

dclanz

"But telling consumers that this laptop can handle older titles in 720p is just straight incorrect, and if these are your findings then there is a problem with your unit overall and you aren't using the dGPU in any scenario."
How is this incorrect if the laptop can play games at these settings I prefer to run it at with the Radeon RX 560X? You keep saying that my unit has an issue when it functions just fine to me. Perhaps you refuse to acknowledge that my experience is different to yours?

"But the other reviews talking about pubg without any actual useful settings, or the reviews that don't mention anything about the laptop but just talk about the specs?"
Again, this information isn't useful to you because you have a different standard for what you term as useful information. For someone who just wants to know if the laptop can run PUBG, this could be their defining factor for purchase.

"I'm sorry but I have the only comprehensive review there, and for all the reviews to be posted in the same span of 72 hours is very suspicious to me especially when these reviews don't contain technical or useful information about the laptop."
Ah, there we go. In your opinion, you have the only comprehensive review there. Don't discard the views of others because you think yours is the best when you did things differently. Your review could prove either helpful or non-informative depending on what a customer wants to know.

"But what is even more interesting is that since this morning when I commented on these reviews and I even wrote on AMD's twitter about them, some of the reviews have been edited and there are 4 more reviews posted. "
Sorry, I didn't follow up with each edit, time frame and the amount of reviews posted since then. It is interesting that you did and it lends credence to the fact that you seem to be out to discredit each review whilst promoting yours as the most informative and worthy. Relax, your review is just your opinion among others and like I said, it is up to potential customers, not you, to determine the worthiness of information which is presented to them.

"Only your review is "verified purchase" which is interesting since obviously I ordered mine from Best Buy aswell and the rest of from the "insider network", which literally says that people are given products for free to review. So essentially exactly as I claimed, that they are paid reviews."
Quite strange that you only noticed the verified purchase available under my review after I pointed it out. Equally strange that you're not a verified buyer yourself but that's beside the point. However, again from what you say, it seems that you're on a path to discredit all the other reviews and user opinions because they don't fit according to your standards. Not cool, you can do better than that. Each review provides its own information to the public who in turn decides whether that information is useful or not, this isn't determined by you.

Red_Sun

Hey guys, can you take a peek at windows task manager and tell me what speed your ram is running at under the performance tab? Funny thing, "speed," "slots used," "form factor," and "hardware reserved" are missing after the last update. Also, my system started failing to post. Put the old ram stick back in and works like a charm. Sorry Kingston, I gave you a chance...

Jimster480

dclanz said:

"But telling consumers that this laptop can handle older titles in 720p is just straight incorrect, and if these are your findings then there is a problem with your unit overall and you aren't using the dGPU in any scenario."
How is this incorrect if the laptop can play games at these settings I prefer to run it at with the Radeon RX 560X? You keep saying that my unit has an issue when it functions just fine to me. Perhaps you refuse to acknowledge that my experience is different to yours?

"But the other reviews talking about pubg without any actual useful settings, or the reviews that don't mention anything about the laptop but just talk about the specs?"
Again, this information isn't useful to you because you have a different standard for what you term as useful information. For someone who just wants to know if the laptop can run PUBG, this could be their defining factor for purchase.

"I'm sorry but I have the only comprehensive review there, and for all the reviews to be posted in the same span of 72 hours is very suspicious to me especially when these reviews don't contain technical or useful information about the laptop."
Ah, there we go. In your opinion, you have the only comprehensive review there. Don't discard the views of others because you think yours is the best when you did things differently. Your review could prove either helpful or non-informative depending on what a customer wants to know.

"But what is even more interesting is that since this morning when I commented on these reviews and I even wrote on AMD's twitter about them, some of the reviews have been edited and there are 4 more reviews posted. "
Sorry, I didn't follow up with each edit, time frame and the amount of reviews posted since then. It is interesting that you did and it lends credence to the fact that you seem to be out to discredit each review whilst promoting yours as the most informative and worthy. Relax, your review is just your opinion among others and like I said, it is up to potential customers, not you, to determine the worthiness of information which is presented to them.

"Only your review is "verified purchase" which is interesting since obviously I ordered mine from Best Buy aswell and the rest of from the "insider network", which literally says that people are given products for free to review. So essentially exactly as I claimed, that they are paid reviews."
Quite strange that you only noticed the verified purchase available under my review after I pointed it out. Equally strange that you're not a verified buyer yourself but that's beside the point. However, again from what you say, it seems that you're on a path to discredit all the other reviews and user opinions because they don't fit according to your standards. Not cool, you can do better than that. Each review provides its own information to the public who in turn decides whether that information is useful or not, this isn't determined by you.

Dude, I'm not caring about discrediting other peoples ***** reviews. I review products all the time, what I was pointing out is fake reviews. There are fake reviews on the product and that is what I have pointed out.
I really don't understand why I am not a verified buyer, but I think that's because I had to sign up to best buy after I paid. So maybe it didn't go into my account? Although it does show there under prior orders.....

What I was saying about your 720p comment is that simply its just false, the laptop is capable of playing modern titles in 1080p.

So telling others that it plays games in 720p low isn't even the same realm of performance. So yes when I tell you that its not the proper function of the laptop, this is me trying to help you out because simply the GPU has far too much power to play in only 720p low or medium. The iGPU can play games in 720p low/medium..... Instead of getting raged and defensive when I am pointing these things out, you could level with me here. Having a "different experience" is irrelevant here when your experience is of a laptop with entirely different specs. A 560x doesn't just start performing like a Vega8 because you are using the laptop. There is either a problem with it engaging the dGPU or you are specifically choosing these settings for some reason.

Jimster480

Red_Sun said:

Hey guys, can you take a peek at windows task manager and tell me what speed your ram is running at under the performance tab? Funny thing, "speed," "slots used," "form factor," and "hardware reserved" are missing after the last update. Also, my system started failing to post. Put the old ram stick back in and works like a charm. Sorry Kingston, I gave you a chance...

Sadly Kingston sucks these days, its why I bought crucial.

It shows 1195mhz most of the time which is 2400mhz.

Here you go with the RAM data.

As you notice in speccy its showing 299mhz, this is because that is the "base clock" of the ram. DDR4 x 4 = 1200mhz *2 (because DDR = Double data rate).
CPU-Z does the math for you, Speccy does not.

Red_Sun

Red_Sun said:

Jimster480 said:

Red_Sun said:

Also interesting, to answer my own question about the DD4-2666 ram, is the memory controller looks to be set for DDR-2400...hrmmmm.....

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Zen/AMD-Ryzen 5 Mobile 2500U.html

It can support upto 3200Mhz DDR4. I believe the Dell Inspirion 7375 has the ability to adjust this.

Any suggrstions on getting it to run on at 2666?

Can you give me a link to that info? Acer support is telling me it only supports 2400...so if true, having 2666 (the kind it shipped with) is pointless.