Acer Aspire 5 - more disappointing than I expected

TheNots

Estimable
Mar 29, 2015
4
0
4,510
So i just bought this Acer Aspire A515-41g-f2sh with the following specs

CPU: AMD Quad-Core FX-9800P with turbo core up to 3.6ghz
GPU:AMD Radeon rx540 2gb
Memory:8GB ddr4
Disk:256 SSD

It seems to me that i bought the wrong laptop for the money that ive paid. I wanted to use this machine for Web developing, and a little bit of gaming. Now, I'm aware that any laptop, more or less, will do for web developing tasks, so what I had in mind was that I could use this computer for more than just that. I wanted something that could do well in games like Dota2 or League of Legends, so i went for more ram, a better CPU and a better GPU. Nedless to say that in League of legends it performs like total crap. It runs an average of 30 fps. In Dota2, the menu wont even show up, just screen tearing and haotic designs. Same thing with Call of Duty mw2. I dont even want to try CS:GO. It's hard for me to accept that my old desktop from 2009 performs better in just about any game than this new laptop. Ill be doing some more testing on it and hopefully i'll manage to sort it out. If not, i'll be returning it.
Also, it seems that the stock GPU is set to be the AMD R7 512mb and not the 2gb GDDR5. From what i;ve read on the internet, the 2gb one should kick in when it is needed. How can i make the 2gb one to be the primary one? I went through all settings, set to high performance, added the games in high performance tab in Radeon advance settings. NOthing works.
What do you think about this laptops specs? Thanks
Have a nice day!
 

TheNots

Estimable
Mar 29, 2015
4
0
4,510


I will check later when I get home. I uninstalled and reinstalled the video card drivers and it somehow worked. I get 50-60 fps in csgo with high settings. Actually the fps stay the same even if i set it on low graphics. This leads me to think that maybe the CPU is at fault here. I know csgo has an option that enables the game to use multiple cores and when i disable that it runs very bad.So maybe the other games(lol, dota) have some issues with using multiple cores. I want to change this laptop for Lenovo with a i5-7300hq and gtx 1050
. Now I don't know if its worth the extra 300$ that I have to pay for it. From what I know, the i5 is still a quad core, without HT and but is better at handling single core aplications. I just hope its worth the extra money. I have 4 years warranty on the current one but i'll only get 2 years on the lenovo.
Have a nice day!
 

fagetti

Prominent
Mar 1, 2018
482
0
710
Are you sure your fps wasnt capped? Uncap fps and test again. Even if dota and lol dont have multicore support windows will spread it evenly to all cores, i dont think CPU is the problem here. 50-60 fps high settings isnt a bad score really.

You can check from task manager while game is loaded if it spread evenly on cores.
 

TheNots

Estimable
Mar 29, 2015
4
0
4,510


I eventually returned the laptop and got a better one, for more money ofc:(
The last straw was the coil whine that appeared whenever there was any load on the CPU. Chrome,games, or high performance mode.The sound matched an hdd under stress. I gave up on it after thinkering with it for hours and hours. The fps were basically the same on all settings. I just wasn't happy with it. And if I can't enjoy it, then what's the point?
So....I got myself an Acer Nitro with i5-7300hq, gtx 1050, 8gb ram and 1 tb of hdd and it runs like a dream.

Cheers!
 

fagetti

Prominent
Mar 1, 2018
482
0
710
Nice. Just interested what kind of temperatures are you getting with 1050 gtx? Download gpu-z and go to sensors and leave it backround while gaming to see temps under load. Im thinking of getting gaming laptop with same gpu
 

TheNots

Estimable
Mar 29, 2015
4
0
4,510


While playing need for speed payback on high settings I get around 66 to 68 degrees celsius. Its pretty hot in my room as its summer, so that might be one thing to take in consideration. But when playing csgo or league of legends, the temperature is steady at 44 degrees.
Hope it helps.