We challenge all systems’ graphics with a quintet of animations or gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark test suite. The first two, Wild Life (1440p) and Wild Life Extreme (4K), use the Vulkan graphics API to measure GPU speeds. The next pair, Steel Nomad’s regular and Light subtests, focuses on APIs more commonly used for game development to assess gaming geometry and particle effects. Last up, we turn to 3DMark Solar Bay to measure ray tracing performance.
Our real-world gaming testing is based on the in-game benchmarks for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and F1 2024. These three games—all benchmarked at the system’s full HD (1080p or 1200p native) resolution—represent competitive shooters, open-world games, and simulation games, respectively. If the screen supports a higher resolution, we rerun the tests at the QHD equivalent of 1440p or 1600p. Each game is tested with two sets of graphics settings at each resolution, for up to four runs per game. (The MSI Katana could not complete the Call of Duty benchmark, so it’s missing from that chart below.)
We run the Call of Duty benchmark at the Minimum graphics preset—aimed at maximizing frame rates—and again at the Extreme preset. Our Cyberpunk 2077 test settings aim to push PCs to the limit, so we run it on the Ultra graphics preset and again on the all-out Ray Tracing Overdrive preset without DLSS or FSR. Finally, F1 represents our DLSS effectiveness (or FSR on AMD Radeon systems) test, demonstrating a GPU’s capacity for frame-boosting upscaling technologies. The frame-rate boosts change with the version of frame generation tech available. (For example, DLSS 2 and 3 stitch in one AI-generated frame for every originally rendered frame, while the latest version, DLSS 4, inserts up to three additional frames.)
It’s not all doom and gloom for the Nitro, despite it generally placing anywhere between third and last place in our gaming and graphics benchmarks. (Remember, all of the competitors that beat the Nitro also cost more.) The Nitro managed to run AAA games, like Cyberpunk 2077, at a solid frame rate on Ultra settings. You can also take advantage of the high-refresh-rate screen in competitive games like Call of Duty, where the laptop’s frame rate approached the 180Hz mark at the Minimum preset. Even less complex competitive games should leverage that refresh rate.
However, if you use the GPU’s DLSS 4 frame generation to get you across the finish line in some games, be on the lookout for rendering glitches. You may notice some flickering artifacts on the track in F1 2024, as we did during testing with DLSS. Overall, for the price, the Nitro V produces fast enough frame rates on its own to get the job done in most AAA games, even sometimes at high detail settings. The option to amp up the speed with DLSS should help the Nitro stay viable into the future as games’ visual demands increase.
