Acer Swift X 14 (2022) tested: GeForce RTX 3050 slower than Xe7 graphics in battery operation

A GeForce RTX 3050 in a light 1.4 kg (3 lb) case: In our test, the Acer Swift X 14 (2022) shows a long battery life of around 11 hours during web surfing. What is new is the 16:10 display in 2.2K resolution (100% sRGB). Acer uses its recycled "OceanGlass" trackpad, while the keyboard, speakers, 1080p webcam, and connection equipment with HDMI 2.1 (4K @120 Hz) and 2x Thunderbolt 4 were improved.

What got worse is the behavior of the fan, which almost always remains noticeable, even if Acer's Silent Mode improves the noise a bit without losing in performance. While Intel's Core i5-1240P offers sufficient performance, the processor is unable to develop its full potential here, due to an unnecessary power limit of 25 watts.

However, the cooling system is able to handle a constant 64 watts under combined load. Using the "Throttlestop" tool, we therefore determined that a constant 45 watts for the CPU doesn't pose any problem for the Swift X 14. But this only serves our testing purposes, since the laptop shouldn't be run outside the manufacturer specified limits.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 is powerful, even if Acer uses the lowest 35-Watt version. Alternatively, there are also models with a ~20% faster RTX 3050 Ti.

The problem: In battery operation, which is particularly important for a mobile companion, the Nvidia GPU performance crashes to only 13% of its capabilities. Since the predecessor did not show the same behavior, we assume that this will be remedied with a future BIOS update. Until then, you should deactivate the dGPU in battery operation, since the integrated Intel Xe7 Graphics will then run 3x faster.