The Acer Swift X (2023) is the company's flagship thin lightweight laptop for creators, blending solid performance and a stunning display into a package that's still relatively light and easy to carry. These aren't laptops made for gaming, but let's be real we can't all have one device for each aspect of our lives, so sometimes, they need to pull double duty. If you're wondering whether you can use the Acer Swift X (2023) for gaming, the short answer is yes, but there are some things you need to know.
The Acer Swift X (2023) can run most games — with some caveats
The first thing you need to know is that there are two versions of the 2023 Acer Swift X: a 14-inch version and a 16-inch one. Both models have solid hardware for content creation, but you'll need to choose the right one for your needs. Both models come with either an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 or a GeForce RTX 4050, and naturally, the latter is the better of the two. If you want to use it for gaming, the RTX 4050 will provide a nice performance uplift across the board. Plus, it will support DLSS 3, which can help increase frame rates in supported games.
What may be harder to tell, though, is that these laptops also have different power targets for the graphics card. While the Acer Swift X 14 can spare up to 50W for the GPU, the Swift X 16 takes that up to 75W. Using more power means you'll get significantly better performance in games, though it will come at the cost of battery life. As such, the Acer Swift X 16 is going to be better for gaming. It's also worth mentioning the Swift X 16 has AMD processors while the Swift X 14 has Intel processors, but the focus here is the GPU, which matters a lot more in most games.
Do keep in mind, however, that these aren't specs meant for top-tier gaming, so while you can play most modern games, you're definitely going to need to lower the graphics settings in order for them to run smoothly, especially if they're very demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077. You shouldn't expect the same kind of performance you'd get on the best gaming laptops.
It's also worth mentioning that both of these laptops come with high-refresh-rate displays, so they'll be good for playing titles where quick response times are important. That's especially true if you choose the OLED display option (included with RTX 4050 configurations) since those panels have a faster response time, too.
Don't run games at full resolution
While the Acer Swift X (2023) models do have solid performance for running games, you will need to keep resolution in mind. As we've mentioned, these laptops are made more so for creators, where resolution is more important to see details, and it doesn't have a huge impact on performance. As such, they have very high-resolution screens since the GPU isn't constantly rendering images at that resolution.
However, if you run a game at the native resolution of the display, it will be far too demanding for what these GPUs are meant to handle, and you're going to have a bad time. Thankfully, since the screens are so sharp, you can lower the resolution and still have games look quite good. So, before you turn down any other graphics settings or become frustrated, make sure to lower the render resolution inside the games you're playing. You'll want to aim for around 1920x1200, which should still look great.
Gaming on the Acer Swift X (2023): Final thoughts
If you're looking for a laptop for day-to-day use or creative work that can also do some gaming on the side, these are certainly solid options to go for. They won't blow your mind with the most demanding games, but they can run most titles with some tweaks here and there. Resolution is the biggest consideration since these laptops have very sharp displays that aren't made for gaming. However, in terms of specs, they do have enough power to run most modern games, particularly the Swift X 16. You can buy either laptop using the links below. Alternatively, check out the best laptops overall to check out all kinds of other options, or stick to the best Acer laptops if brand loyalty is important to you.
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Acer Swift X 14 (2023)
The Acer Swift X 14 (2023) packs 13th-generation Intel Core processors and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics for great performance in all kinds of creative workloads. It also has a stunning 2.8K OLED display that's prime for content creation.
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Acer Swift X 16 (2023)
The Acer Swift X 16 comes with Zen 4-based AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors and up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics with 75W of power. It also has a super-sharp 3.2K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate.
