Current Events > Gentlemen, my gaming laptop arrives tomorrow!

(+) Yeah! (+)

After two months of waiting for Alienware and delay after delay, Lenovo came through and shipped within 30 minutes!




Design isn't very flashy (Lenovo is known for minimalism, like Razer) but it's got the rare max-spec 165 W RTX 3080 with 16 GB of VRAM, (basically the performance of a desktop 3070, but twice the VRAM)

And my nephew is taking my Razer Blade to college (RIP, great laptop!)


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gaming laptop lol

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Teh_Dr_Phil posted...

gaming laptop lol

I'm almost always at the hospital, so there's no point in getting a desktop I can't use.

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Early impressions:

Screen is amazing
Heavier than expected
Keyboard is iffy - might grow on me but it's at best a side-grade from the Razer
Temps are unbelievable - 75 C max for CPU, 70 C GPU.


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Are u gonna buy pathfinder wrath of the righteous

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Nice. Any games you're looking forward to playing on that bad boy?

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NoxObscuras posted...

Nice. Any games you're looking forward to playing on that bad boy?

I'm really looking forward to Halo infinite, even though it's probably not all that demanding. But being able to play it at 1440p portably is pretty awesome

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I bought 2 Alienware gaming laptops, never again, it seems great at first but gets slower really quickly compared to desktops, I work from home mostly though and really just used them when Id travel for tournaments

Macs are much better laptops but not great for gaming i guess

DarkRoast posted...

I'm really looking forward to Halo infinite, even though it's probably not all that demanding. But being able to play it at 1440p portably is pretty awesome

Oh yeah, Halo Infinite's going to be awesome. I'm glad it didn't get pushed to 2022 like so many other games.

But yeah, If you want a game that has impressive graphics then Microsoft Flight Simulator will do it. The upcoming Forza Horizon 5 also looks amazing.

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I'm wondering if this RAM is the crap kind. I have replacement RAM I originally got for the Alienware (Corsair) that I might install instead.

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Just realized that Lenovo leaves the GPU underclocked until you turn it off in the BIOS.

19,000 is right around RTX 2080 Ti.

That's pretty great for a laptop IMO.


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I'm staying away from Razer after battling their shit mouse drivers

I was trying to enable Memory Integrity in Windows, but their driver was incompatible, it was hanging around years after I stopped using that mouse and uninstalled the software.

Even if you uninstall it, they leave a driver that's just waiting for you to plug in the mouse again and pop up an installer. That shit was legitimately harder to remove than an actual rootkit virus.

And why do you need to make a username to remap the MMO side keys

nice

what are you going to play

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_BlueMonk posted...

nice

what are you going to play

About to fire up Cyberpunk 2077. All that VRAM and RT Cores put to use.

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No ethernet adapter? That's my only critique, she's a purdy beast

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It has an ethernet port in the back, fortunately. Actually, one of the nice touches is that the back of the laptop lights up to let you know what port is what without having to turn the laptop around.



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Nicee have fun tc

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Can you run Crysis?

Same amount of RAM as my desktop I got a 2060 in it though.

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Okay, so I did some benchmarking, It generally lands around RTX 3070ish. Pretty much what I expected. I was rather surprised at how well it did with cyberpunk, though. I think that might have more to do with the 16 GB of vram. Regardless, with dlss it gets 80 frames per second at 1600p with RT and all settings at max

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prob too far and you wont remember but curious if the laptop keeps performing in a year or 2 from now, mines got significantly slower despite formating and cleaning everything, kept overheating, not when I got it but a year later or so

Don't expect to be able to use it right away. After the inevitable setup, you have to download updates. It will probably take an hour or two. Did you also get a cooling pad designed for gaming laptops? You'll probably need one of those too, unless you are sitting directly under the A/C.

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Finally got everything set up, got rid of all the bloatware, MUX switch set to Discrete GPU only, OCed the CPU and GPU.

Performance has been excellent. Getting around 70-80FPS at 1600p in Cyberpunk 2077 w/ DLSS Quality and RT set to max. That's actually much better than my 2080 Max-Q was getting at 1080p.

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Temps would have been my main concern hopefully they stay managable

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happibivouac posted...

Temps would have been my main concern hopefully they stay managable

That's actually the part I'm most surprised with. The max temps I've recorded:

CPU: 81 C
GPU: 72 C

That was with Max load


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That's still not amazing. At absolute most it should be 85c and your getting really close to that now. Ideally it should always be below 80c, which is why I can't stand gaming laptops.

My desktop idle is 30c, goes to maybe 60c at most with my current set up.

laptops always run hot
so long as doctor coffee just takes care and uses a cooling pad the laptop is fine

Nice! And why are you always in the hospital if I may ask?

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dj1200 posted...

Nice! And why are you always in the hospital if I may ask?

Because I do a lot of on call work

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dj1200 posted...

Nice! And why are you always in the hospital if I may ask?

She's a doctorb.

The B is for bargain.

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Ivany2008 posted...

My desktop idle is 30c, goes to maybe 60c at most with my current set up.

60c at max load? Do you keep your PC in a freezer?
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How does it feel to know it is still inferior to the PlayStation 5

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

60c at max load? Do you keep your PC in a freezer?

No, I have a 3 fan speed Lian Li Mesh Performance case and a Coolermaster Masterliquid triple radiator. On the lowest fan speed it maxes out at 62c, and highest fan speed it maxes out at about 54c.

Ermagherd why is my GPU being held back

One thing I have noticed - raytracing performance on the 3080 is waaaaaaaaaay better than the 2080 MQ.

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DarkRoast posted...

Ermagherd why is my GPU being held back

One thing I have noticed - raytracing performance on the 3080 is waaaaaaaaaay better than the 2080 MQ.

Thermals / Power Delivery

Crappy Thermal Paste Application

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DarkRoast posted...

I'm almost always at the hospital, so there's no point in getting a desktop I can't use.

Just take care with it man. One drop can kill a $2,500 laptop just as easy as a $400 one man. When I was living the gaming laptop life I only ever carried it in a cushioned case for this reason.

And for gods sake... invest in a laptop cooling fan. Lest your 2,500 dollar computer will become a paper weight.

Ivany2008 posted...

And for gods sake... invest in a laptop cooling fan. Lest your 2,500 dollar computer will become a paper weight.

Laptop cooling pads are mostly just noisemakers. Any sort of laptop stand that gives the underside some room the breath is all that actually is needed for most gaming laptops. Cooling pads do this but the fans are mostly for show.

One thing I do kind of miss about my Razer Blade is the ultra minimalist design. Granted, the Lenovo is about as minimalist as It gets outside of my Razer, but I did appreciate the ultra clean macbook style.

The trade-off, obviously, was that the Blade's GPU capped at 90W, which considering that it was supposed to be the highest end GPU you could get, meant it was hamstrung pretty heavily.

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Atralis posted...

Laptop cooling pads are mostly just noisemakers.

The cheap ones, yes. but you can get ones designed for gaming laptops that actually do help keep the temperatures down.

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008Zulu posted...

The cheap ones, yes. but you can get ones designed for gaming laptops that actually do help keep the temperatures down.

I think it depends on how the laptop itself cools. Generally speaking, a good cooling pad should improve thermals, but some laptops have intakes and heat output at different locations, impacting how effective those pads are.

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Razer Blade w/ RTX 2080 MQ


(Ignore the 2D graphics score, it's always been bugged on this system)

Lenovo Legion



Stuff I don't understand - why is the RAM so slow despite being "better?"

Why is the 3D Graphics score not as high as it should be?


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DarkRoast posted...

It has an ethernet port in the back, fortunately. Actually, one of the nice touches is that the back of the laptop lights up to let you know what port is what without having to turn the laptop around.

weird how the USBC is in the back. I was considering on getting this laptop a few weeks ago but for rtx 3060.

how is the battery life?

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Battery life is terrible but it's probably because I'm only using Discrete GPU (disabling the iGPU improves gaming performance at the expense of overall battery life).

To be honest, though, something clearly is wrong with the GPU performance. I'm only getting a 10% uplift over my 90 W RTX 2080 Max-Q, despite an entire generation's improvement in hardware and also a near-double TDP.


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i mean how is it for regular non gaming it se?

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I don't know what any of this means

May as well be speaking Greek

Congrats i guess

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Arcanine2009 posted...

i mean how is it for regular non gaming it se?

There's a sort-of non-gaming "mobile mode" that seems to have decent-ish battery life. A rough guesstimate would be maybe 5-6 hours?

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Your laptop runs at 81 degrees Celsius?

My system runs at 42 C and even that gets me worried sometimes.

Granted, it's a real piece though. :D

Steffenfield posted...

Your laptop runs at 81 degrees Celsius?

My system runs at 42 C and even that gets me worried sometimes.

Granted, it's a real piece though. :D

That's at max load to be fair

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DarkRoast posted...

To be honest, though, something clearly is wrong with the GPU performance. I'm only getting a 10% uplift over my 90 W RTX 2080 Max-Q, despite an entire generation's improvement in hardware and also a near-double TDP.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3604615/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-review-the-fastest-laptop-gpu-just-arrived.html

Conclusion
Overall, we think the GeForce RTX 3080 is indeed the best mobile GPU available right now. To be fair, its not much of a bar to set if all you have to be is better than the previous GPU. Dont let your expectations be warped by the stunning GeForce RTX 3080 desktop card.
Once we settled back into the reality that a laptop, is a laptop, is a laptopseeing from 15- to 25-percent improvements in graphically intensive games, and even higher with ray-traced titles, is respectable.
Would we upgrade from an RTX 20-series laptop? Probably not, unless its a bigger step such as a side move of going from an RTX 2060 to something faster. It rarely makes sense to upgrade from one generation to the next unless you are doing it for the the huge boosts in content creation advances.
When every laptop is its own package, our first review of a new component isnt our definitive one. Well have a better feel for RTX 30-series laptops after weve tested another half-dozen or more. But clearly with a favorable implementation such as we tested, it can do very well indeed.

Don't forget that 90 watts isn't that much considering 60 watts used to be used to power basic light bulbs.

And you did opt for a higher refresh rate display panel.

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