The Lenovo Y7000 is a gaming laptop with some decent specs, but just how hot does it get,
and is there any throttling that causes any performance loss? I’ll be taking a detailed
look at thermals and seeing how much we can improve performance with some simple changes.
The configuration I’ve got has an Intel i7-9750H CPU, 80 watt Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti graphics,
16gb of memory in dual channel, and a 15.6” 1080p screen. It’s also available in different
configurations, you can check prices of different specs with the links in the description.
Air is pulled in underneath the machine through the vents towards the back, then exhausted
out of the back from the left and right corners, as well as from the vents on the left and
right sides towards the back. There are a couple of fans inside with a heatpipe shared
between the CPU and GPU.
The Lenovo Vantage software lets us select different performance modes, ranging from
quiet, balanced and performance. These different modes control power limits, as listed here,
however no undervolting or overclocking is automatically done by the software. The software
also allows us the option of disabling hybrid mode, which basically disables Optimus, thereby
improving gaming performance, and I’ve done all my tests like this.
Thermal testing was completed in an ambient room temperature of 21 degrees Celsius, so
expect different results in different environments.
Both the CPU and GPU are looking fine at idle.
The rest of the results are from combined CPU and GPU stress tests, and are meant to
represent worst case scenarios as I ran them for extended periods of time. These stress
test results are from running the Aida64 CPU stress test with only the stress CPU option
checked, and the Heaven GPU benchmark at max settings at the same time to fully load the
system. The gaming results are from playing Watch Dogs 2, as I’ve found that to use
a good combination of CPU and GPU.
Whether gaming or under stress test, the temperatures were the lowest in quiet mode, as this caps
the CPU power limit to a low 25 watts. Temperatures raise up significantly with balanced mode,
as this sets the power limit of the i7 to its default 45 watts. In performance mode
the CPU starts hitting thermal throttling at 94 degrees Celsius. I’m only showing
averages here, with this game running it was definitely still spiking up into thermal throttle
territory, despite the slightly lower average than the stress test. It was possible to lower
the temperature back a little simply by undervolting the CPU. This helped lower the GPU by a degree
too, due to the shared heatpipe cooling design. It was possible to lower the temperatures
with a cooling pad by a fair amount as well.
These are the clock speeds for the same tests just shown. As expected, in quiet mode the
CPU performance was the lowest due to the CPU power limit caps. Interestingly, the GPU
performance was the best here, I’m guessing because there’s plenty more power and thermal
headroom available when the CPU is doing less. Balanced mode improved CPU performance significantly,
then performance mode only helped a little extra, as thermal throttling was now the limitation.
As undervolting the CPU in performance mode was enough to remove the thermal throttling,
we’re able to hit the full 4GHz all core turbo boost speed of the i7-9750H, so max
performance was possible in these workloads with a simple tweak. Although the cooling
pad did further help lower temperatures, it makes no difference here as the undervolt
was enough to remove the throttling.
We can see that the GPU power limit was always at 80 watts regardless of the mode selected.
As a result, games that are more GPU heavy rather than CPU heavy still play ok in quiet
mode, as we’ll see soon. We can see the quiet mode power limit cap the CPU to 25 watts,
then 45 watts in balanced, then as it raises up to 50 watts in performance mode this wasn’t
quite being hit in the stress test as thermals were limiting performance from going further.
As undervolting requires less power, this change sees a slight drop off in CPU power,
and as we saw in the last graphs, also improves performance and temperatures.
Here are some Cinebench results to give you an idea of CPU only performance when the GPU
is idle. In performance mode it’s fairly similar to many other i7 CPUs, however even
in a CPU only workload like this thermal throttling was still taking place and was the limitation.
At least initially, after PL2 runs out CPU only workloads in performance mode cap at
70 watts, so thermal throttling stops and power limit throttling begins. The CPU undervolt
helped out, allowing the i7 to perform without thermal or power limits being triggered.
As for the external temperatures where you’ll actually be putting your hands, at idle it
was in the low to mid 30s, pretty normal. With the stress tests running in quiet mode
the center is only warm to the touch in the low 40s. Stepping up to balanced mode didn’t
really change things, it’s perhaps just a little warmer now. With the highest performance
mode enabled it’s a little warmer now, again not really hot just warm in the middle, and
the CPU undervolt didn’t really seem to change the external temperatures despite the
internals lowering.
Here’s how the fans sound during these different tests.
The fans were completely silent at idle. Balanced mode and performance were basically the same,
and both were only just ever so slightly louder than quiet mode. Although quiet mode in the
software states that it uses lower fan speed, I’d hardly call this much lower. It’s
also worth noting the CPU undervolt didn’t change fan speed, despite running cooler.
Let’s actually see how different games perform with these different settings.
I’ve tested Shadow of the Tomb Raider with the highest setting preset using the game’s
benchmark tool. The results were quite interesting, but match up with what we saw earlier. Even
in quiet mode we’re seeing good performance here, presumably as this game with these settings
is more GPU heavy, and the GPU performance in quiet mode or with the CPU undervolted
in performance did score the highest GPU clock speeds.
As Far Cry 5 is a bit more CPU dependent we see more of a difference, however the frame
rates in quiet mode still aren’t really all that much lower than the other modes,
and in this test the undervolt was hardly affecting the results. As you heard earlier,
the fan noise was very similar between the different modes, so using quiet mode in the
hopes of actual quiet gaming doesn’t seem possible. At least it gives good performance,
but it also makes the mode kind of useless when you can just use performance mode for
best results, same fan noise and similar external temps.
If you want to see more gaming benchmarks from the Y7000 check the card in the top right
where I’ve tested 20 games at all setting levels.
Overall the Lenovo Y7000 does run on the hotter side when under load in performance mode,
but to be fair, it does push the CPU power limit to 50 watts in combined CPU and GPU
load, which is above many other gaming laptops. If we simply undervolt the CPU it’s possible
to remove the thermal throttling, at least in the workloads I’ve tested here, and get
full performance. Due to the large ventilation on the bottom, a cooling pad was a great way
of improving thermals with this machine.
Like many other modern Lenovo gaming laptops I’ve tested, fan control seems to be lacking.
Although the three performance modes in the vantage software claim to modify fan speed,
under stress test and the game I tested I found basically no difference. There may be
more of a difference under less stressful workloads, however I’d still much prefer
to see the user at least given the option of fan control. They used to give us the option
of setting the fan speed to maximum in older models with the control shift one shortcut,
but that’s still missing here, which is unfortunate.
These differences in performance shown aren’t hard and fast rules, there are different factors
which will vary results, primarily the temperature of the room you’re running in, application
of thermal paste, and even the specific hardware which comes down to the silicon lottery. You
may not be able to undervolt or overclock your hardware the same as me, it depends on
the chip and its specific power requirements, so don’t just blindly copy my settings and
do some testing to find out where your stable point is for best results.
It may be possible to further improve temperatures by swapping the thermal paste, however as
this is a review unit that I have to send back I’m not able to change the paste, otherwise
the next reviewer will unknowingly report different results due to what I’ve done.
Undervolting and using a cooling pad are much easier for most people to do than changing
paste anyway, and as we’ve seen these tweaks helped improve both performance and temperatures
with the Y7000.
Let me know what you thought about the thermals from the Lenovo Y7000 gaming laptop down in
the comments, and if you’re new to the channel you’ll definitely want to get subscribed
for the upcoming full review to see everything this machine has to offer.