The new Lenovo Legion 7 offers some crazy gaming performance, I’ve tested it in 13
games at 2 different resolutions and compared it against other laptops to show you what
the differences are.
These are the specs of my Legion 7, I’ve got one of the higher specced options with
Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, 16 gig RTX 3080 graphics, and a 16” 165Hz screen with G-Sync, but
you can find other configurations like RTX 3060 as well as updated prices with the links
down in the description.
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Back to the Legion 7, it’s using a 16:10 screen with a 2560 by 1600 resolution, so
I’ve tested games with this, but I’ve also lowered it to 1920 by 1200 as well, as
I think this still looks pretty good, so basically we’re dealing with the 16:10 versions of
1080p and 1440p, which just means there’s a bit more pixels as there’s more vertical
space compared to a traditional 16:9 screen.
The Lenovo website lists the following power limits for the different GPU options, so based
on this they would appear to be full power variants.
In a GPU only stress test I found my 3080 would run at around 160 watts, so 165 with
dynamic boost is probably possible.
With the processor also loaded up in a CPU stress test, the GPU was still running at
150 watts, so basically a full powered laptop 3080, and based on that I would assume that
the 3070 and 3060 models are also full power without any problems.
The Legion 7 has a MUX switch, so you can disable optimus after a reboot by turning
off hybrid mode through the Vantage software, and this will boost gaming performance.
G-Sync is only available with optimus disabled, but with optimus enabled you still have the
option of using freesync as well, so you’ve got both.
Lenovo’s Vantage software lets you modify performance modes, I’ve done all testing
in the highest performance mode for best results.
Unfortunately there’s no fan speed control and despite this having an HX processor, there’s
no option in the Lenovo software to modify the CPU power limits.
Let’s start out by checking out gaming performance in 13 games at 2 different resolutions.
I’ll compare it with other laptops afterwards, and then look at the screen response time,
or if you get bored at any point just use those timestamps below to time travel to a
relevant section.
This is just a gaming performance video, I still need more time with the Legion 7 to
test out absolutely everything like battery life and thermals, so make sure you’re subscribed
for the upcoming full review of the Legion 7, as well as the Legion 5 Pro which should
be here soon.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested in little China with the street kid life path.
I’ve got the 2560 by 1600 native resolution shown by the red bars, and the lower 1920
by 1200 resolution is in the purple bars.
Even max settings at the lower resolution were still above 60 FPS, while the native
and higher resolution was only just a little under 60 at high settings.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the games benchmark.
Even max settings with the higher resolution was right on 60 FPS in this test, an excellent
result given last gen hardware often struggled to achieve this at standard 1080p.
Call of Duty Warzone was tested with either all settings at minimum or maximum, as it
doesn’t have predefined setting presets.
100 FPS was possible even at max settings with the native resolution, though we could
boost this by 35% by using the lower resolution, which offered bigger gains compared to just
lowering settings.
For Control let’s start without ray tracing or DLSS, so just stock default gameplay.
Max settings at native resolution was still above 60 FPS, near that for the 1% low actually,
so playing quite well, though we could boost 1% lows above average FPS at high and medium
settings just by lowering resolution if you’re after higher FPS.
Here’s how much performance drops back with ray tracing enabled but without DLSS, so still
60 FPS max settings at above regular 1080p in the purple bars, not too bad, but DLSS
is able to offer nice improvements.
Now at max settings with the native resolution it’s actually performing better with ray
tracing and DLSS compared to without both.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was tested with the game's benchmark.
Max settings at the higher resolution was still around 60 FPS here, but we could boost
average FPS by 22% with the lower resolution, or of course instead use lower setting presets
to get those gains.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was tested in the Sydney landing challenge.
There’s not much of a difference at all here between the two resolutions, so might
as well stick to native res.
Best case low settings with the lower resolution was just able to hit 60 FPS, but you don’t
need high frame rates for this one.
Watch Dogs Legion was tested with the games benchmark, there wasn’t much difference
between the two resolutions at lower setting levels here either, but the gap widens at
higher presets.
At ultra settings the 1% low from the lower resolution is above the average FPS of the
native res, but that said the higher res is still above 60 FPS, a great result.
Battlefield V was tested in campaign mode, again smaller differences at lower setting
levels and more of a difference at higher settings.
The 1% low difference was much more minor compared to average FPS changes, but regardless
above 100 FPS at max is great for this test, as you’ll see soon when we look at some
comparisons with other laptops.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games benchmark tool.
No difference at all with lowest settings, then like most other titles tested the gap
widens between the two resolutions at higher setting presets, this is another game I’ll
use to compare other laptops soon.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature.
This is more of an esports test, so higher frame rates are expected, especially with
the ability of disabling optimus, as optimus typically becomes a bigger bottleneck at high
frame rates.
Anyway still high frame rates at max settings with some pretty crazy results at lower levels,
1% lows at medium with either resolution are above the screen’s 165Hz refresh rate.
CS:GO is another esports title, and this one in particular is one I’ve found to see big
gains with optimus disabled due to the high frame rates that the test can hit.
Either way again crazy frame rates are possible here too.
Rainbow Six Siege also hits high frame rates without issue, even at the higher native resolution,
where max settings was reaching 1% lows above the screen’s refresh rate, so a perfectly
smooth experience here too.
The Witcher 3 is an older game that I still test so that you can compare with my older
videos.
Absolutely zero issues running max settings even with full resolution, though there were
quite big gains to be had at lower the resolution if you want higher 1% lows.
Now let’s find out how well this configuration of the Lenovo Legion 7 compares against other
laptops.
I’ve had to specially run these tests at 1080p, as that’s the resolution I’ve got
data for for the purposes of comparing.
I’ve tested Battlefield 5 in campaign mode at ultra settings, and the Legion 7 is highlighted
in red.
The results are very impressive, this is the second highest score I’ve ever seen from
any gaming laptop in this game, at least in terms of average FPS, though the 1% low is
still definitely up there too.
Keep in mind this is basically the top end spec of the Legion 7, but still the results
are promising compared to other 3080 laptops I’ve tested so I’d expect the lead to
also translate down to the 3070 or 3060 models too when compared to others with those GPUs.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games benchmark tool with the highest
setting preset, and the Legion 7 moves down just one position here and is only a few frames
behind a larger 17” laptop with the same CPU and GPU.
Regardless, it is still one of the best results I’ve ever recorded from any gaming laptop
thanks to the combination of high end specs, high power limits and the ability to disable
optimus.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the games benchmark tool at max settings.
The Legion 7 moves down a bit further here, this test generally depends more on the processor,
however at the same time it looks like it might also favour Intel systems given those
take up the top 5 spots.
In any case the Legion 7 is only just slightly behind the same specced but larger Prometheus
17.
Setting the laptop to 1080p in Windows adds black bars above and below, but with pretty
much all games running at 1080p it just stretches the game out a bit to fill the whole screen,
it depends on the game and if it supports setting aspect ratio.
When stretched out I could notice it but it depends on the game.
You could also run regular 1440p with black bars too.
As for how 1920 by 1200 looks, honestly, I think it’s still pretty good, if I go out
of my way yeah it looks a little blurrier compared to 2560 by 1600, but when I’m in
the game and playing it’s not something I’m actively noticing, but this could depend
on the person viewing.
Honestly as we’ve seen, with the specs in my Legion 7 it can run modern games with high
settings at the full native resolution anyway, so with the 3080 you might as well just enjoy
that, but it will be a different story with say the RTX 3060 - hopefully I can get that
one to test out too.
Alright now let’s check out the screen response time.
The vantage software lets you enable or disable panel overdrive which affects screen response
time, mine was off by default.
If we turn on overdrive, the average grey-to-grey response time for the panel was around 4.4ms.
There’s a link down in the description if you need an explanation on what all of these
numbers mean.
With overdrive instead disabled, we’re looking at a 7.66ms response time now, however there
was now no overshoot or undershoot which was present with it on.
It’s one of the better results when comparing it against others, not the best, but well
below the 6ms needed for all transitions to occur within the refresh window so nothing
to complain about.
There’s a LOT more I need to show you about the Lenovo Legion 7, I just need more time
to finish testing it out, so make sure you’re subscribed for the upcoming full review video
as well as for the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro as well, which is on its way!
For now, come join us in Discord and get behind the scenes videos by supporting the channel
on Patreon.