Lenovo’s new Legion 7i gaming laptop is finally here,
so let’s find out how well it actually performs in games!
My configuration is maxed out with Intel’s 16 core 12900HX CPU,
Nvidia’s RTX 3080 Ti graphics, 32 gigs of DDR5 memory and a 16” 165Hz screen with G-Sync.
You can customize it and choose lower specs which
will cost less money with that link below the video.
Now the 3080 Ti in this one runs at basically the maximum power limit,
so we’re expecting great performance in games. So it runs right up to
175 watts in a GPU only workload thanks to Nvidia’s dynamic boost,
but even with the CPU loaded up at the same time, the GPU was still running at 170 watts.
The 7i also has a MUX switch and advanced optimus,
so games were run without being limited by optimus.
The Vantage software also has these options to overclock the CPU and GPU. These default
values were not modified during testing, we haven’t done any custom tuning. I figured
that someone getting the top end 7i would probably be likely just to hit those CPU
and GPU overclock toggles. So all games have been tested with these enabled.
Now although the Legion 7i has a 2560 by 1600 screen resolution,
our first set of testing has been done at either standard 1080p or 1440p resolutions,
as this is just what we have data for for the purposes of comparing fairly.
Don’t worry though, after we see how the 7i compares against other laptops,
we’ll also compare it with its native screen resolution in 14 games!
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested the same on all laptops, and I’ve got this year’s Legion 7i
shown by the red highlight. It’s a little behind a few other RTX 3080 Ti gaming laptops,
but not by much. The Scar 17 SE and Titan GT77 are at the top, but those are also larger machines
with more cooling space and thermal headroom. The 7i is the 5th best result at the higher 1440p
resolution, but we’re only talking about a 2 FPS gap between the 7i and the best results,
which honestly isn’t something you’re going to notice when playing. That said,
some of those bigger laptops had fewer dips in performance, as shown by the 1% lows, which may
be more noticeable. Regardless, the 7i is still performing very nicely relative to most laptops.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the games benchmark tool. The Legion 7i was second best here
at 1080p, but again it’s close to many of the high powered 3080 Ti laptops without much difference.
I mean we’ve got the best laptop CPU and GPU combination available right now,
so this is expected. The 7i is still in second place at the higher 1440p resolution.
I found it interesting that it’s right next to the XMG Neo 15 just below it, as that’s water
cooled. The neo has fewer CPU cores too, but for most games I’d argue a 14 core 20 thread chip is
already plenty. At higher resolutions like this, GPU power is usually a more important factor.
Control is a GPU heavy game, and the Legion 7i was in second place again here too,
only beaten by MSI’s far larger Titan GT77. Again many other 3080 Ti laptops with similar GPU power
limits weren’t far behind at all, it’s really not a difference you’d notice when playing,
but hey, winning’s winning. The 7i drops back a few positions at the higher 1440p resolution,
which feels kind of silly to say when we’re talking about less than a 2 FPS difference to
the new second place result. Again it’s a very small difference in actual gaming performance.
Other differences between these laptops like build quality and thermals would be far more important,
so make sure you’re subscribed for the upcoming full review on the 7i!
Great, so Lenovo’s Legion 7i gaming laptop was performing like a beast in games,
as you would expect from top end specs.
But how does it actually perform with the screens native 2560 by
1600 screen resolution? We’ve tested 14 games to find out!
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is a new game that we’ve added to the testing lineup,
and as this is our first time testing it I honestly didn’t know what to expect. With DLSS
set to quality mode it was running perfectly fine even with the highest setting preset,
only a little under 100 FPS thanks to our high end specs.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was close to 60 FPS at max settings,
which doesn’t sound amazing, but this game needs some serious power to reach this in a laptop,
and to be fair the game doesn’t really need a super high frame rate to enjoy
anyway. It’s not like it’s a competitive eSports title like our next few games.
Apex Legends was tested with either all settings set to maximum or minimum, as it doesn’t have
built in setting levels. Even the dips in performance, as measured by the 1% lows,
were far ahead of the screen’s maximum refresh rate at minimum settings. The performance lowers
quite a bit when maxing everything out though, but at 120 FPS it’s still going to play well.
Call of Duty Warzone has DLSS support, and we’ve tested with this or FSR enabled where possible as
both are great features. Max settings was only a little below the screen’s 165Hz refresh rate,
a great result. We could of course further boost FPS by lowering the DLSS quality level,
but I didn’t want to lower the visual quality too much - it’s a tradeoff, but an option.
Fortnite was close to the screen’s refresh rate at high settings with DLSS again set to quality mode,
though we could get the 1% lows higher than the screen’s refresh rate at low settings
if you’re playing competitively and don’t care about having things look nice.
Forza Horizon 5 was tested with the game’s benchmark
if you want to compare our results with your own laptop.
Extreme settings aren’t too bad considering this preset applies ray tracing effects,
though high settings offers a fairly big boost to frame rate while not looking too much worse.
Far Cry 6 was also tested with the game’s benchmark tool, but with FSR enabled this
time. Above 100 FPS was achieved with the highest ultra settings and HD textures on, and as is
usually the case in this game, there’s not a whole lot of boost to FPS with lower presets.
God of War seems to run quite well even on lower end hardware,
but 2560 by 1600 does require some GPU power. With DLSS on,
ultra settings was running around 86 FPS, though the 1% lows were somewhat behind in this game.
Dying Light 2 could still maintain 60 FPS with the ray tracing preset thanks to DLSS,
but without ray tracing the average FPS could be boosted significantly. Another option would be
lowering the DLSS quality level to boost FPS, just at the expense of some visual artifacts,
granted you probably wouldn’t even notice that when you’re busy escaping zombies.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was tested with the game’s benchmark. This one doesn’t need a
high frame rate to enjoy, these are great results from a gaming laptop at even ultra high settings,
but honestly the game still looks quite good at high settings while running better.
Watch Dogs Legion was also tested with the game’s benchmark if you want to compare results.
This game has DLSS and was able to crack 100 FPS with the very high setting preset. This game
also doesn’t need a crazy frame rate to play,
so you could probably start turning on some ray tracing settings if you’re after eye candy.
We tested Cyberpunk 2077 earlier in the comparison section, but now we’ve also got ray tracing
and DLSS results. Even with DLSS enabled, the lowest RT preset was sitting close to 60 FPS.
At this higher resolution with max settings and ray tracing, honestly you’d be better off with a
desktop PC, but that said the game is absolutely still playable without issue without ray tracing.
Red Dead Redemption 2 wasn’t too bad at ultra settings, still above 60 FPS with DLSS enabled,
though you could boost average FPS by over 30% simply by lowering to high settings. Despite
what you may have heard from the PC master race, you don’t need max settings to have a good time.
Control was running well with ray tracing enabled, but only with DLSS on,
as shown in the green bars, though this is one of the first games that ever had RT and DLSS support,
so it might not be as demanding compared to the newer titles covered earlier.
Although the RTX 3080 Ti in the Legion 7i is performing very well in games,
for most people it’s not worth spending more money on.
Check out this video next to see how the cheaper RTX 3070 Ti compares against the
top end 3080 Ti. You definitely don’t want to waste your money when buying your next laptop!
Or check out this one instead to find out if it’s worth waiting for Nvidia’s RTX 40 series,
I’ll see you in one of those next.