The new Lenovo IdeaPad L340 gaming laptop has been heavily requested on the channel,
so I bought one to find out what all the hype is about. I’ll be testing out 20 games at
all setting levels to give you an idea of how well it performs, and then compare it
with some other gaming laptops afterwards.
Just quickly before we jump into the benchmark results I’ll cover off the specs in my unit.
I ordered my L340 with the Intel i5-9300H CPU and Nvidia GTX 1650 graphics, as this
seems to be a pretty popular budget friendly option. I’ve tested with 8gb of memory in
single channel, as the machine only comes with one memory slot, making speed boosts
from dual channel not possible.
There are different configurations of the L340 available though, you can find examples
and updated prices linked in the description.
Unlike the higher tier Y540, there is no option to disable hybrid mode and fan speeds couldn’t
be adjusted, there was basically no options in the Lenovo Vantage software that could
be used to increase performance.
We’ll only be covering gaming performance in this video, so if you’re new to the channel,
you'll definitely want to get subscribed for the upcoming full review. Let’s start out
by going through all 20 games at all setting levels, then afterwards we’ll see how the
L340 compares with some other laptops.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode rather than multiplayer. Medium settings played
alright and was able to reach 60 FPS averages, however the 1% lows were a fair bit below
this, showing the occasional stuttering that I noticed regardless of setting level.
Battlefield 1 was also tested in campaign mode, however it’s performing better than
the newer Battlefield 5 just covered, where even ultra settings was playing well enough
for me with close to 70 FPS averages, with not really that big of an improvement seen
by lowering settings.
Apex Legends was tested with either all settings at maximum, or all settings on the lowest
possible values, as it doesn’t have predefined setting presets. It felt a bit choppy at max
settings, and it was possible to improve average FPS by around 32% simply by setting everything
to minimum.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, the results from this
test were again on the lower side, however lowest settings was still able to average
above 60 FPS in this test.
Far Cry New Dawn was tested with the built in benchmark. This game seems to be fairly
CPU heavy, and while I think the i5 is certainly capable for gaming, the results are lower
than I expected, probably due to the single channel memory configuration.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and the results were ahead of the
newer Far Cry New Dawn just covered, and we’ll see how this one compares to some other laptops
later.
The Division 2 was tested using the built in benchmark. Medium settings was just below
60 FPS, so another title where you’d most likely want to sit around low to medium for
a decent frame rate.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature. As a less demanding title, even maxed out
at epic settings was working well enough, with around 70 FPS averages being reached,
however would more than double this at low settings if needed.
Overwatch is another well optimized game and was tested in the practice range. Epic settings
still played well for me, as the 1% low was around the refresh rate of the display, while
over 100 FPS was achieved at lower levels.
Metro Exodus was tested using the built in benchmark, most parts of the game perform
a fair bit better than this, so don’t take these results as a good indication of what
to expect throughout the entire game, it’s more of a worst case but does let you perform
the same test to compare against.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and is a less demanding esports title that
runs on basically anything. Even with all settings maxed out 100 FPS averages were still
reached in this test.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark. At ultra settings the results
aren’t looking that bad here, with 80 FPS for the average and still around 60 for the
1% low result.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and ultra settings was still able to reach
60 FPS averages in this test, with up to 80 at very low settings, but perhaps more importantly
for a first person shooter game like this a higher 1% low, so more stable and less dips
in performance.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark, and straight away
I can tell you this is the worst result I’ve seen in this test at ultra high settings.
No matter though, we’re not expecting top of the line performance with these specs.
The results at high settings and below are at least playable, as this game doesn’t
need super high FPS to enjoy.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane with an average amount of action going on,
and as a game that runs on basically any modern hardware it was still playing well at ultra
settings with above 80 FPS, while higher frame rates were possible at lower setting levels.
Watch Dogs 2 is a resource heavy game that still plays fine for me with a solid 30 FPS,
however this was not possible at ultra settings. Very high settings played ok, and then there
wasn’t really too much of a difference performance wise stepping down to high. It was a little
choppy due to the lower than 30 FPS 1% low, much more playable at low settings.
Ghost Recon is another resource intensive game and was tested with the built in benchmark.
Ultra settings in this test is tough even on the better specced laptops I’ve used,
however we’re still able to get fair results at the lower levels.
The Witcher 3 was playing alright at high settings, where I was still able to average
above 60 FPS, and the dips in performance weren’t too noticeable, definitely more
stuttering in ultra settings, as illustrated by the much lower 1% low result.
DOOM was tested using Vulkan, and while I typically see 150+ FPS in this game with other
laptops, even at ultra settings it was still very playable on the L340, as shown by the
1% low which was still above 60 FPS, the refresh rate of the screen, so the dips weren’t
too bad.
Strange Brigade was another game that was tested with Vulkan, and was running well for
this machine with the built in benchmark. Ultra settings still averaged 60 FPS with
the 1% low not too far behind, with over 100 FPS possible at low settings.
Let’s also take a look at how this config of the Lenovo L340 compares with other laptops
to see how it stacks up, use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested
at different times with different drivers.
In Battlefield 5 I’ve got the L340 highlighted in red near similarly specced machines. As
the only 1650 laptop I’ve tested recently it’s down the bottom, however it is also
worth remembering that the L340 is the only laptop on this graph that was tested in single
channel. I did fully plan on installing dual channel memory, but only found out after opening
it up that it has one slot, so this wasn’t possible.
Here are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark. Again
for the same reasons just explained the L340 is coming in at last place. Not only that,
but as a CPU heavy game the 9300H is probably giving us a little lower performance when
compared against the 9750H, I still need to compare those in a future video though.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings. Once more the Lenovo L340 is in last place out of these laptops tested, but
it’s important to note that it is also the cheapest of these machines, so you get what
you pay for.
When compared to other machines, as we’ve just seen, the Lenovo L340 doesn’t look
too good. It’s worth keeping in mind that the comparisons we just looked at are with
maximum setting levels. As we saw earlier, the L340 is definitely capable of playing
modern games with good frame rates at low to medium settings, just don’t expect miracles
at high or above. It does of course depending on the title, but we’re limited by the single
channel memory as the L340 doesn’t provide the option of dual channel. I don’t think
that the i5-9300H CPU or GTX 1650 graphics are bad options in a laptop, we’re just
not able to get full performance out of this particular machine.
It’s a bit strange that Lenovo didn’t include two memory slots on the L340, I guess
perhaps they want to push people towards a higher tier model like the Y540 or something.
In any case, for the moment, I need to get my hands on more i5 and 1650 machines to see
how this affects performance. At the moment I’m only able to compare to higher tier
machines, I want to get more budget friendly options tested to compare with.
Let me know what you thought of the gaming performance from the new Lenovo L340 gaming
laptop down in the comments, and if you’re new to the channel you’ll definitely want
to get subscribed for the full review to see everything this machine has to offer.