The IdeaPad Gaming 3i is Lenovo’s more budget friendly gaming laptop option compared to their
higher tier Legion series, but just how well does it actually perform in games?
We’ve tested 14 games and compared it against other laptops to find out!
My IdeaPad has Intel’s Core i7-12650H CPU, Nvidia’s RTX 3050 Ti graphics,
16 gigs of memory and a 15.6" 1080p 165Hz screen, but there’s also a larger 16 inch version too.
Unfortunately my laptop came to me with one stick
of DDR4 memory installed, so single channel memory.
From what I can tell, this just seems to be how Lenovo ships this
laptop by default, but it could vary by region.
As using two sticks of memory in dual channel is an easy way to
significantly boost gaming performance, we’ve tested games both with the stock
memory and with the memory upgrade to see what the differences are. Gaming
performance also depends on the power limit of our RTX 3050 Ti GPU though.
Although Nvidia’s spec sheet lists the 3050 Ti with a power limit range of 35 to 80 watts,
I actually found that the one in the IdeaPad would always run at 85 watts,
even with the CPU fully loaded up at the same time as the GPU.
The screen that came in mine is also pretty great,
which is good considering that’s what you’re going to be staring at while playing games.
The IdeaPad gives us the option to enable panel overdrive mode through the
Lenovo Vantage software, and it’s on by default.
This lowers the screen’s response time to 4.74ms, which is quite a great result and
close to much higher end laptops. Other gaming laptops that I’d consider to be
in the same category as the IdeaPad typically have much slower screens.
Now it’s worth keeping in mind that this only applies to the 165Hz panel that I’ve
got here. I’d definitely expect lower results with that cheaper 120Hz option. But you can
customize the screen and see what the price differences are with the link below the video.
The total system latency is the amount of time between a mouse click and when a gunshot fire
appears on the screen in CS:GO. The result isn’t as impressive despite the relatively fast screen,
which I suspect is due to this laptop not having a MUX switch,
as being able to turn off optimus and bypass the integrated graphics generally lowers latency.
Don’t worry though, we will also be connecting an external monitor to
the HDMI port to bypass optimus and see what sort of a speed boost this gets us. But first,
let’s see how the IdeaPad actually compares against other laptops in games.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested the same on all laptops, and I’ve got the IdeaPad highlighted in red,
one for the stock memory and another with the upgraded memory. The upgraded RAM is
giving us a 38% higher average FPS compared to the stock RAM, which is a crazy difference for
such a simple change. I know this is a more budget friendly gaming laptop, but I think
most people would be happy to pay a little more to get such a good gain. Another stick of
memory is what, less than $50 or so? Sounds worth it to me. With the upgraded memory,
the 3050 Ti performs closely to the GTX 1660 Ti from a few years ago,
which matches exactly with what I found when I previously compared those two GPUs in depth.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the games benchmark tool. The memory upgrade was giving
us a 20% higher average FPS now, so not quite as much as in Cyberpunk, but still a really
nice boost. I mean the IdeaPad with stock RAM is basically performing the same as a 13 inch
tablet with the same GPU that has half the power limit, so it's not exactly getting the most from
the hardware with single channel memory. With the upgraded memory it’s now closer to an RTX 2060
from last generation, and the best result I’ve seen so far from any RTX 3050 Ti gaming laptop.
Control is a GPU heavy game, and I’ve found that the difference
between single channel and dual channel memory doesn’t really affect this one,
so we’re basically getting the same performance with either memory configuration. Just goes
to show that the memory upgrade isn’t always that important, but that said I still really
think it’s worth doing for the games that do benefit. You can check out the memory I
upgraded to with the link below the video. It’s not quite the best 3050 Ti result recorded,
but it’s close. This game and the others covered so far also have DLSS support, so we could use
this to further boost frame rates even higher than this, and we’ll check that in a moment.
Cool, so upgrading the RAM can definitely help in some games,
but what about connecting an external screen?
The IdeaPad does not have a MUX switch, so it can be bottlenecked by the integrated graphics.
Although the frames for our games do get rendered on the RTX 3050 Ti graphics,
it sends them through the Intel integrated graphics on their way to the screen, and
that iGPU can act as a bottleneck. Connecting an external screen to the rear HDMI port solves this
problem, because it goes straight to the Nvidia graphics and bypasses the integrated graphics.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider using the stock RAM with the laptop’s screen was
the lowest result at 69 FPS, not so nice in this case. Simply connecting a monitor
to the HDMI port boosted average FPS by 7%, not bad for such a simple change.
A larger 15% boost to average FPS is possible if we instead upgrade the RAM,
a bigger difference. Interestingly, using an external monitor with the upgraded RAM didn’t
give a further performance boost in this game, so upgrading the memory is still the best move.
Now that we know where the IdeaPad fits in compared to other laptops,
let’s actually see how it performs in more games.
We’ve tested tested 14 games at all available setting presets so that we can get a good idea
of what the RTX 3050 Ti is actually capable of. And although we know that both upgrading the
memory and using an external screen can boost the performance of this laptop, all testing here has
been done with the stock memory and the laptop’s screen, as the point of this upcoming testing
is to show you what you’d actually expect if you were to go out and by this same machine.
And that’s why we’ve also made use of features like DLSS and FSR in the upcoming games,
because they’re both great features that give a nice performance boost.
Apex Legends was tested in the latest Season 13 in the World’s Edge map.
This game doesn’t have any built in setting presets, so I’ve tested it with either all
settings maxed out or at minimum. It was still playing well even at max settings,
surpassing 100 FPS, and I’d expect games like this which can hit high FPS to see
nice boosts with dual channel memory or an external screen to bypass optimus.
Call of Duty Warzone was also tested at either maximum or minimum setting
levels for the same reason - no built in setting presets. But this game has DLSS,
so we’ve tested it on quality mode. Max settings was around 100 FPS here too,
but there’s a smaller performance increase with lower settings compared to Apex.
Fortnite does quite well even at max settings too,
as eSports focused games are generally easier to run without needing super high end hardware.
The 3050 Ti was still able to get us above 80 FPS at epic settings with DLSS on quality mode.
Forza Horizon 5 was tested with the game’s benchmark. Extreme and ultra setting presets
aren’t a good time, but high settings was doing quite well at above 80 FPS while
still also looking quite nice. I don’t think anyone was expecting the 3050 Ti to give us
good FPS at max settings in modern games, but now you can see what it’s capable of.
God of war was a bit low at ultra settings even with DLSS enabled, but high settings was still
above 60 FPS. You could lower the DLSS quality level to something like balanced to further
improve FPS, but at the expense of visual quality. We choose to test 1080p with DLSS on quality mode
so that things still look good, and this is also the option Nvidia suggests at 1080p.
Dying Light 2 was also tested with DLSS enabled, but even with it on the two ray tracing presets
up the top weren’t doing that well. Although technically the 3050 Ti is capable of running
games with RT, honestly from the performance I’ve seen I wouldn’t recommend it in most
games. Somewhere between medium and high settings can still get you around 60 FPS thanks to DLSS.
Microsoft Flight Simulator doesn’t really need a high frame rate to play,
so high-end settings wouldn’t be too bad, though medium can get
you above 60 FPS if you’re fine with sacrificing a little visual quality.
Far Cry 6 was tested with FSR enabled. We usually test this one with HD textures on,
but it wasn’t possible due to the 3050 Ti not having enough VRAM, so its 4 gigs are a limit.
Without HD textures it’s still possible to get close to 60 FPS at high settings,
so not a bad result, just don’t expect the best graphics with a low to mid-tier GPU. I
also need to note that at higher setting presets occasionally the game ran much
lower than what's shown here, it got more inconsistent at higher levels.
Speaking of low VRAM, 4 gigs wasn’t really enough for Watch Dogs Legion
at higher setting presets either. Again as long as you set your expectations by
understanding what the 3050 Ti is capable of, you can still have a good time playing
at high settings or below with DLSS on, which is around the 60 FPS sweet spot.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a game that I’ve seen hit VRAM limits with just 4 gigs
at higher settings too, but again given this isn’t a higher end GPU like a 3060,
3070 or 3080, just set your expectations a bit lower and drop the setting levels
down as needed to run with smoother frame rates.
Rainbow Six Siege runs on a potato, so no problems running this older title.
Low settings finally gets us close to the screen’s 165Hz refresh rate for the first
time. The screen actually has a decent response time, but to take full advantage of it with
higher FPS can be a bit of a challenge with the 3050 Ti, even at lower setting levels.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested earlier in the comparison section, but now you can see
how the different presets perform and what DLSS adds. Ultra settings can’t actually be
set due to the 4 gig VRAM limit, but based on what we’ve seen in most other games already,
the 3050 Ti isn’t exactly made for gaming at max settings anyway,
so that’s not really a problem, but it’s why there’s no data point there.
Control was also compared earlier, but now we’ve got ray tracing on in the green bars.
RT actually wasn’t doing too badly here, still around 60 FPS at medium settings with DLSS on,
and honestly I think medium settings still look
pretty good in this game even without RT. Again you don’t need max settings to have a good time.
Cyberpunk 2077 was also tested earlier, but again now we’ve got some ray tracing results.
Like Dying Light 2 earlier, the RT presets aren’t looking great even with DLSS on.
Only low settings gets us above 60 FPS with DLSS enabled, so if you want higher setting
levels you might need to consider lowering the DLSS quality level to boost the frame rate.
So while the RTX 3050 Ti is definitely capable of running games at low to high
settings depending on the game, honestly if you can save up a little extra money I’d
strongly recommend getting the higher tier RTX 3060 graphics. I just really
think it’s worth it for all the reasons covered in this video. So watch that one
next before you buy a laptop with an RTX 3050 Ti, I’ll see you in that video next.