The Lenovo Y740 gaming laptop has been heavily requested on the channel, and I’ve finally
got one, so just how well does it perform in games? I’ll be testing out 21 games at
all setting levels to give you an idea of performance, 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’ve got the Intel i7-8750H CPU, 90 watt Nvidia RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics, and 16 gb
of memory running in dual channel. There are a few different configurations available though,
you can find examples and updated prices linked in the description.
Something worth noting is that the Lenovo Vantage software allows us to either run the
machine in hybrid mode, so with Nvidia Optimus for better battery life, or to disable the
Intel graphics for higher levels of performance. All testing here has been done with hybrid
mode off, which should give us a boost in games, and this also lets us use G-Sync. Otherwise
I’ve also tested with performance mode enabled for best results.
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 21 games at all setting levels, then afterwards we’ll see how the
Y740 compares with some other laptops and see how it stacks up.
The Division 2 was tested with the built in benchmark, and this is only my second time
testing this game. Like the first time on the Y540, the 1% low was a fair bit behind
the average at ultra, though the average FPS are a little higher now due to the better
GPU.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode. With RTX off, shown by the purple bars, it
played fine even at ultra settings, though 1% low performance was somewhat inconsistent
between setting levels. RTX on only looks good at higher settings in my opinion, however
when comparing even RTX on at low settings, the performance with RTX off at ultra is comparable
while looking better.
Battlefield 1 was also tested in campaign mode, and like always it’s running well
and performing better than the newer Battlefield 5 just shown, with over 100 FPS averages achievable
at ultra settings and playing very smoothly with consistent 1% lows.
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 was running well at ultra
settings, however it was possible to boost average FPS by 37% with minimum settings.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, and the results here
are pretty good overall, though we’ll see how this game and others compare with other
laptops soon.
Far Cry New Dawn was tested with the built in benchmark. This game seems to be fairly
CPU heavy, so the results aren’t really all that different compared to other laptops
I’ve tested regardless of the GPU they’re paired with.
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.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, at lower settings we’re getting very high
frame rates, while even epic settings was still easily averaging above 100 with decent
1% low too.
Overwatch is another well optimized game and was tested in the practice range, and again
very high frame rates here, with the 300 FPS frame cap being hit at low and medium settings,
while even maximum still provided above 100 for the 1% low.
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 like Fortnite and Overwatch I noticed
this game was performing very well, better than most other machines. I think this is
a result of having the Intel GPU removed from the equation, many more powerful laptops I’ve
tested get the frame rate high settings has in this test at low settings just for a quick
comparison.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark. Even with maximum ultra settings
we’re getting above 100 for the 1% low, a good result.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and the results here were good, above what
I normally see, and I noted similar with the Y540, so I’m thinking this game seems to
benefit more from removing the Intel graphics.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark, and from my experience
seems to be a fairly CPU heavy game. At lower settings the y540 I recently tested was actually
ahead, despite having 1660 Ti graphics, possibly due to the fact it has the new 9750H compared
to the 8750H in my Y740, but also a higher power limit.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane with an average amount of action going on,
and was playing quite well even with ultra settings with very high frame rates and no
issues that I could notice.
Watch Dogs 2 uses a lot of resources, though the results were still pretty good here, with
almost 60 FPS averages at ultra settings it was playing perfectly fine maxed out.
Ghost Recon Wildlands is another resource intensive game and was tested with the built
in benchmark. Keep in mind that to hit 60 FPS in this test at ultra settings you need
a pretty beefy laptop, so overall these are decent results, with much higher hit at lower
levels.
The Witcher 3 was also playing well at ultra settings as it’s another like watch dogs
that I don’t think needs crazy high frame rates to enjoy, with 90 FPS averages and almost
60 for the 1% low at ultra it was playing well.
DOOM was tested using Vulkan, and is a game that usually hits really high frame rates,
and that was also the case here, with well over 100 FPS even for the 1% low at ultra
settings, so playing perfectly fine.
Strange Brigade was another game that was tested with Vulkan, and this one was running
well with the built in benchmark. Still over 100 FPS at ultra settings, and above 200 with
low settings with relatively high 1% low results compared to averages.
Shadow of War was also tested with the built in benchmark, and is a game that I’ve found
to benefit from Nvidia’s new Turing architecture, and very high settings were just shy of 100
FPS in this test.
Let’s also take a look at how this config of the Lenovo Y740 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 Y740 highlighted in red near similarly specced machines. It’s
behind the Razer Blade Pro 17 with similar specs, however that does boost the GPU to
a higher 100 watts, overclocks the GPU, and undervolt the CPU out of the box, so if we
manually made some these changes we’d see higher performance, but these are all out
of box performance results. The average frame rate is basically the same as the new Gigabyte
Aero I recently covered, though there was a higher 1% low from the Y740.
These are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark.
I’ve found this to be a pretty CPU heavy test, and the 1% low is a bit lower compared
to the Aero 15 with same GPU now, though the Aero does have a slightly newer CPU and a
higher CPU power limit. Despite this though, the average frame rate in this test is still
close to some 2080 Max-Q and 2070 machines.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings. Same result as the Aero 15 here, though a fair bit behind the non Max-Q 2070
machines now, however also a decent amount above the 2060 results.
Overall the Y740 is performing quite well as a result of increased GPU power limit while
in performance mode, and also the ability to run it with hybrid mode disabled which
unlocks full performance of the RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics. All games tested were running well
even with higher setting levels.
There are some other issues with fan speed that I’ll address in the upcoming thermal
testing video, however the option to disable hybrid mode is an excellent feature for boosting
gaming performance, and is something I wish all laptops at least offered. Even if you
don’t want to use it or change as it does require a reboot to apply, I think giving
the user the choice is best. There’s no undervolting or overclocking done out of the
box like other machines such as the Razer Blade Pro 17, though due to that 90 watt power
limit and option to disable hybrid mode we should see increased performance in games
compared to other standard 2070 Max-Q laptops, many of which have an 80 watt GPU power limit
and are impacted by Optimus.
Let me know what you thought of the gaming performance from the Lenovo Y740 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.