The new Lenovo Y540 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 21 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 Y540 with the Intel i7-9750H CPU and Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti graphics, as this
seems to be a pretty popular option. I’ve tested with 16gb of memory running in dual
channel, but there are different configurations available, 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, however there’s no G-Sync here. 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
Y540 compares with some other laptops and see how it stacks up.
This is my first time testing the Division 2, I only just bought it as a lot of you have
been asking for it. These are the results with the built in benchmark, and as my first
time using it I don’t yet have context as to how the results stack up, though even ultra
settings was averaging 60 FPS in this test.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode and not in multiplayer mode, as it’s easier
to consistently reproduce the test run. The game was still running well at ultra settings
with a decent average frame rate, and when combined with the 1% low that isn’t too
far behind we can see it’s a nice stable result.
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.
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 still playing well
with maximum settings, still above 60 FPS for the 1% low, though minimum settings saw
average FPS rise by almost 47%.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, the results from this
test were looking good, we’ll see how this game compares with some other laptops later,
but at highest settings it was close to the Dell G5 with RTX 2060.
Far Cry New Dawn was tested with the built in benchmark. This game seems to be fairly
CPU heavy, and at ultra settings both the average FPS and 1% low are actually a little
ahead of the Aero 15 I recently tested with more powerful 2070 Max-Q graphics.
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. Epic settings still averaged above 100 FPS
and it was running well, not too surprising, the game runs fine on basically any modern
hardware, and we can get much higher frame rates at lower setting levels.
Overwatch is another well optimized game and was tested in the practice range, as other
players, bots and even different maps in actual gameplay affect the frame rate and this allows
for consistent testing. This game was also performing very well, and able to hit the
300 FPS frame cap at low in this test, and as usual epic settings was playing smoothly
too.
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. 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 context.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark. Even with maximum ultra settings
we’re getting 120 FPS with decent 1% lows too, while high settings gets us to the 144
FPS sweet spot for a first person shooter like this.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and like we’re seeing throughout all these
games in general higher settings where we’re more GPU bound are lower due to the 1660 Ti
but still fair, while lower settings are much higher comparatively in this test compared
to many other machines I've tested.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark, and from my experience
this is quite a CPU heavy test. Despite this though the results at lower settings are pretty
good, though the game doesn’t really need high FPS to play anyway.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane with an average amount of action going on,
and there wasn’t really much difference between the setting levels in terms of average
FPS, however there was a larger difference seen to 1% low, though I still found the game
to play fine at max settings.
Watch Dogs 2 is a resource heavy game that still plays fine for me with a solid 30 FPS,
though we weren’t really getting that at ultra, with the 1% low being a fair bit down
so it felt a bit stuttery at times, very high played much better and without issue, where
even the 1% low was above the average coming from ultra.
Ghost Recon is another resource intensive game and was tested with the built in benchmark.
Around 45 FPS at ultra doesn’t look great, but for context to hit 60 in this test you
generally need a very powerful laptop, and besides much higher was possible even just
stepping down one level.
The Witcher 3 was playing ok with hairworks disabled, and at ultra and high settings it
did feel a little stuttery, similar to watch dogs 2. It still played alright for the most
part, but we can see this reflected in the much lower 1% low results, which become a
fair bit better at medium and low settings.
DOOM was tested using Vulkan, and is a game that almost always gets really high frame
rates. Usually I see less of a difference when swapping between setting levels, however
it seems to be making a bigger change here, though ultra was still able to average 144
FPS, perfect to pair with the 144Hz screen.
Strange Brigade was another game that was tested with Vulkan, and this one was also
running well with the built in benchmark. Still over 100 FPS at ultra settings, and
almost 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 high settings were just shy of 100 FPS
in this test.
Let’s also take a look at how this config of the Lenovo Y540 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 Y540 highlighted in red near similarly specced machines. It’s
a little behind the Helios 300 with the same specs just above it, which is expected as
the Helios undervolts the CPU, boosts CPU power limit, and overclocks the graphics in
turbo mode. The Y540 is hanging in there though, it’s getting a boost as the 1660 Ti is connected
directly to the screen, no Optimus.
Here 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 results here are pretty good, with
the Y540 beating both of the RTX 2060 laptops on the graph and performing closer to the
1070 in the GE75, all while having a higher 1% low too.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings. The results seem fair, sure still below the Helios 300 with same specs, but
that thing is a beast, and we’re only 1 FPS behind the thermally throttled Dell G5
with RTX 2060.
Overall the Lenovo Y540 is providing good gaming performance. Some games were less smooth
than I’d like at maximum settings, which I think isn’t too surprising considering
the hardware we’re dealing with. For the most part though all games ran 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, 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 Helios
300, so it doesn’t perform quite as well, though should still be a bit ahead of many
other 1660 Ti laptops that use Nvidia Optimus.
Let me know what you thought of the gaming performance from the new Lenovo Y540 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.