Lenovo 7i - How Does It Do In Games?

Lenovo 7i - How Does It Do In Games?

The Lenovo Legion 7i gaming laptop has a good combination of things that make a gaming laptop perform great, so just how well does it run in games? I’ve tested 20 different games at all settings and compared it against some other laptops to find out. My 7i has some nice specs inside, but it is available with different options, you can find examples and updated prices linked in the description. The Lenovo Vantage software lets you select between different performance modes, I’ve used the highest performance mode for best results. The software also lets you disable Optimus for G-Sync which will give us a performance boost. By default Max-Q Dynamic Boost is enabled, meaning the GPU should be able to boost higher when the CPU doesn’t need the power. We’ll only be covering gaming performance in this article, so if you’re new then get follow for the upcoming thermal testing and full review article. Let's start out by going through all 20 games at all setting levels, then afterward we’ll see how other laptops compare. Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using the game's built-in benchmark tool, we’re just able to pass 60 FPS with the high setting preset, max settings seems to be too much for all but the highest specced laptops. Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode, no problems playing at ultra settings, just a little under 100 FPS, so a good result, and we’ll see how other laptops compare in this game a bit later. Control was tested with and without RTX enabled. 

I’ve got the results with RTX off in purple, RTX on in the green bars which was much worse comparatively, then RTX on with DLSS enabled as shown by the red bars, which was running much better while also looking good. Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built-in benchmark, and these are great results from a 2070 Max-Q laptop, but again we'll compare with some other laptops soon. 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 fine at max settings, though we could get the 1% low above the screens to refresh rate at a minimum. Call of Duty Modern Warfare was tested in campaign mode with either max or min settings for the same reason, and although the framerates are lower compared to Apex, it was still playing without any issues at max settings. Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and the 1% low results from high settings were close to the screens refresh rate, with way higher possible at lower levels if that’s what you’re after. CS: GO was tested with the elliptical FPS benchmark, and this game sees big improvements with Optimus disabled compared to other laptops that are stuck with it. 

Dota 2 wasn’t much different compared to far lower specced laptops, but either way still great results at max settings. Overwatch is another less demanding game and was tested in the practice range, with no issues hitting the 300 FPS frame cap at low and medium settings, while even the 1% low at epic settings were at the screens refresh rate. Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the builtin benchmark using Vulkan, there wasn’t much difference in average FPS between high and ultra settings, and even the 1% low at very high was near the refresh rate of the screen. 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, its more of a worst-case. Division 2 was also tested with the builtin benchmark. Ultra settings were above 60 FPS, and we could more than double this at low. Monster Hunter World was tested running through the main town, and I had no issues with the highest setting preset, it felt quite smooth, but again we could basically double the frame rate at low settings if that’s the priority. Borderlands 3 was tested using the games built-in benchmark, again quite good results, max settings were basically on 60 FPS which is good for this test, while the medium was able to surpass 100 FPS. 

Ghost Recon Breakpoint was also tested with the benchmark tool, again good results compared to other laptops tested, above 60 FPS at ultimate is a good result and is likely thanks to the option of dynamic boost, more on that soon. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is another that was tested with the game's benchmark, and the results were fairly good here, not quite 60FPS at max, but that’s generally difficult to achieve. Far Cry New Dawn was also tested with the game's benchmark, and the results weren’t really that different when compared to many others tested, perhaps a little better as a result of the 8 core processor. The Witcher 3 was playing fine at ultra settings, but as is typically the case with all laptops I test, we can get nice gains stepping back just one level too high while still looking good. F1 2019 was tested with the benchmark tool and sees similar behavior, while minimum settings would push the 1% low above the screens refresh rate. Now let’s take a look at how the LenovoLegion 7i with these specs compares against other laptops, 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 7i highlighted in red. It’s giving a great result for a 2070 Max-Q, most likely due to that higher power limit, and of course, we’re also seeing a boost from the ability to disable Optimus too. 

These are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built-in benchmark. The 7i is a bit higher in the stack now, which makes sense as this test is more dependent on processor power, and there’s an 8 core16 thread chip here. It’s not without its issues though, I'll discuss some thermal issues in the upcoming thermal testing article. Shadow of the Tomb Raider was also tested with the games benchmark tool, and the results were quite decent here too, with the 2070Max-Q giving good results and hanging in there with higher tier options. Overall gaming performance from the LenovoLegion 7i with these specs was great, and this is due to the combination of Nvidia’snew dynamic boost, the option of disabling Optimus, and the fact that the 7i runs the memory at DDR4-3200. I’ve tested one game with and without a dynamic boost just to get an idea of the difference it makes. With it enabled, the default, the 2070 Max-Q would run up to 105 watts in a GPU the only load, and with it off, it would run up to 90 watts which is more typical for this tier of GPU in a laptop. 

Anyway, a dynamic boost was definitely giving an improvement compared to not using it, and I’ll compare this in-depth in a future article. Here are the screen response time results for the 1080p 144Hz screen in my unit. The average grey-to-grey response time was7.6ms, and when we look at how this stacks up against others it’s around the middle of the pack. The Vantage software has an option for enabling or disabling overdrive, but I found no change to response time by toggling this, so not sure if it’s a bug. I didn’t see overshoot or undershoot so my best guess is overdrive is not enabled. Let me know what you thought of the gaming performance from the Lenovo Legion 7i gaming laptop down in the comments, and if you’ renew then get follow for the upcoming article where I’ll test out thermals in-depth and of course the detailed full review where I’ll show you everything this machine has to offer.