Laptop Review: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga 3rd Gen

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga 3rd Gen is powered by the 8th Gen Intel Core i7 8650U and Intel UHD Graphics 620 Integrated graphics . Other key specs include 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. The Display here is a 14 Inch 60 Hz FHD (1920 x 1080) Panel.

CPU: 8th Gen Intel Core i7 8650U

The Intel Core i7 8650U is a High-end processor for thin and light/2 in 1 laptop. The quad-core processor comes with 8 Threads and is based on Kaby Lake R Architecture. The 8650U has a base clock of 1.9 GHz and the clock speed can be turbo boosted to up to 4.2 GHz and 8MB of L3 Cache. Intel has specified a TDP of 15 watts, therefore with the i7 8650U, you can expect a good battery life. However, depending on the use case, TDP can vary between 10 Watts and 25 Watts.

Performance

The Intel Core i7-8650U is almost as powerful as the i7 7700Hq which has a TDP of 35 Watts.

GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620

The Intel UHD Graphics 620 has 24 graphical units. It is based on Gen. 9.5 architecture based on a 14 nm manufacturing process. It can support 4K at 60Hz with a peak resolution support of 4096×2304 pixels and it can support up to a maximum of three displays with this graphics processor.

When it comes the day to day tasks it is very capable of handling most of them however when it comes to much heavier workloads such a 3D rendering the UHD graphics 620 is not a good solution.

How is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (3rd Gen) for Gaming?

The Intel UHD should be able to handle most modern games that are not very graphic demanding such as League of Legends, Dota 2, Minecraft, CS: GO, GTA 5, and Fortnite. But consider this it only has 5 percent of the benchmark performance when compared with industry-leading Nvidia RTX 3090. The other limitations here include the 60Hz refresh rate and (1920×1080) resolution. *These benchmarks are for the Intel UHD graphics.

Fortnite

• Low ( 720p): 42 FPS
• Mid ( 1080p): 10 FPS
• High ( 1080p): 9 FPS
• Ultra (1080p): 5 FPS

PUBG ( PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds)

• Low( 720p): 26 FPS
• Mid ( 1080p): 14 FPS
• Ultra (1080p): 11 FPS

GTA V

• Low (768p): 40 FPS
• Mid (768p): 32 FPS
• High (1080p): 4 FPS
• Ultra (1080p): 3 FPS

CS:GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)

• Low (768p): 60 FPS
• Mid (768p): 60 FPS
• High (768p): 60 FPS
• Ultra (1080p): 39 FPS

League of Legends 

• Low (720p): 60 FPS
• Mid (1080p): 60 FPS
• High (1080p): 59 FPS
• Ultra (1080p): 52 FPS

Overwatch

• Low (768p): 39 FPS
• Mid (1080p): 26 FPS
• High (1080p): 15 FPS
• Ultra (1080p): 8 FPS

Apex Legends

• Low (768p): 17 FPS
• Mid (1080p): 4 FPS
• High (1080p): 2 FPS