Lenovo Legion 5/5 Pro/7 2021 Discussion

Your profile picture about sums up how I feel about this. But sadly it works and a lot of people don’t pay attention to the ones behind the curtain pulling the strings.

 

Papusan and the Prema crew are legit. Too bad our peasant books are BGA and will never be blessed by the likes of Prema BIOS. We have to beg for crumbs from Lenovo to unlock the damn thing. I’m holding on to my Clevo alongside the Legion 7i for as long as I can.

 

What was the reason you returned the 6600M Legion and what RAM are you currently using? IIRC the Ryzen based systems requires a low tFRC.

 

I'm not using anything right now except my MacBook Air. My Legion 7i is supposed to arrive tomorrow, but I won't be able to get into using it until either later this week or early next. It has 16 GB standard, but if I end up keeping it, I'll be upgrading to the 32 GB x8 kit I have on-hand. I don't think Lenovo is putting x16 RAM into the L7, being that it's their flagship product.

I had sent the 6600M L5 back because I was able to secure a "Holy Grail" Legion 5 Pro - the R7/3070 model that Walmart has been selling for $1399. I should have held onto the all-AMD laptop while I tested the Pro because then I would have kept that model as the Walmart special suffered from several quality control problems that had me returning it.

 

You returned the M1 MacBook Pro as well? I thought you really enjoyed the screen on that one?

 

I did because it wasn't offering enough performance over my MacBook Air to justify it costing three times more. The L7i and MBA combined still cost less than the MBP 16.

 

I was wrong. Lenovo is apparently putting x16 RAM into the Legion 7. Skip ahead to about the 10:40 mark if you don't want to watch the whole thing. Is it also true that the Intel-based versions of this laptop use Advanced Optimus? That seems odd to me considering all models have the same display.

 

Can confirm:
Legion 7i can ship with x16 or 2Rx8 RAM

It has a MUX switch if that’s what you’re wondering..


- Advanced Optimus meaning you can be on IGPU and change to DGPU without restarting (if done from Nvidia Control Panel)
OR
Run on IGPU but set specific apps to use DGPU anyway

The above 2 methods still leave performance on the table.. If you want full DGPU performance you have to set it in Lenovo Vantage software and restart, or in the BIOS on startup.

 

I have both the 230watt and 300watt bricks and generally both weight the same (at least the square model, not the curvy one) at about 600grams. I do wish they release the GaN version soon enough as that 230watt bricks is also huge (but can't support even the L5P 5800h/3070 if fully loaded).

 

I know it has a MUX. I was speaking specifically about Advanced Optimus. It seems, and correct me if I'm wrong, every laptop that supports the latter must also include the former. However, not every laptop that has the former supports the latter. All Legion laptops have a MUX, but it appears as though only Intel-based ones can take advantage of Advanced Optimus. I've seen folks with a Legion 7i take pictures showing AO compatibility, and I find it strange that this functionality is apparently not offered on AMD-based variants since they all seemingly use the same display panel.

 

After being very disappointed with the AMD version (no RAID, pretty much straight shot down any sort of XMP/DOCP or advanced BIOS, god awful unprofessional RGB that kept resetting every time I closed the lid although I now know a workaround, somehow feeling sluggish even with a 5900HX/3080 edit: Oh, and the ****ty MediaTek wireless card I bought a replacement for) I decided to order the Intel version with that insane discount code. Compared to if I had custom configured it, the 11980/3080 ended up something like $1000 off. Ordered last night and arrives Friday morning. Hoping this one ends up better.

 

Finally back home and powered up the 7i. No screen / pixel defects and display is perfect. Not doing anything stupid this time and not touching the 3080 vbios.

Based on HWinfo it appears I got the crap RAM with Trfc 880. Not cool but I'll just swap my Kingston RAM in.

Finally done with my laptop carousel. Hope you all enjoy once you receive your laptop.

*Edit- mine came with 2x 1TB SSD in RAID0. Not thrilled about that but not really an issue, I read that there are ways to break up this "feature" when doing a factory reset.

 

Mine came in today, too - bummed about the RAID0 1TB SSDs - I thought it was a single 2TB to take advantge of gen4. A bit disappointed and I feel it is slightly misleading how they advertise it...



Good news is the 1TB SSD drives are Samsung PM9A91.



Looks like I got x16, too...



But yeah everything else is perfect so far. Awesome laptop!

EDIT: had to show a family pic

 

Just wanted to provide the whole picture...

Yes, all laptops that have a MUX have AO as far as I'm aware.. but the AMD versions do not.

My hunch is that Nvidia doesn't play nice (drivers) with the (competitor) AMD Radeon integrated GPU.. not surprising, lol.

 

My Alienware M15r5 with AMD 5900HX and 3070 has advanced optimus. Must be a Lenovo thing then?

 

I stand corrected.. weird then.

May be a Lenovo thing

 

Do you know the specific model you ordered? Mine shows as 82K6005SUS and says it comes with 2TB with do indication of multiple drives. I don't think I will mind if it comes in RAID since that could actually speed things up in tasks that aren't bound by the PCIe lanes but I am just trying to figure out exactly what I am going to get when I drive to UPS on Friday.

 

Yes that’s the one

 

You can get rid of the raid in bios if you really want to.
1. Delete the RAID first (remove both drives from the array) in the BIOS
2. Then switch the VMD to disabled. It will automatically enable AHCI
3. Then just save, reboot and install Windows as normal.

I like raid myself.

 

Disappointing, if only because the listing said "2TB SSD" and not "2TB (2x1TB)". I will assume I am getting the slow memory as well then. I have a different kit that I can use but don't know how well it will run without a proper XMP profile. I will just have to find out when it gets here.

 

like the GE76 - Gear 1 with the stock RAM is 2933MHz with tighter timings.

If you already have RAM - great. But I wouldn’t waste a dime upgrading laptop memory.

 

I keep checking hoping to see they shipped mine. But it hasn’t been 4 days yet. Sooooo hopefully soon enough.

Mine comes with 2 1tb drives in raid also. Though mine is the and version so I might appreciate that more since I can’t take advantage of gen 4 ssds.

 

Got a poor performing 3080, I can't break 12,900 graphics in Timespy. The most I can OC is +130 core and +400 memory.

 

Oh boy, this is making me anxious.

 

Did you go into the BIOS and set the MUX to NVIDIA only? That should help with performance.

I got my price down by $200 by calling the returns line and complaining about the misleading 2TB SSD configuration. Got my laptop down to $2,259 ( config here).

Just call this number and ask for the $200. I could have probably got $300!

 

Yes, I set to dGPU only in the bios. What is worse, the laptop won't even show a display / bios screen. All I did was swap the stock RAM back into the laptop. Can't even boot to external monitor. I have the - worst - luck when it comes to electronics. This stuff always seems to happen to me haha.

 

damn dude - sorry to hear that. RIP

 

Try reseating the ram again and then disconnect the battery cable and hold the power button down for 30 seconds. Or try booting with only one stick first, to see if it can trigger the bios to retrain memory.

 

Is this with the RAM at default (3200MHz) or did you put it to Gear 1 (2933MHz, tighter timings)? I can barely break 12,000 graphics in Timespy - despite my OC being higher than yours. Must be the RAM. I'm using Gear 1.

 

Tried that, no luck.

Yeah RAM at default timings, it was gear 2 per HWinfo. I didn't adjust anything other than swap in my set of 32gb RAM, which has worked and is working just fine now in my Alienware laptop.

*Edit- there's something going on other than RAM in your system, RAM shouldn't affect graphics score like that? Regardless that's very low. My 3070 scores 11,730 graphics.

 

On the intel 7i laptops how do you tell what “gear” your RAM is running at?

 

If you have not already try letting it boot for 3-4 minutes without interrupting and powering it down. It may eventually reboot successfully.

 

My 3070-equipped Legion 7i arrived this morning. First laptop I've received from Lenovo that didn't have at least moderate damage to the box. I hate that they just slap a shipping label on the item they're sending. The whole package feels substantially more premium than the Legion 5 and 5 Pro, from the unboxing to the overall feel in the hand.

At first I thought my screen had a dirt defect, but thankfully it was on the outside so it cleaned right off. This was a relief because the panel is otherwise the best I've ever received on a gaming laptop in terms of uniformity. Not that IPS glow and/or backlight bleed has ever particularly bothered me, but I'm not seeing any on this example.

The keyboard is very good despite key travel that feels a tad short - I think I slightly prefer the non-Pro Legion 5 here. Like every other Legion laptop I've tried, trackpad palm rejection remains an issue, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was on the L5 and especially the 5 Pro. Speaking of the trackpad, the 7's glass unit feels nicer than the plastic one on the 5 and 5 Pro, but mine might be a bit uneven as there's a touch of rattle if you tap hard enough on the right side. Again, it's not nearly as annoying as other Lenovo and other-branded laptops I've used.

From a usability perspective, iCue is trash on toast. It causes weird CPU usage and clock speed fluctuations, with the former bouncing around between 2 and 9 percent utilization at idle when the program is running. Disabling it from starting with Windows along with shutting off the services brought CPU usage down to 0-1 percent, with a commensurate drop in frequency. The built-in lighting effects are fine, though I wish there was a way to turn off the LEDs in the fan grilles and the ring around the chassis separately from the keyboard.

Haven't done much performance testing. Using the stock x16 memory, Cinebench R23 scores shade under 12,000 in balanced mode and over 13,000 in high-performance. Thermals are outstanding, with the CPU idling in the 30s and only touching 80 in performance mode where frequencies would average 4.0 GHz during Cinebench. Balanced mode is up to 15 degrees cooler, though the CPU frequency seems to fluctuate more. I'll run Timespy at some point, though with the holiday it may not be for several days.

I hear high-pitched whine from the fans, but considering this has been the rule in my experience across laptop brands, I think the problem is more with me than the hardware. I went to Best Buy tonight and observed similar behavior from the floor model laptops. I'm probably just cursed with ears that are overly sensitive to this type of noise.

So while my Legion 7i is far from perfect, there isn't anything about it that makes me want to request an RMA, for now. That's more than I can say for most gaming laptops I've used in the last two years. At least I have the luxury of the holiday return period to really make up my mind, but I'm leaning toward keeping this one.

It's in HWiNFO under the "Memory Timings" section.

 

I tried 3 separate sets of RAM to make sure the sticks weren't the issue, didn't make any difference. Also let it sit for 10 minutes after pressing power button and the screen never powered on, the keyboard stays on its rainbow RGB cycle.

Could I have shorted the motherboard when swapping the RAM somehow? If that were the case the laptop wouldn't power on I assume.

 

[QUOTE="saturnotaku, post: 11129963,



It's in HWiNFO under the "Memory Timings" section.[/QUOTE]

Is it actually called gear?

 

It is possible, especially if you weren't careful with the metal cover that goes over the memory. I wouldn't call it particularly likely given how trivial a memory swap is but I have no other ideas off the top of my head.

 

Does every 2TB Legion 7i come with two 1TB SSDs instead of a single 2TB unit?

 

Seeing thermal throttling on the CPU just during the first few minutes of boot - stock, not doing any built-in OC or anything - is that a huge bad sign or "normal" for 11980HK?

 

Unless you custom build one and pick a single 2TB m.2 it seems they always give you two 1TB in raid0.

 

My all-AMD Legion 5 had two 1 TB drives as separate volumes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Well heck they can’t even stay consistent can they?

 

It does get hot when starting up for the first time when Windows does all of its updating, etc. Should settle back down after everything is booted up regularly. I hadn't noticed any issues with my CPU when it was working yesterday.

 

Thanks! I'm testing undervolting with Intel XTU right now. So far I am up to -0.060 core voltage offset - working my way down.

I still can only get like 12,100 GPU score in Time Spy which is a concern if you're complaining about 12,900 being bad!

 

Have you tried powering it on, holding the power button down for 8 seconds? It is supposed to reset BIOS/EC to factory defaults.

I can't imagine swapping RAM causing this to happen, so long as the "disconnect power" option was selected in the bios, or you pulled the battery cable and drained residual power first. If keyboard is lighting up EC should be working. If you use Fn+Spacebar does it still cycle through the keyboard lighting profiles?

Although to be honest if you cannot figure it out soon I would try and contact Lenovo to secure an exchange unit before they all sell out from their sales.

 

Make sure hybrid is turned off in Lenovo Vantage. To get a good Time Spy score it is better to use Afterburner than overclocking in the bios. I can get +200/1500 in afterburner easily. Click on the Time Spy in my sig and I have the settings I used in the description. Also, use GPU-Z to check the memory on your 3080. Some cards shipped with Micron and some with Samsung. The Samsung cards seem to get higher scores.

 

Ah! I did not enable the "disconnect power" option in bios. I did pull the battery cable. That is likely how this happened then. I tried holding down the power button for 10 seconds and nothing changed.

I already requested a return last night just in case, and re-ordered a pre-built 11800H model for a few hundred less. When that one arrives I am putting on latex gloves, anti-static band, disconnecting power in bios, and pulling the battery cable. So tired of all of this, but I can't blame anyone but myself. I've been building desktops for 10 years, I should've known better when swapping RAM in a laptop / risks of shorting something.

 

If you unplugged the battery cable its the same thing. Just so much easier to do in the bios. It was a ***** the first time I tried unplugging the cable. I don't remember the exact wording in the bios but it is something strange like building battery.

 

I never saw that in the bios, now I'll be sure to look. The new one I ordered last night already shipped per Lenovo's order status, damn that's fast. Went with the 11800H / 3080 / 1TB this time.