Lenovo Legion Y740 17" 15"

It’s all good Lenovo does this all the time! I didn’t pull it off because I felt like I’ve done it 1 million times already. Sorry about that!

 

Wow, so surprised how easily the 15" opens. At least on the 17", it definitely required 2 hands and almost had 'sticking points'. The webcam is totally unnecessary and should just have been removed, especially on the 17" where it is above the screen and has huge bezels. Amazed at your backlight bleed, so much better than all the 17" units I've seen! The internals of the 15" make me definitely wonder why a bigger battery isn't an option... The 2.5" bay is perfectly placed to be replaced as battery real estate!

I had a chance to play with a y530 since the y540 is on the way. Basically the same laptop as the y730/40, but made of plastic. May be a good and cheaper alternative if it can cool and perform to the level of the y740 when it finally shows up. Anyway, great review!

 

Great Review Bob, watching it I noticed the part where you undervolted the GPU to .700 with a 1320 Freq. I still noticed some PL going on in certain games under those changes with my testing, are we dealing with silicon lottery at this point and each laptop could yield different results?

 

what software is recommended to undervolt CPU? Throttlestop or Intel XTU?

 

Great review B0B I asked you a few questions in the youtubevideo, but ask them here aswell so others can see the answears: What was the noise like during gaming i dB? How much did performance and noise differ from stock with CPU undervolt at GPU undervolt\underclock?

A tip by the way: When g-sync is enabled one can often undervolt cache more than core. On my 2 setups at home I can undervolt 30-40mv more on cpu cache when g-sync is enabled\iGPU disabled. Some owners report that if hybridmode is turned on, the you can`t undervolt cpu cache more than cpu core.

 

I actually only have one thing that I dislike about the Y740: Slow 2666-ram. CL19 is comparable to 2133@CL15. There are many 2666-sticks that do CL15 og CL16 at stock that don`t cost premium $. This might impact gamingperformance at medium settings. For comparison, I can change the timings on the ram in my laptops bios (the one in signature). My ram is 2133 CL15 and I now run it at 2400 CL14. In Rise of the tomb raider my fps went from 102 to 117 with medium\high setting at fullhd. My cpu is quite a bit slower so faster ram on the Y740 might not make that much of an impact, but my GPU is comparable to the 2060\2070mq. Is there any ways to tweak ram in bios on Y740?

 

I would need more samples to be sure. There seems to be a tipping point that triggers PL throttling. It’s more fun to test than it actually matters. My sample hits this at 75w

 

XTU is very easy and quick but sometimes the undervolt won’t stick with a computer restart, so you’re having to redo it. ThrottleStop is a bit more in depth where as you can enable/disable some settings on the CPU whilst undervolting it, you can separately undervolt the cache also, finally you can program ThrottleStop to start when you log on through Task Scheduler. I personally use ThrottleStop.

 

You missed the dB part?

28 at idle
43-45 at Auto
48 max

The laptop pulls the wattage at a set limit and undervolting only improves performance so acoustics are not affected because thermals are not changed. A few C at best is rarely enough to make a laptop quieter in this specif case on the y740.

The y740 reviewed is the quietest machine per its spec and form factor I've had my hands on.

But without fan control you're at the mercy of the user. Settings in software and overall perceived level of acoustic fan volume will dictate your enjoyment now. If you feel this is too loud then gaming laptops right now might not be fore you.

There was a lot tested and left out. Bringing up that specific undervolt topic will only lead to hundreds/thousands of questions. Causing more harm than good for the overall user and individual looking for further information and clarity in the comment section.

 

Sorry, I only saw the 28dB, couldnt crack up volume at work. Thx for the reply

 

If I ordered the non configurable version with the 1tb hdd and 256gb ssd, where is the OS installed?

 

Ssd

 

Anything else anyone wants to see with this before I put it up for sale?

I plan on comparing this to the Aero 15 (2070mq) and the Zephyrus S (2080mq) over the weekend. Just to showcase a few things.

 

GPU overclocking potential!
Not keeping for your daily driver?

 

GPU overclocking is sort of odd with these since their super TDP limited compared to their desktop counterpart.

You can get decent synthetic benchmarks but the minimum FPS isn’t improved and rarely is the average.

Using this as a laptop has been difficult for me as per my complaints in the review.

Keyboard placement and battery life are very poor.

 

Hello can someone help me to do some benchmarks using a program called Octane Render?, it is a GPU ray tracing app for stills and animation. You can find the benchmark file for RTX in their forums

https://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=70705

I would greatly appreciate it! I am trying to check the score difference between 2070 max Q and 2080 max Q so that I can hopefully decide what to get.

Right now I use a GT73VR with a 1070 and it is too heavy and old.

 

Is the 17" model pointless to get (as another user in this thread pointed out)? I really want a 17" display since I rarely travel with my laptop.

Also, in your opinion, should I go with the Y740 (1060) or the MSI GE75 with the 1060?

 

Why would a 17 inch be pointless if you really want a 17 inch. It would be pointless for the resolution, its the same, the screen is just bigger. If you want a bigger screen get the 17 inch. If you dont mind a small screen get the 15 inch.

 

Another user in this thread said the bezels were ugly and there was too much wasted space on the deck.

 

I would agree with that comment but those are things that matter to the user.

 

Waisted is a big word. It has a nummer pad, I think its nice to have one since I use it for work. Its a bit odd but Im sure in a month or so Im used to it.

Keys are bigger which in my opinion aint a bad thing.

One thing I really miss after a week use for work is the second enter key bottem right of a normal number pad. Guess that will take a little longer to get used to

 

@B0B
Would you recommend the GIGABYTE laptop you reviewed over this if your mostly going to use it for gaming and not worried about battery life?
Is the performance that much different in gaming?

 

If you’re truly primarily gaming then I would go with the Y740. It’s easier to thermally manage while being slightly quieter.

The Y740 is a weird laptop to recommend because if the individual strictly wants a gaming machine then the competition is pretty robust in that department.

Or the aero excels very few laptops can compete.

 

The keys are too small on the 17" and it has a number pad with small keys. Yet it still has a huge amount of dead space. Compare that to the keyboard face of the Alienware Area-51m, which uses every bit of horizontal space and has nice, large keys with lots of travel. It leaves a lot to be desired. I've also yet to see proof of a single 17" without massive back light bleed, but I could be wrong there. The bezels are super ugly and make the laptop about 2" diagonally bigger than it needs to be. It makes no sense that the 17" y740 is actually longer than the Area-51m. I put one on top of the other.

The 15" looks a lot better in this regard. Less dead space, less bezels, much better form factor. I decided to stay away until pricing and availability would be known for the y540, since it will just be a plastic y740 and likely much cheaper.

 

Well Im comparing it to my old msi gt72, which has smaller keys and even larger bezels.

I dont have any lightbleed one my 17 inch by the way.

All in all I’m happy and its an improvement over my last laptop

 

Having had the Lenovo for a week now, I'm spending most free time finding the sweet spot for tuning, many positives and some negatives. Thermal is fantastic but you definitely have to put in the work, PL throttling is definately a thing here and it's where I'm spending most of my time to find the perfect GPU freq whilst taking full advantage of the CPU. That being said for anyone on the fence and you put in the undervolts you'll be getting idle temps at around 30 - 40 with literally no noise coming from the fans. Once you start gaming and ramp up the fans to Max it's still much quieter than alot of others I've heard and you'll be looking at temps between 70 - 80c. The norm for laptops these size chassis' are high 80s and into 90s. Finally, look at the price point of the 2060 with GSYNC compared to other comparable laptops in its class, those are nearer to 2k.

Bob, I know you speak of the Aero alot as being the best all around for your needs, when it comes to gaming what's the first name that comes to mind?

 

You'll see PL throttling on ALL 8750h CPU's especially here since Lenovo limited it to achieve good thermals. I've seen these 8750h chips uncorked pull 90w lol.

Straight up gaming LGA with a MXM card!

Thin and lights with gaming as a primary focus is an odd combo. Aesthetically it looks nice sitting on my desk but that's the only real advantage.

I'm just sour because Lenovo could have crushed the competition across two different avenues and didn't for some odd reason. NOW was the time to increase the battery life. It's the single most common complaint on the videos I have created on this laptop.

Heck even the HP Omen has the same storage setup as this, it's slightly smaller and has a 70Whr battery lol. No excuse IMO

 

Yeah the battery really is killer. Is there anything in the same price range as the Y740 though?

Btw great review! Very helpful!

 

It’s pretty easy to swap out the Ram if you had to but what RAM would you suggest if you want to upgrade yourself.

 

Is there something special about the cooling solution that Lenovo has created or are the CPU and GPU just limited compared to other models?

 

They did this and I fully support it

 

RTX laptops are starting to settle with more appropriate pricing. I wouldn't buy this but here's an example https://slickdeals.net/f/12912646-d...-free-shipping-dell-via-rakuten?src=catpagev2

 

Nice. Maybe I will wait it out to see if things calm down a bit in terms of prices. If the Y740 is out I had really hoped the G7 would’ve been better. But doesn’t seem like it fares any better.

Who knows maybe Lenovo will add in the bigger battery soon....

 

I expect a 76 ish whr battery for these but it ain’t enough. It’s a start should that actpan out so I won’t fuss too much.

Somewhere there’s info about this on their larger 17” version. It’s typical to see the 15 and 17 version on the same laptop to share the same motherboard so compatibility might just be plug-and-play.

 

I'm noticing stock GPU voltage/freq will give consistent Power Limit in Afterburner OSD.



Creating a Fan Curve in Afterburner with an undervoltage of .850 and freq of 1670 had Power Limit off mostly while playing but it does pop up occasionally.



I'm guessing in order to eliminate any type of Power Limiting either Voltages need to be increased across the board and Freq need to be decreased to a manageable level. Question is if I'm getting an occasional PL does it really matter as long as it's stable?

 

Personally I wouldn’t if it doesn’t have any performance loss in games.

 

I always have it connected and charging. So dont mind the battery. I do like the option in Lenovo Vantage to charge it up to only 60% to save battery life. My msi one was dead in a year or so.

 

So I've hit power limit throttling pretty much on every laptop I've owned in the last 2-3 years on CPU, but never GPU. I'm not sure you are being power limit THROTTLED, but you ARE hitting the power limit - which I've been told is a good thing. You are reaching the max power for the gpu, utilizing all that is available. See if undervolting the GPU a bit (you can follow b0b's guide on youtube!) ends up getting you a bit more clock speed.

I had a i7-7700HQ in an HP Omen that hit power limit throttling with the CPU. There, I noticed MASSIVE dips in framerate and had to use ThrottleStop to turn the turbos down slightly. Fixed the problem. On the Area-51m (9700k/2080) I'm using now, I hit the power limit, but didn't notice any performance dips. I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. Run some benchmarks (multiple runs) and see if any of the runs have dips. If they do, that means you are hitting an occasional throttle.

 

A tip that probably many knows already if you want even better thermals and better batterylufe while gaming: use nvidia inspector and set framelimit. A quick test on my own setup in a couple of games: In Unigine heaven where average fps was 74 I set fps-limit to 58 (g-sync panel is only 60Hz): Temp dropped ftom 76 to 71C and average powerconaumption on whole system dropped from 154W to 137W. I further set a flatline at 1750MHz at 800mv in Afterburner and consumption dropped down to 112W and temp to 65C which on my laptop means reduced noise since it drops from to the second highest fan level.

 

If I where you I would raise the start curve or try a flatline. B0B did flatline at 1320@700mv. I think there is no problem doing a flatline at 1400-1500MHz or even higher. That wil force the gpu to run at for instance 1500MHz at 700mv at all times. Try that and see what happends? On my setuo curve starts at 1500MHz at 800mv and climbs to 1065mv at 1911 which the notebook never manages due to thermal throttling. A flatline of 1750MHz at 800mv works fine for me. That would trabslate into about 1520MHz at your setup See how that works?

 

On the Lenovo site if you configure a custom 17” with a 2080, you are forced to select a 512ssd and can not select a second hdd. Is there a reason for this? If I have a second 512ssd at home would I be able to put that in a second slot?

 

Pretty sure you can add a SATA drive too, at least I used to able to when picking the custom build option.
Man I wish the 15” model had a option for 2080MQ.

 

If you are experiencing issues with the Killer Control Center and Apex Legends, you should be able to resolve this by clean-installing the latest version of the Killer Control Center. You can see our guide for clean-installing the Killer Control Center here - http://support.killernetworking.com/knowledge-base/clean-install-killer-control-center/. Many of our employees play Apex Legends with the Killer Control Center reducing their latency and we have not seen any negative impacts from the current suite. If you have any problems with the current version of the Killer Control Center that are resolved by removing it, please let us know by submitting a ticket here - http://support.killernetworking.com/submit-a-ticket/

-- Anthony with Killer Networking

 

Based on the pic below of the 17” model you would happily pay for that much over a 2060. Still over £500 from a 2070.
Anyone willing to pay that is NUTS lol as much as I like the idea of a 2080 when I heard rumours in certain regions back in January before it was released.







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Hello I need help!

I got my Legion Y740 today and can not boot from my multiboot -stick which requires legacy mode (I guess)
The stick works fine on other laptops.
What I tried:

- formated internal SSD / HD
- updated BIOS to latest version (1.06)
- disable secure boot
- disable OS optimized defaults
.... and changed 100 other configurations of setting in BIOS

The stick will not apear in the boot menu (F12)

As soon I make an uefi stick it will apear.
The problems will continue when I migrate my windows 10 from my old PC what was installed in legacy mode ...
So how can I enable legcay mode ????!!! Thanx

 

No performance loss, but it is a difference of about 3 - 5c undervolting

The screen is 144hz, gsync doesn't limit the panel to 60hz.

 

@sisqo_uk
In th US it’s only a $600 upgrade.
But I’m stupid like that and try to keep my laptops for 2-3 years so I try to get the best GPU in my budget
The way the Lenovo website is set up sometimes it’s cheaper building your own than getting a pre-built laptop.

 

SSD set to AHCI?

 

no, but you can use nvidia inspector and force fps limit.

 

Hey guys, I just ordered the RTX 2070 MQ version of this, but I'm trying to decide between keeping that order, versus this Alienware R4 (prices in Canadian): https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/produc...n10-home-certified-refurbished/13339456.aspx?

I was able to grab the Y740 w/ 2070 for $2358 Canadian ($1757 USD) before the warranty, and $2538 ($1891 USD) including the full 3-year in home warranty with accidental damage protection.

The Alienware though is only $1899 CAD ($1415 USD), with a full GTX 1070 so significantly cheaper for equal/better performance, but my biggest concerns are:

- Refurbished
- Limited 1 year warranty
- Only 120hz panel
- I've read mixed reviews on the cooling/fan noise
- Might need to upgrade SSD later (I got a 512 on the Lenovo but the Alienware is only a 256)

What do you guys think? The only thing I care about are gaming framerates, temperatures and the overall longevity of the machine.