Lenovo Legion Y740 17" 15"

Anyone know the detailed specs of the display panel used in new 15" model? I see a lot of other companies like Asus, Dell, Gigagbyte are using the 240hz IGZO display panels and while the 240hz refresh rate is useless - that panel has a very good contrast ratio (1000:1 official rating), very good response rate (Dell rates it at 7ms) and color coverage. I wonder how 500 nit panel used in Y740 compares to it. All Lenovo says in their document is "72% gamut" and nothing about contrast ratio or response rate:
https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sy...Legion_Y740_15ICH_Platform_Specifications.pdf

 

Very disappointed to see my new 9th Gen Y740-17IRH-g is fitted with the old AUO329D instead of the new AUO409D or LP173WFG-SPB2.

Backlight bleed is really, really bad. I've contacted Lenovo to see what can be done.

 

What graphics card do you have on it? What country are you in? Any complaints on the display (i heard auo329d is kinda grainy..)

 

Australia. 2080 Max-Q. And yes, it's very grainy. I much preferred the LP173WFG-SPB1 on the ASUS ROG GL704GW I tried out last month.

Overall, I'm quite disappointed.

 

I returned a GL704GW a while ago... had AUO409D..which was pretty good, but had artifacts (reverse ghosting) because of aggressive overdrive tuning.. (manufacturers may use different panels in same laptop model though..like in your case)

Did the LG panel handle light good? I am in a room with natural light..

 

I wonder on the 17 if I will have to hit all keys on the num pad aswell.

 

Hey Bob!
Do check out the Y740 unlocked BIOS. @ codeHusky's trick worked pretty well to unlock it.
Have a look at some interesting settings from the BIOS, lots more config to tweak.

Imgur album showing CPU power settings:
https://imgur.com/a/N8PuzND

Steps to enable advanced BIOS:
1. Goto BIOS
2. Hold Fn and press the qwerty row: Q to P, asd row: A to L, zxc row: Z to M. Release Fn
3. Press F10, select save when it asks you to save settings in the BIOS(yes you didn't do anything apart from step 2 in the BIOS).
4. When the system reboots, open BIOS by pressing Fn + F2.
5. You should now have the advanced BIOS, exercise strong caution before messing up the settings.

A ton of thanks to CodeHusky for this.
So far, it works on his Y740 9750H and my Y740 8750H. May work for other legion models, try and report.

 

Ok thanks..looking forward to reflection impression..i sit next to a window.

Found out that keyboard has 1.2 mm of travel, which is short for a gaming laptop..but is it comfortable enough for typing?

Thanks..

 

Hey, I had only time to try after work. Still good light outside but not direct sunlight.
In this case it had reflections which interfered when changing to different angles, For me i don't think it will be disturbing but it was definitely noticeable.

I'll see if i can get a picture up tomorrow.

 

I have the 15" with the 500 nit display. With HDR, G-sync, 144hz I have been amazed in game along with the paper thin bezels. While I havent bought a gaming laptop in a long time the first thing I noticed when I fired up a game on it was how amazing the screen looks.

I would say unless your spoiled and have been using the best of the best for gaming screens this is going to put a smile on your face while gaming. My screen does have some back light bleed but its completely unnoticeable when their is an image on it for me.

I love nice screens to, I was putting some serious thought into the Aero by asus with oled. Its extremely vibrant. Remeber, were not spending 2500$$ on a gaming laptop here, with coupons some of us are getting close to the 1400$ range with 2070MQ and new coffee lake 9750H.

My 2 cents, Iv been enjoying my new machine and my temps are staying in the 60 degress with 144 FPS in BF5 with full resolution and most of the settings cranked up for 7 hours in a row. Not once did my temps reach into the 90s. Loving it so far!

 

I'm not positive about the detailed specs, but all of the 9750H 15in units are using the BOE083B from what I've seen. I have owned this one and one of the 300nit panels on the 8750H 15in models, and the color and contrast is definitely better. I tried looking for detailed info on the panel, but wasn't able to find any on it. If you happen to, share with us here. Typing that hardware ID in google doesn't reveal much unfortunately. I do know the 72% gamut that Lenovo was referring to on that panel is the Adobe RGB I'm pretty sure. There is a review on Ultrabookreviews for the Y740 that goes into details of the panel on the 8750H 15in model you can check out. Also, the HDR on the new 9th gen 15in panels is pretty great. I've tried it in Division 2 and Destiny 2 so far, and it works fairly well and looks good. You can also now check the box that says to play games and apps in HDR, which you couldn't do on the 8th gen 300nit panels.

 

How are you managing to stay in the 60s on BF5 with the settings cranked up? What's your undervolt/Throttlestop settings? I have a 150mv undervolt on my 15in 2070MQ 9750H unit, and on performance mode I still get spikes into the low 80s. If I underclock and set all cores to max 3.8Ghz I stay in the 70s for most graphic intensive games, and if I limit them to 3.6Ghz I can avoid spiking into the 80s and stay in the 65-75c range. Less intensive games like Overwatch though for example I'll stay in the 60s all the time on Ultra. The division 2 seems to give me some of the highest CPU temps of the games I play for some reason, usually spikes around 80-82c before the fans rev up to max and then stabilizes in the mid to upper 70s, running all cores at 4Ghz.

 

Also I'm really curious, could anyone with a 2070 Max-Q share their overclock settings and max boost clock they are capable of getting? The GPU running 90W on performance mode pulls a maximum of 950mv. I was able to OC with MSI afterburner +150 core clock and +400 memory clock. The highest I've seen it pull without crashing is 2,025Mhz. Of course as GPU temps rise the clock speed will decease as the voltage/frequency curve is pushed down. I can play with a +190 core OC on some games like Apex Legends, but for Destiny 2 in the menus and loading screens will keep the GPU at a very high frequency, so that is usually my gaming test for OC stability. +150 core OC is the max I've been able to get without crashing on any of my games.

Wondering what everyone else has been able to push on their 2070MQ chips. When I owned the 8750H 2060, I was able to get a stable +200 core and +400 memory OC, but the 2060 naturally can clock about 50Mhz higher, putting the max I saw for it around 2,100Mhz. My 2070MQ will crash while gaming if I OC it and it pushes past 2,025Mhz. Either way though I've been very impressed going from an 8750H 2060 to the 9750H 2070MQ model. Time spy was able to get ~7,400 which is pretty great, as I plan on eventually getting a 1440p monitor for the Y740.

 

This worked for me, but only when I slid my finger across the row like others had mentioned. When I pressed each button carefully it wouldn't work so maybe I was too slow. I was hoping to find a flashing 'Enable G-Sync' option in there but no luck so far.

 

Iv been using laptops since alienwares first gaming laptops came out before they were bought by dell. Iv always had to manage high temps with hot laptops.

I keep my laptop propped up half an inch to allow more airflow as well as having desk fans on my desk cooling me off while gaming and spreading airflow under the laptop and on my hands while Im gaming. I was doing the undervolt on the core and cache in TS, not as high as yours tho, only -125. Iv got game mode set in TS as well if that makes a difference. I have performance power plan set in windows 10. Im not using a cooler under the laptop at the moment, just letting natural air flow do the job. Just make sure their is enough air flow under the machine. If your letting it sit flush on a surface its not getting enough, it needs to be propped up. Anything will do, but you can get stuff off of amazon like this ( LINK).

Im also using performance fan setting in vantage software, have to make sure its always on before gaming because it resets when your turn off the machine obviously. Other then that I keep my rooms air sterile with air purifiers so their is no dust in my room. I use professional ones tho that cost quite a bit more. You need to get the ones with the pre filter that pick up the airborne particle matter so that you can just vacuum it out every week or so. i do have fans pushing air around in my room as well.

Otherwise I dunno, maybe my in game settings are not as high as yours or something. I was surprised because my laptop was running in the 90s before I undervolted then it went to the mid 60s. Your temps dont sound all that far off from my but my temps are with afterburner OC as well, 170 on core and 200 on memory is what I tested today.

My scores are not that high yet on in firestrike though, im only getting around 18,500 on graphics. I havent really messed with anything else but the main programs so far.

 

Any idea if we can plonk the 500nits panel in the 8750H model?

 

Has anyone purchased/received the 15inch with a RTX 2080? Really keen to hear the feedback on performance and temps

 

@Random42352

I took two pictures, one on the inside next to a window and second on my balcony. It is late summertime, but a bit cloudy and 3 PM.
It looked a bit worse in the pictures then in reality,and i tried to angle to get some reflections.

It is noticeable but I doubt any screen can manage without reflection. I wouldnt be distracted i think. But that depends on what you are doing.

 

Thanks a lot, appreciate it.. that looks just like the area 51m panel (i think it's the same).

Would you say it's just like in the video? (at 21:00 or at 12:00)

 

Yeah, I think so. It looked like the sun was "Stronger" in the video compared to when I took my pictures through.

 

Thanks again..one last thing..do you think the keyboard is comfortable for longer typing sessions? If you had any experience with that..

 

I cannot answer that one sadly it all depends on your preference.

It was very fluid but for me it wasn't the best keyboard. I personally need "deeper" keys. But this is very personal. Others have said that they really like the keyboard. It depends on what you are used to, and what you can be comfortable with.
The computer was really good otherwise, and alot cheaper compared to the competition, with a good build quality.

 

Yeah I'm getting similar temperatures, just depends on the game. I have the 150mv undervolt + an x-stand to keep the laptop back raised a couple of inches. I'm sure a fan pointed towards the laptop would also definitely help. If I underclock the 9750H to 3.8Ghz or 3.6Ghz I can keep CPU spike temps <80c, and average 65-75c depending on the game. Even with underclocking at 3.6Ghz, I've found the CPU isn't bottlenecking. Tested Division 2 benchmark on high and got 101fps running 4.0Ghz, and 100fps running 3.6Ghz. Not that it's really necessary, my max temps even running at 4.0Ghz spike in the low 80s and stabilize in the 70s for the most part. I'm running a +150 core and +400 memory OC with MSI afterburner. GPU never goes over 70c.

I'm also really interested in how high other people have been able to overclock their Y740 GPUs. My 2060 was able to get a stable +200 core and +400 memory OC, but my 2070 Max-Q can only reach +150 core +400 memory. If the GPU clocks higher than 2,025Mhz (some games like Destiny 2 allow the GPU to run at really high clock speeds, 1,900+Mhz in orbit/menus) my games will crash. I can play Apex for example with a +190 core clock and it is stable. +150 core is the highest I've tested and been 100% stable in all games though.

I've only run benchmarks a few times, but I get around 18,000 graphics in fire strike, and 7,500 graphics in Time Spy. Seems the RTX cards perform a lot better in DX12, which is good I suppose since that's what future games will eventually all use. I did manage to get ~7,400 in Time Spy, which is ranked #30 out of all the 9750H/2070MQ configurations, so I'm pretty happy with that. Fire Strike seems a bit low, 16,000 overall and 18,000 graphics. My next tweak is to try and undervolt the GPU in MSI afterburner and flatline it, should be able to keep games from crashing and still keep a +200 core OC.

I'm also curious if clocking the memory a lot higher on the Max-Q cards will give a good performance boost. The full 2060, 2070, and 2080 mobile clock their memory at 7,000Ghz. While the MQ cards only clock it at 6,000Ghz. So I'm wondering if a +500-1000 memory OC will give a good boost or not. I haven't tested much though, just found +150/+400 to be stable and it gives me performance I'm happy with.

 

Honestly I'm not sure if this is possible or not. I know you can't get the 500nit panel from Lenovo unless it's a 9750H model. You might be able to do it yourself, but I imagine that would be pretty difficult to both get and install. I'm sure the 500nit panel is compatible with both CPUs, Lenovo only added it to the 9th gen refresh models though. I've owned both and the brightness honestly isn't too different, but the real benefit is being able to play games in HDR. It looks pretty nice, I've tried it on The Division 2 and Destiny 2. HDR is a little bright in my opinion when it's on, but the colors and contrast look really nice. Hopefully I'll be able to try it out on some other games soon.

 

I'm 95% set on a Y740-17 inch ...any more impression on the keyboard (is it comfortable for long-time usage?...is key travel ok?)

I'm not that much of a gamer but i do productivity work..

I think i will order the GTX 1660TI version next week...i'm buying it mostly because it's quiet-er..i could get a same-specs Y540 much cheaper.. (but that's loud)

 

I have a 15in Y740 which some people find the keyboard layout shifted to the right to be slightly odd. Before this laptop I owned a MacBook Pro, and then a Surface Book, both which had exceptional build quality and keyboards. The keyboard is comfortable with long-term use in my opinion compared to the other two recent laptops I've owned. A couple of the keys do feel a little bit "squishy" or something, but after using it more and more I think that is going away. Overall I think it's a decent keyboard, not amazing but not bad. Key travel seems fine to me. I haven't tested my WPM or anything like that, but I seem to type about on par with the other laptops I've used. For the 15in hitting the Vantage button instead of the Escape button is probably my biggest gripe with it and has taken the longest time to get use to. But I use a mechanical keyboard on my PC at work and I have no problem going back and forth daily between the two. Anyway, hope this helps at least a little bit. You can always order risk-free and have 30 days to try it out before your return period ends. And I would definitely go with the Y740 over the Y540, it's a higher quality device and has better thermals. The fans on my 9750H unit are never audible when doing daily tasks. They only come on when gaming for me. My 8750H unit had the fans going even when idle sometimes, but I think they updated the fan profile in the most recent Bios to fix that. I'm also seeing way better idle temps on my 9750H compared to 8750H. 8th gen idled around 40-42 degrees, my 9750H will idle <35c, usually 32-34c which is pretty great. The 1660ti Y740 should be great for productivity work. I use mine for both work and school and it looks professional enough to bring into a work environment. If you have any other questions about the keyboard or anything else feel free to ask.

 

@codeHusky or anyone.
Does anyone know how to clear cmos on this laptop? I turned off HT and now it sits at a black screen with the keyboard doing it's thing.

 

Small white connector on the right side along the battery side of the motherboard.

 

I've pulled the battery, pulled the Cmos battery, pressed the reset button. Keyboard is responding to fn+space and color changes. But still nothing.

 

What happened?

 

I disabled hyperthreading In the bios. And now nothing but a black screen.. and a keyboard with rgb spiraling lights..

 

Contact Lenovo and say that it just stopped turning on one day. I wouldn't suggest telling them you used the debug bios and then it broke btw, just tell them what it's doing. They'll probably cover it under warranty and likely exchange your unit

 

Lol I wasnt in the debug bios at the time LOL. Now I'm out of a work laptop for 2 weeks...

 

Stupid question... when I did a windows reinstall, I could not get the custom shortcut keys to work. (Basically the Fn+q combo is the only one I can remember for sure wasn’t working).
I installed every single driver I could find on Lenovo’s website, plus the latest iCue and everything else... and never did get it to where the the symbols would pop-up telling me which fan mode I was on. Any idea which driver/software I was missing?

I ended up just going back to using the recovery image.

 

The latest version of windows (1903) is incompatible with the overlay for FN+Q. It was still working, just not indicating that to you. That's a known issue with Lenovo's software atm

I should also add that I did the 76whr battery mod myself. Getting about the same battery life as others have reported but only after a windows reinstall (3-4 hours).

 

The only way the overlay works is if you are on the Windows desktop. It will not work over any game or open application it seems. Just have to make sure you select the mode before opening your application.

Sent from my LM-G710 using Tapatalk

 

1903 is incompatible with the overlay. That's not the issue.

 

The overlay worked on my 1903 Pro with all latest windows updates. I blocked all windows update driver installs

 

You were able to disable hyperthreading without the advanced menu? How?

 

Hmm well it does show the 3 different modes for me and I'm on Windows 10 Pro but only on the desktop.

Sent from my LM-G710 using Tapatalk

 

I'll add on that after testing for a week, lowering the refresh rate to 60Hz in hybrid mode made hitting 4 hours a lot more consistent. I had to add a custom resolution in the Intel Software though, but that's pretty easy. If you switch Hybrid mode off then it'll automatically go to 144hz on the nvidia GPU which is nice, but if you then go back into hybrid you have to select the 60hz resolution again.

Also, FN+Q apparently now switches between the 3 Thermal Modes (Has someone already mentioned this and I missed it?), I can see the option in vantage cycle through when I hit fn+q but lack of an OSD makes this kinda dumb lol.
Would still be nice to have a max fan mode

 

How do you lower the refresh rate to 60Hz? Does Hybrid Mode have to be enabled and using the iGPU for the display rather than the dGPU? I haven't been able to change mine while hybrid mode is off. In the display options and Nvidia control panel, it shows 144Hz as the only option. I'm guessing you need Hybrid Mode enabled, is this correct?

 

I'll try and get you a screenshot. Got another 740 17 2070 9750h in today. Let me get it up and I'll see if the same settings show. This one came with 1.6 already on it.
And thebios chip for whatever reason on the other was hard Voltage locked. Pondered seeing if I could UV wipe it. But it's under warranty, Lenovo can figure that part out.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Lenovo/comments/c7zk00/psa_do_not_update_y740y540y545_bios/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Lenovo/comments/c8h8ep/y740_users_heres_how_to_downgrade_your_bios/

Is it true that this only affected by those who have i7-8750h? If I buy Y740 with i7-9750h will I face any issues with the BIOS and fan control?

 

Did you do any gaming with your other? My 15" with i7-9750H and 2070 Max-Q as well was getting PROCHOT and spiking over 95. Getting an exchange but Anthem and Division 2 were pushing it into thermal throttling territory no matter what undervolt I had applied. It also ran 50 at idle which I found strange. Sucks cuz the screen was absolutely flawless! Hoping the next one is better in that regard.

Sent from my LM-G710 using Tapatalk

 

OK, I am about to order the config below as there is a pretty decent discount on the US website currently. I would prefer a UK layout keyboard but hey, it is what it is.
So far I can't find anyone with the RTX 2080 in the 15" model so will provide feedback once it has arrived but will only be in the states in a months time though, it is going to be a long wait!

Does anyone have feedback on the onsite warranty if its international as I live in the UK and will be living in Aus within the next 3 years.

 

As I mentioned in my post you have to set a custom resolution, either through intel's software in hybrid mode, or nvidia's with hybrid off, there are plenty of tutorials if you google it.

 

I have the Y740, 15", with 2070MQ and i7-9750H. Using Throttlestop, MSI afterburner and performance mode using the FN+Q key with the vantage software here are my results in case anyone wants to compare. As you can see in the second screen shot the GPU is peaking at 97.2 Watts on these tests.

 

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Here's the best results I've been able to get with my new 15in 9750-H 2070 Max-Q. I've only been able to get +150 core +400 memory OC fully stable in all games and benchmarks. I've tried getting the core OC to +180/+200, but I always end up crashing in one game or Fire Strike. Still, really happy with these results. Userbenchmark also consistently puts my 2070 in the 100th percentile, despite the average OC. Any other way to try and eek out a bit more performance by overclocking? I've tried undervolting the GPU, but still get about the same results either way. It does help with thermals though, can lower GPU temps by about 5c, which in turn helps keep the GPU clock speed up and lowers the average CPU temps. These results are on Performance mode and Bios 1.06, with G-Sync still enabled. 90W average on GPU, peak I've seen is 100W. This is also with a -150mv on the CPU. @G46VW

 

@G46VW Also something interesting, I noticed your max GPU core clock is 2,010Mhz. This is also the max I am able to get at 950mv, the most the 2070 Max-Q can pull in the Y740. This is with a +150 core OC though, I wonder if the voltage/frequency curves are different for every single GPU. Have you seen higher than 2,010Mhz on your GPU? When my temps are low at 950mv mine can hit up to 2,025Mhz, but if I OC it higher and it goes beyond that frequency, it'll crash while gaming or during a benchmark.