Lenovo Legion Y740 17" 15"

Just what I was looking for, thanks. Doesn't make it easier to make my mind up thou... ;-)

 

Mine does not have a coil whine and I have luck with panel with barely noticeable bleeding while daily driving it both day and in the middle of the night.
Cooling is really good, was expecting much worse but was surprised. Performance is really nice.

RGB Lighting - pain in the ass that you need this BS Corsair 1GB software to tweak it, profile load only with Windows, default one is some BS rainbow which look just awful.
If you like traditional numpad and work with tables, numbers and Excel stuff then you will probably sooner throw the notebook out the window than learn to use it.

Weight of the unit is ok, similar to old Probook 470G2 - not counting power bricks.
Doesn't look like gaming kid's toy like most of the gaming MSI/ASUS/Gigabyte/whatever else. Sleek and simple design, build quality is nice.
I wanted to buy MSI GE75 or GS but went with this one and I am very happy so far.

I don't have any issues regarding performance, SSD speeds after some time in idle etc. Everything works, system is optimaly configured and most of the Win10 stuff disabled via tweaker.
Mine battery is removed as I dont care and dont use battery power so cant say about it much, from what I have read and people report here, battery is mediocre at best.

 

I'd love to buy your battery if you are not using it

 

I've gone thru quite a few laptops and some desktops over the years. Hands down, the Y740 is my all time favorite. You definitely need to spend some time tuning (Ie. software config, liquid metal thermal repaste, CPU underclock/undervolt, GPU overclock) but once you're set, man is it a great machine. I have the RTX 2060 model, never had issues running any games. I'm usually hooked up to my monitor at home which is a 3440x1440 120hz Gsync alienware. It handles it beautifully. I have it sitting on a cooling pad and have yet to see it break 74 degrees on either CPU or GPU.

To top it off, I am now getting 4 and sometimes closer to 5 hours of real world usage for school. This is the 15inch model with the small battery (I'd like to upgrade to the big battery at some point). The keyboard is a pleasure to type on. I know some reviews mention it's awkward since its shifted right but I got used to that after a few days using it.

If I could summarize what I don't like:

- RGB controller is a joke. I completely uninstalled it. I use the hardware build in Fn+Space to switch between the hardcoded profiles. Why I cant configure a hotkey to switch between iCUE profiles is beyond me. Just lazy development.
- M1/M2 key is a joke. Very limited to what you can do. Unless you install some extra software to gain more functionality. This ties into point 1 too, why can't I use M1 to switch iCUE profiles? Grrr... And I can't remap the Lenovo key? F off...
- Chinbar, just look at how sexy new XPS 15 is. That's what the next lenovo should be like

And really thats it. Those are my only gripes with the machine.
On a separate note, and this isn't just Lenovo doing this, why the hell are stupid hotkeys still making it into laptops. Fn+F7 is the same as Win+P. Give me a sleep button there instead! Nearly all manufacturers are guilty of this though, so I dont let it bother me too much

 

I'm not comfortable using LM yet, but I have no problems repasting with some high end standard paste.

I may actually get this machine after all. The value is really good atm.

EDIT: A very important question; are there place for 2x M.2 SSD disks?

 

Not planning on selling it at all and I need it for possible warranty claims when sending back Y740 to Lenovo.

 

I didn't even know if we can use Y740 with battery removed.

 

Any laptop should work with the battery removed while connected to AC. Until recent years the laptop batteries were removable, not now anymore, but the principle is the same.

 

Biggest downsize for removing battery is (probably only for me) inability to update bios since the tool makes battery presence check and will not let you update.

 

1x M.2 slot
1x 2,5" slot with caddy (sata ribbon comes separately and need to be connected to the mainboard)

Also forgot one major drawback, keyboard overall is not good for gaming. Key travel is very short and "springy". It is ok if not nice for typing stuff but for games it is meh.

 

Does the sata ribbon need to be bought separatly?

 

Nope they include it!

Sent from my SM-G970W using Tapatalk

 

Sorry for the confusion, I meant it comes separately in the box with notebook.

 

I decided to order one. Plus a 2TB SSD sata disk.

 

Runs crazy hot and massive backlight bleed. Back it goes. :-(

 

Crazy hot? Then it will be a real problem to find something better in a similar form factor. Pretty much only sth as bulky as MSI GT may solve your issue with same specs but lower temps.

 

I've had many laptops over the years, but this laptop is not crazy hot for sure. It may become pretty hot if not tweaked. Did you try to undervolt it, use Quiet mode which uses a faster fan speeds to cool it down and which also limits the CPU power ? In a laptop, any laptop, with an i7-9750H and a RTX card, you can't expect it to use constant maximum load while being cold. It is not possible in a laptop. You have to accept some trade offs, like limiting it's power during gaming if you want to keep the temperatures at a decent level.
As for the back light bleed, can you post a screenshot of it ? I am really curious how it looks on your laptop. This might be a good reason to return it.

 

I could probably fix the heat with UV and repasting, but I won't even try as the backlight bleed was severe.

 

I'm actually giving it one more chance to get it replaced. I liked basically everything else with this laptop.

 

Maybe the second one will have a better display panel with less or not noticeable back light bleed. About thermals, with undervolting and limiting the CPU power while gaming you should get pretty decent temperatures and great performance. I don't think re-pasting the CPU will improve the thermals too much, at least not in a brand new laptop. A would retry re-pasting the CPU if the idle temperature would be too hot, more than 70 degrees Celsius. Otherwise, with a CPU that stays on idle under 40 degrees Celsius, the thermal paste is definitely doing its job.

 

Yea, we'll see. Holding my thumbs.

 

I can tell you right now your not hitting the lottery on LCD screens if thats whats your after. My Y740 has back light bleed as well but it does not bother me. You cant tell unless its a dark screen which is less the .01 of the time.

 

I’m not expecting a flawless screen, just less bad than the one I got the first time.

 

Has anyone tested the new bios BVCN14WW (V1.10) ??

 

I did not install this version but I did some research.

Below is the article that describes the vulnerability CVE-2019-11157 that is knows as Plundervolt. This security vulnerability has forced Intel to disable CPU voltage control as a quick and easy fix.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-00289.html

Here is a list of changes in this BIOS update:
https://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles/bvcn14ww.txt

Summary of changes
==================
General Information:
BVCN14WW:
1.Fix extended monitor issue with lid closed in switchable mode.
2.Update ME to 12.0. 65.1567
3.Enhancement to address security vulnerability CVE-2019-11157, CVE-2019-14607, CVE-2020-0548, CVE-2020-0549, CVE-2020-0543, CVE-2020-0529, CVE-2020-0528, CVE-2020-8321, LEN-27433, CVE-2020-0531, CVE-2020-0532, CVE-2020-0533, CVE-2020-0534, CVE-2020-0535, CVE-2020-0536, CVE-2020-0537, CVE-2020-0538, CVE-2020-0539, CVE-2020-0540, CVE-2020-0541, CVE-2020-0542, CVE-2020-0545, CVE-2020-0566, CVE-2020-0586, CVE-2020-0594, CVE-2020-0595, CVE-2020-0596, CVE-2020-0597, CVE-2020-8674.
4.Fix:Win10 20H1 HLK failed on ACPI logo test item.

If you want to use ThrottleStop to undervolt the Intel CPU from your Lenovo Legion laptop, then I would not install this BIOS update since undervolting will be disabled after this BIOS update. I will not install it for sure.

LATER EDIT: It seems that on Lenovo Legion Y740, the undervolting is still possible after BIOS 1.10 update. Tested and confirmed also by me. More details here.

 

I got my new machine today, tried both stock v1.07 and v1.10 and then back to v1.07 again.

Didn’t really see any big difference, but I’m staying on v1.07 for now...

My unit runs pretty hot so I’m gonna try to repaste it with Phobya Nanogrease.

 

I can assure you that the new BIOS (v1. 10) is not messing around the undervolt function.
Throttlestop still work fine and I dont see any big changes on daily uses compared to v1.08

 

How can you tell?

 

What do you mean?
I can confirm that my machine still can use undervolt and throttlestop without a single error/problem and my offset voltages still show in the top right corner of the FIVR window in TS (double checked using HWInfo)

 

Can you post a screenshot like this one with BIOS 1.10 ? Thank you.



Users of other laptop manufacturers, all complained that undervolting was disabled after a BIOS update that contained that vulnerability fix.

 

How is the screen on the new laptop, does it have the same back light bleed problem ? I still don't think a brand new laptop needs a CPU repasting, but, please make some measurement before and after if you really want to do this. I am really curious if this will improve that much the temperature. Keep us updated.

 

The new screen do have backlight bleeding too (as expected), but much less severe and in a less distracting way.

I read mixed reports on the repasting on Y740-17, but I'm confident to try it, as it seems my machine runs hot. CPU peaks at about 96C when gaming, even with undervolt at -140mV.

 

Same here, the CPU temperature is similar with undervolting but the CPU speed is more like 3.9GHz instead of 3.2GHz without undervolting. Anyway, while gaming I limit the Turbo Boost ratio to 32 so that my temperatures stay below 80C degrees.

 

How do you limit? I could try that before repasting!

 

The second profile is Game (2). I change these settings for this profile only and before gaming I switch to this profile from right click context menu from system tray icon. While not gaming I am using the Performance profile (1) which is not limited in any way.

 

Sure, why not

 

I just updated to BIOS version 1.10 and I can confirm that the undervolting is still possible:



This is good news. After reading on many websites and forums, it seems that the fix for Plundervolt through a new BIOS update, disabled undervolting on several Asus, Dell, HP laptops.

 

Wow! Do you run UV -250mV stable? Is it because you limit the turbo? I never tried past -150mV on any computer.

Cool. Maybe I'm imagining it, but I liked the fan profile better on v1.10.

 

Same with my machine, can't get over -150mv.

 

Stable -0.250mV on CPU Core while the CPU Cache is only -0.130mV. CPU Core can be undervolted higher than CPU Cache. For me, going under -0.140mV on CPU Cache is not stable anymore. It was stable for last 5 weeks, but 3 days ago I had one random freeze while doing light stuff and one BSOD while gaming. I reduced it to just -0.130mV and it is under observation. But, yes, the CPU Core is -0.250mV.

Below are some Cinebench 20 results from my laptop:

No undervolting
2640 pts and the CPU stays around 3.4GHz

With undervolting (-0.250mV CPU Core and -0.130mV CPU Cache)
3110 pts and the CPU stays around 4GHz

This improved score translates to a +15% more performance.

Reducing the CPU Core to -0.335mV and repeating the test while being also stable does not improve the score in Cinebench, so I settled to -0.250mV.

 

[I posted sth stupid here]

So far I game still with locked 90fps and disabled turbo, just finished AC Odyssey on Ultra. Also ran ingame benchmark in Odyssey and with unlocked turbo the average fps was around 3-4 frames more so I was not really missing anything out. Ordered also 2TB ssd MX500 to swap out my brave and solid Hitachi 7K. Should arrive after next weekend.

 

I must disagree, both matter. I just tried on my system the following two scenarios:

Undervolting (0mV CPU Core and -0.130Mv CPU Cache)
Cinebench result was 2698 pts while the CPU was around 3.4GHz

By reducing only the CPU Cache while keeping CPU Core at zero, I had a result similar to the case when no undervolting was applied.

Undervolting (-0.250mV CPU Core and -0.130Mv CPU Cache)
Cinebench result was 3092 pts. while the CPU was staying around 4GHz

It seems that both of them matter.

 

So I just tried to lower the turbo to 32 and going with UV -150mV.

I'd say FPS is mostly unaffected and CPU peaks at 79C while GPU holds at 69C. This before repasting, so these numbers are crazy good IMO!

Bios V1.10 and latest drivers. This laptop is a keeper I think!

 

Of course you are right and I actually posted sth stupid that just came out from my head.

I was enough bright to test the voltage values with locked turbo, EPP and Quiet mode enabled. Dont even ask why.
I guess i left my brain somewhere in the woods today while cycling and being now too exhausted to think clearly.

So pretty much nevermind, ignore my post.

 

Hello everyone, my friend has the Y740 with 8750 and 2070q and there is weird issue that was not fixed with format.

any headset he uses leaks audio not to the mic but like its a side channel, we hear almost everything he is listening to on discord even with different headphones.

Has anyone faced this issue?

Thanks

+ As I am usually hovering in the GE75 thread are there any tips and tricks for the BIOS on this model? As I was able to get nice bump with the Imon slope on the GE75.

Thanks

 

Ask him to mute the system microphone, try with some Bluetooth headphones. I never encountered such problem.

 

He is using an external headset with a mic not the onboard mic.

 

I repasted with Grizzly Kryonaut. Reseating twice as I was not happy with the first mount.

With UV -140mV and turbo ratio at 32, CPU peaks at 75C and GPU at 68C. I will probably stop here as I'm very happy with the numbers.

So what about the repaste then? Well, I lowered my temps about 5C overall. Before repaste CPU peaked at 97C and after 92C. This is stock sort to say.

Very easy to repaste, but it's easy to strip screws so be careful.

 

On a side note, does anyone know what the screws are called (the ones mentioned above that's easy to strip)?

 

With CPU limited to 3.2GHz and Quiet mode I have 72C CPU and 68C GPU. I was playing GTA5 with everything on Ultra. It does not seem that re-pasting is really required since we have similar temperatures while I am on stock paste. If I use Performance mode which has lower fan speeds, the CPU is 78C and GPU 75C.