Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: 16" QHD+ 240Hz, i9-13900HX, RTX 4070, 16GB DDR5, 1TB SSD $1599.99

Notadealio

Jun 15, 2023 6:44 PM

325 Comments

Joined Aug 2018

NotadealioJun 15, 2023 6:44 PM

325 Comments

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Main thing to note about these Legion 5 Pro's is that while they're amazing machines, they SPECIFICALLY lack a thunderbolt port and/or a USB-C gen-4 port.

This means that these are some of the only laptops in the price range that have absolutely zero external GPU support.

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DeRock1701

Jun 15, 2023 11:52 PM

33 Comments

Joined Apr 2022

DeRock1701Jun 15, 2023 11:52 PM

33 Comments

I think this is a pretty good deal. Anyone think otherwise?

1

vwtoys

Jun 16, 2023 12:01 AM

2.1K Comments

Joined Oct 2006

vwtoysJun 16, 2023 12:01 AM

2.1K Comments

Quote from Notadealio

:

Main thing to note about these Legion 5 Pro's is that while they're amazing machines, they SPECIFICALLY lack a thunderbolt port and/or a USB-C gen-4 port.

This means that these are some of the only laptops in the price range that have absolutely zero external GPU support.

I thought there's a bios/driver update that will make one of them USB C Gen 4?

1

Notadealio

Jun 16, 2023 3:15 AM

325 Comments

Joined Aug 2018

NotadealioJun 16, 2023 3:15 AM

325 Comments

Quote from vwtoys

:

I thought there's a bios/driver update that will make one of them USB C Gen 4?

That certainly would redeem them a bit if true.

squatchy

Jun 16, 2023 5:02 AM

786 Comments

Joined Aug 2013

squatchyJun 16, 2023 5:02 AM

786 Comments

Quote from Notadealio

:

Main thing to note about these Legion 5 Pro's is that while they're amazing machines, they SPECIFICALLY lack a thunderbolt port and/or a USB-C gen-4 port.

This means that these are some of the only laptops in the price range that have absolutely zero external GPU support.

I can see other instances where thunderbolt of USB-C gen-4 might be useful, but why would you want to use an external GPU with a laptop like this that comes with a fairly powerful GPU already?

4

Notadealio

Jun 16, 2023 5:37 AM

325 Comments

Joined Aug 2018

NotadealioJun 16, 2023 5:37 AM

325 Comments

Quote from squatchy

:

I can see other instances where thunderbolt of USB-C gen-4 might be useful, but why would you want to use an external GPU with a laptop like this that comes with a fairly powerful GPU already?

In this case the RTX 4070 it comes with is generally fairly-capable, but does come with only 8GB of video memory. For someone who dabbles heavily in 3D modeling or 4k or even 8k video editing, this is typically not enough. A laptop 4070 also doesn't offer a phenomenal 4k gaming experience, so if you hook it up to an external 4k display you may be disappointed with the experience without heavily tuning settings.

The best of the best gaming laptops, which are equipped with RTX 4090's are still well-behind the sort of performance you can find in a desktop RTX 4090, and also have 16GB of video memory as opposed to 24GB for the desktop variant. Capable as a laptop 4090 is, it's still often more than 60% slower than a desktop 4090. These laptops typically start at around $2700 and up.

A decent thunderbolt eGPU dock costs around $400, and a desktop RTX 4090 costs $1600. For $2000 you can have substantially more performance on-hand at-home for when you're plugged in and doing work at your desktop so-long as you have a laptop with eGPU support via Thunderbolt 3 or 4, or USB-C 4.0 (and a CPU powerful enough to reduce any potential bottlenecks helps as well).

Comparatively a laptop 4070 is more than a little slower than a laptop 4090, which is considerably slower than a desktop 4090. For some lines of work the performance difference can be all the difference.

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Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: 16" QHD+ 240Hz, i9-13900HX, RTX 4070, 16GB DDR5, 1TB SSD $1599.99

$1,600

$1,970

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