The Lenovo ThinkPad series is famous because of the quality, durability, and reliability of the laptops. However, there are a lot of Lenovo ThinkPads that come with different components, making them different from each other.
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Indeed, the Lenovo ThinkPads are excellent to use for different tasks due to their good performance benchmarks. But, when it comes to Gaming, users might have to think twice. Leading us to the question, Are Lenovo ThinkPads Laptops Good for Gaming?
Lenovo ThinkPads can be used to play low-tier and casual games. This means you can enjoy having a moderate gaming experience on one of your Lenovo Thinkpad laptops. For high-end gaming, these laptops aren’t capable of delivering good gaming performance.
To know more about Lenovo laptops, and their gaming capabilities, we will have to dig a little deeper. So, let’s get started with further details in terms of gaming, and Lenovo laptops, especially the ThinkPad series.
Are Lenovo Laptops Good for Gaming?
Lenovo laptops are quite powerful to perform different tasks out there. But for gaming, one needs high performance. There are a lot of laptop series introduced by the company.
The thing is, not every single Lenovo laptop is good for gaming. If you’re a gaming enthusiast looking forward to enjoying some games on a Lenovo Laptop, then go for the Legion series. Lenovo Legion series offers different options that suit the needs of gamers.
In the Lenovo Legion laptops, you will also find some VR-ready laptops, boasting high-end hardware to support modern gaming titles.
Why is the Lenovo ThinkPad isn’t Good for Gaming?
Lenovo ThinkPad is actually a business-oriented laptop that is specially designed for professionals. The Lenovo ThinkPad laptops cost a hefty amount but they are recommended for work tasks that require a huge amount of power.
Even though these laptops are good enough for professional work, you might be wondering why these aren’t good for gaming?
Well, the thing is, there are a lot of reasons why we don’t recommend Lenovo ThinkPad for high-end gaming. (You can surely play low-end games on it).
The first reason is the smaller screen size of these laptops. Most of the Lenovo ThinkPad laptops that you will come across come with smaller screen sizes (commonly 14 inches). When it comes to gaming, users prefer a larger screen size that can easily fit and display the game contents without any hassle. So for serious gamers, the screen size might not be a good fit.
Despite being so expensive, most of the models in the Lenovo ThinkPad series lack a dedicated graphics card. When reviewing the ThinkPad laptops, most of the models featured an Integrated Intel Graphics card. Unfortunately, Integrated graphics don’t support playing modern gaming titles. And for heavy games an NVIDIA Graphics card is required that can deal with everything exceptionally.
Due to these reasons, a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop will definitely hurt your expectations regarding gaming.
Also Read: Are ASUS Laptops Good for Gaming?
In short, Lenovo ThinkPad laptops are only recommended unless you want a laptop for casual gaming plus professional purposes. For extreme and high-end games these laptops are surely not the ideal choice. You can check out some options in ThinkPads that come with a dedicated graphics card. In this way, you will be able to deal with your work and gaming tasks at once without any issue.
Modern Titles FPS Count in Lenovo ThinkPad Laptops
Following is a brief table explaining the FPS count for modern games in different Lenovo ThinkPad laptops. Let’s take a look at how many FPS you can get in games like Fortnite, GTAV, COD: Warzone at good resolutions.
Fortnite
In the following section, you will find a detailed FPS analysis on full HD resolution for the game Fortnite.
| Laptop Name | Specs Overview | Game FPS | Resolution |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 | Intel Core i7-11800H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU | 70 – 90 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
| ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 | Core i9-11950H CPU and an Nvidia Quadro RTX A5000 GPU | 120 – 140 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
| ThinkBook Plus Gen 2 | Intel Core i7-1160G7 CPU and Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96EU) GPU | 30 – 50 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
Apex Legends
In the following section, you will find a detailed FPS analysis on full HD resolution for the game Apex Legends.
| Laptop Name | Specs Overview | Game FPS | Resolution |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 | Intel Core i7-11800H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU | 200 – 300 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
| ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 | Core i9-11950H CPU and an Nvidia Quadro RTX A5000 GPU | 10 – 35 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
| ThinkBook Plus Gen 2 | Intel Core i7-1160G7 CPU and Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96EU) GPU | 20 – 45 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
FIFA 2021
In the following section, you will find a detailed FPS analysis on full HD resolution for the game Fifa 2021.
| Laptop Name | Specs Overview | Game FPS | Resolution |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 | Intel Core i7-11800H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU | 210 – 230 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
| ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 | Core i9-11950H CPU and an Nvidia Quadro RTX A5000 GPU | 30 – 60 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
| ThinkBook Plus Gen 2 | Intel Core i7-1160G7 CPU and Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96EU) GPU | 20 – 50 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
Grand Theft Auto V
In the following section, you will find a detailed FPS analysis on full HD resolution for the game Grand Theft Auto V.
| Laptop Name | Specs Overview | Game FPS | Resolution |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 | Intel Core i7-11800H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU | 70 – 180 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
| ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 | Core i9-11950H CPU and an Nvidia Quadro RTX A5000 GPU | 10 – 50 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
| ThinkBook Plus Gen 2 | Intel Core i7-1160G7 CPU and Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96EU) GPU | 20 – 50 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
Red Dead Redemption 2
| Laptop Name | Specs Overview | Game FPS | Resolution |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 | Intel Core i7-11800H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU | 60 – 120 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
| ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 | Core i9-11950H CPU and an Nvidia Quadro RTX A5000 GPU | 40 – 80 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
| ThinkBook Plus Gen 2 | Intel Core i7-1160G7 CPU and Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96EU) GPU | 10 – 25 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
CS: GO
In the following section, you will find a detailed FPS analysis on full HD resolution for the game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
| Laptop Name | Specs Overview | Game FPS | Resolution |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 | Intel Core i7-11800H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU | 300 – 400 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
| ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 | Core i9-11950H CPU and an Nvidia Quadro RTX A5000 GPU | 40 – 100 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
| ThinkBook Plus Gen 2 | Intel Core i7-1160G7 CPU and Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96EU) GPU | 30 – 60 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) |
Conclusion
Even though Lenovo laptops are quite good and well-known for different purposes, including gaming. But when it comes to the Lenovo ThinkPad laptop series, we are a bit skeptical. There are a lot of reasons why we don’t consider ThinkPad laptops a good fit for gaming.
The most common ones include their smaller screen size. Another reason is that the majority of ThinkPads come with Intel Integrated GPU which isn’t a good fit for gaming. Meanwhile, you will also come across some ThinkPad laptops offering a dedicated NVIDIA GPU, which gradually enhances the graphics and visuals of your game, along with the FPS count.
Also Read: Are Dell Laptops Good For Gaming?
Overall, when it comes to gaming, the Lenovo Legion series is better than the Lenovo ThinkPad in terms of gaming. But for professional tasks such as photo editing, video editing, and rendering which require high-end software Lenovo ThinkPad remains the first choice.
If you have any questions or queries then make sure to drop them down in the comments section. We will be happy to hear from you.
