Lenovo Legion 5 (15″ AMD, 2021) stays cool under heavy load, but at what cost?
The Legion 5 laptops from Lenovo offer powerful specs and great designs, for less than what you would expect. The most recent Legion 5 brings the Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000H-series processors, along with the Ampere graphics from NVIDIA, which are straight-up killing the game right now. The Legion 5 manages to keep its powerful hardware’s temperatures in check, thanks to its good cooling. However, as with most things in life, this is not without consequences.
Lenovo Legion 5 (15″ AMD, 2021): Full Specs / In-depth review
Temperatures and comfort
Max CPU load
In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.
Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H (45W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
---|---|---|---|
Lenovo Legion 5 (15″ AMD, 2021) | 3.17 GHz @ 61°C | 3.17 GHz @ 64°C | 3.17 GHz @ 75°C |
HP Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000) | 3.33 GHz (B+4%) @ 78°C | 3.33 GHz (B+4%) @ 85°C | 3.42 GHz (B+7%) @ 88°C |
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533 | 3.43 GHz (B+7%) @ 76°C | 3.35 GHz (B+5%) @ 80°C | 3.47 GHz (B+8%) @ 82°C |
ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE (GX551) | 3.93 GHz (B+23%) @ 81°C | 3.82 GHz (B+19%) @ 86°C | 3.78 GHz (B+18%) @ 93°C |
ASUS TUF A17 (FA706) 2021 | 3.42 GHz (B+7%) @ 74°C | 3.34 GHz (B+4%) @ 78°C | 3.35 GHz (B+5%) @ 84°C |
The Ryzen 7 5800H manages to keep its temperatures below 80°C. That does come at a cost though, as the processor runs at a surprisingly low frequency of 3.17GHz, while many of its competitors manage to reach 3.50GHz, with some even nearing the 4.00GHz mark. Still, the steady performance here is ideal for prolonged heavy loads.
Real-life gaming
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max Fan) |
---|---|---|---|
Lenovo Legion 5 (15″ AMD, 2021) | 1831 MHz @ 75°C @ 129W | 1815 MHz @ 80°C @ 129W | – |
Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (16″) | 1803 MHz @ 76°C @ 129W | 1787 MHz @ 81°C @ 129W | – |
MSI GP66 Leopard | 1863 MHz @ 72°C @ 124W | 1852 MHz @ 75°C @ 125W | 1849 MHz @ 69°C @ 127W |
MSI GP76 Leopard | 1860 MHz @ 71°C @ 129W | 1857 MHz @ 73°C @ 128W | 1869 MHz @ 67°C @ 128W |
The RTX 3060, on the other hand, runs at a similar clock speed when compared to its competitors, with a temperature that is also very similar to its competitors.
Gaming comfort
The outside temperature is decent, sitting at 41.6°C, which will protect your hands from the heat. However, the laptop is quite noisy, especially when the Turbo mode is on.