Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Lenovo doubles down on AMD Ryzen with new Legion gaming PCs

By

With the latest refresh of its Legion gaming lineup, Lenovo is placing big bets on AMD’s Ryzen processors to bring the needed power, performance, and battery life. Rightfully so, AMD’s latest 7nm Ryzen 4000 mobile processors have attracted plenty of attention and praise for its performance and affordable price, making them a great fit for a portable gaming system.

Recommended Videos

The 4000 series aren’t available quite yet for desktops, but Lenovo also has a new gaming desktop as well, relying on AMD’s still capable and powerful Ryzen 3000 desktop family alongside the latest Nvidia RTX graphics.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!
Privacy Policy

Lenovo’s mobile Legion goes big

Image used with permission by copyright holder

In addition to the 15-inch Ryzen-powered Legion 5 laptop that’s already on the market today, Lenovo is bringing an even larger 17-inch option to gamers.

Like its smaller sibling, the 17-inch Lenovo Legion 5 gaming laptop packs in plenty of performance, pairing AMD’s Ryzen 4000 H-series mobile CPU alongside rival Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2060 graphics.

You’ll get the same immersive Dolby Atmos audio tuning with the built-in Harmon Kardon speaker system for audio and a fast 144Hz refresh rate display with FHD resolution. Everything is kept cool with Lenovo Legion ColdFront 2.0 thermal engineering.

With 7.5 hours of battery life and support for Rapid Charge Pro, though with gaming laptops, our expectations remain low.

The 15-inch Legion 5 starts at $759, while the 17-inch will start at $1,089 when it launches in September.

There will also be an upgraded version of the Legion 5 in the form of the Legion 5P for e-sports that tops out with more RAM and includes more tuning control to maximize system performance, but that system won’t be available in North America.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you don’t need all that performance but want to stay within the Ryzen ecosystem, Lenovo’s 15.6-inch IdeaPad Gaming 3 may be a great companion for casual gaming. This system tops out with AMD’s Ryzen 7 4800 H-Series processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics.

While you won’t get the simulated Dolby Atmos tuning from the more premium Legion configurations, you do benefit from Dolby Audio sound from the dual speakers, and the system can be configured with up to a 1TB SSD, 32GB DDR4 memory, and 120Hz refresh rate display.

The IdeaPad Gaming 3 starts at $659 when in launches later this month.

Legion Tower 5 desktop

Image used with permission by copyright holder

With the Legion Tower 5 desktop, Lenovo abandoned the desktop’s sculpted exterior aesthetics in favor of flatter surfaces that make it look more minimal. The simpler design makes the Legion Tower 5 more suited for use for gaming and for work, if needed, and the system can handle most tasks you throw its way thanks to the Ryzen 9 3950X and GeForce RTX 2070 GPU combo.

There is a lot of flexibility for expansion as well with a desktop, and the tower can be configured with up to two 1TB SSD and two 2TB 3.5-inch HDD for storage along with a whopping 128GB of DDR4 memory.

To keep things running smoothly, Lenovo claimed that it has improved the system’s thermals with larger fans, a 150-watt cooler, and optional 200W liquid cooling. The Legion Tower 5 will be available in October with prices starting at $829.

Lenovo also announced a scaled-down IdeaCentre Gaming 5 for casual gamers that tops out with AMD’s Ryzen 7 3700X processor and GeForce RTX 2060 graphics. Unfortunately, though, this system won’t arrive in North America.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Chuong Nguyen
Chuong Nguyen
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Silicon Valley-based technology reporter and Giants baseball fan who splits his time between Northern California and Southern…
AMD CPUs just got a major performance update for games
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D installed in a motherboard.

Major motherboard brands are gearing up for the release of AMD's upcoming Ryzen 9000X3D processors with BIOS updates that add support for the new CPUs. Alongside support, some brands, such as Gigabyte and Asus, have added an "X3D Turbo Mode," which is said to boost performance by up to 35%.

The update is targeting some of the best processors packing AMD's 3D V-Cache tech, but it might give other AMD processors a boost, too. One user on X (formerly Twitter) took the update out for a spin in Forza Horizon 5 and found a 5% uplift on the Ryzen 7 9700X. That's a far cry from the 35% we've seen quoted by Gigabyte, but it's a promising performance improvement nonetheless considering that this CPU doesn't come with 3D V-Cache.

Read more
I tested the Core Ultra 9 285K against the Ryzen 7 7800X3D — and it’s ugly
Fingers holding an Intel 285K.

Intel's new Core Ultra 9 285K is finally here, promising a boost in performance with a significant reduction in power requirements, at least according to Intel. As you can read in my Core Ultra 9 285K review, Intel's performance claims aren't as rosy as reality, especially when stacked up against what is unequivocally the best processor for gaming you can buy: AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

I threw both processors on the test bench to pit them head-to-head, looking at performance across productivity and gaming apps, as well as thermals and efficiency. These CPUs target different users, but there are still a lot of interesting comparisons we can look at between them.
Specs

Read more
New 9800X3D leak: ‘Strong generational boost in games’ is just 8%
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D held between fingertips.

AMD's best processor for gaming is right around the corner. Through various leaked benchmarks, we've already learned that it might disappoint, and today's leak only serves to confirm that. According to leaked AMD data, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D may offer a subtle improvement in gaming -- although it'll still be better than what most of the Zen 5 lineup has been able to provide.

VideoCardz was able to obtain what appears to be an official marketing description of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The blurb reveals things like the predicted improvement in instructions per cycle (IPC), gaming, and multi-threaded workloads. It looks like the real deal, but as with any other leak, it's important to remember that we'll only learn the full story once we test the CPU ourselves.

Read more