Legion 5, 5 Pro or 7

[Arshia]

Hi, I have some problems choosing between Lenovo Legion 5 vs 5 pro vs 7. I didn't see the 7 model with core i7 11800H except one which was more expensive than I would like to spend on. I'm not sure about the performance difference between i7 11800H and Ryzen 7 5800H. I mostly run SolidWorks, MATLAB, VS Code, Proteus and similar programs. I'd like to know what CPU you think suites better But The Thunderbolt 4.0 and 20 lanes of gen4 PCIe on Intel model seems pretty compelling. if you think that the intel model is better it's mostly about 5 vs 5 pro. 

Both 5 and 5 pro models come with Intel and AMD CPUs. I do want to use it in university and I really don't like the look of 5 pro(that logo on the lid) But if you think it's by far the better option I would go for it. I also prefer 17.3 inch screen which is an option on 5 but it's not that important. What I mostly care about is the performance differences. I know Ryzen CPUs are more efficient but since TGP of all of them is about 130W I think it can handle more juice on the CPU to get better performance.(based on Jarrod's Tech video i7 model beats Ryzen in higher TDPs(about 80w I think) but falls behind on lower TDPs(45w). I'm also not sure If increasing power limit in XTU can make it use 80W if needed of course. are there other power limits? I know fans can't be controlled at least using it's own software).

I also keep my laptop for a long time. 9Years on one that I'm using.so if you think pcie gen 4 or Thunderbolt with eGPU is more future proof  or useful please consider that. 

so Legion 7 with Ryzen, 5 with i7 or 5 pro with i7 ? (or any other combinations) 

 

by the way sorry of bad English and Thanks for taking your time to help.

[germgoatz]

typing on the 5800h legion 5, i like it so far

i would say just get whichever one suits you better. if you want more efficiency, get ryzen

[Arshia]

2 minutes ago, germgoatz said:

typing on the 5800h legion 5, i like it so far

i would say just get whichever one suits you better. if you want more efficiency, get ryzen

Oh Nice. Thanks for suggestion. I want more performance and future proofing than efficiency.

[porina]

I have the 5 with 5800H, but my personal use case is gaming only so CPU doesn't really matter in that sense.

 

Haven't used Proteus or MATLAB in a very long time so don't know how they perform these days. If any of the software has support for AVX-512 the Intel CPU might have a significant boost. Otherwise I don't think there'll be much between them.

[Arshia]

11 hours ago, porina said:

I have the 5 with 5800H, but my personal use case is gaming only so CPU doesn't really matter in that sense.

 

Haven't used Proteus or MATLAB in a very long time so don't know how they perform these days. If any of the software has support for AVX-512 the Intel CPU might have a significant boost. Otherwise I don't think there'll be much between them.

I googled it. MATLAB doesn't. What about future proofing? I think Intel one has more futures like dedicated parts on CPU for AI, Thunderbolt 4.0, more and faster PCIe lanes etc. If I would keep that laptop for 8years+ do you think I would wish to have any of these futures?

I like to get legion 7 It has vaper chamber and overall better build quality and fits my budget. It also doesn't come with OS which I prefer. but if for example I need to run 2 displays and Thunderbolt dose a better job at or I need better GPU and decide to use eGPU I might regret my decision. I don't think running two monitors at high res or frame rates is something that I do at least any times soon. but you really can't tell when it's about 8+ years. 

[porina]

2 hours ago, Arshia said:

What about future proofing? I think Intel one has more futures like dedicated parts on CPU for AI, Thunderbolt 4.0, more and faster PCIe lanes etc. If I would keep that laptop for 8years+ do you think I would wish to have any of these futures?

Predicting future needs is always a challenge. Personally I like to focus more on shorter term needs and not worry about what might happen in 3+ years. It comes down largely to what you think your needs will be. It might make more sense for you to change system later on than stack it all in now in the hopes it might be useful in future.

[genexis_x]

You can't go wrong with either of these

 

What are the prices?

[Arshia]

8 hours ago, porina said:

Predicting future needs is always a challenge. Personally I like to focus more on shorter term needs and not worry about what might happen in 3+ years. It comes down largely to what you think your needs will be. It might make more sense for you to change system later on than stack it all in now in the hopes it might be useful in future.

Yeah. That's fair. Thanks for helping

[Arshia]

9 hours ago, genexis_x said:

You can't go wrong with either of these

 

What are the prices?

prices are in euros and I want it in Germany.

1648 for legion 5 i7-11800H 3060 16GB(I think with the bad R16 ram based on the reviews I watched) ram 512GB SSD Win10H QHD

1671 for legion 7 Ryzen 7 5800H 3060 16GB(I think with the better R8 RAM) 512GB SSD QHD no OS

1699 legion 5 pro i7-11800H 3060 16 GB(I think R16) 512GB SSD QHD Win10P

there are also other options. I'm pretty sure I saw some at 1599 or less for legion7 with same specs.

Other Options are: 

I don't want to spend above 1700 (feel like 1800 is absolute maximum) on it but I included them anyways :)) 

1775 HP OMEN 16 FDH i7-11800H 3070 16GB(Not sure which) 512 FHD Win10H

1799 DELL Alienware M15 i7-11800H 3060 16GB(Don't know which one but it's expensive so hopefully the good one )FHD 512GB W10H (No num pad sadly  )

1907 Aero 15OLED.. i7-11800H 3060 16GB 1T SSD 15.6" UHD OLED Win10P

I can't find something like that Aero with FHD IPS screen and 512GB SSD and no OS for less than 1800. Don't know how realistic that price would be but It's half the storage with no OS and cheaper screen so it should be more than 100 euros cheaper right?

There also is another option:

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus Laptop i7-11800H 3060 16GB 1T SSD 3K Win10H for 1499 (1699 originally with 250 discount) but I asked them and they said It officially doesn't support eGPUs. at which point I don't see any reasons not to go with legion7 Ryzen. this GPU is capped at 60W while legion one is about 130 ( I'm not totally sure about numbers. DELL GPU number In emailed dialog is censored :)) ).

Is there a 2 lane thunderbolt4.0 option? if like thunderbolt3 there is, officially not supporting might mean a lot less bandwidth.

[genexis_x]

5 hours ago, Arshia said:

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus

Garbage

5 hours ago, Arshia said:

Is there a 2 lane thunderbolt4.0 option?

Why do you need TB?

5 hours ago, Arshia said:

1671 for legion 7 Ryzen 7 5800H 3060 16GB(I think with the better R8 RAM) 512GB SSD QHD no OS

1699 legion 5 pro i7-11800H 3060 16 GB(I think R16) 512GB SSD QHD Win10P

I'll pick L5P, tho L7 price is not bad

[Arshia]

5 hours ago, genexis_x said:

Garbage

yeah. That's what I said too.

5 hours ago, genexis_x said:

Why do you need TB?

Looks like a useful thing. maybe I'll need a better GPU in the future. I can use eGPU with TB. Fast storage. TB works. High res screens. TB dose that too. in addition to that i7 11800H hast more and faster PCIe lanes. I don't know how useful direct storage on professional applications would be but having gen4 PCIe seems like a nice feature. It is faster in single and some multi thread applications (Maybe on battery power it would fall behind 5800H but I think it's still better). I heard that more cache helps in number crunching tests and I work with numbers a lot so that might be useful.

6 hours ago, genexis_x said:

I'll pick L5P, tho L7 price is not bad

Yeah. I would ratter have L7 with i7 for like 150euroes more but it's around 2000. I'm not sure. maybe as prices go down it becomes cheaper. don't know how long I can wait. I already wanted for like more than 10 month.

[genexis_x]

Just now, Arshia said:

I can use eGPU with TB.

forget about it, the performance loss is not worth the money

1 minute ago, Arshia said:

Fast storage.

1 minute ago, Arshia said:

High res screens.

Those are damn expensive, unless you really need them I see no reason of TB being useful for these

1 minute ago, Arshia said:

having gen4 PCIe seems like a nice feature.

For most ppl it doesn't matter.

2 minutes ago, Arshia said:

It is faster in single and some multi thread applications (Maybe on battery power it would fall behind 5800H but I think it's still better). I heard that more cache helps in number crunching tests and I work with numbers a lot so that might be useful.

If that's useful for your usage then go for TGL-H.