The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Review: OLED and LCD Tested
by Brett Howse & Brandon Chester on September 29, 2016 11:30 AM ESTGPU Performance
Once again, since this is likely the last Skylake Ultrabook to be tested here, it’s also likely our last look at Intel’s HD 520 GPU. It’s been a nice improvement over Broadwell, even though the elusive Iris version has not made it’s way here. With 24 EUs in the GT2 GPU, it ends up being reasonable for low end games, and Intel seems to be promoting integrated GPU performance with more effort recently.
The X1 Yoga was run through the standard GPU suite, with a few synthetic tests, as well as Dota 2 for a low end game that can be played on an iGPU.
3DMark
Once again, there are no surprises with the HD 520, and the X1 Yoga falls in-line with the other Skylake GT2 units.
GFXBench
Much like 3DMark, the X1 Yoga scores similarly to the other Skylake devices tested.
Dota 2 Reborn
Valve recreated Dota 2 with a new gaming engine, which limits our selection of devices to compare against since the new Reborn version was launched. As an online game, it is also constantly updated.
The X1 Yoga outscored the Razer Blade Stealth in the lightest test, but was unable to pass it in the higher quality tests. Due to the nature of it being an online game, with frequent updates, this could be due to game engine changes as well as driver differences between the tests (typically notebooks are only short-term review units, so it can be difficult to maintain consistency). The margins are not huge though, and although the game is somewhat playable on our medium test, it really can only be played well at the lightest settings.
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yomamafor1 - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
I mean, it's not like Lenovo did make a P40 specifically for this purpose.....LordOfTheBoired - Saturday, October 1, 2016 - link
Touche. Just saying... ddriver isn't exactly what I'd call the most qualified person to make that call.Ej24 - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Lenovo never puts iris graphics in anything. It drives me nuts. Been waiting for years for an ultrabook from them with iris graphics. Dell xps 13 finally has a 15w cpu with iris, and some Asus ultrabooks have 28w cpus with iris.Ro_Ja - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
They should've atleast put in a Skylake processor with HD 540 in it.arsjum - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
The second revision of Yoga 900 as well as IdeaPad 710s are both equipped with Skylake Iris graphics.spikebike - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
Try the Lenovo Ideapad 721s, has the iris graphics. Sadly the disabled the AHCI interface and require some whacky "RAID" mode which is really just saying "Hey, windows, use your software raid driver". The XPS 13 does have the iris as well, but sadly it's tied to the 3200x1800 touchscreen which is shiny and halves your battery life.ajp_anton - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
I have the 1080p non-touch version of the XPS 13, with Iris 540 graphics.Pissedoffyouth - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
What possibly could you be doing on an ultrabook that you need Iris graphics? I'd rather have a CPU-heavy focused TDP that shitty CPU and a bit GPUCliff34 - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
The only CPU with Iris GPU are HQ processors. HQ processor always perform better than U processor. For me, the two possible reasons why they don't use HQ processors are either they want a CPU that doesn't generate too much heat and/or force consumers to buy a laptop with its own discrete graphic card (and spend more money).arsjum - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Not true at all. U-series CPUs can come with HD 540 and HD 550 Iris graphics.