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Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 15" (Ryzen 5 5600H, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, RTX3060) $999 Delivered @ Lenovo Education

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Processor - AMD Ryzen™ 5 5600H (6C / 12T, 3.3 / 4.2GHz, 3MB L2 / 16MB L3)
Operating System - Windows 11 Home 64
Display Type - 15.6" FHD (1920x1080) IPS 250nits Anti-glare, 120Hz, 45% NTSC, DC dimmer
Memory - 1x 16 GB SO-DIMM DDR4-3200
Hard Drive - 512 GB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0x4 NVMe
Warranty - 1 Year Premium Care
Graphics - NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3060 6GB GDDR6, Boost Clock 1282 / 1485MH, TGP 90W
Second Hard Drive - N/A
Camera - 720p with Camera Shutter
Fingerprint Reader - No Fingerprint Reader
Keyboard - 4-Zone RGB Backlit, English
Wireless - 802.11AX (2x2) & Bluetooth® 5.0

Edit: Note that USB C doesn’t support anything other than data transfer, so seems like you have to use HDMI for external screen. Also, if you order, make sure that you’ve logged in and enabled Lenovo rewards

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closed Comments

  • +2

    OOS? Damn I was just doing a little research into it….

    • Show us the outcome

    • +2

      Buy now, think later. We've all been there.

  • +1

    I'm considering cancelling my order, as think I would rather be able to use a USB-C docking station. Not sure whether to cancel or just on-sell it at cost.

    • Transfer your money to other account before it got deducted?

      • creative, but not feasible in my case

    • Cancel, save yourself the stress

    • +2

      Soon will be mid year financial sales, hopefully can see more crazy laptop deals, I dont game on laptop so I am waiting for a more portable laptop with longer battery life

  • They seem to be sold out everyone

  • +2

    more than 2000 units sold yesterday, it must be hard time for pick and pack workers today

  • order says shipped, now.

    • Same with mine. DHL Express from Sydney so should arrive very soon.

    • Did you get a notification via email? Mine still doesn’t say that it has shipped

      • Check the status via the email they sent ("Thanks for your order xxxx) ,and there is a order status button.

        • Doesn’t say it’s been shipped there. Maybe depends on what state we’re in. Hoping to get mine soon.

          • @SleepyBargainHunter: Express delivery, am impressed. Hopefully better than the laptop I ordered a month ago that never came (Intel NUC M15 from Bing Lee eBay) and I got refunded after ordering this instead.

        • Mine came through as well now. DHL express shipping. Super excited

  • Does anyone know if the RAM is soldered?

    • +1

      it shouldn't be

    • +2

      Not soldered according to spec sheet

      Two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots, dual-channel capable

    • Just upgraded mine with another 16Gb of ram and no, they're not soldered. Also they're using Samsung ram, but no issues chucking a 3200 stick from another brand.

  • +2

    Tracked DHL on line, it will be delivered tomorrow~

  • Any game suggestions that will run good ?

  • Would any DDR4 SO-DIMM 3200 ram work with it or has to be exact same ones? Any suggestions?

    • Any 3200 will work. It'll just drop to the lower timings of whatever the worst stick is. You can use a Crucial 3200 stick with no problems.

  • -2

    Bought this before I realised it couldn't use a USB-C docking station for power and video. Order was shipped before I could cancel, so probably looking to on-sell. It no longer appears on the Lenovo site. Can anyone remember the price before discount?

    • +1
      • Thanks. I've since noticed the invoice says $2,229 with an e-coupon discount of $1,230. So disappointed this doesn't have the USB-C I want :(

    • I've seen a few people mention this. Can you explain why it is such a red flag?
      Can you not use hdmi/USB-A to achieve the same effect?

      • I'd like to have one connection to the laptop (like my work laptop has), and be able to charge via USB-C instead of a proprietary connection (including power bank).

        • Yeah understood, I had a WFH setup like this which was really easy.
          Adding a lot of clutter without it! It's a fair point!

    • Hey, did you happen to get a screenshot of the price alongside the model number, either on product page or checkout cart/receipt that you'd be able to share please?

      • Unfortunately not

  • +3

    Mines delivered :)

    • Explosive news!

    • +1

      Mine too! Can't wait to play with it after work

  • +2

    Got mine just now.

  • So is the screen 120Hz or 165hz as its written on the website? Thank you

    • for this deal, it was a 120Hz

    • 165 Hz one didn’t get the discount in this deal. Last time I checked, it was much more expensive.

      • Better screen too, but hey for $999 I can't complain about this. Thanks for posting the deal.

  • Mine coming tomorrow from Sydney woohoo 🥳

  • Anyone know what the "Claim your game pass" is?

    Is that a free trial?

  • +5

    Already delivered for me, and what an amazing device. Runs quite and cool on the few games I've tested so far (even on full fans), and has no production issues I've noticed so far unlike the Ideapad and Legions WiFi's and fans last year.

    • What games have you tried

      • +1

        Lost ark, Genshin & Dota 2 so far.

        Running just Genshin on a Razer blade 15 rtx3080 laptop last year was incredibly noisy with high temps.

  • +5

    Mine arrived, some points for others:

    • Upgrading RAM is easy, any 3200 sodimm should do the trick for anyone wanting dual channel
    • These come with a Samsung stick, I used a cheap Crucial and it does the job (although 32gb is overkill)
    • Pulling it apart wasn't too hard, but just be careful not to snap any clips - there's 10 screws and then carefully go around the edge until it comes apart
    • As expected, the screen is pretty average, but for under $1K with the specs it has, you can't really complain
    • Keyboard feels good, although I keep hitting the num lock key next to backspace - you might be fine
    • F2 to get to Bios if you're wondering
    • I deleted McAfee the moment it booted, otherwise doesn't feel like it has a ton of bloatware
    • Comes with Windows 11 (missed that little detail)
    • Old version of Nvidia drivers (471) so don't forget to update them
    • I checked and it runs Crysis
    • Jokes aside, Witcher 3 runs at 90 fps with everything set to ultra (besides hairworks) - you can tweak it to 120 easily
    • Personal preference, but I set Windows scaling back to 100% (default 125% made everything look too big)
    • +1

      I checked and it runs Crysis

      All I needed to know

      Jokes aside, 15" FHD is the sweet spot for 100% scaling on a laptop. Shame about the num lock key, but I do like having a numpad in laptops of this size.

      • Yeah that seems to be the sweet spot.

        The num key thing is a small issue that I'm sure I'll get used to. My particular display also has backlight bleed in the bottom corners but hey, still fine.

    • I watched a video and the dude snapped the clips off trying to pry it open. They can never make it easy.

      Edit: Is there an option to turn off optimus (direct access to the 3060)?

      • No MUX switch on these that I can tell.

      • +1

        I don't think connecting it to HDMI turns it off either, since things still come up as AMD and the nvidia control panel doesn't have all the options. Which means the HDMI doesn't connect directly to the GPU?

      • +2

        Can confirm no mux switch and no way to turn off Optimus even through HDMI. These deficiencies are the price we pay for the cheapest RTX3060 laptop to date. Still crazy performance for the price in spite of that.

        • Yeah, I can confirm the same after digging some more. A bit of a shame.

          I also think it's really tanking fps due to this. In the same location, I tested Witcher on this vs desktop 3060Ti. This was doing 80 - 85 fps, while the desktop was doing 145 - 150. I mean sure it's a laptop 3060 vs desktop 3060Ti, but it shouldn't be that much of a gap.

          Still, it's sub $1,000. Should still beat a Legion 3050 that's more expensive.

          • @cnut: What result do you get in timespy btw? Seems to be underperforming a bit compared what I’d expect.

            Edit: Also, is it set to performance mode with max fans?

            • @SleepyBargainHunter: Haven't tried timespy yet. But given the relative results to my desktop, I expect the same as you.

              I guess we should keep our expectations in check given the price. Still a good deal.

          • @cnut: 3060 Ti is fairly far ahead of even the desktop 3060. Honestly at this price I'm still happy because there is a massive gap when the best dGPU you could get at this price range was a 1650 Ti…

            • @Yuri Lowell: Oh yeah, I'm still happy. I just don't get why Lenovo wouldn't allow you to disable it, or at least auto disable through HDMI. I just didn't expect that much of a gap.

              • @cnut: How can you confirm that Optimus isn't turned off when connected to HDMI? I wanna see if it does on my Nitro 5's 3060.

                • @CVonC: There's no way to switch it on/off. I can only confirm that even with HDMI it shows up as AMD graphics for the monitor display settings.

    • Have you tried adding a 2nd SSD by any chance? I couldn't get my 1tb EX920 or another older sata M.2 drive to detect on the 2nd slot

      • I haven’t tried a second drive. Is it not even detecting in bios?

        • Not detecting in BIOS, and there is very limited settings on the factory BIOS (no idea how to get into advanced mode). It might be the EX920 though since they laptop it was in died from a power surge and fried - I'll have to check with a different SSD

          • @Lukas: I had a look at the spec sheet

            Storage type only mentions NVMe for M.2, so probably desn't support SATA M.2.

            • +1

              @CodeXD: Yep was just my EX920 being corrupted, wifes Crucial P2 detected and worked fine immediately.

              • @Lukas: Do you need to pull it apart to add a second NVME? Or is there easy access?

                • +2

                  @djkelly69: Just the back cover, which is pretty standard for modern laptops.

                  Some users noted difficulties with the plastic clips holding it - just make sure the laptop cover is warm (so it’s more flexible) and use a guitar pick or similar to run around the edges.

  • Did anyone get a random $1 deduction on top of the $999 from the purchase, by lenovo?

    • Had same thing happen. Pre sure it was jus to test the account

    • +1

      Yep normal

  • I have received my laptop today. Does anyone know how to switch off the keyboard light? It is always flashing with different colours….

    • +2

      FN + Space bar. Or open lenovo vantage

  • +1

    Thank you for the reply. Yes, I tried "Fn+Space bar", it doesn't work. Where I can open lenovo vantage? I need download Lenovo vantage first?

    • +1

      It's already installed. Click the search button and type it in or go start and look for it there.

  • +1

    Got it, appreciated!!

  • +1

    Oops! DHL now shows my shipment is "On Hold" xD Guess I will have to wait, patiently xD

  • +4

    Got mine today. The back panel was a pain to remove but I did get it off after filing down a credit card and sliding it into the crack to pry the clips open. Installed a second memory module for 32GB of memory. There's a bit of bloat but I plan to do a clean install (only thing worth keeping is Lenovo Vantage). You can get the drivers from the Lenovo website but they list two types for Intel and Realtek/Mediatek/etc. In my case the laptop has Mediatek MT7921 for the wireless module and Realtek for the audio and LAN.

    Performance wise it's great. Boots fast and seems to have an Intel M.2 which is about 2000/1500 R/W, also it is a 2280 so you can upgrade it and there's another 2280 slot next to it. Cinebench R23 gets close to 10k. I didn't try gaming with it yet. Battery life is okay… I got about 3.5 hours while messing around on the desktop running benchmarks, etc. Screen is smooth and I don't have much ghosting or any IPS glow/backlight bleed but the colours are pretty dull and the contrast is low, brightness is fine at 80-90%. I'm definitely glad I put another 16GB of DDR4 in because the iGPU takes 4GB of it but that can be adjusted down to 1 or 2GB in the BIOS. Overall I'm very pleased with it at this price.

  • Got mine today, I checked my serial number on lenovo website for warranty and it shows out of warranty. Can anyone confirm this is normal?

    • Did you use the auto detect or entered the serial yourself? Try whichever one you didn't do.

  • +2

    Have some thoughts about the laptop after getting it. I also ran some benchmarks for comparison.

    1. Build quality feels great for a plastic laptop. Feels sturdy and looks pretty sleek. No gamer aesthetic unlike the Acer Nitro 5, which is the main budget gaming laptop competitor. Other more premium and better looking laptops don’t offer this tier of GPU for this price.

    2. Keyboard feels great. Trackpad is not so great. The actual tracking is good, but the clicks don’t feel great. Not too important if you’re gaming with a mouse and it is still serviceable. I might be harsher on trackpads coming from a MacBook though.

    3. I feel like people overstate how bad the screen is. May not be the best screen. Certainly a bit worse than my MacBook Pro 2016 screen. But, it is nowhere near as noticeable as I expected. Would be happy gaming on this, but won’t be suitable for stuff like video editing.

    4. Performance is really good for $999. Most companies offer an RTX3050 which is quite a bit slower for this price point. These were benchmarks I ran with single channel memory, performance mode and overclock option ticked. Expecting higher numbers for 3DMark Timespy CPU test when I install the second stick of RAM.

    • CinebenchR23 Single Core (10 minutes): 1336
      CinebenchR23 Single Core (30 minutes): 1371 (not sure why longer benchmark gives a higher score tbh)
      CinebenchR23 Multi Core (10 minutes): 10019
      CinebenchR23 Multi Core (30 minutes): 9764
      3DMark TimeSpy CPU: 6309
      3DMark TimeSpy Graphics: 8156
      3DMark TimeSpy Overall: 7812

    • Looked at Jarrods Tech videos to compare scores with other laptops. Hard to compare fairly without stuff like room temperature or updates into account, but good to get a general idea. As a comparison, looking Acer Nitro 5 with 5600H and RTX3060 and 16gb single channel from Jarrods Tech gives the following results.

    • CinebenchR23 Single Core (30 minutes): 1363
      CinebenchR23 Multi Core (30 minutes): 9309
      3DMark TimeSpy Graphics: 7510
      3DMark TimeSpy Overall: 7305

    • So, Ideapad Gaming 3 gives similar/slightly better scores.

    • Also, to compare to something more high end, the Legion 5 RTX 3060 gets 8897 3DMark TimeSpy Graphics on JarrodsTech video. He tested a different CPU, so other values can’t be compared. So, about a 10% improvement with the higher power limit over the Ideapad.

    • The main bottleneck will probably be the lack of mux switch or ability to bypass the igpu with an external screen. This has a pretty big impact for games that run at higher frames, like esports titles such as CSGO. Not much of a difference if you’re playing something like Cyberpunk 2077.

    Overall, I am super happy with the laptop. I think it’ll be hard to find better price to performance ratio, with pretty good build quality. I do wish it had a mux switch or way to disable Optimus with an external screen. It could also have a better trackpad and screen. But, getting to this price point inevitably means you’ll get a laptop with some corners cut. Would wholeheartedly recommend the laptop with these specs if it’s close to $1000 price. If it’s closer to $1400-$1500, like in previous deals, there are better options for not much more expensive.

    • +1

      Great write up. I bought one as well and am pretty stoked with it. I'm relatively new to PC gaming (haven't really played since AOE was given out in cereal boxes).

      What do yo mean exactly by your last point in bypassing the igpu with an external screen? Does that mean when I play games via HDMI on my TV that output to the TV is being handled by the integrated graphics card as opposed to the dedicated graphics card?

      • +2

        I’m not very knowledgeable about this, but Jarrodstech has a great write up about it:

        https://jarrods.tech/what-is-a-mux-switch-for-gaming-laptops…

        Basically, with Optimus on, the dgpu still generates the frames, but it passes through the igpu before it gets to the screen. This causes a bottleneck that drops performance a bit. I like to think about it like a middle man causing inefficiency.

        When Optimus is off, the igpu is no longer active and everything is done on the dgpu. There is no longer a bottleneck from the igpu, resulting in increased performance.

        For a lot of laptops there is no way to turn off Optimus on laptop screen. But for most laptops, you can connect directly to dgpu by plugging the laptop into an external monitor. This is because the monitor can be connected directly to the dgpu through a port like HDMI or display port. But, for the Ideapad, the HDMI port doesn’t connect to the dgpu, so the bottleneck remains.

        This results in around a 10% performance loss. More if you’re playing esports titles and less in certain more graphically demanding AAA games like cyberpunk. Not too terrible when you consider the price of this machine, but still not ideal.

  • Expired?

  • -1

    My legion 7i with the rtx 3080 gets 13k graphics score on 3Dmark Timespy at 2k resolution. 14k on cinnebench r23 multi core. Piss poor performance from a 3k Lenovo laptop with a vapour chamber.

    I’ve seen reviews on this gaming ideapad and the cooling is atrocious which results in thermal throttling. Do not expect to game for more than an hour at full load with this PoS

    • +2

      My example does not thermal throttle at all and even dials down its fans while I’m gaming in less intense sections haha. Can’t say that for the rtx3080 Razer, rtx3050 Ideapad or old gtx1060 Dell I was using before this on the exact same games which all ran incredibly hot and noisy.

      The cooling solution seems tops! Note the 2022 version has a beefier cooling design and layout to 2021

    • +2

      The CPU in mine reaches 95C quite easily after a minute of Cinebench. I don't see any throttling though, in fact it maintains close to 4.2GHz through the multi core test. GPU wise mine gets to about 70C and again doesn't see any throttling. You can really hear the fans ramp up though. It seems to have an improved thermal design from the old Ideapad which I believe only had 1 fan, whereas this has 2 similar to the Legion 5.

    • +1

      My GPU showed no signs of thermal throttling after stress tests with cool temperatures.

      My CPU also hit 90°C on cinebenchr23 multi core. But was able to sustain high clocks on a 30 minute test. And this was after doing heaps benchmarking beforehand. The drop in cinebench score between my 10 minute test and 30 minute test was only a few percent. So, very little throttling on CPU as well.

      Edit: Also, getting a max spec legion 7i is going to be terrible value for the money. Gaming laptops at higher specs have diminishing returns, because of the thermal constraints. Unlike desktops, you can’t just pump more watts in to get higher performance. And the way higher TDP laptops are going to be harder to cool.

      In comparison, the $1k laptop doesn’t have to blow my socks off to be worth it for the price. Just has to be a solid gaming machine.

  • Arrived quick but very unlucky that the laptop arrived damaged… waiting for after-sale response now.

  • +1

    Have been using.
    Review: a bit heavy but the screen is fine albeit a bit low in light.
    Great with gaming coupled with gamepass $1 for 3 months, got a gaming mouse and gamepad and away we go!
    Ran Forza Horizon 5 well

    • If that's from the recent offer on here, take note that somewhere on this laptop itself, it also has a 3 month free trial as well, however I can't find it anymore!
      I do recall you had an extended period of time to redeem it as well, like into 2024… If anyone else finds it, let us know!

      • I think you can find it again by clicking on the notification bell at the top right in the Xbox app. I saw that same offer in there the other day.

        • Found it…It can be accessed by opening the microsoft store. Going to the Library (little 3 bars with a dot at the bottom, then clicking on included with device)
          Mine has claim by 18/02/2024, so presumably when my pay $1 for 1 month, get 2 free months period expires, I should be able to claim this again.

  • Random Q - anyone else having issues running Chrome? It installs but just doesn't run, apart from a window very briefly flashing and closing straight away sometimes.

    Tried all the usual fixes from google and can't work out the issue.

    • +1

      No problems for me. I installed and it ran without issues.

  • Is it possible to run the laptop while screen is closed while HDMI is connected?

    • +2

      Yes you can.

      You just need to change power options to do nothing when lid is close.

      press start -> search for close lid and select choose what closing the lid does

  • +1

    Just upgraded mine from 16gb to 32gb ram. The prying was easier than I expected. All went well xD

    • +1

      could you please share what is the ram you purchased? Perhaps a link please.
      Thank you

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