Hi there. For all the knowledgeable people out there, there is this offer for a laptop that I was wondering about. It is expected to be a good laptop for science. Then, I wonder how would it fare with games. Also, I would ask your opinion about how good the deal is, at this price.

LENOVO Thinkpad P16v Gen1

Operating system
Windows 11 Home
Platform
Intel®
Processor
i7-13700H (E-cores up to 3.70 GHz P-cores up to 5.00 GHz)
Display
16" WUXGA (1920x1200) IPS, Anti-Glare, Non-Touch, 300nits
Memory
32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-5600MHz
Network
Ethernet dongle
HDMI connector or USB-C
HDMI 2.1
Storage
1TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 TLC Opal + 1 slot free
Graphics
Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs (Integrated)
Nvidia RTX A500 4GB GDDR6 (Discrete)
Wireless
Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211, 802.11ax 2x2 Wi-Fi
Bluetooth
Yes, 5.2
Webcam
5MP RGB+IR with Dual Array Microphone
Additional Info
2x USB 3.2 Gen 1
2x Thunderbolt 4
Incl. fingerprint reader
Battery capacity
4 Cell Li-Polymer 90Wh
Adapter
170W Slim AC Adapter
Warranty
3 years on-site
PRICE
€ 1.197,17

Edit: Added the model name of the computer.

Good point, I forgot to mention. I will be adding it to the OP.

It is suppossed to work as a mobile workstation, a LENOVO Thinkpad P16v Gen1.

Edit: And thanks for the suggestion. It comes with Windows 11, but maybe I can install Windows 10 instead.

Edit2: Yes, they wrote it under...

Additional Info
2x USB 3.2 Gen 1
2x Thunderbolt 4

Apparently no Displayport nor USB-C

HDMI connector or USB-C
HDMI 2.1

The closest "consumer" equivalent to the Nvidia graphics is the mobile RTX 3050. Whatr is important to note is that the A500 has half the memory bus width. (Memory clock is faster. so total bandwidth is somewhat more than half as much)

The closest desktop equivalent is the GTX 1060 6GB. This is coincidentally the minimum spec for Cyberpunk 2077, but expect it to be worse with the low GPU memory and not having gaming optimised drivers. You won't have a fun time playing GOG's second most popular game. Don't even think about enabling raytracing.

Graphics are as close to bottom end as they come. Whether it will cope with the games you care about depends on your gaming preferences.

That card is a work card and therefore ill suited for gaming even considering 1080p and DLSS (which i honestly don't know if it's even meaningful @1080p native)

Ultimately though, how will it fare in gaming largely depends on which games you have in mind playing.

Maybe GPU wise this can give you some idea in terms of what kind of gaming you can expect to get from it. Just be mindful that whoever did those benchmarks seems to have chosen non-problematic slices to do it. For instance, there's absolutely nothing going on in that footage from 2077 but move to a busy place, like H-10 for instance, and the performance will tank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiUtdMYBF4o

Thanks for the advice on the graphics card. Do you think that the 32 GB of memory and i7 would help with the graphics performance somehow? In an older laptop with another 32 GB, PhysX preferred the cpu better than the graphics card (an older Nvidia for work).

I might want to try to play Cyberpunk, yes, and Skyrim, although things like Battlestar Galactica Deadlock would be more the norm (strategy games), and maybe some demanding adventure game (something in the vein of Alan Wake and so on).

The 32GB are fine. The I7 is adequate for games that tend to tax the CPU. Those are ok in terms of overall performance

But in terms of graphical performance none of that will help to make up for the card's shortcomings in games that specifically tax the GPU, so in terms of overall performance you'd be GPU bottlenecked in many, if not most, "modern" games.

We're starting to consider how much gaming we'll get in the next 2/3 years from cards with 12GB (granted, not necessarily @1080p but still) so even a 4GB gaming card will always be lacking. I had a GTX 970 for many years, and it is an absolute beast of a card, but ultimately it came to a point where it simply wasn't feasible anymore for games like 2077 and such.

For 2077 you would need a a gaming card (preferably a tad above minimum reqs) but then you'd have to look into whether or not it would still be well suited for the "work" part of your equation - i never had a work card so i'm not aware if there's any specifities to them that gaming cards may lack.

For what you get for the pricetag, I think the price is closer to $750 range. But as others stated, not good for gaming. It has the features for a good office experience. Maybe even some 3D graphical stuff like Blender with video editing for cheap. Only way this laptop would play anything modern is to use the a external gpu and run it through the Thunderbolt4 port. This would then cost another 1200euro minimum. But still cheaper than a custom desktop. Plus portable!

Up to you how you want your rig.


edit:
On a side note, always look for all the Drivers before you buy. This model only has realtek audio. Which means you need to immediately make a clone of the entire os. Else you are screwed. Companies are trying to force consumers to throw away pc by not providing drivers. Razer does this too. They know the average consumer cannot maintain their system, thus they would replace the entire machine(even if it could be fixed). "Right to repair" litigation is a big reason corporations are making self repair difficult. Why? Greed.

Personally, I just think the combo here is really weird. Might just be me, but for "science" I'd say it's overkill and completely overpriced.

I'm assuming you're thinking of doing some programming, compiling, mathematical simulation/modelling or something in those lines, right? Anyway, both intel i's and AMD Ryzen are capable of some gaming to some degree however you should stick to what the main objective are, and then buy accordingly. Combining work/school with dedicated gaming is going to cost a heck of a lot, especially these days.

Buy yourself a refurbished/used laptop with a good graphic card (if you really want to combine like that) and add more ram. Either that or a capable laptop without a dedicated GPU for a reasonable price.

I bought a refurbished i7 when I went to engineering school and also bought some really fast 32GB sticks. It's almost as fast a current gen i7s (we're only talking about seconds here when doing some CPU intensive task(s)) and I can still play some games on it, and works great in Linux (driver-wise). I leave the more heavier games to my desktop so I don't have to spend too much money on the laptop. In total think it costed me around 400-500 something.

And lastly, Lenovo is known for being a suppliant of bloated crapware (just like MS), so whatever you do, clean up Wndows with PC Decrapifier, bleachbit (FOSS), geekuninstaller and/or similar. Even better, format and install a clean 10/11 yourself (if you have all the drivers at hand of course...).

A bit of non-technical advice...
If this laptop is for "science", you probably mean either school, university or work, right?
Do you intend to do serious stuff with it, like homework, reports, presentations, master's thesis, calculations, programming etc.?

Think a minute about the data you produce and how important it is to you. What would happen if there was some serious hardware/ software problem? If you absolutely couldn't use your device or access your data for a week or so.
Would that be an issue? Just annoying or absolutely terrifying? Would you miss deadlines? Fail important tasks? Or even risk you job?

Let me tell you this: If this laptop is absolutely critical to your work then don't use it for gaming purposes in parallel. It wouldn't be wise to risk it all by constantly installing new games and other private stuff. Besides clogging up you system, it could cause unwanted side-effects or simply break it for you. A harmless example: You want to present you research results, but since your last graphics driver update, you can't access you HDMI port anymore. Whoops! Then tell the assembled crowd that it happened because you desperately wanted to play this new game XYZ.

To everyone: I don't want to spawn a discussion about risks, backup strategies or best practices. Yes, I know, there are solutions to every problem. I'm sure the OP will find a solution for themself. This is just food for thought. Cheers!

How many cores does it have? (Performance cores are likely same number as cores).

And aside form gaming, what do you intend to do with this laptop?

My impression is you'll probably be okay with any game from 2015 and earlier. After 2015, depends.

I know of someone who bought a $3,000 gaming laptop, and was playing Pathfinder on it last year. I didn't see the point in spending nearly so much. And any DIY home built computer will cost half as much, and laptops while mobile will be less than their desktop equivalents.

Looks solid, other than 4gb VRAM GPU.

If you're playing modern stuff like Cyberpunk, Starfield, Gotham Knights, Silent Hill 2 Remake, TLOU P1 and any modern stuff or upcoming stuff on PS5/XSX only - you're gonna want more VRAM.

4gb VRAM was a fine idea in 2016, when that was not common. In 2023, heck no - too many games are eating 6-8+gb VRAM on games even at 1080p.

See this - https://www.techspot.com/article/2670-vram-use-games/

At 1080p, I can't max-out RE Village, RE2 Remake, WD: Legion, RE7 Gold, and others b/c they want 10+gb VRAM. It ain't happening with my RTX 3070 8gb VRAM desktop PC - and it surely won't happen with my 6gb RTX 3060 laptop even more so.

At CP 2077 version 2.0 at 1080p is eating like 6gb VRAM on my 3060 laptop and around 7-8 on my 3070 desktop.

Also, UPlay screams at me on Far Cry 6, when I'm in the 5-6gb VRAM usage on my 3060 laptop.

EDIT:
You have to keep in mind this too - PS5 consoles/XSX consoles/Steam Deckd have 16gb of shared-RAM b/t GPU and system-RAM stuff...which are shared and they can use for whatever they want, either graphics or system-RAM. On PC, you need dedicated VRAM GPU and RAM, which are separate - so yeah, we can get really slapped if a console-version's eating all of that shared RAM for GPU stuff...and a good deal could be used just for GPU part.

Plus, PC games don't seem to be really be optimized anymore often sadly anyways; It's only gonna get worse, sadly. [shrug]

Looks like good candidate for GOX1.1
A mobile GOG Console!

There is also GOX2.x a series of tablets.

GOX3.x whole PC cockpits with big towers and desks and chairs.

GOG4.x a virtual console on USB stick at micro SD card with offline installers and/or preinstalled games.

GOG5.x is purely virtual, Galaxy Console : )

We definitely need console! Stickers and everything like in https://www.gog.com/en/game/pc_building_simulator_galaxy_edition_case

And a serious series of curated hardware with stickers! And a good sleep. ^

Hehe, shared ram. I remember having machines like this, set to 2-4Mb video and have 28Mb for Windows 95/98. Never saw the need for more at the time. Course gotta look at the limitations too.