IdeaPad Y700-15ACZ Review

The 15.6 inch IdeaPad Y700 series are Lenovos new gaming machines, euqipped with the latest Intel/AMD/Nvidia hardware. As currently you can only preorder them, there is a pre-sales event for the AMD hardware based Y700-15ACZ in China since mid september. I got my hands on one of them and here is my review !

Update (11.02.2016): It is now confirmed that there is just one US model that does support FreeSync (with R9 M380 dGPU) and is only available on Best Buy. If you are still interested in this machine, you should check my post on page 4 on how to resolve throttling issues. Some users also report that it might help to remove the dust filter covering the vents on the bottom panel.

Update (11.09.2015): I did some more testing and updated the following sections:

1. Gaming Performance
2. Temperature
3. Battery Life
4. Final conclusion

Specifications

• Processor: AMD FX-8800P, 2.1 GHz (Turbo: 3,4Ghz)
• Graphics Adapter: AMD Radeon R9 M385X - 4096 MB GDDR5, Core: 900-1000(Boost) MHz, Memory: 1200 MHz + integrated Radeon R7 (Carrizo) - 1 GB shared memory, Core: 800 MHz Catalyst 15.10 (custom Lenovo driver, 09/2015)
• Memory: 8192 MB, DDR3L-12800, 2x4 GB (Samsung)
• Display: 15.6 inch 16:9, 1920x1080 pixel, LG Philips LP156WF6-SPK1
• Storage: Western Digital WD10SPCX-24HWST1, 1000 GB
• Sound: Realtek High Definition Audio Controller (Speaker, unknown chipset)
• Connections: 1x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, 1 HDMI, 1 Kensington Lock, Combo audio jack, 4 in 1 Card reader (SD/SDXC/SDHC/MMC)
• Networking: Realtek RTL8168/8111 Gigabit-LAN (10/100/1000MBit), Broadcom 802.11ac 2x2 Wireless Adapter (BCM 43xx ??), Bluetooth 4.0
• Size / Weight: 387x277x25.95mm / 2.6kg
• Battery: 60 Wh Lithium-Ion, 4 cells
• Operating System: Windows 8.1, 64 Bit
• Additional features: 2x 2W stereo speakers (with subwoofer), Keyboard backlight (red), 135W Power supply (20V, 6.75A)

There is only one model available for 6500 RMB (~1000$) that comes with a regular 1TB HDD and 8 GB RAM. I upgraded the HDD / RAM with the following components:

• Plextor PX-512M6GV-2280 M.2 SSD (SATA)
• 16 GB (2x8) Kingston HyperX Impact memory (DDR3L, 1600 MHz, CL9)

Case

The chassis is quite bulky, even for a 15.6 inch notebook. Still, it is not that heavy as you expect it would be. The bottom panel and outer lid are made of brushed metal, the palm rest is rubberized and the display is covered by "edge to edge" glass. The only cheap parts are glossy plastic between the keyboard / display and the fan exhaust. As you probably never touch those areas the overall look and feel is very nice. While the rubberized surfaces are resistent to finger prints the brushed metal ones are not, on the other hand they are a dust magnet like the plastic parts.



Maintenance

If you checked the hardware maintenance manual provided by Lenovo and think opening this machine should be a piece of cake, well ... its not. After removing the 11 screws on the bottom you will realize that its not even moving slightly. There are several plastic clips, known from many ultrabooks that are holding the bottom panel so tight, you will not find any gap to put a plastic card or a thin screw driver between the panel and the outer casing. I did not manage to open it without some scratches in the rubber coat. If you want to upgrade you should be prepared for that.


Connectivity

Ports are unchanged form its predecessor the Y50, but the sides are switched. The NOVO button, audio jack, card reader and USB 2.0 are now on the left side together with the AC adapter. On the right side we have 2x USB 3.0, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet and the Kensington Lock.

Communication

WLAN is provided by a Broadcom Wireless 802.11ac adapter with integrated Bluetooth 4.0. I could not figure out the exact model number, but it seems to belong to the BCM43xx series. It does support the 2.4 and 5 GHz band and has two antennas (2x2). I did not experience any connection drops or other issues beside low transfer rates at the beginning. The driver is set to only support 20Hz channel bandwidth for a/b/g networks by default, after changing this to 20/40 MHz i got normal speeds with my old TP-Link router. I didnt test the Ethernet Port yet, but i guess it will do its job.


Keyboard

Nothing new here, its still the same AccuType keyboard used by the Y50 notebook. Only the W/A/S/D keys are now highlighted, i guess to give it some "gaming touch" (i dont like it). The reviewer of the Y50 on notebookcheck was not satisfied with this keyboard, i dont agree totally. The keys have strong feedback and are not as "spongy and innacurate" as noted, but typing still feels a little bit strange and you have to get used to it. The backlight has to levels and can be switched by pressing FN+Space.

Touchpad

The Touchpad is large and the surface smooth but to trigger the mouse clicks you need a lot pressure on the corners. Otherwise i didnt had problems with that.


Display

This was my biggest concern and the reason why i actually wanted to wait for some reviews before buying this notebooks, as the FHD TN panel of the Y50 series was a joke. Now we got some serious upgrade, the 1080p matte IPS display is manufactured by LG Philips (LP156WF6-SPK1) and offers excellent brightness / contrast ratio. Black is pitch black and there is no screen bleeding. It seems to be the same display used by the new Dell Latitude 3550-0123, you can check the german review here. The screenshot shows a direct comparison between the Y700 and my 13.3 inch Samsung Ativ Book 7 with its touch IPS screen.



Update: As AMD recently announced the display is connected via eDP and supports FreeSync in the range of 40 - 60 Hz, but the option to enable is still missing in recent drivers.

Processor



The Y700-15ACZ is equipped with the top model of AMDs latest Carrizo-APUs, the FX-8800P (2.1 GHz base clock). The TDP can be configured from 12W to 35W TDP, in this case it seems to use the full cTDP range. Tests of slightly slower A10-8700P showed that the CPU will use its turbo quite well when configured at 15W, so we should not see much improvements beside that the CPU will not throttle down when the integrated GPU is used. The CPU did used its max. turbo (3.4 GHz) in all benchmarks, even when all cores are utilized. Here are the Cinebench R15 results (i took the other values for comparison from the notebookcheck database):

Cinebench R15 (CPU Single 64Bit)

82 points - Core i3-5005U
84 points - FX-8800P
108 points - Core i5-5200U
121 points - Core i7-5500U
121 points - Core i7-4712HQ

Single thread performance is on the level of the Intel i3-5005U, now surprise here.

Cinebench R15 (CPU Multi 64Bit)

208 points - Core i3-5005U
259 points - Core i5-5200U
271 points - Core i5-5300U
282 points - FX-8800P
289 points - Core i7-5500U
517 points - Core i7-4712HQ

Thanks to holding its maximum turbo the FX-CPU can shine in multi core benchmarks and is beating the popular Intel i5-5200U and even comes close to the i7-5500U. Still, it is far behind of a "real" Intel quad core CPU such as the i7-4712Q that has similar TDP (37W).




Cinebench R11.5 (CPU Single 64Bit)

0.96 pts - Core i3-5005U
0.97 pts - Core i3-5010U
0.98 pts - FX-8800P
1.24 pts - Core i5-5200U
1.41 pts - Core i7-5500U
1.43 pts - Core i7-4712HQ

Cinebench R11.5 (CPU Multi 64Bit)

2.27 pts - Core i3-5005U
2.82 pts - Core i5-5200U
3.16 pts - Core i7-5600U
3.35 pts - Core i7-4600M
3.39 pts - FX-8800P
5.76 pts - Core i7-4712HQ

While the single thread results are just slightly better in Cinebench R11.5, multi core performance surpasses the i7-5600U and even the 35W Haswell i7-4600M CPU.



Storage devices

The model uses a Western Digital WD10SPCX-24HWST1 HDD with 1TB capacity. There is nothing to report about that, it is slow as any other conventional hard disk. The Y700 has one free M.2 (2280 SATA) slot where i installed an Plextor PX-512M6GV SSD. Here are some AS SSD benchmark results if you are interested.




GPU Performance

Beside the integrated R7 GPU, there is a dedicated R9 M385X that seems to use the same chip as the R9 M280X. The GPU features 14 compute units (896 stream processors) with a base clock of 1000 MHz and should have a boost range up to 1100 MHz, but in all tests the clock maxed out at 1000 MHz. Memory clock stays at low 1200 MHz, according to AMDs specsheet the max. memory clock can be up to 1500 MHz. I did test both integrated and dedicated GPU in 3DMark 2013.



Radeon R9 M385X

Ice Storm Standard Graphics 87123
Ice Storm Standard Physics 34183
Ice Storm Standard Score 64815

Cloud Gate Standard Graphics 22418
Cloud Gate Standard Physics 2934
Cloud Gate Standard Score 9074

Sky Diver Standard Graphics 11835
Sky Diver Standard Physics 4337
Sky Diver Standard Combined 9426
Sky Diver Standard Score 9210

Fire Strike Standard Graphics 3340
Fire Strike Standard Physics 4192
Fire Strike Standard Combined 1181
Fire Strike Standard Score 2898

Integrated Radeon R7 (Carrizo)

Ice Storm Standard Graphics 55596
Ice Storm Standard Physics 33782
Ice Storm Standard Score 48619

Cloud Gate Standard Graphics 7431
Cloud Gate Standard Physics 2943
Cloud Gate Standard Score 5550

Sky Diver Standard Graphics 5638
Sky Diver Standard Physics 4187
Sky Diver Standard Combined 3063
Sky Diver Standard Score 4962

Fire Strike Standard Graphics 1121
Fire Strike Standard Physics 4207
Fire Strike Standard Combined 536
Fire Strike Standard Score 1121

Results of the M385X are somewhere between the GTX 950M and GTX 960M, apparently more close to the 950M. With higher clock rates it should be possible to get closer to the level of the 960M. The unused turbo / low memory clock might be an limitation by the custom Lenovo Catalyst driver or the system BIOS.

Gaming Performance

I dont have any modern games that i could test and compare with, i will try to get my hands on games such as The Witcher 3 and do some updates at this point.

Update: As promised i did some benchmarks with The Witcher 3 to see how it will perform in demanding games and its rather dissapointing. I used the Medium Graphics / Postprocessing settings on 1366x768 as they do on notebookcheck for better comparison.

Theoretically the performance is very good with framerates between 41 and 47 fps (~43 avg) but after 20 minutes i experienced heavy frame drops (last screenshot). Those are caused by the CPU that throttles down to 1,4 GHz for a few seconds and thus makes the game unplayable. No tools i checked would show the CPU temps so it is hard to say what the cause is. The GPU reaches 85 degree max. and this seems to be the point where the system starts to throttle and even GPU clock speeds are lower than they should (700 - 900 MHz).



Same behaviour while running Unique Heaven benchmark for half an hour. CPU starts with 3.4 GHz on all threads and throttles down after 15 minutes and stays constantly at 1.4 GHz. The GPU runs with 900-1000 MHz and sometimes drops to ~700.

Sadly it is not possible to deactivate the CPU turbo or limit its max. clock speed, the only option thats available in CCC is reducing the base clock so the CPU will run constantly at 1.8 or 1.4 GHz. I gave it another try with 1.8 GHz to confirm that the problem is related to CPU temperatures. Here is another strange thing... while the CPU can hold its low speed, now the GPU starts to throttle down to 300 MHz for a few seconds (GPU temps ~80).

I guess the whole cooling system is not really designed for this CPU/GPU combo, there is some power target that kicks and limit the CPU/GPU, a combination of both or my unit has some serious hardware issues.

Speakers

The first time i played some of my favourite music with this speakers i got that "wow" effect. I am used to the very good JBL speakers of my Ativ Book 7 but those are on another level. The additional subwoofer makes a huge difference, you can clearly hear the bass and there are no distortions or any other side effects. While the speakers itself are amazing, the Dolby Audio software to enhance sound is not. There are a few modes that you can choose (Dynamic, Movie, Music, Game, Voice, Custom), the first one should automatically optimize sound while playing but it doesnt work most of the time (no change). There is a custom mode where you can opt out some settings and setup your own Equalizer but without any presets. The other modes are almost the same beside the Voice mode.

System Noise

The two fans remained quiet while the system idles. Running CPU benchmarks the fans only spin up slightly, you wont notice them unless there is no other surrounding noise. Even when both GPU and CPU are used, fan noise just reached the level of my Ativ Book 7 which is still not loud compared to some gaming notebooks.

Temperature

There is no software that could read out the current CPU temperature, but i guess it stays low as there is no throttling or high fan noise. The dedicated GPU reached max. 73 degree clecius in all tests. The casing remained very cool, the palm rest and keyboard got just "hand warm" and the only hot spot can be found close to the fan exhaust.

Update: On continuous heavy load on both CPU/GPU the GPU reaches up to 85 degree which seems to be a critical point in terms of throttling. The area below the numpad is heating up and feels uncomfortable to touch while the rest of the palm rest stays cool.

Battery Life

After 2 hours of movie playback in Media Player Classic (720p, h264) the capacity was reduced to 58%. I setup my own energy profile and reduced the display brightness to 50% (wifi on). You can expect 4-5 hours runtime, probably more on lighter tasks such as web browsing or working with documents.

Update: Another annoying issue that this machine has in common with many other notebooks: Whenever the dedicated GPU is used the battery starts to discharge while plugged in (1% every ~5 min).

Conclusion

Lenovo did a nice job with this AMD platform. If you want the maximum performance out of non Intel/Nvidia hardware for a reasonable price, then there is no way around this machine (until now). The chassis is stable (but bulky) and has a premium look/feel, the display is great and the speakers are amazing. It is quiet for a gaming notebook but the GPU performance could be better. I you are interested in the Y700-15ACZ i recommend to go for a model with 16GB of RAM and additional SSD. That will save you the trouble opening this notebook.

Update: After facing the issues i mentioned above, i have to revert my recommendation for this notebook. While the first impression was better than expected, it does not perform well in games and battery discharging is another thing that leaves a bad taste. We have to wait for more reviews to see, if those issues are related to my unit or a "desing fail".

Pro

+ Solid case
+ Brushed metal / rubberized surfaces
+ Good (benchmark) performance
+ Excellent IPS display
+ JBL speakers with subwoofer
+ Respectable battery life

(+ FreeSync for Best Buy model only)

Contra

- CPU/GPU throttling after the system heats up
- Limited GPU turbo / memory clock
- Only HDMI as video output
- Slow HDD (without upgrade)
- Not easy to maintain
- Battery discharge on heavy load

 

Nice review.

...the graphics score on the integrated card sure is decent. Good to have that confirmed. Just imagine this in a 12w config - you could likely run pretty much everything in medium to high settings on battery and possibly passive cooling. I've sort of tried to moderate my expectations, but that seems... very solid. I mean, it would be all kinds of neat if you could run a hwinfo tab on the power-draw during the benchmarks, so we could see what the nominal load should look like, and possibly if there's a trick involved with the load-balancing. And it would maybe make it possible to guess at what the gpu-part of the cpu will draw on full load. ..But even if the cpu/gpu-package has to go up to 35w constantly to get to a decent total score, the graphics score alone is ridiculous on 35w. My guess is that you could clock this down and still have absurd Photoshop performance, for example.

Too bad there's no dual graphics option, though. Sort of thought that was standard with the drivers now, on the later platforms. Also should have that to get anywhere with peak gaming performance, for example with physics effects in Tomb Raider, that sort of thing. Resubmits are very expensive, and using internal ram and having the apu nearby is the kind of thing that normally doesn't make peak fps on traditional benchmarks or games go to ridiculous levels, but it will raise lower fps. Likely you could see that effect in Witcher 3 (and likely Far Cry 3), if you gradually pile on more effects that rely on occlusion filtering to be drawn quickly, and compare that to a intel/nvidia platform with approximately the same performance.

Btw, think you can run some OpenCL benchmark on the internal graphics? Or possibly in dual graphics mode. Luxmark, or something like that?

 

LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Room Scene, both GPUs - 802 points
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Sala Scene, both GPUs - 1425 points

LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Room Scene, only integrated GPU - 237 points
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Sala Scene, only integrated GPU - 454 points

 

Nice review, and I hope you post more benches, especially CPU ones.
The problem with Cinebench R15 is it's the worst benchmark you can run on an AMD CPU as it gimps the performance of Kaveri and Carrizo and gives huge gains to Haswell and Broadwell when compared to Cinebench R11.5. So you should put some R11.5 scores for comparison. Thevenin on Semiaccurate forums got a score of 3.4 in Cinebench R11.5 multi from is Carrio sample which is quite impressive, beating i7 5650U, i7 4600M(37W), A10 5800K (100W) and almost matches A10 7700K (95W).
Other nice CPU benches would be X264 HD Benchmark 4.0, chess benchmarks like Stockfish (Houdini would be better but isn't free) Geekbench 3 to compare the scores against those already posted.

As for the gaming performance can you test some free and popular games like World of Warships and Armored Warfare? I know they are multiplayer and can't really be benchmarked but the FPS is quite stable unless there is smoke or high number of projectiles involved. Just the average stable FPS and lows (when there is smoke and stuff like that) should be fine. Older games such as Metro 2033 and Crysis 3 would also be perfect.
Also can you install newer Catalyst drivers straight from AMD? The Lenovo ones seem to be way too old and at least WHQL drivers should run perfectly on laptops.

 

I can confirm this result !

Actually the Lenovo driver version is 15.10 (09/2015) and not 15.1, my mistake. I will do some benchmarks with Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Witcher 3 this weekend if i have time.

 

Thanks a lot, and the single threaded score is nice too. As for the Lenovo driver I'm not sure what that is. Latest Catalyst WHQL driver is 15.7.1 and 15.10 is the latest Beta driver, but it's released on 10/12/2015.

Edit: Also this is straight from AMD's website:

The AMD Catalyst™ Software Suite, AMD Catalyst™ 15.7.1 contains the following:

• AMD Catalyst™ Display Driver version 15.20.1062.1004

. Note that even though the display driver has 15.20 in it, the real driver is still 15.7.1.

 

I already installed the latest beta driver from the AMD homepage. With the Lenovo driver CCC did not run on startup (even when enabled in Task Manager) and 3DMark crashed sometimes.

 

Hey man great review! I am hoping this model comes to the US/Canada soon.

Did you find the laptop to feel more like 5.3 lbs? I noticed that Lenovo tends to mess up their specs...they say their touch model and their non touch model are both 5.7 pounds but I thought that the touch hardware almost always adds .2-.4 pounds on the laptop (Is this correct)?

 

It does not feel heavier than advertised, still you don't want to carry it around much. The weight difference between touch/non touch models is usually caused by different materials used for the display. F.e. the Y50 non touch version had plastic surfaces around the display and not the glass cover which his now used for all models (thats why weight is the same).

 

Y700 no Mini DisplayPort, no S/PDIF digital audio, no hdmi 2.0.Think twice when buying this laptop. I am owner Y50 and it do not have m.2 SSD and displayPort. So upset.

 

Nice writeup. I am surprised to see that this is so much lower than the 960m though. I like that AMD does the crossfire with the integrated GPU and the Dedicated one, but if they can't get the numbers of a mid tier gpu like the 960m then why bother.

For the money the new dell inspiron 7000 series with the 960m is a better buy in my opinion and also around the same price.

 

This might apply to the more expensive Intel version of the Y700, but at this price range the selection of ports is sufficient (there could be a mini dp connector though).

There is no CrossFire support, the benchmarks i posted are either from the integrated R7 graphics OR the dedicated M385X.

 

I thought the x implied it was a crossfire with integrated and dedicated working together... Its been a while since I used something like that though.

*Actually I just checked and it has an M375 so the M385x is a combination of both working in a crossfire like setup.

 

The R9 M385X is the successor of the R9 M280, you can check the specs on AMDs homepage:

http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/notebook/r9-m200

I think what you found is the 14 inch version Y700-14 that comes with Intel CPU only and the M375 (without X / 4 GB GDDR3).

 

Finally i got some time this weekend for gaming and updated my review, sadly i dont have anything good to report.

 

I don't think we're ever going to see the Y700-15ACZ in the USA or any 35W Carrizo in a nice package like this. Seemed too good to be true

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

People have actually used the top of the line Carrizo before and there wasn't really any throttling issue for 35W configs, so I'm not sure if what you are seeing is an isolated issue. Also after updating drivers CCC loves to turn dual graphics on for some reason even if you manually disabled it before so check to see if that's the problem.

Another issue I have noticed is after I upgraded my A10-4600M to 5750M it throttles in games sometimes (even after restarting the laptop) so I found a fix for it by closing the lid of the laptop and letting it go to sleep and after a minute or two I wake it up and the issue is magically gone.

 

CCC doesnt show any option to activate/deactivate dual graphics and the iGPU util. remains at 0% in hwinfo (see attached log file). The CPU alone will not throttle down while running benchmarks, but as soon as the dedicated GPU is used it will.

 

Sounds like an issue with either the power supply or lenovo's power management software.

 

That's what i thought too but now i am sure... it is insufficient cooling. If the temps that GPU-Z shows for the integrated GPU are correct (and equal to the CPU temps), than the CPU starts throttling itself at 85 ° or if the M385X hits that point. The CPU alone idles below 40 ° and stays at 60 ° after half hour of prime.

 

I was going to ask, how powerful is the power supply? Particularly the battery-draining-while-under-heavy-CPU-and-GPU-load sounds like a too-weak-power-supply problem to me. That really shouldn't happen if it has an adequate power supply, including on a notebook with a dGPU.

All in all it sounds like it would have been quite good if the cooling and/or power supply were better. Can't really fault them for setting 85 Celsius as the thermal limit, as that is pretty hot for a laptop, but if they're selling it with that GPU, it should be able to cool it enough to keep everything running at no less than stock clocks indefinitely.

 

The same 135W power supply used by the Y50 (20V, 6.75A). The system should act more "smart" if one component hits the thermal limit, like reducing the CPU a few hundred MHz when reaching 85 ° C and back to its base clock when reaching 90°. They just implemented the handbrake method slowing down the CPU as much as possible, otherwise i would have never noticed this kind of behaviour.

I removed the stock thermal compound of the heatsink and applied some good old ArticSilver, temps are slightly better now but CPU with turbo + GPU still results in throttling. I will contact Lenovo and see if they are aware of this.

 

If the fan intakes air from the bottom, does elevating the back of the notebook to improve airflow make a difference?

To state the obvious: for buyers that require long sessions without throttling (e.g., not 10min short rendering sessions but 25min long intense game sessions), if it turns out the cooling system cannot keep sustained sessions with the FX-8800P and R9 M385X going without eventually throttling, apparently the choices are either to (a) back down to lower power, lower detail settings in apps and games, or (b) hope some external cooling or airflow assistance works for this laptop, or (c) choose lower power, lower performance components, such as the Y700 with A10-8700 and R9 M380 ( Newegg).

 

I didn't try that so far, possibly it would decrease temps slightly but not enough to prevent throttling.

The options to lower power are limited, no software i checked was able to reduce core clock and/or voltages of the CPU/GPU. Reducing video settings to a point where the min. FPS (while throttling) are still playable is not really what you want. In this case you could buy another machine with slower components that manages to cool them properly.

After a long and pointless discussion with the Lenovo support they gave me an appointment for one of their service center. Its still there for a complete checkup, i am waiting for a call now.

 

So I've been looking at all of the carrizo laptops that have been coming out and seeing if there was anything that was tempting to purchase. Last monday this laptop was on sale for $799.00 at best buy so I picked it up. I had a lenovo y410p previously and new all too well about some of the downfalls to the Y-series. I was impressed by how much the build quality and especially screen quality had improved. I'm actually pretty happy with it so far, but I also noticed some stuttering while trying to play Battlefield 4 and Star Wars: Battlefront. After digging around and playing with some settings, I can play with most settings on ultra (minus some obvious ones like AA and post processing) at a comfortable 45-50fps.

The Problem that found is this is peppy processor but it can be pushed too far if you let it. I was noticing stuttering even before the laptop got warmed up, so I ruled out thermal issues and started looking into power issues (i.e. amps), and when this little processor turns on turbo core and boosts up to 3.7 ghz, it draws more power and heats up pretty good. If you go into your advanced power settings and look at the processor power management, turn down the maximum from 100% to 99% and it won't use turbo core, heat up your machine, and cause a whole lot of issues.

I did run cinebench after doing this and the numbers weren't as nice as yours, but it runs a lot cooler and is consistent.

As for the battery discharging while playing games, I didn't have any evidence of that behavior, even while I had turbo core enabled.

I actually think this is a pretty decent laptop for the price. It's not the monster gaming machine that a lot of people think they need, but it isn't a slouch either. I hope you hear good new from the shop and they can get things squared away.

 

y700 15 touch Intel edition also throttles, but way more on the GPU. At least with the intel one we can control CPU with using XTU. But the GPU throttles back from a low power limit

 

This has the same effect than limiting the CPU power in CCC to 85%, it will run with constant 1.8 GHz (300 below base clock) instead of the max 3.4 GHz turbo. Even this setting is not stable, as the GPU will still overheat if you didn't change the thermal compound on the heatsink. You won't notice it because 1.4 GHz vs. 1.8 GHz is not much different in terms of speed. If you compare this to frame rates with the max. turbo you will loose 50%+ fps... that is not acceptable (at least for me).

To see if you battery discharges.. first charge it to 100% than activate the "Battery Conservation Mode" in Lenovo Utility that will prevent recharging until 55%. Now play your game of choice and track the charging level.

Yeah i thought that the Intel version will have similar issues. TDP specs are more or less the same:

AMD: 35W CPU / ~85W GPU
Intel: 42W CPU / ~75W GPU

Probably the CPU on the Intel version is reducing turbo speed or even falls back to base clock before overheating so mostly the GPU will throttle. The AMD version will run with its full speed until overheating. The whole cooling system is not well designed.

 

Thanks for the review. I didn't know you can get this laptop ahead of time in China

About the gaming performance - please try DX12 games like Ashes of Singularity !

 

you might want to check on that freesync support
http://hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/88694-amd-announces-freesync-hdmi/

 

Still running Win8.1, maybe Narao can test some DX12 games/benchmarks.

I just checked the latest Lenovo driver for Win8.1 and the Crimson Edition. The old CCC does not show the option to enable FreeSync and the Crimson driver says "Not supported". I guess we will have to wait for a new driver to enable FreeSync.

 

Hey Assembler, I was wondering if the Carrizo iGPU can handle a crowded CS:GO server. I'd appreciate it if you could do some testing for me.

Settings should be 1080p everything maxed but no AA and Vsync.

I would like you to spectate/play on filled and high activity servers like:
[GFLClan] Zombie Escape: 64.74.97.72:27017
[HG] Dust2 Deathmatch: 67.228.181.70:27015

Thanks a lot.

Tip: To connect directly with the address I provided, you need to enable Developer Console in game settings. Bring up the console with the ` (left of 1 in number row) key, and type (without quotes):
"connect 64.74.97.72:27017"

 

Hi Assembler,

Thanks for writing this review. I just ordered the same model i believe, this one.

Do you have any advice for me regarding it? I's like to get the best possible performance out of it without throttling, wherever possible.

Thanks

 

Sorry for the late reply @Shahnewaz, i am one of the few people that do not use steam (and probably never will). Or is there a non steam version out there ?

@Itmatt please read my next post

 

In december last year i went to a Lenovo Service station to do a checkup on my machine and demonstrated the service staff my throttling / discharging issue. After a short talk they acknowledged that there might be a problem and agreed to do some testing (i had to wait several days for results). In the end the more or less official statement was .. "There is nothing wrong with your PC". They contacted Lenovo headquarters in Beijing and talked to the engineers there (thats what they told me), that was their response. The only thing they did ... installing a "new" BIOS version (CECN44WW). This version reduces GPU clock speeds so they would stay at 700-800 MHz. It didnt even resolve the throttling issue, the system would just heat up slower (thanks for that Lenovo!). Gladly i could flash back to the recent official version CECN26WW (you have to enable the flash back option in BIOS).

At this point it was clear that we have to solve those issues on our own.. here is what you can (or cant) do:

1. Battery discharge

The power supply is the same used by many other Lenovo notebooks, such as the old Y50. There is a 170W version out there with model name ADL170NDC3A and i bought it. Sadly it didnt make a difference, seems the max. input (6.75A) is limited by the system BIOS or there is another mechanism that prevents higher energy consumption (probably to prevent overheating of the stock power supply). Nothing we can do about that unless Lenovo does remove this limitation somehow....

2. Throttling

First thing you can do (and i highly recommend that) is undervolting or downclock your CPU / GPU. I didnt found any tool that worked with the GPU but i did for the CPU. Its called AmdMsrTweaker and will help you to change the Power States of AMDs Cool & Quiet technology. I wrote a small guide in this forum how to use it:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/carizzo-apu-overclocking-undervolting.787097/

I was able to get 3,0 GHz (0.8V / 1.175V real) stable without any throttling in Witcher 3, CPU load was ~90% average. Another thing i am considering is to mod the heatsink (probably add heatpipes). I might give it a try and post some photos to show what is possible. I already checked the free space.. there is plenty to the left and right but height is limited, on top of the heatpipes we only have 3-4 mm (when they reach the cooling block they are already touching the case).

 

Thanks Assembler, great information. I replied to your other thread, i solved my throttling issues by lowering the voltage and keeping the core clock at 3.4Ghz.

How do you change the SSD? I had a quick look inside when i removed the dust filter but it seemed to have something connected to it.

Do you know where i can get some more memory for the laptop? Also does it support faster memory such as 2133Mhz?

 

You mean replacing the HDD with SSD or adding an M.2 SSD ? You can check the Lenovo service manual how to replace the HDD, the M.2 slot is free (but does only support SATA, no PCIe).

RAM speed faster than 1600MHz is not support by the system BIOS, it will down clock any RAM with higher frequencies. Another thing: you will need DDR3 L (low voltage) RAM that runs with 1.35V, other voltages are not supported. I can recommend the Kingston RAM i bought (check my initial post), i didn't had any issues so far.

 

Is the ram you bought any faster than the stock? Is Dual channel auto enabled upon installation of the two sticks.

 

It has lower CAS timings but you will probably not notice any difference in most cases. I mainly bought it to have 16 GB, if you don't need that much RAM then there is no reason for upgrade.

Note: The german review on notebookcheck.com is out !
http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Lenovo-IdeaPad-Y700-15ACZ-Notebook.157922.0.html

I asked them if they can contact Lenovo about those throttling, freesync, discharging issues... i would really like to know whats the official statement.

 

Thanks Assembler, appreciate it.

Would you like to try my script? I've tested it over extended periods of gaming using the integrated and discrete GPU and it appears rock solid stable. All voltages have been lowered, including idle voltages. Temperatures are down, no throttling under any circumstance for me and all at stock clocks. I even lowered the idle voltage. Battery life got a small boost too. I've applied a script so the voltages are auto applied at Windows Boot and when the laptop resumes from sleep.

My script is:

START C:\AmdMsrTweaker\AmdMsrTweaker.exe [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Try it out. As long as your FX 8800P can handle 1.2v @3.4ghz there should be no problems. Mine can handle around 1.1.8750 but i run 1.2v to be safe.

 

Maybe strange question - did anyone try to run linux on this notebook? If yes - are there any problems with drivers and graphics?

Another question is how comfortable to work with CAD soft (SolidWorks, Inventor or something similar)?

 

How do you know Dual Channel mode is running?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10000/who-controls-user-experience-amd-carrizo-thoroughly-tested/6

 

CPU-Z shows the memory as dual channel (but HWiNFO doesnt show anything). We would need someone with 2 RAM modules that is still using the 1TB HDD to do some benchmarks, that we can compare with the ones of the notebookcheck review to be 100% sure. Also keep in mind that anandtech did test a pre-release unit.

 

How about downloading GPU-Z and checking the memory bandwidth of GPU1? I can show you the bandwidth of single channel as I'm using a stock Y700. Dual Channel should have double the bandwidth of mine.

 

EDIT 1: Actually, my version has 2 modules

EDIT 2: Tried MaxxMEM2 software and it seems like single channel with around 9GB/s copy bandwidth, which was the highest. Comparing to results from here, for example
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-8350-vishera-review,3328-7.html

Seems like AMD systems with DDR3 should do around twice with DDR3 1600MHZ (same as I have).

Could the bandwidth be limited by some other factor?

 

I just did some benchmarks with MaxxMEM2 and got similar results, 8-9GB/s. If you compare that to the results on this techpowerup thread it should perform in dual channel mode.

For example there is one result ( link) with AMD A6 APU running with dual channel DDR3 (1600MHz) that scored 8.51GB/s.

 

Any ideas how to connect this laptop 4k@60Hz to a monitor without HDMI 2.0 input (so we need somehow to provide DP input to monitor).

 

hello. I see you have had quite a bit experience with the Lenovo y700 acz amd fx 8800p model. That is the same model I have and am having trouble figuring things out. In reading you review of this model I noticed you said you installed an m.2 ssd and an additional 8gigs of ram. The m.2 ssd is where I'm running into trouble. I want to do the same with mine with installing m.2 ssd, however I have read on websites that even though the amd model is supposed to except an m.2 ssd that when putting it in it does not recognize it and was told it can only accept the sata ssd and not the m.2 ssd and that the amd model only has 2 express lanes and that's why it wont work. I then went to best buy to ask them if this was true and the guy at the geek squad desk got into my bios and deactivated something and said that it would accept the m.2 ssd now. he said the reason people were having trouble with the amd models was because the system wouldn't recognize anything the system thought was forgen to the factory installs. does this sound accurate to you? also. there is a difference between an m.2 ssd and a sata ssd correct? its my understanding that if I install an m.2 that I can keep the hdd that I have now and use the m.2 for the boot drive or anything else I would want. Is this true and is it as fast as a conventional ssd? Thanks for any help/insight you might provide as this is all very new to me and has had me going in circles for near 2 weeks now. thanks again. Doug.

 

In general, M.2 is just a form factor / port. There are different kind of SSDs that differ in length and the interface they use, i.e. NVM (PCIe) or the old SATA. An M.2 connector can provide lanes for both interfaces or just for one.

The connector on the Y700-15ACZ is SATA only, that means no PCIe lanes are connected to it (unlike the Intel version). Therefore you cant install an NVM M.2 SSD, that is the main problem when people report that their SSD is not recognized. Changing some setting in the BIOS wont do anything. Even if the connector would support PCIe, i highly doubt that the BIOS contains any working NVM drivers.

Another reason could be that you have to enable the AHCI mode in BIOS, but it should be as default. I didnt had to setup anything after inserting my Plextor SSD, it was just plug&play. So, if you want to add an SSD you have to buy a M.2 2280 SATA (B-M-Key) model. Check the link below:

http://geizhals.eu/?cat=hdssd&xf=4836_6~4832_6#xf_top

 

Thx for your hard work assembler. i recently purchased the y700 15acz from Best Buy, but I'm on the fence about it even after performing all the tweaks in this thread (ssd replaced the slow drive, still need ram) I currently get about 20-40 fps in d3 with settings on high and other similar disappointing performance on older games (LoL, Eve). Am I wrong to expect more from what seems to be a well equipped machine?

I was gaming on a gtx460m i7 2360(?) a few years old which felt smoother than this machine does. Will our experience improve with drivers or vulkan support? im testing out different driver sets, but progress is slow. The latest 'hotfix' drivers installed but give me an error whenever I try to open Radeon settings. It's frustrating to have an apu that doesn't dual graphics with the dgpu. The laptop is for gaming, the AMD website lists the chip as having dual graphics, wtf... We will never use the igpu in this machine.

I've been thinking about exchanging this machine for a dell 7559 which has an i7 6300hq and 960m for $860 (a steal) I just wanted to support amd for once... How much more powerful is this dell 7559?

Also is it just me or do the glossy hd screens look so much better than these flat ips displays? My colors in d3 look dull. This screen is well reviewed but dam is it dull and flat. Anyhow some theory about fx8800p, some 2133 ram, and possible dx12 or OpenGL epiphany's to console me would be great

 

I am not sure about those games but if you don't undervolt your CPU you will see throttling, even in multiplayer games like LoL. Did you check if it is using the integrated GPU instead of the M385X ? I had troubles to get the dGPU working with the non Lenovo graphics driver, but i have to admit that i didn't try the newer versions yet.

For the RAM: 2133MHz is not supported by the UEFI BIOS, it will automatically downclock every RAM to 1600MHz or even refuse to start with it. Theoretically the APU supports higher speed but i doubt Lenovo will enable that for us. Also note, that you need low voltage DDR3 (1.35V).

Dual graphics is actually nonsense, consider.... the CPU part does share its power budget with the integrated graphics, that means CPU power will be reduced in favour of the iGPU. The dedicated M385X is already limited by the CPU in most games, dual graphics would make it even worse. Another issue is heavy micro stuttering, because the M385X ist fast, but the integrated R7 rather slow. Dual graphics does only make sense if it is combining two GPUs that are on a similar performance level. DX12 and Vulkan will definetly give this machine a boost, but performance might be still lower than on any Intel quad core / 960m notebook.

I guess you have the Samsung display in your unit ? I cant complain about the LG display so far, it does produce more "warm" and neutral colours compared to the glossy IPS in my Ativ Book 7 (with very strong colours). It is like comparing an OLED display on a Samsung smartphone with a regular AH-IPS, it is up to you what kind you prefer.

About the Dell Inspiron 7559.. did you read the review on notebookcheck.net ? I don't know if you have any display options, but the UHD touchscreen has a very low contrast ratio. Performance wise it would be faster of course, on the other hand the Y700 is superior in build quality / materials, sound, battery... AND i had some bad experience with Dell (Alienware) before. Reduced CPU speeds because the original power adapter would not be recocnized by the system anymore, very cheap thermal compound which had to be replaced after one year of use, horrible support (at least here in asia).. i wouldn't buy a Dell again.

If you don't need a gaming capable notebook right now than return it an better wait until this summer, AMD and Nvidia will introduce new mobile GPUs together with notebooks that are equipped with them. I am sure there will be one or two interesting models that you can choose, save your money until then !