DDR4-3200 RAM limits Tiger Lake graphics performance - a review of the Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga ITL

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga ITL is a business convertible with a 14 inch screen that Lenovo has directed mainly at small and medium-sized enterprises. The chassis is made of aluminum. Our limited edition test unit is dark blue, but the device is silver as a standard.

The combination of a Core-i7-1165G7 processor, 16 GB of RAM (dual channel mode, 8 GB onboard + 8 GB module, max 40 GB) and a 512-GB NVMe SSD make the device a great choice for all the possible usage scenarios of a business convertible. 

The integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96 EU GPU remains below its potential. The results of the Fire Strike and Time Spy benchmarks are around 20 to 25 percent lower than the average results we have measured so far with this GPU. Our gaming tests confirm similar differences in terms of refresh rates.

Both Intel's Tiger Lake iGPUs as well as AMD's Vega iGPUs benefit from fast RAM. The faster, the better. Therefore, these notebooks are often equipped with faster LPDDR4X-4267 RAM. The Yoga is "only" equipped with slower DDR4-3200 RAM, with users paying the price in terms of lower graphics performance. It is not possible to retrofit LPDDR4X memory.

Further information and benchmark results are available in our review of the Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga ITL.