Lenovo ThinkStation P720 and P920 desktops get 2nd gen Xeon Scalable CPUs and Quadro RTX 8000 GPUs

Reliability Reimagined with the Lenovo ThinkStation P920 and P720

By Rob Herman

Workstations are designed to conquer. Packed with high-end performance and ready to tackle the most

complex problems you can throw at them. They have to be designed for peak performance, but also

constant use. Basically, they must work, every time, all of the time, period. To do that, Lenovo

consistently provides design innovation in our workstation portfolio— from our robust thermal cooling

to tool-less chassis design and accessibility.

However, as the needs of our customers continue to evolve, our products must also advance to support

our customers’ most complex projects. That’s why we are announcing an update to our ThinkStation

P920 and P720 systems – introducing components that enhance your performance. This ensures our

powerful, reliable desktop workstations are equipped with the most up-to-date hardware and high-end

components to meet the challenging requirements of your unique workflows.

What’s New?

Powered by the new 2

nd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors, the ThinkStation P920 and P720 offer

unmatched levels of processing power. Designed for heavily-threaded, I/O-intensive workloads across a

number of industries, Intel’s new Xeon CPUs are optimized for purpose-built platforms for the most

demanding workstation professionals – with up to 28 cores and increased frequency of up to 4.4. GHz.

We’re also adding support for the NVIDIA® Quadro RTXTM 8000 GPUs. Powered by the NVIDIA TuringTM

architecture and the NVIDIA RTX platform to deliver the world’s most powerful graphics card solution

for professional workflows. With NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 powering our latest workstations, industry

professionals can now wield the power of hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI to boost productivity

and develop content at unparalleled speeds —not only saving time, but also saving money. Also, using

NVLink, two RTX 8000s can be connected to provide up to 96GB of total graphics memory; scaling for

the largest rendering, visualization, compute, and AI workloads.

Draft – Embargo Until Tuesday, May 7th at 9:00 AM EST

The Challenge

However, delivering the next generation of ThinkStation is not as simple as swapping in a new graphics

card or popping in a new processor. Incorporating these components comes with new challenges;

especially with regard to power and thermal requirements. For example, without the right design

expertise, the heat could reach precarious levels that could compromise the reliability and performance

and potentially shorten the life of the workstation. Afterall, what’s the point of having all this power and

high-performing technology if you can’t take advantage of it, dependably?

Our Approach

First and foremost, it starts with dedication to the details; considering every component, every

interaction, every experience and how our professional audience will demand our hardware to perform.

Our architecture and engineering teams understand the relationship between the components and the

machine; ensuring every ounce of performance and reliability is optimized for the customer.

It starts with a deep-dive of the power and thermal specifications of the new components and

technologies — and how best to integrate them into our systems. Next, we conduct theoretical power

calculations and thermal simulations to determine the impact of the higher-power consumption and the

rate of heat dissipation. Once complete, and prototype hardware begins to arrive, we validate in our

labs and verify our initial calculations and simulations.

At this point, the real testing can begin. Everything from application stress-testing to validate power

consumption and component performance, to cycle testing to simulate years of system powering up or

powering down, to thermal chamber testing to subject the systems to temperature extremes, and more.

Lenovo engineers and partners run our systems through hundreds of hours of validation testing to

ensure these components can meet the standard our customers have come to expect.

The Results

According to TBR’s latest PC Reliability Study, 88 percent of Lenovo customers report satisfaction with

our current products, and 91 percent say they are likely to buy again based on quality and reliability – an

industry-leading response. To put it simply, we know our customers cannot afford to invest in a system

that will fail. In fact, they have more important things to do, more challenging problems to solve, more

barriers to break down, more cool solutions to create.

We don’t take shortcuts; we do things the right way. By the time the systems are handed off to our

manufacturing teams to begin production, our engineers have validated and ensured we meet reliability

standards we have set for our portfolio of products, resulting in the most reliable workstations available.

Today’s launch of the ThinkStation P920 and P720 is no exception. With these powerful new systems,

we continue to meet and ultimately exceed the expectations our customers have for reliable

workstations. The ThinkStation P920 and P720 will be available in May. To learn more, visit

www.lenovo.com/thinkstations.