The Lenovo ThinkPad P16 with an Nvidia RTX A2000 is not worth it

Anyone in the market for a Lenovo ThinkPad P16 G1 is spoiled for choice. Processor, display, RAM, SSD, and numerous other options, are everywhere to be found. That also applies to the graphics chips on offer. Nvidia alone has the RTX A1000, RTX A2000, RTX A3000, RTX A4500 and RTX A5500. 

Our recently reviewed device, the ThinkPad P16, contains the Nvidia RTX A2000 and you'd be right in thinking it's maybe not the fastest version but not the slowest either. 

However, as our review revealed, there is one problem: Lenovo has randomly given the GPUs varying TDP values. RTX A3000, RTX A4500 and RTX A5500 can consume up to 115 watts. The Nvidia RTX A2000 grants Lenovo only around half of that with only 60 watts. The same applies to the A1000 entry-level model.

In our review, the ThinkPad P16 was the slowest laptop equipped with an RTX A2000. While the ThinkPad's graphics performance remained uninspiring, it scored very highly in the CPU area. Even worse: Under load, the RTX A2000 was unable to keep to a stained 60 watts. Instead, the consumption sank to 45 watts. The culprit appears to be a driver problem as the Lenovo laptop ran neither extremely loudly nor hot during the GPU test.

In our opinion, when purchasing the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 G1, configurations with the RTX A2000 should be avoided. The RTX A1000 is the better, money-saving option if the GPU is not vitally important. Otherwise, at least the Nvidia RTX A3000 should be considered which will probably deliver significantly better GPU performance.