GPU Performance

Since Intel’s integrated UHD 620 hasn’t seen any real architectural updates in quite some time, it’s feeling dated in terms of 3D performance, although it definitely has its strengths as well. Intel’s media block offers some pretty incredible efficiency, excellent hardware decode for H.264, HEVC, and VP9, and QuickSync capabilities for encoding in those codecs as well.

Still, until we see an update architecture from Intel, there’s definitely a GPU gap in terms of overall 3D performance compared to AMD’s Raven Ridge platform.

The Yoga C930 was run through our Ultrabook suite of GPU tests, and once again, if you’d like to compare its performance to any other laptop we’ve tested, please check out our online Bench.

3DMark

Futuremark 3DMark Fire Strike

Futuremark 3DMark Sky Diver

Futuremark 3DMark Cloud Gate

Futuremark 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited

Futuremark 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited - Graphics

Futuremark 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited - Physics

3DMark offers multiple tests with varying levels of scene complexity, with Fire Strike being the most difficult we run on notebooks, and Ice Storm Unlimited at the other end. There’s not a lot to highlight here other than the better CPU performance in the Ice Storm Unlimited Physics test, putting this laptop ahead of the rest of the Ultrabooks, but overall the performance is similar to other UHD 620 equipped devices.

GFXBench

GFXBench 5.0 Aztec Ruins Normal 1080p Offscreen

GFXBench 5.0 Aztec Ruins High 1440p Offscreen

GFXBench revamped their suite in summer 2018, and GFXBench 5 brings some DX12 based tests with Aztec Ruins. This will be our new test going forward, and as such we’re still filling out our Bench data with the new version on new reviews. There’s not a lot of good to say about UHD 620 performance here though.

Dota 2

Dota 2 Reborn - Value

Dota 2 Reborn - Mainstream

Dota 2 Reborn - Enthusiast

Valve’s Dota 2 offers support for a wide range of hardware and is one of the few 3D games that would be playable on low-end GPUs like those found in Ultrabooks. Once again Ryzen is the real winner here for integrated graphics, although the Huawei MateBook X Pro shows how much performance you can add with even a small dGPU added to the mix.

GPU Summary

Although Intel’s UHD 620 offers excellent media playback capabilities, it is feeling quite dated in modern devices for 3D performance. We shall see what the future brings. The slightly higher CPU performance in the Yoga C930 does help draw out more of the GPU performance in situations, but not enough to really change things by more than a few percentage points.

Storage Performance

The review unit shipped with just a 256 GB SSD, and with the parallel nature of SSDs having less capacity means this will be the least performant version available. It shipped with the SK Hynix SL300 SSD, although drives are typically multi-sourced. This particular model features MLC NAND, which is a bit of a surprise.

As a full NVMe PCIe drive with x4 capabilities, the performance is much higher than SATA based SSDs, and we see sequential read speeds coming in at over 2600 MB/s. Write speeds are quite strong as well, although the higher capacity version would do better here.

System Performance Display Analysis
Comments Locked

32 Comments

View All Comments

  • Vitor - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link

    Wow, another dismal ips display. Better go TN for such awful results.
  • Death666Angel - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link

    Still better viewing angles for IPS. I've also seen 400:1 contrast ratio even on 1080p TN panels for laptops. Unless you are a hardcore, professional gamer, TN is never worth it.
  • Frenetic Pony - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link

    It isn't worth it even then. My Samsung CHG27 is great, and it's a VA panel. You really don't need TN at all today.
  • Beaver M. - Friday, March 8, 2019 - link

    While I think VA is the worst panel technology, you are right. TN really doesnt give you much more advantage. Fast IPS displays nowadays are fast enough with their 4-5 ms. And the real important thing for gamers is the input lag, not the response time.
  • qlum - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link

    Firstly lenovo's tn panels are certainly no better. Secondly tn and touch screens are not a great match. Just try pressing on a tn panel and yiu will know.
  • andy o - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link

    The 9260 has Bluetooth 5 according to Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/w...
  • jeremyshaw - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link

    Lenovo typically makes the disclaimer in their spec sheets: HW supports BT5.0, Windows only supports BT4.1 (or something like that).
  • dirtperson - Thursday, March 14, 2019 - link

    Windows has supported BT5.0 since 1803 update
  • abufrejoval - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link

    Up to the point where he looked at the screen, I would have thought the author had found the love of his life: Superlatives beyond anything I had ever seen here before...

    But at €1800 for the 8/256GB variant and €2300 for the 16/512GB+4K screen I CHUWI over alternatives...

    These things can be mass produced and sold at $800, now that those insane flash and RAM prices are coming back down and Intel is facing competition.
  • Irata - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link

    Unfortunately, Intel's competition is most often not put in a premium chassis and delivered with a sub par configuration with few configuration choices but still at the same price as the Intel counterpart - with the rare exception.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now