The Lenovo ThinkPad P70 Review: Mobile Xeon Workstation
by Brett Howse on June 30, 2016 8:00 AM ESTWorkstation Performance
The ThinkPad P70 is first and foremost a mobile workstation, so that generally means professional graphics workloads. Lenovo offers the entire gamut of mobile Quadro parts, and the P70 we received is the second from the top with the Quadro M4000M. The M5000M should be a significant improvement since it’s based on the GTX 980M, rather than the GTX 970M of the M4000M.
Since we don’t get a lot of mobile workstations in, there’s not a lot of data here to work with, so I’ve broken this testing down into a couple of different segments. First, the GPU will be compared against other devices in some gaming tests, just to give it a baseline in GPU performance and to see where the professional GPU lies in comparison to gaming cards. Next, the system will be compared against the Surface Book and Dell XPS 15 in Kishonti’s Compubench. Finally, the ThinkPad P70 was run on Specviewperf 12.0.2, but there are no other devices to compare this against since this is a professional graphics test only, and it was not run on any of our other systems (which are sent back to the manufacturers after the review in case you were ever curious).
Gaming Performance
You can see clearly how the M4000M is not optimized for gaming. Other than the Fire Strike test, it performs quite a bit under the Razer Blade, which has the GTX 970M. The exception is Ice Storm Unlimited, which ends up being more CPU dependent on these laptops since that’s a mobile benchmark, and the Xeon wins back some of the ground lost. This is not a gaming card, and it’s not tuned for this, but it’s interesting to see where it sits compared to the GeForce lineup.
Compubench
On compute workloads, the M4000M regains its composure here. The performance is quite a bit higher than the admittedly lower tier GTX 960M in the XPS 15.
SPECviewperf 12.0.2
SPEC is the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation, and SPECviewperf is their test for measuring graphics performance based on professional applications. This is where the professional graphics can show a big advantage over the gaming cards. SPECviewperf 12.0.2 was run on the ThinkPad P70 with the Quadro M4000M GPU, as well as a system with the GeForce GTX 980M. Despite the GTX 980M being a more powerful card (1280 CUDA cores vs 1536 in the GTX 980M) there are tasks such as these where professional graphics rule the roost.
You can see above that on many of these tests, the performance of the Quadro is significantly faster than even a more capably equipped GeForce. For those that need even more compute, the ThinkPad P70 can also be had with the M5000M with 1536 CUDA cores.
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TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
Anandtech has been going downhill for years. They are turning into just another backwater tech site.zanon - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
Seriously, this new 3rd party "promoted stories" thing is pretty bad, much worse then anything in the past. On my main system I block ads in general for security reasons, but I've tended to whitelist Anandtech previously on other systems like mobile which is locked down enough that I'm less concerned. Today though:>Oh boy, an interesting review
>Scroll down
>Promoted Stories
>25 WOMEN WHO FORGOT THE CAMERA CAPTURES ALL!!!!
:\. God damn it Anandtech don't be like this too.
Ryan Smith - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
"moatads kept trying to download onto my machine"By any chance is that moatad.js? I've seen this report elsewhere before; apparently it's a MIME type error that's triggered when trying to load an external JS file, causing it to download instead. Moat itself is an analytics company, hence the external JS to begin with (ala Google Analytics)
rearden - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
I will say buyer beware. I have a client with a Lenovo P70 purchased in January. Three weeks ago the system wouldn't boot (not even POST). We had to wait a week for parts, despite a Next Business Day Warranty. The system board was replaced and was working great ... until this Monday when the system, again, wouldn't boot. Am currently waiting for parts before Lenovo can repair the machine. Maybe he got a lemon, but we're waiting for another new system board in the timespan of 1 month on a system only 6 months old.TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
You have anecdotal evidence from a grand total of 1 user. Not exactly a scientifically reliable number.dave_the_nerd - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
It helps if you avoid spilling coffee on it.smilingcrow - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
But the fact that they had to wait a week for a part on a new model Business Class Workstation with a NBD warranty is a cause for concern. That is something that has never happened to me with Dell even on their consumer class laptops.It could be an odd occurrence but to happen twice in a month is enough to cause concern.
milmil - Friday, July 1, 2016 - link
You are quick to dismiss it but yet you do not own one. There is indeed an issue and it took me 2 laptops and extra 2 motherboard replacements to make sure it is a fact.milmil - Friday, July 1, 2016 - link
I have had the same issue, one P70 with i7 bricked and one with Xeon 1505M then 2 motherboard replacements for the Xeon one, same story. It turns out it is the bios update that does the job. I am arguing for a refund of the laptop and the peripherals. Also look at the Lenovo forum, similar stories. It is such a pity because this is the best laptop ever (when it works that is). Not very happy with how Lenovo is handling the issue. They are wasting their time and money as well as my time and money. Sad...very sad.adamto - Friday, July 1, 2016 - link
I have P50 with touch screen and Pen and I love it,Here is my review as Surface Pro 2 owner who upgraded to P50!
1) P50 is really powerful. I wasted my life with surface Pro. It was like being in loop at same level. P50 simply allow me to do double in half time.
2) 15 inch FHD screen is prefect beside my Dell WQHD 27 inch monitor. Both have similar DPI. It mean happy remote desktop and Virtual machine and Linux desktop.
3) As surface Pro user, I love touch input, Touch input is very useful when I use P50 on lap OR testing touchy apps!
4) P50 and P70 are the only workstation laptop that have wacom pen option. The pen is very useful to edit 3d object when laptop is on lap where you can not use mouse or touch pad for such job. Point the pen to object and edit it directly on the screen. ( I don't use pen for drawing)
5) FHD screen means double battery life on the go which is more important for P50 to be used as portable device.
6) I'm in heaven with 4T SSD storage. All data everywhere. No more extra cable and case and disconnect issue that I had using Surface Pro
7) Battery life is double than Surface Pro while using a desktop like VM!
8) Windows score inside VM is bigger than windows score of physical Surface pro ( about 8). It is like having several Surface pro for free at same time!
9) Surface Pro screen is glossy while touch screen on P50 is half Matt and it make very big difference.
10) Removable battery is awesome. Fully day battery life with two batteries!
11) I love fact that screen can open up to 180 degree. Looking forward for P51 with 360 degree screen with exact same design and nothing less!
Bad:
1) Black looks gray even when laptop is off. This make screen washed out at open air ( It is good at indoor) Still I am happy because I mostly use it indoor! Looking for P50 with AMO LED screen.
2) Unlike Surface Pro, There is no car charger for P50. This is the biggest issue that I have with p50 right now. There is a airplane mode but it dont work too, because it don't allow to charge the P50 using airplane socket. However it is possible to charge the device using P50 adapter and a 200W car inverter but whole package is bulky. Lenovo need to provide a solution for people like me!
3) Unlike Dell computer, USB C booting is not enabled at Bios! Why this is not documented? isn't USB type C suppose to cover whatever USB 3 do? for example I can not boot my portable Linux from external Type C SSD to enjoy full performance. That was one the reason I wanted to get P50 with The Thunderbolt / USB Type C port. I think this is important feature for people who like to enjoy a independent and fast OS on the go. Dear Lenovo please enable this feature at BIOS!
4) Raid option is hidden at Bios.
5) You have to order device with exact GPU you need right now. Upgrade wont be possible due to bios white list issue!
Final Words) Thank you Lenovo for creating such awesome device. It help me to do my job faster and have more time to enjoy! It gave me opportunity to touch new area and learn and earn more!!. Looking forward P51 with fix for above issues!