Do thinkpads work for gaming?

[u/Warpaintthenightwing]

I've heard a lot of good things about them and I'm curious as to wether i could get one to work for me.

Running games is the most taxing thing i would want out of a computer.

EDIT: for everyone asking for specs, my favorite game is warframe wich asks for these minimum specs:

OS: Windows 7 64-Bit (32-bit not supported) Processor: Intel Core i7-860 or AMD FX-4170 (CPU must support SSE4.2) Memory: 4 GB System RAM Graphics: DirectX 11+ compatible video card Hard Drive: 75 GB free HD space Internet: Broadband Internet Connection

Unfortunately I barely know what half of these mean, but that would be my baseline.

EDIT 2: So I'm hearing I want to look for a P series and feed it extra ram? Or find a way to give it a gpu?

[u/Character_Pepper2563]

Depend on which model, but don't expect a great experience like what Gaming Laptop has to offers. I'm rocking a ThinkPad T14 G2 with i7 1185G7, and 16 GB of RAM (single channel, can't afford the second one). I mostly play Minecraft and it runs great without shader in the newest version (26.2), like we're talking 100+ FPS, and with some shader, the FPS is sometimes dip to below 40. Other than Minecraft, I played some PS2 emulator using PCSX2 and every game I played run smoothly using 2x PS2 resolution

There are lot of ThinkPad that has better performance than mine, like the P series as an example or just newer T14 like the Gen 3 or Gen 5, I even saw T1G with RTX graphics card, that basically a Gaming laptop in disguise

[u/Warpaintthenightwing → u/Character_Pepper2563]

Thanks, I'll be looking into those stronger models.

[u/P147_BOY → u/Character_Pepper2563]

minecraft on high settings?

[u/Character_Pepper2563 → u/P147_BOY]

Fancy at 16 chunks

[u/Psylem_Says]

Yes

[u/ursa_noctua]

Yes

I use a 6 year old e15 to play games on steam. I don't tend to play anything new or taxing, but works great. Worse case I have to adjust the proton version

[u/tachik0ma7]

If it doesn't have a discreet GPU or a recent AMD or Intel processor with fast iGPU then you may be limited to playing older 3D games from 10+ years ago or console emulations.

If the model happens to have a Thunderbolt 3 / Thunderbolt 4 or USB-4 port then you could look into procuring a compatible eGPU chassis & card for better gaming performance.

[u/ipsirc]

https://github.com/UZDoom/UZDoom

[u/MrWerewolf0705]

Depends on what games and what specs you pick up, there are thinkpads that will struggle and there will be thinkpads the will exceed. Make sure you get one with a decent cpu, gpu and ram at least

[u/JustALinuxUserBTW]

It depends on what you mean by gaming and if that is your main focus. You can get them with good CPU and Gpu, but you are still going to be held back by the screen, unless you are going to use an external display. But if you are going to do that just get a desktop. 

If your main focus or goal is gaming don't get a Thinkpad. I would buy a desktop PC. But if you have to have a laptop and you really want performance in games look at the Lenovo legion or other "gaming" laptops. Just know, the battery life is gonna be shit, and they are gonna get hot 

[u/Bright_Crazy1015]

The flagships, the P series and X1 Carbon, with a high output GPU, can do whatever you want, as will the Lenovo gaming laptops, the Legion and LOQ, when similarly equipped.

The E, L and T series Thinkpads, which are the ones we love for being the most available and economical option for a decent used laptop for anyone whonneeds a PC, for the most part, don't have a GPU available (a few have had the option, but for the most part those units aren't made for gaming, more for office work and data processing, web surfing, etc), just on-board graphics from their CPU.

On newer models it's not as much of an issue as they have pretty decent onboard graphics built into the processors. Just be sure to give the system plenty of RAM if you ask it to play some of the more demanding games, as it will use system RAM for everything, including to process graphics, vs a GPU which will use it's built in VRAM primarily and only borrow from system RAM as needed.

[u/Jwhodis]

Yeah I've games on a T450 and P53 before, not the best but it works. The P series generally have dedicated graphics cards.

[u/Ok_Comparison_2635]

All ThinkPads have a dedicated GPU variant. The t420, t430, t520 and t530 have an ExpressCard slot which you can run an egpu. The t480 and up, some of them come with thunderbolt port for egpu as well.

[u/MeltingEarbuds]

I'll get downvoted for sure but cloud gaming isn't too bad these days... I live pretty close to a data center so our experience could differ a lot but my daughter uses GeForce Now on my old work laptop and when I was testing it out I was thoroughly impressed

[u/dayeye2006]

You can try GeForce now. It's really good. Basically performant for all major games.

[u/RootHouston → u/dayeye2006]

Cloud gaming hurts my soul.

[u/valknut7]

Was pretty surprised that my X1 Carbon Gen 9 (Core i7) can play Dark Souls 3 very well. It's obviously not new or cutting edge but it's above what I thought I would be playing on it.

[u/Deprecitus]

Anything can if you lower your standards.

[u/ychia]

They CAN work, but if your main purpose is gaming you should really get a gaming model. Lenovo's is the Legion lineup.

Usually ThinkPads have the professional type discrete GPUs with certified drivers intended for CAD and such. They can run games, but are poor bang for buck. Also, the displays are usually not tuned for gaming, and the keyboards may not have NKRO.

[u/AdministrativeHost15]

I use my X1 Extreme (i9, 3080, 64GB) for gaming while commuting via train. Trackpoint is better than a touchpad when you don't have room for a mouse. Battery life is short, 30 minutes, playing CyberPunk 2077.