Laptop Specifications
2020 Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2
14.0" FHD WVA 250nits Anti-glare Display
Intel Core i7-1165G7
Intel Iris Xe GPU
Nvidia MX450 GPU
1 x 16GB DDR4 RAM SODIMM @ 3200Mhz
512GB Samsung PM991 2242 M.2 NVMe SSD
1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2280 M.2 NVMe SSD
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 11ax, 2x2 + Bluetooth® 5.1
Software
Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise 20H2 Build 19042
Hardware
Philips 242E1GAJ 23.8’’ FHD 144Hz VA Monitor
Logitech G512 Carbon Mechanical Keyboard
Logitech G603 Wireless Mouse
Topping L30 Linear Headphone Amplifier
PreSonus Eris 4.5 Studio Monitors
Cerwin-Vega XD8S Subwoofer
BeyerDynamic DT770 Pro 250Ω Headphones
Stadium Sydney USB Microphone
eGPU Hardware
Gigabyte AUROS GTX 1080 Gaming Box + Plugable 80CM Thunderbolt 3 Cable + Nvidia 466.11 Drivers
Hardware Images
I made the desk from a Karri hardwood panel and prefabricated legs:
The eGPU bracket is made from an offcut of the desktop and some generic brackets:
The power-only USB port on the Aorus Gaming Box runs my monitor bias-lighting, which conveniently turns on and off with my system as shown in topmost picture.
Installation
Installation was very simple: Plug in Aorus Gaming Box power cord > Plug in Thunderbolt 3 Cable to laptop > wait until laptop has installed device drivers > install latest Nvidia graphics drivers > Done. EGPU works with hot plugging and cold plugging.
I also updated the firmware of the Aorus Gaming Box. This was a bit of a hassle, but I made a guide for updating older Thunderbolt devices with newer laptops here.
The only other installation / performance alteration that I made is disabling the MX450 GPU and disabling / enabling the Iris XE GPU which boosts performance consistency.
Benchmarks
Intel Iris XE Unigine Heaven + Valley:
Nvidia MX450 Unigine Heaven + Valley:
Nvidia GTX 1080 eGPU Unigine Heaven + Valley:
Cinebench R23 Multi Core and Single Core:
Comments
I absolutely love this ThinkPad and would highly recommend it to anyone. It is very well made, perferms exceptionally and offers outstanding value for money (AUD $1,289). The integrated MX450 is great to have on the go as it easily outperforms the Intel Iris XE. Furthermore, the RAM, two M.2 SSDs and WiFi Card are all user upgradeable. CPU performance is outstanding. I am particularly impressed with the Cinebench R23 benchmarks, outperforming the reference 28Watt 1165G7 in a multi core workload by 21%.
Once I have disabled the integrated GPU the system is stable, responsive and consistent. All three USB peripherals are running perfectly under full gaming load. One thing I did notice is an decrease in CPU performance if I leave the Iris Plus GPU disabled. In Escape From Tarkov I get noticeably better FPS if I leave it enabled.
ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 Hardware Images
Adequate heatsink and no wasted space:
Thunderbolt 4 Port reinforced by the steel hinge bracket:
The included 2242 SSD has a heatsink that is mounted on the bottom panel:
Air vent has a dust filter that could be removed to increase airflow:
Seems like a nice device ! Look at this Host to Device bandwith, 2480MiB/s is neat !
Do you have PL1/PL2 (W) and thermals (°C) values in perf mode ?
What CPU clock can be achieve in sustain loads ?
Seems like a nice device ! Look at this Host to Device bandwith, 2480MiB/s is neat !
Do you have PL1/PL2 (W) and thermals (°C) values in perf mode ?
What CPU clock can be achieve in sustain loads ?
I am very happy with it so far.
PL1 is 35W and PL2 is 64W. Under initial boost it hits ~97C then drops back. I need to do more accurate testing, but it appears to be boosting between 3 to 4Ghz all-core while gaming, depending on the title.
Thanks for the info.
35w PL1 (sustain) for 1165g7 should be around 3.5-3.7GHz with 4 core loaded.
PL2 64W / PL1 35W is good and better than most of tigerlake laptops, hence the good CPU performance.
There's been some promising laptops lately with better PL1 limits with TB4. I'm holding out till June-July for the Tiger Lake H45 laptops to see if I can nab something with an i5-11400H that has a good PL1 limit. I'm really noticing 6c/12t is going to be the minimum of where I want to be if I'm keeping it for a couple-few years like I did with this current Gram 17. The new rumored Dell Inspirion 16 Plus with its 3K 16:10 display looks like it might be a winner, but I'm keeping my options open to see if anything with a good H45 CPU and no dGPU comes about. I've been tempted but I just can't pull the trigger on any of these 4c/8t units with H45 around the corner.
The i7-1165G7 is an excellent CPU when given enough power and thermal room. NoteBookCheck did an interesting comparison describing how the best performing 1165G7 nearly doubles the performance of the worst.
I am happy that Lenovo decided to push the E14 Gen 2 to its limit while only being an entry level ThinkPad model.