Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Review: A Workhorse That's Got Game


ThinkPad X1 Extreme Storage, Cinebench And Geekbench Benchmarks

We tested the ThinkPad X1 Extreme as it shipped from Lenovo to ensure we get the same out-of-box experience as our readers, with the latest Windows updates installed and all current firmware updated from Lenovo's Vantage maintenance utility. Many variables can affect performance, so our comparisons should serve only as a reference point. Our benchmarking kicks off with storage, CPU, and GPU tests to get an idea how the X1 Extreme performs in day-to-day tasks for these high-level subsystems.

ATTO Disk Benchmark
Peak Sequential Storage Throughput
The ATTO disk benchmark provides a glimpse into how snappy the ThinkPad X1 Extreme's Samsung NVMe SSD should feel in day-to-day usage. 

ThinkPad X1 Extreme ATTO disk test

Read speeds surpass 2.7 GB/s and write speeds peak at about 2.3GB/s. If there was any doubt that Lenovo is configuring this machine with anything but premium components, this should spell it out clearly. With storage subsystem performance like this, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme will handle pretty much whatever you might throw at a laptop these days, backed up by Intel's latest 8th Gen 6-core Core i7 CPU family. 

Cinebench R15
3D Rendering On The CPU And GPU

Cinebench tests the CPU and GPU independently and provides a glimpse of raw performance. The test is based on Maxon’s Cinema 4D modeling software that’s used in movie productions.

Cinebench R15 ThinkPad X1 Extreme

Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Extreme took top honors in Cinebench for CPU throughput and pulled in at a close third place finish for the OpenGL GPU test, powered by its NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q GPU.

Geekbench 4
Single and multi-core

Geekbench 4 is a cross-platform benchmark that simulates real world processing workloads in image processing and particle physics scenarios. We tested the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme in Geekbench 4’s single and multi-core test workloads.

ThinkPad X1 Extreme Geekbench

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme system we tested was configured with an Intel Core i7-8850H six-core CPU that boosts a tad higher to 4.3GHz, versus the i7-8750H in the Dell XPS 15 (9570) config we tested not long ago. As a result, Lenovo edges out the win here again with great performance.

We'd also offer that the ThinkPad X1 Extreme also maintains its performance under extended use with thermal saturation and repeated Cinebench or Geekbench runs bleeding off less than 5% of this machine's performance -- a strong showing for sure.

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