Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Review: The OLED Display Update

ThinkPad X1 Yoga: Cinebench And PC Mark 8

Cinebench R11.5

The Cinebench R11.5 suite is comprised of two tests to measure CPU and graphics processing performance.

  • The CPU test scenario uses all of your system's processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene (from the viral "No Keyframes" animation by AixSponza). This scene makes use of various algorithms to stress all available processor cores.
  • The graphics procedure uses a complex 3D scene depicting a car chase (created by renderbaron) which measures the performance of your graphics card in OpenGL mode. The performance depends on various factors, such as the GPU processor on your hardware, on the drivers used.
lenovo x1 yoga cinebench

It's clear the ThinkPad X1 Yoga shines in OpenGL rendering as it handily unseats the HP Spectre x360 15t which packs the same CPU. On the processing front, however, the x360 pulls back ahead which may be due to thermal throttling on the part of the X1 Yoga. It surpasses its thermal threshold of 80C about a minute into the CPU render test and throttles down to around 2.3GHz. Notably, in tablet mode this throttling kicks in within 20 seconds of starting the test resulting in a lower CPU score of just 2.92 and an OpenGL score of 28.18fps. That said, you'll likely be holding your hand near the exhaust while in tablet mode so you'll enjoy not being warmed-up more than you'll miss the extra oomph.

PCMark 8

What makes PCMark 8 different from other benchmarks? Real-world relevance. With PCMark 8 you measure and compare PC performance using real-world tasks and applications. We've grouped these applications into scenarios that reflect typical PC use in the home and at the office. This approach ensures that PCMark measures the things that matter, highlighting performance differences that will be apparent to end users and consumers.

PC Mark 8 includes several benchmark scenarios which leverage different workloads to better help you gauge which computer might meet your needs. For our purposes, we step through the Accelerated Home, Accelerated Work, and Storage benchmarks...

lenovo x1 yoga pc mark 8

PCMark 8 is the test that really highlights exceptional engineering. It doesn't matter what numbers a system can spit out in a synthetic benchmark if it can't put all the pieces together to perform over the long haul. To that effect we are happy to see the ThinkPad X1 Yoga delivers. It takes top marks for the Home Accelerated workload with an impressive score of 3058. The Work Accelerated load sees it drop a couple spots but not far as was the case with its Core i7-6500U powered Spectre x360 rival. The Work Accelerated benchmark really focuses on that sustained performance causing faster chips to throttle sooner which is why we can see a lowly i5 at the top of the pile.

Now we know this machine isn't aimed at playing today's newest titles but sometimes you need a break from work, so let's see how its graphics really stand up...


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