Lenovo Legion T5 Review (‎90UX0001US, 2023)

The Lenovo Legion T5 is the company’s latest mid-range gaming desktop, offering solid performance and beefy components including Nvidia’s RTX 4080 GPU without the hefty price tag of a top-tier gaming rig.

The 2022 Lenovo Legion Tower T5 has been our favorite mid-range gaming PC, and the latest addition to the ranks of pre-built gaming machines in the sub-$1500 price category is worth looking at. Competitors fitted with the same GPU and CPU cost well over two grand, and that’s more reason you won’t struggle choosing the Legion T5 over several other machines in the market.

But while it may not be one of the best gaming PCs you can buy, the Legion T5 offers respectable performance for less money. It’s a good reminder that you don’t need to shell out thousands of dollars for a high-end rig to enjoy great gaming performance at 1440p, or even 4K.

Design

• Spacious internal area
• Customizable RGB lighting
• Basic keyboard and mouse

Out of the box, the Lenovo Legion T5 sports an attractive raven-black tower chassis. On the front, there’s a Legion logo and fans behind it with RGB lighting customizable through the Vantage app. Those looking to showcase the gaming PC’s intricate innards will appreciate the transparent glass side panel. The Legion T5 ventilation keeps the machine cool with a total of five possible locations to maximize cooling.

There are two USB-A ports alongside headphones and microphone jacks on the front, though a USB-C port would be better here. Around the back, there are four USB-A ports, one USB-C, 5.1 Channel audio out, and an ethernet port. That should be sufficient for most peripherals, maybe a basic keyboard, mouse, headset, and webcam setup.

Bundled into the package is also a keyboard and mouse which should not be used for basic tasks, but they lack gaming features. You also have an external speaker and a mouse pad as well, which are much welcome at this price point. Considering that most brands don’t include these at base level, the additions are still worthwhile. For gamers looking for a competitive edge, these plastic components are better ignored.

Gaming and Graphics Performance

• Powerful Nvidia RTX 4080 GPU
• Solid gaming performance
• A productivity workhorse

Configured with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 and AMD 8-Core Ryzen 7 7700X processor, the Lenovo Legion T5 can tear through many games at their highest settings and 4K resolution. At 1080p, which uses the CPU more, it sometimes runs games fluently, and sometimes ends up on par with systems fitted with the more powerful Nvidia RTX 4090.

Considering that the RTX 4080 is a high-end graphics card based on the AD103 chip using the Ada Lovelace architecture, you expect nothing short of stellar performance on modern titles. This card rings 9,728 cores and 16GB GDDR6X graphics memory on a 256-bit memory bus, clocked at 22.4 Gbits. The card impresses with very good raytracing performance, all thanks to the 76 dedicated ray tracing cores and 304 Tensor Cores.

As such, the card is best suited for 4K60 gaming in maximum detail and 2K gaming at higher frame rates. You can even use Raytracing effects with DLSS in most games. The closest competitor here is the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, but with some noticeable advantages when raytracing is used.

The Legion T5 can handle Control (still a punishing game even after all these years) at its very best, although not at 60 fps. At 4K on the highest graphics setting and high ray-tracing settings, the game runs at around 51 frames per second, and a near-constant 80 fps in the Astral place; which drops to as low as 40 fps in intense combat sequences with lots of effects (which are far more common).

Infinite RS by MSI Gaming Desktop (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, Intel 16-Core...

• Processor: Intel Core i7-13700KF Sixteen Core Processor (30MB Cache, 2.5GHz-5.4GHz) 125W
• RAM: 32GB DDR5 4800MHz | Hard Drive: 2TB Gen4 NVMe Solid State Drive
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X | Motherboard: Z790

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On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider (highest preset), the Lenovo Legion T5 achieves 231 fps at 1080p and 87 fps at 4K. That’s less than the RTX 4090-powered Alienware Aurora R15 and MSI Infinite RS 13NUI-419US, but the difference is far wider at 4K. Nonetheless, the Lenovo shows off strong generational improvements over the iBuypower Revolt 3, which features an RTX  3080.

Grand Theft Auto V played on the Legion T5 shows interesting results: At very high settings and 1080p resolution, the Legion, MSI Infinite, and Alienware Aurora all hit the same 184 fps, even though the latter competitors have a more powerful RTX 4080 card. That’s partly because Grand Theft Auto V has always been more CPU reliant, and that’s almost always the case at lower resolutions. It might also suggest that today’s top-end cards are hitting some sort of upper ceiling for the game.

When you’re not gaming on your PC, the Legion T5 is a pretty powerful workhorse thanks to its AMD Ryzen 7 7700X (8-core, 16 threads) processor, 32 GB RAM, 512GB SSD + 2TB HDD storage. As mentioned previously, the Vantage app is another great way to customize the look of your Legion. There are other features on the app including performance tuning, component updates, and customer service information like warranty status.

Anyone looking to take PC gaming seriously or simply need a pre-build rig to play more popular esports titles without breaking the bank should give the Legion T5 some attention. Beyond shelving the included keyboard and mouse for something better, there’s nothing more to complain about on this machine, gaming performance is top-notch, productivity tasks run fluently, and the price is very reasonable.

Bottom Line

The Lenovo Legion T5 (‎90UX0001US, 2023) is an affordable, yet capable gaming machine with lots of upgrade potential down the line. Its highlight feature is the RTX 4080 GPU that’s capable of playing games at 4K, and the motherboard comes with a swatch of m.2 slots that mean there’s a ton of room to add storage.

Our review configuration comes with the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X processor, but we’ve seen machines like the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i and the Velztorm Praetix CTO that pair the RTX 4080 GPU with an Intel Core i9-13900KF, for an even better gaming experience. Those who need the power (and are willing to pay the price for it) in a prebuilt will need to look at those alternatives. And if you don’t mind shelling out more, there are RTX 4090-toting beasts like the Alienware Aurora R15 and MSI Infinite RS 13NUI-419US for the pro gamers.

And despite some Lenovo branded parts, the motherboard, RAM, and GPU componentry inside are all standard parts (unlike an Alienware system), meaning as you get confident as a PC gamer, you can upgrade parts piecemeal without struggling to fit them into a proprietary gaming system.

Overall, the Lenovo Legion T5 ends up being one of those pre-built PCs that are more affordable than the competition mentioned above and would work comfortably as a ‘first gaming PC’ as it comes from a reputable manufacturer. Again, everything gets juicier as the Legion T5 is cheaper than the competition since it retains the same sort of pricing as more boutique PC builders.

Last update on 2024-11-21 at 12:46 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API