Lenovo's ThinkPad P71 is a mobile workstation monster with fat NVIDIA Quadro P5000 graphics and Intel's Kaby Lake CPU. How fast is this machine? We take our first look.
First look at the latest 17" ThinkPad
The ThinkPad P71 mobile workstation is more than a desktop replacement because, frankly, it is far more powerful than many engineer's current desktop. The 17 inch display delivers 4K resolution on the road. The NVIDIA Quadro P5000 is the fastest mobile workstation GPU on the market. Intel's Xeon E3-1535 mobile CPU clocks in at 3.1 GHz standard clock and a 4.2 GHz maximum clock rate. The system takes 4 storage drives 2 of which can be 1 TB SSD fast flash memory storage drives. This workstation is loaded with connectivity options spanning ultra-fast USB Type C connections to Ethernet.
Big, Fast, Comfortable
Yes, this is a big, fat 17 inch workstation. And my test unit just finished 24 hours worth of video special effects rendering. You might envision a workstation like this at your desk or in your hotel room on the road, but it is equally at home on your sofa. As I write this from my living room, the ThinkPad P71 hardly warms my legs as it holds all that power in reserve while I work on everyday tasks. This system is destined for in depth performance testing soon. In the meantime, I have some initial performance test results for you below. First let's look at the specs.
Lenovo's ThinkPad P71 has top-of-the-line specifications.
ThinkStation P71 |
Details |
| GPU |
Quadro P5000M, Quadro P4000M, Quadro P3000M, Quadro M620M |
| CPU |
Xeon E3-1535 Mobile, XEON E3-1505 Mobile, i7-7820HQ, i7-7700HQ |
| Memory | 64GB max / 2400MHz DDR4, ECC or non-ECC |
| Display |
17.3" 3840x2160, anti-glare, LED backlight, IPS, 300 nits, 16:9 aspect ratio, 800:1 contrast ratio, 90% gamut, 170° viewing angle 17.3" 1920x1080, anti-glare, LED backlight, IPS, 300 nits, |
| Storage |
Up to 4 drives (two M.2 SSD and two HDD, one of which is in the optical bay) M.2 SSD / PCIe NVMe, PCIe 3.0 x 4, 32Gb/s HDD / SATA 6.0Gb/s, |
| Dimensions | 16.38" x 10.85" x 1.18-1.35"; 416mm x 275.5mm x 29.9-34.2mm |
| Weight | Starting at 7.3 lb (3.3kg) |
| Ports | Four USB 3.1 Gen 1 / USB 3.0 (one Always On), two USB Type-C / Thunderbolt 3, Mini DisplayPort 1.2a, HDMI 1.4b, Ethernet (RJ-45), Dock connector |
| Keyboard | 6-row, spill-resistant, multimedia Fn keys, numeric keypad, optional LED backlight |
| Touchpad/Navigation | 3-button TrackPoint pointing device and 3-button Mylar surface multi-touch touchpad |
| Fingerprint reader | Touch style match on chip fingerprint reader on the keyboard bezel |
| Color calibration | Pantone color calibrator by X-Rite color calibration sensor in palm rest |
| Battery | Li-Ion 8-cell (96Wh) Max battery life 9.8 hr (Discrete Graphics) or 14.25 hr (Hybrid Graphics) |
| AC adapter | 170W or 230W AC adapter |
Let me add a few words on the system weight. The P71 here at PW weighs in at 3.75 kg which is almost half a kilogram more than the starting weight. Our 230W power supply and cables add just over 1 kg to the total system weight. Together, the weight of our test system is 1.5 kg more than the "Starting at" weight in the technical specification!
Despite the weight, using the machine is a pleasure. The display is a 4K screen & very comfortable to work with. Our system includes the Pantone color calibration and the fingerprint security pad. I have never been a fan of track buttons for navigation and prefer a nice, large touchpad. This touchpad has 3 buttons across the top and also across the bottom. The multi-finger controls work well and scrolling and right-clicking with gestures and taps seems reasonably accurate and easy. I'll spend a bit more time with the system to see how well I like the touchpad.
The test system has 32 GB of memory and the Intel XEON E3-1535 v6 (Kaby Lake) processor. I ran the system through a VFX workload that I had waiting. The workstation processed a queue of After Effects renderings for more than 20 hours straight without a single glitch.
The graphics in this test system is the Quadro P5000 from NVIDIA and it delivered excellent results on the SPEC Viewperf tests. I'll put the ThinkPad through the ringer with the battery of PW tests for graphics and processors with a set of video and VR applications.
How fast is the Quadro P5000?
Honestly, this should be the first question to answer and it sits here at the end of this First Look article! The P5000 mobile GPU is blazing fast. Like the desktop version, it sports 16 GB of memory. NVIDIA trimmed just a small number of CUDA cores from the desktop version and touched up the clock speeds. The result is a mobile workstation that doesn't replace a desktop workstation, it blows away a desktop workstation.
Below, you can see the performance results and the system configuration. Honestly, the numbers don't do justice to this workstation, so PW has added a video below.
Viewperf 12.1
| Viewset | Composite | Window | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 117.08 | 1900 x1060 | |||||||
| 139.63 | 1900 x1060 | |||||||
| 116.85 | 1900 x1060 | |||||||
| 14.07 | 1900 x1060 | |||||||
| 89.16 | 1900 x1060 | |||||||
| 61.83 | 1900 x1060 | |||||||
| 68.38 | 1900 x1060 | |||||||
| 156.47 | 1900 x1060 | |||||||
| 143.20 | 1900 x1060 | |||||||
The 12.1 update to SPEC Viewperf includes support for Windows 10. Official results published on the SPEC webpage are run on displays with a 1920x1080 resolution. PW runs Viewperf on the workstation's highest possible resolution; in this case, 3840x2160. This first test places the P71 firmly in the high-end workstation segment with results that are similar to a desktop workstation equipped with a Quadro P4000 GPU.
Below is the detailed hardware configuration as it is reported by SPEC Viewperf
| Graphics Hardware Configuration | |
|---|---|
| Render Resolution | 1900 x 1060 |
| Desktop DPI | 240 |
| Graphics Accelerator | NVIDIA Quadro P5000 |
| Graphics Driver Version | 22.21.13.8167 |
| Graphics Accelerator | Intel(R) HD Graphics P630 |
| Graphics Driver Version | 21.20.16.4627 |
| Display Resolution | 3840x2160 @ 32 bpp |
| Display Size/Technology | N/A |
| Display Refresh Rate | 60 Hz |
| Display Name | Default Monitor |
| System Hardware Configuration | |
| Manufacturer | LENOVO |
| Model | 20HK0007MZ |
| Serial Number | PF0QGTZ2 |
| BIOS Manufacturer | LENOVO |
| BIOS Name | N1TET33W (1.07 ) |
| BIOS Version | LENOVO - 1070 |
| SMBIOS Version | N1TET33W (1.07 ) |
| Processor Type | Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1535M v6 @ 3.10GHz |
| Processor Base Frequency | 3096 MHz |
| Number of Populated Processor Sockets | 1 |
| Number of Physical Cores per Processor Socket | 4 |
| Number of Logical Cores per Processor Socket | 8 |
| Number of Processor Threads per core | 2 |
| L1 Cache per Socket (KB) | 256 |
| L2 Cache per Socket (KB) | 1024 |
| L3 Cache per Socket (KB) | 8192 |
| System Memory | 32GB |
| Memory Type | DDR3 |
| Memory Speed | 2400 MHz |
| Memory Configuration | 16GB , 16GB |
| Disk Drive Model | SAMSUNG MZVLW1T0HMLH-000L7 |
| Disk Drive Size | 953.86GB |
| Software Configuration | |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 10 Pro64-bit |
The PW Perspective
We're just getting started with this machine, but the first impression is definitely "Big, Fast, Comfortable". The system ran through a host of VFX work at the start and delivered excellent Viewperf results. It sits comfortably on your lap or on your desk. Yes, it weighs in far beyond a 15" ultrabook's weight, but then you are going to buy this mobile workstation because you have 24 hours of special effects or simulations to crunch through, ... try that on a 15" ultrabook and you'll be done at the end of the week, ... if then. At PW, we are used to being untethered from our office and a mobile system like the ThinkPad P71 - given a proper roll-bag - would be a great traveling companion.
