Thinkpads Forum

Yeah, I know, sooner or later it had to happen. Anyway, as a loyal ThinkPad owner since that first model long ago and many many in-between then and now (disclaimer: I've been using Dell Latitudes almost exclusively for several years so I wanted that known) and now that the T25 is finally available (when it's available, of course) I'm considering getting one, perhaps even two as the Wife will be quite jealous if I don't get her one.

I've read a lot of reviews but not a lot of them seem to offer much in terms of overall performance with respect to the RAM and storage (the defaults of 16GB and the 512GB SSD). I was wondering if any T25 owner could or would be willing to run two somewhat simple benchmarks for me, both part of the AIDA64 system information application. If anyone is willing could you grab the latest version of AIDA64 (it's at version 5.95 as of this post), and there is a version that's "portable" in the sense that it's distributed in a .zip archive - all that's needed is to extract the contents of the archive to a folder someplace then just run the AIDA64.exe main executable.

When the program is up and running, if you choose Tools on the primary menu bar at the top, you'll see several options, the first being Disk Benchmark (for the storage device) and under that Cache and Memory Benchmark (RAM). For the Disk Benchmark, click the drop down menu where it says "About" and select "Read Test Suite" then Start to run it. The Cache and Memory Benchmark is just "Start Benchmark" and that's it. After you run each of those you'll have the option to click the Save button and it will save the results as a PNG file that you can attach to this thread in a post to show the results.

Any results are welcome in case a few people might be willing to do this but I suspect there won't be much difference between the systems - if anyone does have 32GB in their T25 or even anyone that might have swapped out the factory 512GB SSD for something potentially better, the more the merrier.

If you're so inclined and willing to do it, maybe even a disk benchmark using CrystalDiskMark (also available in a "portable" zip archive format) if possible as that provides a bit more in-depth info related to the queuing and 4K random read/write speeds, but it's not essential, the AIDA64 ones will give me enough info to work with.

Speaking of merrier, Happy Holidays to everyone and Happy New Year for 2018 as well.

Thanks for any assistance and have fun, always...

I can do this on Sunday, if I remember; someone else may be able to do it beforehand.

You can probably find benchmarks of the same NVMe drive that's in the TP25 from other Lenovo machines, and RAM performance will probably be the same on any system with same CPU and same amount of RAM.

Does it really matter? Is it likely to be a bottleneck in any meaningful scenario these days?

No, I suppose not but I know the T25 comes with that single 16GB SODIMM so that's single channel mode by default even if it is pretty fast with DDR4, I'm presuming if one gets a second 16GB module (or 8GB or whatever) it'll kick in some dual channel action and provide a somewhat relevant boost in overall performance 'cause every little bit helps.

Its really not that important. Dual-Channel is most important for the performance of the iGPU - but the Thinkpad 25 has a dGPU, which kicks in if you really need extra GPU performance.

Here are your results...

http://wannerweb.ddns.net/Public/Photos ... kbench.png
http://wannerweb.ddns.net/Public/Photos ... chemem.png
http://wannerweb.ddns.net/Public/Photos ... lbench.png

theterminator93: Thanks for those results, obviously that single channel mode hurts things quite a bit, ouch, but it's to be expected.

Ibthink: It might not be important to you but it's very relevant to me and perhaps others so it's still good to know the actual performance overall. Considering the ULV nature of the CPU on the T25 (a weak point in the laptop, especially considering the price being asked for it), as I noted earlier eeking out every last possible bit of performance is not a negative thing.

br0adband wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 29, 2017 2:49 pm

Ibthink: It might not be important to you but it's very relevant to me and perhaps others so it's still good to know the actual performance overall.

Do you purchase a laptop for running benchmarks or for actually using it? Are there real-world usage scenarios that are part of your workflow, where the single-channel versus dual-channel makes a difference? I'm curious to learn. It is, as you said, always possible to get a second module, but is there a point? That's the question.

br0adband wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 29, 2017 2:49 pm

Considering the ULV nature of the CPU on the T25 (a weak point in the laptop, especially considering the price being asked for it), as I noted earlier eeking out every last possible bit of performance is not a negative thing.

Well, you can do like our Swiss friend here did: get a T470p because it's "the same money for twice the CPU cores", then ponder whether it's actually possible to retrofit a TP25 keyboard on it. It all depends how much you care about the keyboard; there is no other reason but the keyboard to consider a TP25.

3D work tends to rely a great deal on memory bandwidth, so does video encoding to some degrees. Regardless, my point is that if I'm going to pay $2,000+ for a laptop (which it would be with the 6-cell battery, I'd get another 16GB SODIMM myself far cheaper than Lenovo would supply it) I want it to perform the best it can.

As for there being other reasons to buy the T25 other than just the keyboard, well, it's the 25th Anniversary ThinkPad and that alone makes it worth a few more bucks to me. Can't say that for anyone else but, they're been dependable reliable devices for decades for me and many others, a few bucks more isn't going to make me homeless.

Besides, that packaging is kinda cool, and the book by David Hill would be nice to have, I have a lot of ThinkPad memorabilia collected over the years so, why not the 25th Anniversary laptop too?

It's just money, I can always print more. (JUST KIDDING)

It looks like you bought one yourself, dr_st, was it because of some specific aspects of the device or was it because it's the 25th Anniversary laptop?

br0adband wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 29, 2017 8:14 pm

It looks like you bought one yourself, dr_st, was it because of some specific aspects of the device or was it because it's the 25th Anniversary laptop?

Obviously, if I said that I see no other reason than the keyboard to buy one, and I bought one, it must have been because of the keyboard.

theterminator93 wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 29, 2017 10:35 am

http://wannerweb.ddns.net/Public/Photos ... kbench.png
http://wannerweb.ddns.net/Public/Photos ... chemem.png
http://wannerweb.ddns.net/Public/Photos ... lbench.png

I just ran the same benchmarks; results are slightly lower for the most part, sometimes higher (for the L2/L3 caches) but comparable, within 10% deviation, nothing unexpected. And I did not bother closing any applications / background services (of which I have a lot), so this may have affected results a bit (although I did try to wait until task manager was indicating the CPU/disk were pretty idle).

Thanks for the input. Found an almost near (at least condition-wise) T430 in a pawn shop yesterday for $150 and then when I got home I found a T420 in fine condition (a refurb) for $80 on craigslist so, was a nice weekend but I'm still considering the T25 if I can pull together the funds before they disappear and Lenovo decides not to make 'em any more.

Is the SSD Firmware for TP25
Have any new version for update?

My SSD is Lenovo's Lensexxxxxx type
My SSD f/w is 1.9

I see x1c the same type SSD have new firmware update to 2.0

So, Will Lenovo have to release new version few for TP25
In the future?