Lenovo ThinkPad P73 Review – Mobile Workstation with Core i9, RTX 4000 and 4K

The ThinkPad P73 is Lenovo’s biggest mobile workstation, but it struggled with the performance. Especially the powerful Nvidia Quadro RTX GPUs did not utilize their full potential. Lenovo had to launch some BIOS updates to improve the situation. Lenovo has already launched the successor ThinkPad P17 by now, bit the components are still pretty much the same. You now get Intel 10th generation chips, which do not offer any noticeable performance gains, and even the identical Nvidia Quadro GPUs. With the P73 equipped with a Core i9 and the RTX 4000, we once again want to check whether the performance now meets the expectations. Please see our comprehensive review of the ThinkPad P73 with the RTX 3000 for more information on the case, ports, input devices, and the speakers:

• Lenovo ThinkPad P73 (i7, FHD, RTX3000) review

Note: The manufacturer may use components from different suppliers including display panels, drives or memory sticks with similar specifications.

      Acer ConceptD 9 Pro       Lenovo ThinkPad P73-20QR0030GE       Lenovo ThinkPad P73-20QR002DGE       MSI WE75 9TK       Asus ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 W700G3T ❌

Our test unit is equipped with the matte 4K panel. We cannot confirm the advertised brightness of 400 nits at any measuring spot. Lenovo still uses 16:9 panels for the successor ThinkPad P17, but the brightness of the 4K screen is now rated at around 500 nits.

The subjective picture impression is decent, but not great. Bright surfaces look a bit grainy and the contrast ratio is lower than 1000:1 due to the high black value (0.38 cd/m²). This panel from AU Optronics (B173ZAN01.0) does not use PWM. Our test unit suffers from clearly visible backlight bleeding, especially at the lower edge, which is also noticeable on dark surfaces in everyday scenarios.

* … smaller is better

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Display response times show how fast the screen is able to change from one color to the next. Slow response times can lead to afterimages and can cause moving objects to appear blurry (ghosting). Gamers of fast-paced 3D titles should pay special attention to fast response times.

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To dim the screen, some notebooks will simply cycle the backlight on and off in rapid succession – a method called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) . This cycling frequency should ideally be undetectable to the human eye. If said frequency is too low, users with sensitive eyes may experience strain or headaches or even notice the flickering altogether.

Help

The ThinkPad P73 offers two slots for M.2-2282 SSDs with fast PCIe-x4-3.0 interface. Our test unit is equipped with a single PM981a drive from samsung with a storage capacity of 1 TB, and you can use 900 GB after the initial setup. The performance of the NVMe SSD is very good in all tests.

The chassis has space for an additional 2.5-inch drive, but the required cables and assembly tools are not provided.

* … smaller is better

Lenovo does not use the integrated graphics adapter of the processor. Instead, the dedicated Nvidia Quadro RTX 4000 takes care of the graphics calculations all the time. The RTX 4000 has been around since-mid 2019, but it is still a high-end GPU.

A couple of BIOS updates were necessary, but the P73 can now utilize the full potential of the RTX 4000 and the results are also slightly better than the average values for other RTX 4000 devices in our database. As expected, the performance is pretty much right in the middle between the RTX 3000 and the RTX 5000, although there can be differences depending on the individual versions. This is not only the case for the 3DMark tests, but also professional scenarios that we test with SPECviewperf.

We also checked the performance under sustained workloads with the demanding 3DMark Time Spy stress test, and the P73 passed the test (98.3 %). The performance is, however, significantly lower on battery power, and you have to expect a deficit of ~70 %.

Noise Level

Idle		29.5 / 29.5 / 30.2 dB(A)
Load		36.5 / 39.6 dB(A)
	30 dB silent 40 dB(A) audible 50 dB(A) loud
min: , med: , max:    Audix TM-1, Arta (15 cm distance)   environment noise: 29.5 dB(A)

* … smaller is better

Lenovo does a good job with the surface temperatures, because you could still put the device on your lap during the stress test (even though this is improbable due to the dimensions of the notebook). It is interesting that the top left corner on top of the base unit is quite a bit warmer at almost 50 °C, but the hotspot is located above the keyboard, so there are no limitations. The rear portion of the notebook also warms up noticeably while idling, which is once again caused by the lack of the iGPU.

Our stress test shows that the performance of the graphics cards is stable, even in combined workload scenarios. The CPU performance, however, is reduced, and the 70 W we saw during CPU load only cannot be maintained. A look at the following diagram shows the CPU consumption drops to around 42 W and 8x ~2.2 GHz after a few minutes. There are no performance limitations immediately after the stress test.

Frequency diagram (checkboxes can be checked and unchecked to compare devices)

We have already mentioned the deactivated iGPU of the processor. The constant utilization of the dedicated Quadro GPU in combination with the 4K panel increases the power consumption in idle scenarios noticeably. Depending on the brightness level, we can measure between 21-36 W, and therefore nearly twice as much as the previous review unit of the ThinkPad P73.

The maximum consumption is around 215 W, but this value will level off at around 170 W. This means the provided 230 W power adapter is completely sufficient. by the way, it is not possible to charge the device via USB-C.

* … smaller is better

Battery Runtime

The performance utilization was the biggest drawback in our initial review of the ThinkPad P73. It took a couple of months and a number of BIOS updates, but the performance of the dedicated Quadro graphics card is now on the expected level. 

The new ThinkPad P17 does not offer any noticeable improvements in terms of raw component power, so the performance of the P73 is actually still competitive. The Core i9 processor benefits from the high TDP limits and offers stable performance, just like the Quadro RTX 4000 from Nvidia. No problems here.

Lenovo managed to improve the performance utilization of the components thanks to several BIOS updates. Equipped with the Core i9 (9th generation) and the Nvidia Quadro RTX 4000, the ThinkPad P73 is still a very competitive mobile workstation.

We are not completely convinced by the 4K panel. The subjective picture quality is good in general, but our review unit suffered from visible backlight bleeding and the factory calibration is not great, either. The brightness is also lower than advertised. Lenovo wants to address the latter with the successor ThinkPad P17, but we obviously still have to test that.