RTX 3070 on a Dual Core Laptop?!

Hardware limitation or can the dual core cut it?

I thought it would be fun to see what my RTX 3070 can do on my dual-core Lenovo T470. This will be a great example of balancing PC hardware, although a pretty extreme case. Let’s see how this is going to play out!

Laptop:

• Model: Lenovo T470
• CPU: i5 7200u (2 Cores, 4 Threads) @2.5ghz base
• Ram: 16GB SODIMM DDR4-2133
• Graphics: Intel HD 620
• External GPU: Razer Core X with a Zotac RTX 3070 Twin Edge LHR 8GB
• Games Stored on External Hard Drives

Settings:

• All games are tested at 1080p.
• I will let you know when DLSS Upscaling is on.
• Games tested on Fullscreen.

Here is the video of my RTX 3070 on a Dual Core Laptop:

Timestamps:

0:00 – 0:21 Intro
0:22 – 4:00 Installing the RTX 3070 in the laptop?!
4:01 – 5:20 The testing setup
5:21 – 13:15 Assassins Creed Valhalla
13:16 – 20:59 Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2018
21:00 – 28:13 Hitman 3
28:13 – 29:36 Marvel Rivals
29:37 – 29:55 Cyberpunk 2077
29:55 – 34:13 Warframe
34:14 – 38:30 Counter Strike 2 (CS2)
38:31 – 41:14 League of Legends (ARAM)
41:15 Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts:

I though that was some pretty interesting results that we had. I was surprised that AC Valhalla ran decently and that Hitman 3 looked pretty good on the dual cores. It’s good to note that the power consumption was pretty low on the RTX 3070, but Warframe showed us that the wattage could go higher if pushed with more intensive graphics, it’s just a shame that the game crashed. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t get Marvel rivals or Ratchet and Clank Rift apart to run. Its a bit odd that Cyberpunk 2077 was running with my RX 5600XT but refused to launch with my RTX 3070 I think I will have to look into it. 

These games are all really good examples of CPU limitation, and when you are CPU-limited, the graphics card will not be able to produce any more frames. This was painfully obvious in some games. This is taken to the extreme considering that this Thunderbolt 3 port is capable of 20Gbps, and the RTX 3070 was running at PCIe 3.0 x2. This serious bandwidth limitation hurts the RTX 3070’s ability to perform to its maximum. It’s like having a really powerful pump to fill all the water in a lake, but you are using a straw to put in all of the water.

A good lesson in balancing your PC parts is to make sure you are actually taking full advantage of the parts you bought.

YSTech: https://ystech.org
YSTech Article: https://ystech.org/rtx-3070-on-a-dual-core-laptop

-YS