The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (2021) is a cheap gaming laptop with a screen size of 15.6 inches. Like many gaming laptops in its price range, like the HP Victus 16 (2021), it comes with options for a powerful CPU and a very capable GPU. However, to make it more affordable, it gives up on other things.
There are AMD Ryzen 5000 CPU and NVIDIA dedicated GPU options for this model, but there are also Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i models with Intel 11th Gen CPUs (2021). We tested the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 configuration can provide a good gaming experience, but its 8GB of memory in a single-channel configuration severely limits its performance. This means that frame rates in games are lower than expected, so you need to make sure to get 16GB of memory in dual-channel mode to get the most out of the CPU and GPU.
[content-egg-block template=offers_logo hide=price]The Lenovo is made of Onyx Gray plastic and polycarbonate and is 0.86 inches tall, 14.2 inches wide, and 12.5 inches deep. This is a lot deeper than the Nitro 5 (1.06 by 14.1 by 10.7 inches), thanks to a rear block that sticks out like the Legion and has several ports and blue-tinted cooling vents.
The IdeaPad is, however, lighter (5.1 versus 5.5 pounds). If you grab the corners of the screen, there is a lot of flex. If you press the keyboard deck, there isn’t much flex. Like many low-cost gamers, the IdeaPad Gaming 3 has neither a fingerprint reader nor a face recognition webcam, so you’ll be stuck typing passwords instead of using Windows Hello.
Our Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 has an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, 8GB of memory, a 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD, and a 1TB 5400rpm hard drive for a total of 1256GB of storage. You can also get the laptop with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H, which isn’t as fast as the Ryzen 7 5800H but is still powerful enough for smooth gaming.
As for the GPU, the entry-level NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is the least powerful option. It can get around 60 frames per second at 1080p, but you’ll have to play most games on low settings. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 and RTX 3050Ti are a good step up from the GTX 1650 and perform about the same. The RTX 3050Ti is only slightly better than the 3050. At high settings, both GPUs can get around or just over 60 fps. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is the best configuration, with average frame rates of 80 to 100 fps at 1080p.