A Tremendous Budget Gaming Laptop - Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3

The Ryzen 5 5600H + RTX 3050 Ti make for a fantastic combo on this laptop.

Presenter: Brett Sticklemonster
Videographer: Brett Sticklemonster
Editor: Brett Sticklemonster
Thumbnail Designer: Reece Hill

[jakobc]

I bought this laptop about a month back and am mostly happy with it. The high refresh rate display is great for a budget priced laptop and on power saver the battery actually lasts for a few hours unlike gaming laptops I've owned previously. I do have a few gripes with it that are important to note:

-The plastic is a fingerprint magnet. Small complaint but wanted to note
-M.2 boot drive is a 42mm form factor. There is a second, full size M.2 slot, but it does not include the standoff needed to install the new drive
-The charge cable has no 90-degree bend which could leave it more susceptible to damage, especially if you have bigger pets or children around
-This one was bigger: On battery (NOT plugged in), every 10 seconds the laptop would stutter for a fraction of a second. This affected general windows tasks, scrolling in applications, and watching videos.

SOLUTION for the fourth complaint: I found out it's an issue happening where the 3050ti tries to take over in place of the iGPU (despite being on battery and power saver where it should remain idle). To stop that happening, open device manager, under 'display adapters' find the 3050ti, right click it, and disable it if you have this problem when the laptop is not plugged in. That will leave just the iGPU running and stutters disappear - when you go to plug it back in, simply re-enable the 3050ti using these same steps and it'll work just fine!

[jcugnoni]

I bought an Ideapad Gaming 3 with 5800h and RTX3060 with 1tb ssd and 32Gb ram.. It is awesome. Can do everything. And is cheap but pretty well built for the price.

[NoahChin]

I picked this up on black Friday for $550. I added a 1tb HDD and an extra 16gb ram (now it has 24). It's one of the best purchases I've made in a while. 100% recommend

[ntsikelelondlovu]

I own this exact model, only mine has a GTX 1650 DDR6 4GB. I managed to get into my BIOS and reduce the integrated GPU VRAM on the Radeon Graphics to 512MB from 2GB. That way, I was able to regain 1.5GB back to my stock RAM. I have bought a second stick of memory and are running in dual channel 16GB but regaining 1.5GB definitely makes a difference despite having more memory.

So if you're getting this laptop, definitely try this out. I found it to be extremely helpful. Happy gaming!

[regularperson]

I've got one with 60hz, gtx 1650, ryzen 4000 series 5 - amd radeon graphics & 8gb ram. I like it for the fact that it doesnt scream gaming and was a very affordable price at only 399

[tsm_barbiboi]

i just got it for new years and i must say im pleased, every game i have played on this ive seen 90-240 fps on games set on medium/high.

[mariospeedwagon]

I picked one up for $200 at my work where we rent appliances and electronics. I upgraded to 32gb ram and a 2tb m.2 . A year later I am still very pleased with that purchase.

[jimmymac]

I bought this laptop last year. The 3050 is pretty good for 1080p gaming. I added an 8gb stick of ram and a 1tb ssd. The keyboard is surprisingly good. Only grievances are the 250nits display, wish it was 300 and i get about 2 1/2 hrs on light usage.

[nathan]

I picked one of these up from Best Buy in Wesley Chapel, FL for $550 back in November. Walked out of the store with a second stick of ram and before even powering on, I put that ram in and a spare 1tb ssd I had at home. Haven't even used my desktop since then, I can't recommend this laptop enough!!

[buba]

I bought one about a year ago. Mines running a Ryzen 5 6600 H with an RTX 3050. It came with 8GB of RAM but I recently upgraded to 16GB.



This might be the best laptop you can buy if you’re on a budget but still want a rig that can hang with the big boys.

[RaziMemeGod]

I got one with a 6600h, 8gb ram (I added 16gb more a few weeks ago) a 3050, and it came with game pass ultimate. It's amazing.

[BlastPKMN]

My girlfriend got the HP Victus Intel 12450H, GTX 1650, 8GB 3200MHZ RAM (upgraded to 16GB 2666MHZ), 512GB SSD, 1080p IPS 144Hz laptop for $480 from Best Buy. Such a steal of a laptop for the price since she was on a budget for just a school laptop. Performs excellently for light gaming.

[CameronVanNatta]

I love how understated "on the go streaming" sounds when it comes to the Cannonball.

[MuchButteR]

I love this laptop. RAM upgrade is necessity as you double your performance for a fraction of price.

[gobrooksgo]

Dude, I have been sitting on the fence with this in my cart for like a week and it wasn't til your review, right now, that I am commiting to my shiny new baby. THANK YOU for giving me the clarity I needed to hear. 👍🏾, 🔔, 💸

[codycastricone]

BEFORE BUYING THIS LAPTOP READ THIS!!!!
The laptop mentioned in this video has the Ryzen 5 5600h, with the 3050ti. The Ryzen 5 processor is a pretty significant bottleneck at about 22.6%. that means you aren't using the full capability of the 3050ti graphics chip as its only running at 77.4%. Having this bottleneck means you are missing out on a lot of fps and there is simply nothing you can do about it. I highly recommend getting the same laptop but with the i5 12500h. That one will allow your 3050ti graphics to be utilized to its max 100%. I have years of gaming experience with custom built gaming desktops and laptops and and I Understand hoe bad these bottlenecks can be. But that being said I absolutely love my Lenovo Idea pad gaming 3 with the i5 12500h-3050ti-16gb ram.

[encrypteddvjjrxv]

Thank god I purchased this yesterday because now the prices are gonna RISE 📈📈📈

[outdoorinwithzach]

Bought one for my partner and they love it! Only downside is the battery life

[MuchButteR]

It had a good price during post covid price hikes, especially for a decent GPU.

[robwiljas]

I bought two of the newer 2022 intel version during the black Friday sale from Lenovo, one for myself and one for my wife. I5 12500h, 8GB RAM, 256GB Gen 4 NVME, and RTX 3050Ti. With discounts they were $610 each. I added another crucial 8GB RAM and P5 1TB NVME storage drive to both.

I'm very happy with them, except I wish the screen was better. We also got the Lenovo G27-20 1080P 144Hz monitors and the laptop screen has very washed out color in comparison, and doesn't get that bright. The integrated display also doesn't support adaptive sync.

Something else that should be noted, I believe the USB-C video output on the model here is connected directly to the dedicated GPU, but on mine, the 2022 intel version, it and the built in display goes through the iGPU, while the HDMI port on the laptop is connected directly to the dGPU. So you get a little better performance using an external monitor through HDMI.