Inside the Lenovo P620

The P620 is almost entirely tool-free Upgrades should only take a matter of minutes, with handy levers around all vital components that allow you to easily swap them out. That includes a bracket for the PCIe slots and 5.25-inch bays, as well as levers for the power supply, intake fan, and RAM covers.

　　Digital TrendsEach of the levers are coated in red, too, making them stand out against the black and silver internals. The motherboard is custom-designed for this machine and comes with eight slots for DDR4-3200 ECC memory, as well as two M.2 slots. There are a few passive heat sinks cooling various points on the motherboard, as well as covers for the two banks of RAM slots.

　　These covers are just a bit of plastic with a fan on top, which likely contributes to the noise. It’s not ideal, but most ECC kits don’t usually come with heat sinks, and they sit very close to a power-hungry processor.

　　On the bottom of the case, you’ll find the 1,000-watt 80+ Platinum power supply, which you can swap out by flicking down the lever. The power supply doesn’t have any cables; instead, it slots into the case with a single connector, providing 1000W of power without the mess of cables that comes along with it.

　　What would normally take 15 to 20 minutes only takes a few minutes in the P620.

　　Next to it, you’ll find either one or two drive cages depending on your configuration. The default configuration comes with a single drive cage for two additional hard drives. If you occupy those slots in your initial configuration, it’ll come with an extra drive cage.

　　This level of upgradability is likely a part of why the P620 is so expensive. Swapping out components is a breeze. What would normally take 15 to 20 minutes only takes a few minutes in the P620, which is something that systems that use off-the-shelf parts can’t claim.

　　

Processor performance

Image used with permission by copyright holderThere’s no doubting the power inside the P620, especially if you opt for a top-spec rig. With the right parts, it’s easily one of the most performant machines on the market, but the bloated price and top-end components are only useful in a narrow field of tasks. If you’re looking for general compute performance with the P620, you’re overspending.

　　PCMark 10 provides a clear look at that. My review unit earned an overall score of 7,172, which is actually below the eight-liter Intel NUC 11 Extreme I recently reviewed. That’s not too surprising, though. PCMark is a general benchmark that tests day-to-day apps, and most apps aren’t optimized to take advantage of 64 cores and 48GB of video memory.

　　Cinebench R23 shows a clearer view of how powerful the Threadripper 3995WX is. It earned a respectable single-core result of 1,242, which is a step below consumer Ryzen 5000 processors. Threadripper is built for multi-core performance, though. In the multi-core test, the Threadripper 3995WX earned a score of 61,261, which is way above anything we’ve ever tested. For reference, the Ryzen 9 5950X earned a multi-core score of 23,539.

　　There’s no doubting the power inside the P620, especially if you opt for a top-spec rig.

　　Multi-core workloads are where Threadripper shines. It doesn’t dominate in tasks that require a single core, but when it comes to distributed work that leverage all 64 cores at the same time, there’s nothing quite like the Threadripper 3995WX in a single-socket system.

　　Geekbench 5 told a similar story. In the single-core test, it fell short of most recent consumer desktop chips, and even some laptop chips. In the multi-core test, however, nothing came close. The consumer Ryzen 5950X earned about half the multi-core score, according to the Geekbench browser.

　　Geekbench also gave me the chance to see how the Threadripper 3995WX stacks up against its non-Pro sibling, the 3990X. The Pro chip I tested earned a multi-core score of 32,517. On the high-end, the Threadripper 3990X scored about 28,000 on Windows, and on the low-end, it scored about 22,000. On Windows, at least, the Pro model shows some clear improvements.

　　Simply put, the Threadripper 3995WX is the benchmark. In any representative test, the only processors that run faster are other Threadripper 3995WXs. The Pro range comes at a premium, but it shows performance advantages over the Threadripper 3000 range, as well as support for more PCIe 4.0 slots, octa-channel memory, and much more memory.

　　

Content creation

With the horsepower provided by the P620, you can tackle everything from deep learning to data science to dense content creation. For me, large-scale content-creation workloads seemed like an obvious fit given the beefy GPU and CPU inside the my review unit. This is a machine that can generate, edit, and render faster than just about anything else.

　　As Cinebench showed in the last section, the Threadripper 3995WX is a monster in multi-core workloads. I turned to a suite of benchmarks from Puget Systems for Premiere Pro, After Effects, and DaVinci Resolve to see how the P620 would perform in a real-world use. It stacks up well, but content creation isn’t the P620’s true calling.

　　Image used with permission by copyright holderI started with Premiere Pro, where I ran the extended test. This test isn’t much longer, but it includes 8K testing — something the P620 in this configuration should be able to handle. It passed with an overall score of 1,235. A system rocking a recent 32-core Xeon managed 1,001 in the same test, though with a weaker graphics card and much more memory.

　　This test showed some weaknesses, too. Compared to systems with a cheaper Threadripper 3990X, my review unit trailed by about 200 points. Most of these systems used an RTX 3090, too, which is much cheaper than the Quadro RTX 8000. You’re paying a premium for workstation-class parts, and PugetBench for Premiere Pro shows that.

　　The After Effects test showed that, too, without a clear difference between the 3990X and the 3995WX. The same was true in my Handbrake test, where the P620 matched the render time of a machine with a consumer-grade Ryzen 9 5950X.

　　Blender showed a greater difference. The RTX 3090 was around twice as fast as the Quadro RTX 8000 using CUDA for rendering. DaVinci Resolve was a little different, however. Compared to a system with a Threadripper 3970X and RTX 3090, my review unit was about 9% faster, mostly on the back of 4K media handling.

　　As these tests show, a big part of the asking price comes down to software and features. The 3995WX is more powerful than the 3990X, but more memory, more memory channels, and more PCIe lanes are a big part of why it’s more expensive. Similarly, the Quadro RTX 8000 is more expensive because it comes with a massive amount of video memory, but also because it has rock-solid driver support.

　　The Quadro RTX 8000 is not built for gaming, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t put a $6,000 GPU to good use. Fire Strike Ultra showed just how big of a waste the Quadro RTX 8000 is for gaming, as it earned an overall score of 8,667 — in the bottom 1% of results compared to the RTX 3090. It managed a solid physics score, though still below most RTX 3090 results.

　　Image used with permission by copyright holderAt 4K Ultra with ray tracing turned on, the Quadro RTX 8000 managed 37 frames per second (fps) in Cyberpunk 2077. The RTX 3090 gets closer to 60 fps (though still struggles to hit it). If you need proof that a Quadro isn’t built for gaming, here it is — but you can still have a little fun once your work is done, provided you turn down a few settings.

　　Although my review unit was kitted out, the P620 is limited to Threadripper Pro processors and Quadro graphics cards (as well as a couple of AMD workstation GPUs). The Threadripper Pro chips are more powerful than their non-Pro counterparts, but not by much (especially in content-creation tasks). The advantages mostly show up in other areas, so keep that in mind.

　　

Our take

The Lenovo ThinkStation P620 is a top-tier workstation with a price to match. It offers some of the fastest components on the market and a smart tool-free design that makes upgrades easy. It’s too noisy, and the extra power will go to waste in a lot of situations, but there’s no denying how much the P620 has to offer to those who can take advantage of it.

　　Price is the main issue, as there are nearly identical systems from smaller system builders for less. But compared to the Dells and HPs of the world, Lenovo is the only one presenting workstation options with Threadripper Pro parts. Plus, you can likely score a deal on the P620 if you’re ordering multiple systems.

　　

Are there any alternatives?

Yes. Outside of the case, motherboard, and power supply, the P620 uses parts you can buy and put together yourself, which will save you a lot of money. System builders like Puget Systems and Boxx have similar options, too, which cost less than the P620. Competitors like Dell and HP are locked to Intel processors at the moment.

　　

How long will it last?

Depending on your hardware configuration, the P620 can last you many years — maybe even a decade. It’s a computing powerhouse that’s easily upgradable, and the power supply is large enough to accommodate even the most power-hungry components.

　　

Should you buy it?

Yes, if you can score a deal. On sale, the P620 is a great. At full price, there are options from other system builders that are cheaper and come with off-the-shelf parts.