Lenovo ThinkPad P1 16 Gen 8 review: Tandem OLED series premiere

[veraverav]

I'd strongly recommend choosing a model with the dGPU, even if you don't need it. The non-dGPU models come with a smaller heatsink without liquid metal that fails to cover all the VRMs. This causes VRM overheating, which severely limits CPU package power.

You can verify this yourself by comparing spare part images for 5H41R89131 (non-dGPU) versus 5H41R89134 (dGPU).

I experienced this exact problem on my P1 G5 without a dGPU, as it could only sustain 38W CPU package power long-term due to VRM thermal issues. Lenovo Premier Support confirmed the design flaw and offered a full refund, explicitly recommending I purchase a dGPU-equipped unit instead.

TL;DR: Get the dGPU model regardless of your graphics needs if you want to get decent sustained CPU performance.

Didn't know this but glad I didn't go for the iGPU only model. Discount of 45%+ was on the dGPU model, so Lenovo made the correct choice for me :) Thanks for posting this. Learned something new.