Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD): Two-minute review
Lenovo continues to release budget gaming machines, including the Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD), for those who want the best PC games while keeping to a reasonable budget. This particular gaming PC features both an AMD CPU and GPU to keep costs down while still offering reliable performance.
This is a no-frills budget gaming PC through and through - among the best budget gaming PCs - so don’t expect a gorgeous chassis or stunning RGB lighting decorating the inside of the case. Despite having a glass panel that lets you peer inside to see all the components, the only way to actually tell if your PC is turned on is through the fan. On the plus side, the case is small and lightweight enough that you can carry it around with relative ease. It weighs about 30 pounds, much lighter than most PCs.
Its port selection is quite good as well, offering everything you could need including several Type-A USB ports, a Type-C USB port, an ethernet port, both HDMI and DVI support, an audio jack, a headphone jack, and a microphone jack. My only complaint is that there should be more Type-C ports. The audio itself is quite good, with a sound quality that doesn’t degrade too much as the volume increases, though you’ll most likely want to use a headset instead.
Performance-wise it’s rather impressive for the kind of CPU and GPU it’s equipped with. Benchmark scores are average, especially compared to other PCs on the market, but reflect the best gaming PC that delivers the kind of gaming experience you’d expect from a budget machine. While you can’t run games like Cyberpunk 2077 on anything higher than low settings (as at best you’ll get 47 fps) or Dirt 5 higher than medium if you want to race a little over 60 fps, it still runs any PC game you have quite smoothly as long as the settings are right.
Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD): Price & availability
- How much does it cost? $664.99 / £538 / AU$994
- When is it available? Available now
- Where can you get it? Available in the US
The Legion Tower 5 Gen 6, particularly the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G CPU version, is a budget gaming PC through and through. It’s currently priced at $664.99 / £538 / AU$994 through a sale on the Lenovo online store, which sits it right at the low-end market of machines. The AMD version’s original pricing at $989.99 is reasonable enough, but the sale price is practically a steal.
Meanwhile, there’s an improved version with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800 and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, as well as more memory and storage. It’s a price jump of about $300 but a solid option if you want to future-proof your PC, and thanks to the sale price, it’s still below $1,000.
Both versions are currently available in the US, though other regions like the UK and Australia were left high and dry in terms of availability. Judging from the pages for the latter two, models in the UK might go back in stock at some point while ones in Australia are permanently unavailable.
- Price score: 5 / 5
Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD): Specs
The Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD) comes in two configurations, one with an AMD GPU and the other with an Nvidia GPU.
The one sent to me was: an AMD Ryzen 5 5600G CPU, Radeon RX 6500 XT 4GB GDDR6 GPU, 8GB DDR4 of RAM, and 512GB SSD PCIe Gen4 of storage. The other configuration was an AMD Ryzen 7 5800 CPU, RTX 3060 GPU, 16GB DDR4 of RAM, and 1TB of storage.
Unfortunately, neither one of these models can be customized, which most likely is what keeps the price down as improved specs often spike the total.
- Specs score: 4 / 5
Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD): Design
- Simple and bland design
- Small and weighs less than most PCs
The Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD)’s design is a slightly mixed bag. On one hand, it’s efficient at not taking up unnecessary space and very lightweight for a gaming PC. I was easily able to carry it around my office, it was so light. On the other hand, it’s a plain black color with no interesting chassis shape and has a glass side panel with no RGB lighting to see inside, though I realize RGB is purely aesthetic, it’s a handy way to see whether your PC is turned on and I miss the feature. It’s a boring yet practical design and while it may be a little disappointing, your wallet with thank you.
It does have a nicely varied port selection that includes four USB Type-A 3.2, two USB Type-A 2.0, one USB Type-C, one headphone jack, one microphone jack, one audio jack, one RJ45, one ethernet port, one HDMI port, and one DVI port. Though it could have used another Type-C USB instead of so many Type-As, especially since wireless accessories tend to support the latter.
The ventilation system, despite the PC being so small, is quite good and never overheated once even during extensive gaming and benchmark testing. No fancy liquid cooling system, but the fans do the trick, and well too. Surprising enough, this PC has its own audio built in, Dolby Atmos Gaming Effect 5.1 Channel Surround Sound to be specific. Its audio quality is pretty solid with a nice well-rounded sound that doesn’t lose too much as the volume goes up, though most gamers will want to use their own headset anyway.
- Design score: 4 / 5
Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD): Performance
- Solid but not exceptional performance
- Can be used as a productivity machine
Here's how the Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
3DMark: Night Raid: 39,529; Fire Strike: 13,699; Time Spy: 5,121
Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 10,423
GeekBench 5.5: 1,433 (single-core); 6,126 (multi-core)
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 48 fps; (1080p, Low): 89 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 23 fps; (1080p, Low): 47 fps
Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 16 fps; (1080p, Low): 171 fps
PC Mark 10 (Home Test): 6,779
Handbrake 1.6: 9.2
Performance-wise, the Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD) sits comfortably between the likes of the Acer Predator Orion 3000 and the MSI Trident 3 10th, with the former at the higher end and the latter the lower end. This is a consistent PC that delivers the kind of performance that you would expect from a budget machine.
Benchmark scores-wise, the Legion Tower 5 blows past the Trident 3 10th, scoring at some points nearly double of its competitor. However, the Predator Orion 3000 is this, with test scores far higher than Lenovo’s offerings. The positive is that the AMD model of the Legion is almost half the price as well, so if you’re willing to sacrifice on specs a bit, then it’s the better budget option by far.
With heavy titles like Cyberpunk 2077, it struggles to even approach 50 fps on average on the lowest setting, though it does manage that same framerate with Total War: Warhammer III on Ultra. And Dirt 5 can be played on Medium settings and hit over 60 fps consistently, though the lack of VRAM could be a problem. With many other PC games that are much less taxing, the Tower 5 runs perfectly well.
It also makes for a great productivity machine, as the 12th Gen CPU can handle plenty of work-related tasks with ease, as well as conference calls. But I wouldn’t bank on it handling any creative or editing projects with the below-average benchmark scores it received on that front.
If you want to play through your full PC game library on Steam without emptying your wallet, you have no problems compromising on settings, and you also want a reliable work machine, then this is a pretty solid budget PC to invest in.
- Performance score: 3.5 / 5
Should you buy the Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD)?
Buy it if...
You need a budget gaming PC
This is a great budget machine that will easily play most PC games well and can even handle plenty of high-end titles as long as you’re willing to adjust the settings a bit.
You want a solid port selection
This PC comes with tons of ports that most gamers and buyers in general, including tons of USB Type-A ones if you’re in need, and even has both HDMI and DVI support.
You want a smaller PC
This PC has a smaller form factor than most, which comes in handy for nearly any desk space both at home and at work.
Don't buy it if...
You want a gorgeous PC
This is a pretty standard-looking PC, barring the single glass side panel, so no wowing your guests with a beautiful RGB setup unless you do it yourself.
Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD): Also consider
If the Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD) has you considering other options, here are two more gaming PCs to consider...
How I tested the Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD)
- I tested the Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD) for several weeks
- I tested it using both benchmark tests and video game benchmarks
- I stress-tested the PC with productivity and creative testing
First, I tested the general weight of the Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD) by lifting it up and around my apartment. After I set it up, I ran several benchmarks to test out both the processor and graphics card, as well as in-game gameplay performance. Finally, I stress-tested it out using titles like Dirt 5 and Cyberpunk 2077 in various settings to see both overall performance and ventilation quality.
The Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD) is specially made as a gaming PC, which meant the brunt of my testing revolved around checking game performance and looking for any ventilation issues.
I've tested plenty of gaming PCs and laptops, making me more than qualified to understand benchmark test results and how to properly stress test machines to see how well they perform as a work machine.
First reviewed April 2023
