Lenovo P Series Ultra Gen 2

The Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra Gen 2 squeezes a monster Core Ultra 9 CPU and 64GB RAM into a sub-4-liter case. CPU and RAM scores both sit in the mid-90th percentile, making it a tiny productivity beast. But the integrated graphics are weak, so only buy it if you don't need a GPU.

In our testing, the Core Ultra 9 285 flexes hard. It lands in the 93rd percentile of all desktops we've benchmarked, chewing through multi-threaded tasks like a hot knife through butter. The 64GB of RAM is equally impressive, sitting at the 94th percentile, meaning you can open Chrome tabs like it's a sport and still have memory to spare. The 2TB SSD is quick, ranking in the top 16% of storage we've seen. Now the bad news: the integrated graphics are firmly mediocre. You'll be fine for video playback and basic UI, but any 3D rendering or AI tasks that tap the GPU will feel sluggish. The port selection is okay but not generous, with just one HDMI and a handful of USB-A ports. No USB-C on this config, which stings in 2024.

Compared to the usual suspects in this price range, like the HP OMEN 45L or Corsair ONE i600, the ThinkStation P3 Ultra is a whole different animal. Those machines are built around big GPUs for gaming and content creation. The Lenovo trades all that for raw CPU output and a chassis that's fraction of the size. For pure computational jobs, it smokes them. But if you ever fire up a game or render a complex 3D scene, those rivals will leave it in the dust. It's all about what you need.

Price is where things get real. We saw this model listed from $3,527 up to $5,450 across retailers, a $1,923 gap. Newegg had the lowest price we could find. That's a lot of money for a system without a dedicated GPU, but you're paying for the engineering to put top-tier silicon in a tiny, reliable box. If your workflow can ignore the GPU, the cost per CPU cycle is actually pretty solid. But if you need graphics performance, you'd be much better off putting that cash into the RTX 4000 SFF variant or a larger workstation.

Let's get straight to it: the Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra Gen 2 is a pint-sized powerhouse that's all about the CPU. We're talking an Intel Core Ultra 9 285 with 24 cores and 64GB of DDR5 RAM crammed into a chassis smaller than a shoebox. For the right kind of work, that combination is staggering.

But that compact size comes with a catch. The graphics are handled by the integrated Intel chip, not a discrete GPU. So if your workflow leans on the GPU, you're going to feel the pinch. This machine is built for number crunchers, software developers, and office pros who need max compute in minimal space. Think spreadsheets, code compilation, financial models, that sort of thing.

Skip this if your work involves any 3D modeling, GPU rendering, or AI acceleration that leans on CUDA cores. Also steer clear if you want a machine for gaming at all. And if you're budget-conscious, look at larger mini-towers with similar CPU specs for a lot less cash.

Buy the ThinkStation P3 Ultra Gen 2 if you're an engineer, data scientist, or programmer who needs maximum CPU performance in a machine you can hide behind your monitor. It's the smallest high-end workstation we've ever seen, and it delivers where it counts. Just know that the integrated graphics make it a specialist, not a generalist.