The Lenovo Legion Go is out now, competing with the likes of the Asus ROG Ally as one of the best Steam Deck alternatives. With features like detachable controllers, a big 144Hz refresh rate screen, and even an FPS mode, there’s a lot to enjoy about this unique gaming handheld. Lenovo provided me with a Legion Go to sample, and over the past weeks, I’ve learned quite a bit about the best way to use it
1 Change the available VRAM in the BIOS
Unlocking better performance in games
One of the first things I did when I received my Legion Go was to change the available VRAM in settings. The AMD Z1 Extreme CPU inside the Legion Go is still powerful, but a lot of modern games can be quite demanding when it comes to performance. I found that games like Forza Motorsport didn’t have enough VRAM for adequate gameplay since the default is 3GB. Other gaming handhelds like the ROG Ally have a higher amount as standard out of the box. That’s why it is important to tweak the available VRAM in the settings so that games can perform better, and you can play at higher resolution and refresh rates.
- Turn off your Legion Go.
- Press the volume down, volume up, and power button at the same time.
- When the Novo Button Menu appears, use your fingers and tap on BIOS Setup.
- Choose More Settings from the bottom of the screen.
- Tap Configuration
- Tap UMA Buffer Size and choose an amount. The higher, the better. I pick 8G.
- Tap Exit
- Tap Exit saving changes.
- Tap Yes.
Once you change the setting, your Legion Go should feel snappier while playing games, since they’ll have more system resources allocated. I found that this helped Forza Motorsport jump in framerates instantly in performance on low settings from 20 to 30 frames per second. Note that Windows itself might feel slow if you plan to use the Legion Go for web browsing and other tasks since the available RAM will go down, but I didn’t notice much.
2 Update your graphics drivers
Enabling you to play newer games without issues
The Lenovo Legion Go ships with AMD graphics drivers from October. Before you dive into downloading your games, I highly suggest updating your graphics drivers. When I tried playing games like Starfield and Forza Motorsport, I got a lot of notifications that notified me that my graphics drivers were out of date. I checked for driver updates on Windows Update, but none were available. I manually had to update drivers.
- Visit the support page for the Legion Go.
- Choose Drivers and Software.
- Choose Manual Update.
- Choose Select Drivers.
- Choose Graphics Processing Units.
- Download the latest AMD Graphics Driver.
Once the graphics drivers are downloaded, I launch the EXE installer. New graphics were instantly installed, and I noticed that many games would no longer complain about outdated graphics drivers when I launched them.
3 Improve the speaker quality
Realtek Audio Console to the rescue
One of the biggest complaints about the Lenovo Legion Go is the audio quality. Reviewers (and myself) noticed that the speakers sounded too soft, sometimes muffled, even when compared to the Steam Deck and other devices. Well, the good news is that there’s an app that’s pre-installed on your handheld that can improve the audio experience. It’s the Realtek Audio Console.
- Open the Start Menu.
- Search for Realtek.
- Launch the Realtek Audio Console.
- Choose Speakers.
- Set Omni Speaker to On.
- Choose one of the presets, like Powerful.
Once you finish the setup, just close the app. The next time you boot into a game, you should really hear the difference.
4 Set your triggers to left-click and right-click, joysticks to navigate Windows
Better navigation on Windows
If you’re planning to use the Lenovo Legion Go as a Windows tablet, you should tweak your settings in Steam to use the joystick as a mouse or the shoulder buttons to right-click and left-click instead of having to rely on the touchscreen or trackpad. This feature is natively available on the Steam Deck and ROG Ally, but not on the Legion Go, but you can enable it using Steam and keep the app running in the background.
- Download and install Steam.
- Launch the Steam app.
- Click Steam at the top of the app.
- Choose Settings.
- Choose Controller.
- Choose Enable input for Xbox Controller and make sure it’s on.
- Scroll down to Desktop Layout.
- Click Edit and pay attention to the controls you see on the screen.
- Press B to exit.
- Adjust the Right Joystick controller down to 130%.
The perk of this is that for it to work, I have to keep Steam running in the background, but this really makes a difference for quickly navigating WIndows. I found that the built-in trackpad on the controller was way too slow for my liking, and tapping down on it for right-clicks and left-clicks was too slow. With these options, everything feels smoother when web browsing and using Windows day to day.
5 Use Legion Space to your advantage
Tweak a few settings
Finally, I want to touch on the software that’s running on top of Windows called Legion Space. This is basically Lenovo’s way for you to manage your Legion Go settings. There are more than a few things you’ll want to tweak here to get a better experience on your Legion Go.
- Open the Legion Space app. Typically, it will launch automatically. If there’s an update available, Legion Space will grab the latest version. Make sure to keep the app updated, as you’ll get controller firmware updates from here too.
- When gaming in handheld mode, visit Performance and then Thermal Mode. Choose the Custom option and set it to 30W. Also, change the OS Power Mode to Performance. Changing this will drain your battery quicker, and you’ll hear the fans kick into high speed, but it also gets you better frames in most games.
- Under Menu, click the Settings cog and choose General. Disable the option to Boot automatically into Legion Space. By disabling Legion Space when not needed, you’ll have more system resources available for your games. I usually only boot the app when I need it.
There’s so much more you can do!
These are just five of the most important things you should do o nce you get your Lenovo Legion Go. For example, you can also press the Legion button and the L button to see all available shortcuts. I also suggest downloading the AMD Software Adrenalin Ediition app and playing around with the display and other settings. These can help you get better performance in games. And an even simpler one? To tell when your Legion Go is charging when off, plug the charging cable in and remove it, and you’ll see the charging percentage on the screen.
![The Lenovo Legion Go display render](https://static1.xdaimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/lenovo-legion-go-render-removebg-preview.png)
Lenovo Legion Go
The Lenovo Legion Go might be one of the most interesting gaming handhelds yet, boasting a giant 8.8-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. It also has detachable controllers, including one that has a trackpad that you can use as a mouse.