Lenovo’s Workstations: It’s What’s Inside that Counts
Nashville, Tennessee — At Autodesk University 2025, speakers on its main stage issued one breathless pronouncement of an AI-enhanced future after another. On the show floor, in sharp contrast, was Lenovo, feet firmly on the ground. The focus for Lenovo was not just on the future and AI but on the machines on which design and engineering software, present and future, will run, be it code or neural networks.
ThinkStation and ThinkPad workstations.
This AU, I am brough up to date by on Lenovo’s desktop workstation by Dalibor Lingenfelder, Lenovo’s Vertical Industry Manager, and Deanna Gencarelli, Product Manager for Mobile Workstations. They both underscored a simple truth: the boldest visions of AI, generative design, and cloud collaboration still rely on robust hardware that can crunch terabytes of data, push pixels in real-time — all while staying cool, even during extreme computing.
The Desktop Workhorse: ThinkStation PX
Dalibor began with Lenovo’s flagship desktop, the ThinkStation PX. Though not new—the model was announced two years ago—it remains Lenovo’s flagship.
“Here is our top-of-the-line workstation,” he said, effortlessly removing the side panels (the whole chassis supports tool-less assembly/disassembly) to reveal its components and a most carefully crafted interior.
“Dual Intel CPUs, up to four high-end NVIDIA RTX 6000 GPUs, and two terabytes of memory,” says Dalibor, as if exposing the race engine of a Formula One.
The PX (X for 10 — Roman numerals) was designed in conjunction with Aston Martin’s design division, borrowing elements from the automaker’s grills.
Here is form and function. The stylistic front end may be derived from Aston Martin’s DBX, but it still accommodates the airflow necessary to keep even the chips in the multiple 300-watt Blackwell 6000 GPUs cool, says Dolibor.
With redundant power supplies—two 1,850-watt units—and a three-channel cooling system, the PX can be rack-mounted in a data center or sit under a desk, delivering workstation-class performance in either setting. Its modular design means no screwdriver is needed to swap fans or GPUs, a nod to maintenance in enterprise environments.
“The difference from other workstation manufacturers,” Dalibor added, “is that their front bays block airflow. With today’s GPUs, you can’t afford to ignore cooling. When the temperature in a CPU or GPU rises, the system software throttles down and you lose performance.”
Heat, Noise, and Design Engineering
Demonstrating this, Dalibor removed fans while it was running. The system’s sensors immediately adjusted, spinning up other fans until the module was reinserted.
“It runs hot—but silent,” he said, noting the patented airflow design.
The workstations are therefore able to operate reliably in temperatures up to 90 to 100°C, he says.
Every detail in the Lenovo workstation seems to have been carefully considered, which is uncommon in an industry in which low cost rules the day. Instead, Lenovo takes pride in what is inside.
Portable Power: ThinkPad P16 Gen 3
If the PX is the immovable object, the new ThinkPad P16 Gen 3 is its mobile counterpart. There was Deanna Gencarelli to show us Lenovo’s latest mobile workstation, which contains up to an NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell GPU and Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285HX processor.
“This is the most powerful mobile workstation Lenovo has ever built,” she said. I look for a massive brick, a common trick is to downsize the mobile workstation but have a ball-and-chain of a transformer. But the whole of the P16 Gen 3 weighs under six pounds — including the power brick, 30% smaller than the previous version.
Deanna positioned it not as a replacement for desktops but as a flexible option for professionals on the move—engineers, CFD analysts, and designers who need workstation-class graphics while traveling. “It even runs VRED,” she noted, referencing Autodesk’s high-end visualization software.
Remote Workstation Access
Dalibor concedes that there are cases where a mobile workstation is just the ticket — or even simpler mobile devices.
“Not every engineer has to have a PX under their desk,” Dalibor admits. For distributed teams, Lenovo offers remote workstation access—putting several PXs in one chassis, in effect a mini rack system, or micro datacenter, able to stream data to lightweight tablets or laptops.
“It works just like Netflix,” he said. “You’re not downloading models—you’re streaming the images of the part of the model that changes.”
Another advantage is that this approach lends itself to globally distributed teams.
“With global licensing, offices in the U.S. and Europe can share the same pool of seats.”
The approach balances cost, mobility, and performance, letting firms equip junior staff or external contractors with thin clients while confining these near-supercomputers to those who absolutely must have them, analysts who run CFD and FEA all day, every day, for example.
Filling Out the Line: P3 Ultra and Beyond
The booth also showcased the ThinkStation P3 family: Tiny, Ultra, and Tower. The P3 Ultra, with support for multiple GPUs and up to 11 displays, is perfect for finance, control rooms, and law enforcement… anyone who needs to be monitoring tens, hundreds or thousands of things at once.
“Day traders love this device,” Dalibor said.
He mentions NVIDIA’s Mosaic feature, where multiple displays can be stitched into a single massive screen.
A Culture of Engineering
For both Dalibor and Deanna, the common thread was Lenovo’s focus on engineering details that matter: airflow, modularity, power management and field serviceability.
Deanna shared her personal history with Lenovo, dating back to her college years when her school issued ThinkPads just after Lenovo acquired IBM’s PC business in 2005. “That was my first ThinkPad—and I’ve been with the brand ever since,” she said.
She also addressed persistent misconceptions about Lenovo’s owners, who are Chinese.
“We’re a global company; our U.S. headquarters are in North Carolina. We’re publicly traded, not state-owned,” she explains.
Conclusion: Hardware That Makes Cloud and AI Possible
At AU 2025, the buzz was once again about AI; it takes computer hardware, like Lenovo’s PX and P16, to make it work.
Lenovo’s bet is clear: state-of-the-art thermal management so the semiconductors can run at top speed while paying attention to the quality of the components and workmanship so that the whole workstation can be maintained easily and for a long time. The front end may scream Aston Martin, but the fit and finish is more like Mercedes. Like the German automaker, Lenovo considers quality to be the first consideration. Cost is not entirely ignored, because the company still has to compete with Dell and HP, but it is not the primary consideration.
From modular, rack-mountable desktops to ultraportable workstations, Lenovo is positioning itself as the preferred engineering workstation for the most compute-intensive workflows. Should those workflows become AI-enhanced, imposing even higher computing intensity, Lenovo is ready.