Symptom

May experience poor performance in Microsoft Teams on laptops during meetings that use video.

• Intel CPU and GPU utilization from 95 - 100% while in Teams video calls or meetings
• Slow performance of Teams chat and other applications while in Teams video calls or meetings

Applicable Brands

ThinkPad

Applicable Systems

• P1 Gen 1 (Type 20MD, 20ME)
• P1 Gen 2 (Type 20QT, 20QU)
• P1 Gen 3 (Type 20TH, 20TJ )
• P14s Gen 1 (type 20S4, 20S5)
• P14s Gen 1 (type 20Y1, 20Y2)
• P43s (Type 20RH, 20RJ)
• P51s (Type 20HB, 20HC)
• P51s (Type 20JY, 20K0)
• P52 (Type 20M9, 20MA)
• P52s (Type 20LB, 20LC)
• P53 (Type 20QN, 20QQ)
• P53s (Type 20N6, 20N7)
• T14 Gen 1 (type 20S0, 20S1)
• T14 Gen 1 (type 20S2, 20S3)
• T14s (Type 20T0, 20T1)
• T15 (type 20S6, 20S7)
• T15p Gen 1 type 20TN 20TM
• T480 (Type 20L5, 20L6)
• T480s (type 20L7, 20L8)
• T490 (Type 20N2, 20N3)
• T490 (Type 20RY, 20RX)
• T490 Type 20Q9, 20QH
• T490s (Type 20NX, 20NY)
• T570 (Type 20JW, 20JX)
• T580 (Type 20L9, 20LA)
• T590 (Type 20N4, 20N5)
• X1 Carbon 5th Gen - Kabylake (Type 20HR, 20HQ)
• X1 Carbon 5th Gen - Skylake (Type 20K4, 20K3)
• X1 Carbon 6th Gen - (Type 20KH, 20KG)
• X1 Carbon 7th Gen - (Type 20QD, 20QE)
• X1 Carbon 7th Gen - (Type 20R1, 20R2)
• X1 Carbon 8th Gen - (Type 20U9, 20UA)
• X1 Carbon 9th Gen - (Type 20XW, 20XX)
• X1 Extreme 1st Gen (Type 20MF, 20MG)
• X1 Extreme 2nd Gen (Type 20QV, 20QW)
• X1 Extreme 3rd Gen (Type 20TK, 20TL)
• X1 Extreme 4th Gen (Type 20Y5,20Y6)
• X1 Fold Gen 1 (type 20RK, 20RL)
• X1 Yoga 3rd Gen (Type 20LD, 20LE, 20LF, 20LG)
• X1 Yoga 4th Gen (Type 20QF, 20QG)
• X1 Yoga 4th Gen (Type 20SA, 20SB)
• X1 Yoga 5th Gen (Type 20UB 20UC)
• X1 Yoga 6th Gen (Type 20XY, 20Y0)

System Is Configured With

Intel CPUs using Intel HD Graphic Chipsets

Operating Systems

Windows 10 (64-bit)

Solution

1. Update Teams to the latest version.

2. Microsoft recommends reducing the resource requirements for your laptop to improve the Teams experience during the meeting.

Please review the Microsoft.com documentation: Teams is slow during video meetings

3. Try the following:

• Modify the Send Only setting of Teams to 10MB, this is accomplished via the Teams Admin Console.
• Do not use a blurred or custom background in video conferences. This blur requires additional system resources.

4. Improve performance by increasing systems resources:

• ThinkPad PCs with switchable graphics can improve performance by running Microsoft Teams on the discrete GPU, either by setting the system graphics to Discrete Only in BIOS or by adding Microsoft Teams to the GPU control application (such as the NVidia Control Panel).
  • To access BIOS - Press Enter at the Lenovo Splash Screen and follow the prompts to enter BIOS Setup. Navigate to Config > Display and choose Discrete Graphics from the dropdown menu. Press F10 to Save and Exit.
  • NVidia Control Panel - Configure the Microsoft Teams application to run on the NVidia GPU

• Teams performance can be improved for ThinkPad PCs with integrated Intel graphics, by configuring the system memory into dual-channel memory mode. This offers greater memory bandwidth than single-channel mode, supporting concurrent use of Teams video conferencing with other applications.
  • For systems with one or two DIMM slots (such as ThinkPad T14 Gen 1), a DIMM must be installed into all slots for the memory to run in dual-channel configuration. Leaving one DIMM slot unpopulated will operate the memory in single-channel mode.
  • For systems with four DIMM slots (such as ThinkPad P15 Gen 2), a DIMM must be installed in at least 2 slots for the memory to run in dual-channel configuration. Consult the system's Hardware Maintenance Manual for the correct memory slots to populate.
    • Refer to your system specific HMM (Hardware Maintenance Manual) https://support.lenovo.com
    • Note: Memory DIMMs do not need to be the same memory size

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