For old not very demanding games by todays standard, yes. As long as you get something new enough to have proper support for Vulkan API (such that DXVK would work). As others have mentioned, AMD have better iGPUs than intel, so definitely look out for that.

I’ve been enjoying my Thinkpad E16 that I got brand new from Best Buy. https://startrek.website/post/13283869

I use a T440p and it works amazing for lightweight gaming (tested so far: Fallout NV, BTD6, Minecraft, and Enter the Gungeon)

It would probably be great for PS2 emulation

Depends on the GPU and how current you want to get with the titles, but yeah, should be fine. Just search around with the specific model name to double check it’s Linux compatibility.

Depends on the specs and the games. Possibly/probably.

Which ThinkPad? It can either run things wonderfully or not at all depending on the specs…

generally a thinkpad should be fine, but you’ll want a 1.7ghz+ cpu, aswell as a dx8.1 video card for half life 2

Stay away from the Thinkpad T580 with the Geforce MX150. It’s horribly throttled and can’t even run Quake 3 properly although it should actually be capable of running Doom 2016.

Might be the same with the T480.

Modern games are not going to run well. Look for a Thinkpad with a Thunderbolt 3 port (make sure it actually has 4 PCIe lanes, some only have 2) and use an eGPU. Retro games will run fine on integrated graphics though.

Geforce Now on my thinkpad is what makes modern games work.

I can reliably play wii on an x230. I am pretty sure you can go ahead and play unless it is ps2 or xbox og or anything newer (wii/gamecube excluded)

I can tell E14 is not a good PC for gaming. Buy one with a good GPU

If you have good Internet then GeForce Now or maybe another game streaming service may be adequate for outlier games. I play a bunch of older games decently on my T450 with no graphics card, but if a modern game pops up I can still stream it. That way I don’t have to spend another few hundred bucks on a better laptop just for the occasional game.

I’d say if you get a Ryzen, yeah. I have a P14s gen4 AMD that I use for my primary machine, and game on successfully. But I also have an old T14s gen1 AMD that work let me keep when I got refreshed. Right now I have Windows on it, to play some games that don’t work well in Proton, but it works fine in Linux as well.

If you can swing it, the T14s gen3 with a Ryzen 7 6850u was a truly excellent machine, it’s what I have for work right now. But we won’t see it coming off lease for another couple years, so it’s a bit early for good prices on the used market.