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ATI FirePro M5800 appears for Elitebook 8540w; DreamColor in May

They’ve done it! They’ve finally done it! Earlier today, the 17 inch Elitebook 8740w appeared in its full unofficial glory on HP USA but the good news keeps on coming – seems that in the midst of all the 8740w madness, HP has also quietly added the new 1 GB ATI FirePro M5800 workstation graphics card (the one discovered 2 months ago in a service manual) as an option for the existing 15 inch Elitebook 8540w. They’ve also added a little note on the same specifications page (here) stating that DreamColor display options for the Elitebook 8540w will be available in May.

The listed “DDR3″ ATI FirePro M5800 suggests that it could be based off an ATI Mobility Radeon 54×0 or 56×0 card, instead of the Mobility Radeon 5800 series rumored earlier, which means that it won’t be a whole lot more powerful than its Nvidia Quadro FX counterparts, but will still offer two main advantages – DirectX 11 support and power-sipping efficiency.

Dream Color 2 rumors

Okay, I bet most of us are happy that an ATI Mobility Radeon 5000-series based FirePro M5800 is coming to the Elitebook 8540w, an even better FirePro M7820 is on its way to the upcoming Elitebook 8740w and that the Elitebook 8740w jigsaw has been (mostly) pieced together… But are you sitting down?! Rumors of the new DreamColor 2 display (first discovered about a month ago in an Elitebook 8540w service manual and leaked by HP themselves) have recently surfaced. Wow, with so many rumors and things pouring out recently, we can speculate that something must be brewing… HP? ATI?

The DreamColor display by HP, launched in 2008 with DreamWorks (yes, must be the people who made Shrek and Over The Hedge), has been renowned for showing off ‘true colors’ without breaking the bank (much). This latest iteration (DC2) is rumored to have higher native color bit (10 bits versus 8 bits of DreamColor 1), IPS technology (just like the current 24 inch DreamColor monitor) and ‘improved’ backlighting, among other things…and, based on past news, will be making its way into -at least- the 8540w and 8740w.

For those asleep because they thought DreamColor 2 was going to just feature ‘more colors’, wake up! Because rumors seem to be pointing to something more impressive than just an ‘evolution’ of DreamColor 1.

Super HP belated Valentine’s day rumors roundup

Okay, fine, so this may have little to do with Valentine’s day… but let’s spread some love for the several HP notebooks that have been and continue to stay elusive.

Elitebook 8740w: So it seems a lot of people have a couple of grand lying around and are all set to drop it on this long-awaited Mobile Workstation on the precise millisecond it comes out. Question is WHEN?! There was a gap of roughly one month between when the Elitebook 6930p and 8530/8730w series were announced back in 2008. It’s been over a month since the Elitebook 8440 and 8540 models were announced at CES 2010, so where is the 8740w?! (And oh, before I forget 8740w, where are your smaller friends as well?). I suspect the Elitebook 8740w’s elusiveness has something to do with ATI launching FirePro mobile, HP launching DreamColor 2 displays or both. Most likely DreamColor 2 is the culprit. You see, DreamColor displays are a wonderful technology that you don’t see on notebooks everyday… so what a great party/bash it would be for HP to launch the flagship Elitebook 8740w FEATURING DreamColor 2?! It’s very, very, very likely that the 8740w and DreamColor 2 will debut hand-in-hand, at least that’s the way speculation seems to be pointing…

Envy 14 and Envy 17: Cooler than ever. Not that the Envy 13 and 15 aren’t cool enough, in the cool dude sense of the word, because they look awesome. Word is the Envy 14 and Envy 17 will not only LOOK awesome, but stay cool as well… as in, not burn up your palms and thighs as you work on an Office 2010 document or play Crysis 2 at high settings in the future.

Envy 17′s first sale?! Everyone rush out and check your local consumer electronics store(s) now! An enthusiastic reader claims (multiple times) that he’s bought an Envy 17 less than a week ago, from some place that he would’ve never gone to buy a computer from (he doesn’t mention where) and that he got a good deal on it. In another of his comments, he emphasizes that it has a “number pad”, though little else is mentioned. False alarm? Or could someone else really hit the jackpot and find a store selling the Envy 17? Pictures or it didn’t happen!

Shifting things around: If anyone has noticed, HP has shifted their new 8440 and 8540 forwards on their Elitebook page, and relegated the 6930p, 8530p and 8540w to the back seat (or right edge of the page). Perhaps this is a sign of the Elitebook 8740w to come? Or is this just HP doing some website spring cleaning, again?

Okay, I’m done shifting through rumors and whatnot for the day. Back to putting on the finishing touches to my Envy 15 + ATI Mobility Radeon 5830 review…

DreamColor 2 Full HD displays coming to Elitebook 8540p/8540w

Hey, remember that Elitebook 8540 document posted earlier this week that mentioned the unannounced ATI FirePro M5800 graphics card? Well, I read through it again, more thoroughly this time, and I spotted options for all new “DreamColor 2″ full HD (1920 x 1080) display options for both the Elitebook 8540p and Elitebook 8540w (complete with your choice of webcam-equipped or webcam-less display). Isn’t this a dream come true? The Elitebook 8540w is getting even more powerful and better than the old flagship Elitebook 8730w by the day! This can only mean two things: the Elitebook 8540w is really the ‘true’ Mobile Workstation which packs almost all your needs into a neat little 15 inch design AND HP will make the next-generation flagship Elitebook 8740w even better to differentiate it from the 8540w powerhouse!

Man, this is getting better and I hope HP has even more surprises and options to come! Goodbye, Envy 15, because the Elitebook 8540w is officially my notebook of choice now! [Now waiting impatiently for the ATI graphics option to become available]

Left 4 Dead maxed out on Elitebook 8730w

BUSTED! Left 4 Dead works nicely with all settings maxed out on the HP Elitebook 8730w Mobile Workstation PC. The unit I used for testing had a T9400 2.53 GHz Intel Centrino 2 processor, 4 GB of RAM, 1 GB of graphics (Nvidia Quadro FX3700M), Windows Vista Ultimate and a lovely 17 inch Dream Color display. And the game settings were as follows:

• 1920 x 1200 full HD resolution, played on full screen
• Film grain – Maxed out
• Anti-aliasing – 16X MSAA
• 16X anisotropic filtering
• Vertical sync and multicore rendering OFF
• Shader detail – Very high
• Effect, model/texture and paged pool memory – All high

The game ran smoothly at around 30 to 40 frames per second. In “normal” scenes, things were buttery smooth and in “horde” scenes (Where tons of zombies rush at you), frame rate dropped to 20-24 FPS – depending on your eyes, you may or may not notice it – but the difference wasn’t large and the game was still more than playable (I could smoothly spin round and round while spamming my machine gun without much frame stuttering).

I did notice, however, the graphics card would take a little “breather” now and then – the screen image would freeze for about 2 seconds before going back to normal. On the positive side, it doesn’t happen often; around once or twice per entire campaign (with 5 scenarios).

After 3 hours of non-stop gaming (using a gaming mouse + notebook keyboard), the Elitebook 8730w did feel slightly warm around the palmrest area and upper left side of the keyboard, and very hot at the bottom. Core Temp reports processor temperature hovers around 58 to 64 degrees Celcius when gaming but don’t worry, the magnesium-alloy casing does a good job at keeping the exterior deck comfortable warm (versus blazing hot).