Bye bye Nvidia workstation graphics exclusivity, first it was the FirePro M5800 leak last month and reported marriage with the HP Elitebook 8540w. Just recently, news from an anonymous party has just surfaced about a new ATI FirePro M7820 workstation class graphics card that will feature 1 GB of GDDR5 memory and DirectX 11, and based off the powerful Mobility Radeon 5870 ‘gaming class’ card. And this puppy will find its way first into the upcoming Elitebook 8740w Mobile Workstation AND… get ready your tissues to wipe off that drool… the ATI FirePro M7820 will supposedly sit a step or two higher than Nvidia’s flagship mobile workstation FX3800M graphics card! ATI’s seriously been making a big comeback for the last couple of months and it doesn’t look like they’re losing steam anytime soon. In other news, the 17 inch Elitebook 8740w is said to sport a fully backlit keyboard (partial chiclet keys with numeric pad, no less), a “first” for an HP Elitebook.
When, when, when? You ask frantically. Patience is a virtue, my friend – likely this month. Who else here has a feeling that the leaked ATI FirePro M5800 will also appear alongside its newfound big brother, the FirePro M7820 at the same time during launch?
I’ve just gotten info that HP has put up specifications pages for their recently announced Elitebook models! [Thanks Allan and kj for the heads up]. No pricing or (pre-)order pages just yet, but you can still drool over the specifications and start saving up now! HP is currently offering five Intel Core i5/i7 processor options at the moment (four options for the p-professional variants), and notably some options mentioned by closet owners are missing. On the positive side, the current choices are still pretty darn powerful and surprise, surprise, HP is using Nvidia’s latest 2010 Quadro FX cards on the 8440w and 8540w, as well as making Quadro NVS graphics available as options on the 8440p and 8540p.
What are you waiting for, here are direct links to their individual specifications pages:
HP announced their consumer line today, along with three business notebooks (Elitebook 8440 with p- and w- series variants, Elitebook 8540 with p- and w- series variants, Probook 6540b and Probook 6440b, in-line with information from our “Class 1″ reliable source. But where are the other three Elitebooks at the extreme ends of the range (ultra-portable and desktop replacement)?
Ah, patience, my friends, patience. Meanwhile, just enjoy the new products HP brought out today. They’re already drool-worthy enough, are they not?
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas from HP Fansite, the title says it all. 2009′s holiday season has been a busy one indeed, and I bet most of us are hoping for an even better year ahead in 2010 (better economy, more saucy HP notebooks and hardware, more mind-blowing game titles, etc).
Oh, speaking of games, I’ve just got the new title Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (it’s a car racing game) for PC for review. I had planned to crash at a friend’s place for a mini “DiRT 2 party” since I know several people who have the game too. Unfortunately, because of everyone’s busy Christmas schedule and my friend/the host’s nice HP Elitebook 8730w(drool)’s display backlight failing at the last minute, I ended up having to play the game myself yesterday.
Although I’m not a huge fan of circuit/grid racing (more of an open-world, non-race car racing game fan), I’m a big lover of DiRT 2′s amazing graphics and sound. Gameplay wise, I’ve finished about six races so far and it’s your pretty standard Need For Speed-style, race to the finish and get 1st place kind of game. I have one beef about DiRT 2 so far though – and that’s painfully long loading screens and wait time before/after every race (the so-so hard metal/rock music during the waits don’t help much either).
I’m not sure if it’s my Pavilion dv4 showing signs of age (hmm, frame rates during races are still good) or poor optimization on DiRT 2′s developers’ behalf, but either way, the 1-2 minute long “Loading…” screens are driving me crazy. I’ll have to go see how the game fared (or fares, not sure many of my buddies would have the time for unboxing video games on Christmas week) on some more powerful notebooks. And that’s it for my initial impressions. I’ll be back with a full review of DiRT 2 after I’m done with the game.
Have a Merry Xmas 2009 everyone!
