HP EliteBook 8570w Notebook Review: The Other Side of the Coin
by Dustin Sklavos on December 18, 2012 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Systems
- AMD
- HP
- Mobile Workstation
- Ivy Bridge
- GCN
- FirePro
Workstation Performance
As the mobile workstation results we've accumulated thus far are fairly limited, I'm including my entire workstation result spreadsheet to give you at least a baseline of how the HP EliteBook 8570w stacks up with its entry level workstation GPU, the AMD FirePro M4000.
As you can see from our SPECviewperf results, the FirePro M4000 is potentially a killer value. The performance on offer in Maya, in particular, is frankly outstanding and does line up somewhat with how I've seen the desktop GCN-based FirePros perform. Overall performance is kind of all over the map, and when the M4000 loses it can lose pretty big. Bottom line, if you have need of a workstation card, it's good to tailor your hardware selection to the applications you intend to use.
With Lightwave 3D performance almost exclusively CPU bound, the EliteBook 8570w loses a little bit of steam but still remains fairly competitive.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
54 Comments
View All Comments
darwinosx - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
Too bad the reviewer is wrong about that as all the people running Autocad on Macs will attest to.hexanerax - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
AutoCAD.... Talk 3D design software like Inventor, CATIA, Solidworks etc. Those packages aren't even available for OS X, are they now; so how would one expect Mac only users to know about such things.Dell precision M6300 / FX1600 M - Still runs inventor 2013 / Revit Architecture 2013 perfectly well. And yes it is a 1920 x 1200 panel.
joos2000 - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
AutCAD? That doesn't really need workstation grade hardware. If you wan't to faff about in autocad, any old computer will do.CadentOrange - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
So why is the Samsung Series 7 included in the comparison? That laptop uses the nVidia GeForce 650M graphics chip which is the same as the Macbook Pro 15"?Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
For the same reason the Alienware M17x R4 is included: we don't have as many workstations up for review as I'd like, and I wanted a couple of baselines for what the consumer side is doing. Also, the 650M is a good demonstration of Optimus so you can see the kind of battery life you're losing by going with a system with a 10-bit display.joos2000 - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
It also gave me a bit of insight on the driver differences between proper workstation grade GPU's and consumer grade GPU's as well as how an apple laptop will perform in workstation applications.Flunk - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
Workstation-class GPUs are one of the biggest scams in the industry. All of the current "workstation" GPUs are exactly the same as a consumer GPU with slightly tweaked drivers. It's not even hard to modify the drivers if you feel like bothering (it's not worth it unless you're running autoCAD, maya, blender or 3DSMax).drfish - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
Everyone knows you buy "workstation" GPUs for technical support from your software provider more than any other reason.RandomUsername3245 - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
It hasn't been possible to convert a Geforce to Quadro via a driver mod in YEARS. Get with the program!It may be a scam, but the drivers *do* make a performance difference.
Death666Angel - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
I'm pretty sure that quite a few software companies only give support for their products when you are running workstation graphics cards, otherwise they will just shrug and tell you to buy another graphics card.