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
Display Quality
The HP EliteBook 8570w is capable of being outfitted with a 10-bit IPS display that HP dubs DreamColor, and the high color gamut can be a sight to behold. On top of that, we're looking at a 1920x1080 display in a 15.6" form factor, a pixel density much appreciated in notebooks. It appears that LG Philips is manufacturing the majority of these high end panels that are being used, as Dell's Precision M6700's PremierColor display is also using one of their panels.
The 8570w's display isn't particularly bright, but it's bright enough, and the colors are incredibly vibrant and crisp. Note that we had to calibrate the M6700's display at a gamma of 1.8 instead of our typical 2.2, and its test results do suffer as a result. I'd argue that, size notwithstanding, the M6700's display quality is actually comparable, and you benefit from their PremierColor software which allows for changing color gamut on the fly.
You can see, though, the 8570w is able to produce almost the entirety of the AdobeRGB 1998 color gamut, with fine contrast and good (though not exceptional) color accuracy.
Battery Life
As many of you pointed out in the last review, the use of a 10-bit IPS panel precludes any kind of switching graphics technology. The result is a notebook that takes a substantial hit to running time. Unfortunately, that hit is exceptionally evident with the HP EliteBook 8570w.
As you can see, you're just not going to be using the 8570w on the battery that often. Even the normalized results are pretty poor, inexplicably ranking below the results of the larger Dell Precision M6700 despite that notebook's larger display and hotter CPU and GPU. In this day and age, a useful running time below three hours is almost inexcusable.
Heat and Noise
You remember how I mentioned that heat was the primary weakness of the HP EliteBook 8570w's design? It's finally time to check in on it, and as you'll see, it's not a happy picture.
While the FirePro M4000 doesn't heat up that much (and shouldn't, really), the i7-3720QM's cores encroach on the high 90s, just too high for comfort. When we opened up the bottom of the 8570w, you saw how modest the cooling system design was, and now you see how that plays out. Because of the high temperatures, the 8570w is also capable of producing quite a bit of fan noise. At idle, the fan is almost constantly spinning, albeit quietly. Under sustained load, it begins to develop a high-pitched fan whine and becomes increasingly audible, easily peaking above 40dB.
The CPU itself actually overheats a little and starts to throttle. Under AIDA64's stress test, the CPU throttled by as much as 14% after just five minutes. It's no surprise HP elected not to offer the 55W Ivy Bridge quads in the 8570w; the notebook can barely handle 45W.
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Oskars Apša - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
It matters a lot, none of these menchmarks represent use of 32 megapixel textures for instance?And i'll repeat my suggestion, Anandtech has to use real world 3D interior and architectural scenes, with high res. textures.
lx686x - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
And I'll also repeat again, it needs to be a benchmark where you can reproduce the exact same environment for all the platforms.And you still haven't provided any suggestion of which benchmark/software to use.
And you bashed SPEC in your first post for not having textures (textures are only part of the story), it's geared towards 3D, and it does a good job of providing valid numbers for comparison.
Oskars Apša - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
The use of real life interiors and objects is my suggestion. Why is it so hard to fathom? :PYou are right in that sence. Those benchmarks may be good for industiral oil rig piping models, bet the problem is - no High res. textures are tested, they should.
If there is no such convinient test then Anand can try and make one if they see fit. Anandtech is a review site, not a hobby site that tries only standart tests.
So they have the obligation to upp the ante if they will continue to write workstation previews but calling them reviews. Really sad considering the work that is put in some gaming gear.
P.S.
I'm a reader, and so are you - ask for more, this is not comunism ;)
Grennum - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
Making a benchmark like this is no simple task. SPEC is not perfect but it is a standard which is important because you can compare your own personal results to those of Anand's.When I read a workstation review I am interested it's workstation 3D design and analysis/simulation capabilities, I could care less about textures.
To write a proper benchmark would require a very high competence with whatever software you are trying to benchmark. For example with Solidworks when you access the software via the API(which you would need for benchmarking) you get very different results than through the standard UI. You would need to account for that. Now in particular Solidworks has a built in benchmark which could be used. However a license of Solidworks is pretty expensive for a review site, and it would need to be kept up to date to be viable.
As for your comment about Siemens, Siemens owns the parasolid core, which is used by a huge number of 3D modelling programs. So its benchmark is very valid.
Oskars Apša - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
If you don't care about textures - good for you, I care. ;)Review sites usually dwell on companies wanting them to review their gear, but why not arrange a sponsoreship from soft companies? I'm almost certain the reason is not that AnandTech couldn't arrange free softs but the inconsistant number of reviews of proffesional gear to justify such an agreement for the other side of the table.
Thanks for the info on Siemens, but the only somewhat popular program that uses its instructions is Solidworks, so... irrelivant for me.
dwatterworth - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
A note on your request for high definition textures...I am an architect and do quite a bit of 3d modelling and rendering in a Autodesk Revit and 3DSmax. I am fortunate enough to work for an office that lets me build and maintain my own workstations along with others for power users in the office.I have no idea why you would really need high res textures FPS figures. Conventional programs limit the texture previews in the viewports and only make use of the full image at time of render.
The 3d benchmarks provided DO give a very good idea of how the performance would scale. Maybe benchmarks don't give you the exact FPS of each program but it will provide solid comparisons between the hardware.
If you are concerned about how the hardware can handle such high textures at time of render it would really bring up the question why would you being rendering such scenes on a laptop? It would seem more effective to get a mid-level laptop for mobile/modeling and make use of a dedicated render node(s).
Oskars Apša - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
A continuous pattern for multiple wooden panels is an example where i would use a high res texture (2x6m). Wery convinient in such and other cases.Of course one can use continuous mirroring function, compress the textures into smaller ones, but that is not the remedy for me all the time.
Why a laptop? I employ myself and i spend weekennds on the country side, and often i have to render a few additonal frames at that time. For stable electricity feed i'd rather have a laptop with its own battery, and not a second stationary machine with a huge ups.
Gunbuster - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
Where is the value here? I have a M4700 on the way for $2025.03 (W/Shipping & Tax)32% lower cost on the Dell and the only thing missing is the upgraded LCD but the HP will probably get the corner tint issue and you'll have to return it anyway.
Lets look at the config:
3rd Gen Intel Core i7-3740QM (2.7GHz, 6M cache, Upgradable to Intel vPro technology), Dell Mobile Precision MX700 ***BETTER***
16.0GB, DDR3-1600MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMM, Dell Mobile Precision ***BETTER***
Internal English Dual Point Backlit Keyboard, Latitude E
NVIDIA Quadro K2000M with 2GB GDDR3, Dell Mobile Precision M4700 ***BETTER***
750GB 2.5" 7200rpm Hard Drive, Dell Mobile Precision M4700/M6700
No USH, No Fingerprint Reader and No Contactless Smartcard Reader Mobile Precision M4700
15.6" UltraSharp FHD (1920x1080) Wide View Anti-Glare, Premium Panel Guarantee, Mobile Precision M4700
Windows 8 Pro, 64-bit, Latitude, OptiPlex, Precison, English
Dell Wireless 380 Bluetooth 4.0 LE Module, Dell Latitude E4/Mobile Precision
180W 3P, A/C Adapter, Mobile Precision M4700
6-Foot, 3-Pin Power Cord,Mobile Precision M4700, US
Slot Load DVD+/-RW Drive, Dell Mobile Precision
Integrated HD video webcam and noise reducing array microphones , Dell Mobile Precision M4700 ***You don't mention it at all even though it appears to be in your photos***
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 802.11n 3x3 Half Mini-card, Dell Mobile Precision ***BETTER***
6-cell (65Wh) Primary Lithium Ion Battery, (2.8Ah) ExpressCharge Capable, Dell Mobile Precision M4700
blue_falcon - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
You forgot to point out one more item that is ***BETTER***. The M4700 can use the same docking station that every E-Family Latitude can (for the past 4 generations). That way if you have to, you can use someone else's dock when visiting another building, or site.blue_falcon - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
Also, you can drive 5 monitors (if you choose to) when docked. I think the Elitebook can only do four (or that is all that is supported).