Used my first Sandy Bridge notebook!

Pavilion DV7-4290US

Intel® Core(tm) i7-2630QM Processor
2.0 GHz with 2.9 GHz Turbo Boost
6GB DDR3 (upgradable up to 8GB
1 TB 5400rpm drive (single drive, 12.5mm)
17.3" Brightview LED screen
1600x900 resolution
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6570
Up to 3830MB Total Available Graphics Memory
Gigabit LAN
N wifi card/Bluetooth
120 watt AC adapter
9 cell battery
Price:1150 USD (retail)

Was given a work order to migrate data. I do not own this notebook.

HP allowed us to sell this notebook before the initial release. Now we only got 1 in stock lol.









Build quality: Pretty much the same as older DV7, nothing special about this new one.

I'll post up benchmarks later.

 

Interesting...

 

nothing interesting about it... endgadget had a story about this same notebook out in the wild in singapore last week.. looks like intel's big party about sandy bridge is being ruined

Panther214

P.S: i am interested in the CPU benchmarks though.. want to see how good sandy bridge is.

Panther214

 

Well when I first saw the specs..I was like i7 @ 2.0 GHz? And 6570 graphics? Then I looked at the processor name and it clicked lol

 

Not a bad price.........

 

Wow, very interested...

 

I see nothing revolutionary or even evolutionary here. Still, I look forward to your review.

 

it depends on what exactly a 6570 is.

 

Give me one with an HD 6870 and I'll be happy.

Since it says up to 3830MB total graphics memory, does this mean that the HD 6570 uses system RAM like an IGP?

 

I would assume so...OR it leeches VRAM from surrounding laptops! I'm assuming it's like Turbo Cache/Hyper memory.

 

LOL now THAT is a great idea. All that unused vram out there, just leech it from surrounding laptops.

I just hate specs like that. It just preys on the uninformed. "ooh, this one has 3830MB of memory, it must be fast!"

 

lol yup, latest SB innovation, hey where's the VRAM from my other laptops? My netbook can't run Crysis!!!

The worst is like 4500MHD shows 3.8 GB of VRAM, and people wonder why AutoCAD runs so badly on IGP..

 

6570 should be a rebranded 5730 right? Is it DDR3 or GDDR5 in this case? If it's DDR3 then it'd be only marginally more powerful than the 5730.

Edit never mind, it's GDDR5, should be a mighty fast GPU.

 

Please run Wprime and 3dmark vantage and 3dmark 11.....*camping here for scores*

 

All dedicated cards are able to use system RAM if they need to. It still has dedicated VRAM.

Man, what I wouldn't give for the new dv6 with that config...

 

Yep, it's the way they work. DX leaches onto the system ram via the PCIe bus after running out of local texture space. So the games still run, but they will stutter and really tank in performance.

 

Maybe so, but I've never seen dedicated cards advertised with max RAM above dedicated VRAM.

 

Which makes it a good thing that it's rarely, if ever, necessary to use shared RAM on modern cards with 1GB VRAM.

 

GDDR5 would be hot as hell (compared to GDDR3) though wouldn't it? Especially in an HP chassis.

 

They probably used DDR3, so that's irrelevant. No notebook with a midrange GPU is ever going to use GDDR5 unless they have to.

 

does it have a usb port on top of it near the keyboard?

 

GDDR5 is not THAT much hotter. I think AMD want people to move towards GDDR5 to help boost performance over the 5x00 series.

 

That's the power button.

 

Interesting machine, particularly since that $1150 price is before the various discounts HP routinely offers. Please do post the benchmarks when you get the chance -- it looks like we're getting almost a Core i7-920XM for the price of a Core i5-560M.

 

It's a fingerprint sensor...

 

There is a power button near the screen, fingerprint reader far from the screen.

I would say the power button looks more like a USB port than the fingerprint reader. But yeah, it would be a bad idea to put a usb port anywhere like that.

 

This is correct. My dv6 has the exact same design (minus the numpad).

 

It's GDDR5 bro. Look at OP's photos, the shot with the specs listed on the box, it's kinda blurry but you can clearly make out that the GPU has 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM.

 

It does have DDR5. Bought mine from MicroCenter @ Rockville MD.

 

no different with 5730m.

 

So does it get hot compared to DDR3?

 

Load temps reach 67-70C (idles 47C-55C) according to GPU-Z 0.5

 

what about the battery lifetime?

 

5hrs est (act w/ use was around 3-4 hrs)

 

if you need more ram, just download more ram..

enjoy the sandy bridge

 

EDIT: Delete my post please

 

Not quite, 5730m could use DDR3/GDDR5, 5650 was ddr3 only.

Now 6550 = DDR3/GDDR5, 6570 = GDDR5

Should help those frames. Makes it closer to a desktop 5670

I overvolted one once, took it up to 1100mhz core The memory also reached 1250mhz.

You 5650 guys imagine that

 

Here's the Cinebench benchmark that was revealed yesterday.

As you can see, its just slightly slower than a desktop i7 960!
Now thats awesome. I am assuming i7 2970XM would be faster the all the i7's except for the extreme hexcore desktop CPU's like 980X

Looks like its worth the wait

 

Yeah, I didn't understand those numbers at first when I did them. But later I realized this was the same tool Intel used.

Anyway, here's a vid of Dirt 2, w/ Fraps and TEMPS now. 720p setting at auto. (am driving better now coz of the MS xbox controller he he), captured by my 7D at 60fps.

YouTube - i7-2630qm sandy bridge + Dirt2 + HD6570 Temps

Grid at 720p all max rounds out at 42-51 fps. (pretty silky smooth) (I just couldn't get a windowed view of the game though)

 

GDDR5 mainstream graphics, at last ! I like what I see. Definitely going for a Sandy Bridge laptop soon. That means most Whistler GPUs (66xx/67xxM) should pack GDDR5 too, with 480 or 560sp it should be an impressive performer.

 

Now I REALLY want this. Also, you mean GDDR5.

Actually, if it supports GDDR5, that makes it a 5770M.


Does it use Dynamic SG? If so, how does it work?

 

(Was) for sale at Micro Center.

 

Glad to see resellers seem to be leading with Quads (though Intel said that the Quads would be available first). Hopefully it'll make Dual Core machines seem more low-end.

 

Yea I agree with that. The surprizing thing is that intel has apparently planned a massive dual-core lineup (i5-2430M, i5-2520M, i5-2540M, i7-2620M, even some i3s are apparently planned). I have to ask, what's the point, since it sounds like the i7-2630qm will be the weapon of choice for a lot of mainstream notebooks, where are they going to unload their most crappy dual-cores (since even the fastest ones will already be useless for most people) ? They would either need to be really cheap, or quad-cores (even the bottom range i7-2630qm) would need to be quite expensive, which seems unlikely, Sandy Bridge is when quad-cores finally start going mainstream in notebooks.

Anyway, I (we) want more 3dmark & game numbers for the 6570 !

 

The dual-cores should be useful for machines where battery life is important. The fact that what is essentially a gaming notebook gets around 5 hours is impressive, but this is with a 9 cell battery which you can't fit in ultra-portables. If you cut the number of cores in half and remove the dedicated GPU (or at least introduce some kind of GPU switching), I bet you can get a substantially longer battery life even with a smaller battery.

 

I had thought about it, but since Optimus / AMD's counterpart are supposed to get close to standard and given Sandy Bridge should improve battery life on its own, even with quad-cores it should be impressive compared to today's levels. Though I hadn't really considered the form factor.

 

No it's not, that comes in 2012 with Ivy Bridge. We will see more quads in more notebooks this year, but until 2012 dual cores will still more prevalent.

 

Mine are at http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...l-sandy-bridge-configurations-revealed-2.html

 

I'm already impressed with the battery. My FX will only get 2 1/2 hrs w/ a 9-cell on casual web use. The HD 6570 goes all the way down to 300mhz on battery idle, but with powerplay on, will still be throttling up a bit... with AC, it's able to go 15-20% faster based on geekbench

 

So are we saying that SB will help quad cores become "mainstream" and take over dual cores in laptops?