elitebook 870? zbook w/ amd firepro?

i am thinking of getting back to the elitebook workstations after an excursion to the consumer envy 17 3D line, which now is basically killed by getting merged with the pavillion crapbook line and not offering anything comparable anymore.

now first i am wondering whether there is or will be an elitebook 870?
the 850 G1 looks fine, but id like to have a more powerful gpu inside, and 17" display.



second, regarding the zbook workstations, is there any news on them getting amd firepro gpus?
since i actually dont need the professional gpus for what theyre meant, but rather a bit of gaming every now and then (but then it should really perform well), id prefer a mobility radeon gpu, but since this is unlikely to be available on an hp workstation, id mod the catalyst drivers to treat the firepro as its radeon counterpart (this worked well during the 8#10p/w with mobility radeon hd2000 & its professional counterpart time).

has anybody done this recently with an elitebook workstation w/ firepro? whats the (gaming) performance like, compared to a "real" radeon gpu?

btw. i am bound to hp (the longer, the worse judging from their consumer line evolution..), so dont tell me to get a gaming notebook instead that would fit my needs for far less money



also, i dont see anywhere the MIL-STD-### certification/information on hp's new workstations - arent they that durable anymore?

thanks!

 

The last really good (for it's time) Firepro gpu HP offered was the M7820 in the 8740w. After that, they started sticking the 15" Firpro in the 17" workstation, and now only offer entry level Firepro in the 14" model. You should really consider Dell M6800 with Firepro M6100.

 

thanks, but i need to stick with hp.

i actually only want an amd gpu out of habit, and since i read that firepros are noticeably more bang for the buck compared to the quadros recently.

so how about the mobile quadros - can you there mod the geforce driver to treat the quadro as its geforce equivalent, and achieve comparable performance in the geforce-suited segment?

 

looking closer at the elitebook 850 g1, i think if there was an elitebook 870 with a 8850m or higher gpu, this would be the optimal notebook for my needs, except that it lacks thunderbolt, which the zbooks have.

so, any ideas on whether there could be an elitebook 870 somewhen?

another question: is it possible to put in a 120hz screen (eg. like the one in my envy 17 3d) into one of the 17" elitebooks/zbooks? i dont need the 3d capability, but coming from more than 3 years of 120hz i can see the downgrade when looking at 60hz displays..

 

Elitebook family only has 820 / 840 / 850.

zBook 17 does offer AMD FirePro M6100

 

yea, well, i can only hope theyll introduce the elitebook 870 as a successor to the 87#0p notebooks, with better gpu options than for the 850 g1 (and thunderbolt ).

regarding the firepro m6100 - would be amazing, but i think youve mixed it up with nvidia quadro 610m or the zbook 17 with dell precision 6800, as there is no option to get the firepro m6100 through the hp website, and google doesnt reveal any model with this gpu either.
indeed, there seem to be custom builds where the m6100 is available for the zbook 17, even geforce gtx 780m, if the information is trustable, but these dont come directly from hp, theyre custom builds with certainly modified or their own unique bios etc.

do you have a link to this zbook 17 being offered with firepro m6100?