GPU question for Elitebook 8530w.

I am about to order the 8530w. Since yesterday HP allowed customization via the website. I know alot of folks have had issues with the faulty Nvidia GPUs and I am debating to go for the 512 mb NV Quadro FX770M or play it safe by choosing the 256 mb ATI Fire GL V5700.

From the little search I've done, I understand that the FX 770M chip is based on the 9600M GT.

I hope that the problem should not have affected the Quadro. What is everyone's opinion?

I also have an Asus V1S with a 512 GeForce 8600M GT which is (knock on wood) good so far.

Should I opt for the ATI instead? Any huge difference with the memory? I intent to use the notebook for 3d modeling work mainly and computer intensive tasks but not gaming.

Many thanks,

 

If you have the money, go for the FX 770M. It is better than the FireGL V5700. Don't worry about faulty chips.

 

There really is only one catch to choosing a workstation GPU platform and that is the programs you use to do your graphics rendering. The problem is that both Nvidia and ATI both have their own applets and base code that their work style GPUs run off of. If you had X software that runs openGL for instance, then getting the GPU that doesn't support it is a waste of time and a major headache causer. The workstation GPUs are not as easily affected because a lot more goes into testing and cooling on these GPUs because of their natural place in the market. Think about it, if you have a group of consumers who have issues, then you can work with notebook manufacturers to fix the problem. If you put bad GPUs into a workstation platform that a company may buy 1,000, 10,000, or even 100,000 notebooks with and those fail, now you have a major problem.

Bottom line, just check your applications you use and find out which graphics platform they run and that will give you your answer.

BBGus

 

Read very closely the Inquirier's reporting on nVidia's failed GPU debacle before considering an nVidia based system.

Some links:

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/09/nvidia-g84-g86-bad
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/27/dell-models-defective-nvidia
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/31/hp-pays-half-nvidia-problems
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/08/12/nvidia-g92s-g94-reportedly
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/08/25/nvidia-changes-desktop-g86
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/08/28/nvidia-55nm-parts-bad
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/01/why-nvidia-chips-defective
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/01/nvidia-should-defective-chips
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/01/nv-should
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/22/nvidia-chipsets-defective
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/10/10/apple-notebooks-defective
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/10/12/hp-desktops-defective-nvidia
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/10/13/apple-knowledgebase-g92s

The g96 core upon which the FX770M is based is a 65nm part and as such might be effected by the same design issues that lead to the mass failures of g84 and g86 chips. Make your own judgment, but the spread of the issue from the g84 and g86 to what now appears to be a class defect applicable to the g84, g86, g92 and g94 mobile and desktop GPUs plus the 630, 7050, 7100 and 7150 desktop chipsets does not inspire much confidence that this is a contained problem.

 

Wow!..That is a mighty list of NV gpu issues. I had no idea that it was this widespread.

Since HP knows about it and they need to be extra careful about the Elitebooks, how come and the dont offer the ATI FireGL at 512 mb as the Lenovo W500?
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edit:
Well after searching a bit more something interesting came up .
I cannot post the link (its from this forum though), but according to this post, the ATI FireGL is 512 instead of 256 mb?

Can anyone verify the ATI FireGL specs for the 8530w?

Cheers,

 

Well,

I just talked to one of those online chat thingys, with an HP representative.
I asked if the ATI FireGL is indeed 256 or 512 mb as reported by a forum member who got the 8530w(!).

Also I asked about the max. resolution when connecting an external monitor via HDMI.

According to what he said only the ATI 256 is available, and the max. resolution using HDMI is at 1080 "when connecting to an HDTV".