HP Pavilion dv7t refreshed. Now with 16:9 screen and ATI GPUs.

This is weird, only just noticed it. The dv7t is not really a dv7t anymore. Its screen ratio has changed. And is now available with ATI HD45xx and 46xx GPUs. Oh and, Quad Core Intel CPUs.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&a1=Category&v1=Performance+and+entertainment&series_name=dv7t_series

 

Mine is currently "In production" with the old 9600 GT in it. I wouldn't mind the newer lcd, but definitely do not want the weaker ati 512mb video card.

Has HP done this before?

 

I am not too sure myself. But this is odd without any sort of announcements. Dell updated their studio line with new cards too.

 

I'm in the same boat - just ordered mine online yesterday. I checked out the two video cards, and the 9600 GT is definitely rated better, so I won't complain. Also, I think that they dropped the bronze color due to many complaints about it being hard to see the letters on the keys in dim lighting. HP may be saving production costs with these changes rather than "updating".

 

Are you really sure about that? The HD4650 seems to be much better: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

 

maybe it`s because the the faulty Nvidia gpu soldering problems?

 

I would check your references on that. The HD4650 is superior in performance to the 9600GT. It's closer to the 9700GTS.

9600GT Performance
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9600M-GT.9449.0.html

HD 4650 Performance
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-4650.13883.0.html

 

If you care about gaming performance then i would change your order. The ATI card is an UPGRADE to the 9600 GT.

 

with the new screen and video card options I may return it. I'll look at it and see if I like it first.

 

That's beast. Strange that HP didn't make a press relase for it or give it a new name, because that's a pretty big change (new screen, new colors, new gpu, way overpriced quad core). From the sound of it, the 4650 is better than the 9600 GT, but probably not so much if HP cheaped out with DDR2 again... no telling how it overclocks either. Anyway, I think this is a better deal than the HDX16 if you want to game.

 

Seems quite logical to me. Who would want another Nvidia card fiasco with all those failing cards and overheating problems? Nvidia's reputation with the OEMs was pretty much tarnished after that incident.

 

Are the Nvidia 9600s still a problem or was that in the past? Mine is still coming with a 9600M in it. How many of them were bad?

 

The 7 series and 8 series were a problem. As of now , the 9 series have no major documented problems.Give another 6 months to the 9 series. In most of the cases,the GPUs cooked only after the standard 1 year warranty gets over. Nevertheless, Nvidia's image took a good beating.

 

I believe they still are, now with the whole rebranding of old tech(8800GT->9800GT->GTX250(?)), and Intel breathing down their necks, ATi gaining market share

 

The black design is beautiful, but the screen resolution is so crappy on a 17" laptop.

 

1gb video cards on laptops.... what is the world coming to?

i can't wait until 10 years from now when i'll have a terabyte of GPU ram. ;-D

 

Yeah that is a weird Screen: 17.3 1600x900.

 

Too bad memory size doesn't matter that much. It would perform equally with 512MB.

Btw the HD 4650 destroys the 9600M GT.

 

Is it known yet whether the GPU has DDR2/DDR3/GDDR3? What type did the 9600M in the earlier models have?

 

The 9600M GT had DDR2.

 

Am I the only one who doesn't really like 16:9 screens? I mean they're great for dedicated multimedia laptops, but for gaming and busywork (coding, text editing, etc) it's nicer to have the extra vertical screen space.

Honestly I would have been much happier if they had just refreshed the line with the new GPU and Ultra Brightview but kept the same chassis. I would be returning my 1 month year old unit and getting the upgrades ASAP. Also, a matte screen option would be nice..

But I really, really don't want a 16:9 screen. And now that the dv5t is gone, HP doesn't make any above-14-inch 16:10 laptops... kind of stupid.

 

If the past has any insight then I would assume that HP will hamstring the HD 4650 with slow DDR2 memory.

I guess we will have to wait till someone receives one and verifies for us.

 

I was referring to the ATI 4530 that is the default card in the "refreshed" dv7t. I'm not into gaming, so I would not pay $150 to upgrade the graphics card in the current model. For the same price I believe that the nVidia 9600 GT is better than the ATI 4530.

 

the notebook seems to share the same colour scheme with the upcoming dv2.

 

might be this reason why HP and Dell switch their partner?
http://www.edn.com/article/CA6638394.html?industryid=47037
interesting.

 

I'm waiting for someone to have the 1GB ATI card so we know the performance increase of the 512MB 9600

 

the issue is nVidia has created a chipset that competes directly against Intel's offerings. Intel doesn't like the idea of being only one piece (i.e., the CPU) on nVidia designed boards. the latest unibody aluminum Macbooks use the nVidia chipset which explains why it's thermal characteristics are very very impressive (i.e., less than 46 Celsius under load).

 

the benefits of more memory are only realised if applications manipulate vast amounts of texture or geometry data within video memory. drivers, bus width, clock speeds, available pipelines and the type of memory all factor into the overall performance of a GPU.

 

And at the level of performance of midstream GPUs such as the ATI 46xx or nVidia 96xx series, there is NO benefit of having more than 512MB of memory.

 

for the vast majority of commercial applications, yes, although there are edge cases that can arise. these situations are, however, quite rare.

 

i am thinking the idea of intel trying to persuade large OEM company like dell and hp to join its group of anti-nvidia. ati therefore is the best sub for nvidia..

just my thoughts..lol

 

I would think you would see a benefit while gaming. Regardless the card performs better then the 512MB version by a couple websites.

 

there will be benefits for applications that leverage / require the addition memory, i agree.

apart from gaming, the HD 4000 series of GPUs have the Avivo 2 which greatly helps in high definition media playback. there's also support for 7.1 audio bitstreaming across HDMI. very nice.

 

Anyone else notice the option of purchasing an HP Mino netbook for $299 along with the dv7t? I find that kind of weird.

 

Yup...odd indeed. I have a question though, its funny that before I sent this news to engadget, this thread had 2 posts. Afterwards, it rapidly expanded. So did you guys see this thread here on NBR? or did you seen the news on Engadget?