Positioned as a professional mobile workstation, the HP ZBook family is built for users engaged in programming, 3D rendering, video editing and other applications, providing powerful performance and scalability, while also committed to meeting the reasonable balance of multiple dimensions such as security and portability.
Time to 2021, with the update of the upstream hardware of the PC industry, the entire series of HP ZBook family product lines have also ushered in upgrades, of which the ZBook Fury series, which is positioned as the most high-end professional graphics workstation, has also ushered in the latest generation of G8.
Specifically, HP professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 is divided into 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch screen two sizes, both inherit the design language of the previous generation G7, the body size, weight has not changed too much, the main difference is the hardware configuration of the comprehensive upgrade, to provide users with Intel 11th generation Core processor high-performance mobile version, NVIDIA Ampere architecture RTX A series laptop GPU, Higher frequency DDR4-3200MHz memory, etc.
From the processor to the graphics card to the memory, the new generation of HP professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 has done a new look, I believe many netizens also have higher expectations for its performance. At present, the PConline evaluation room has received the 15.6-inch high-end version of the HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8, which is configured as the Core i9-11950H, RTX A4000, 32GB dual-channel DDR4-3200MHz memory, 256GB SSD + 2TB HDD. The next step is to show its full performance through evaluation.
Introduction to the appearance of the fuselage - a professional mobile workstation with high portability
As a workstation device geared to productivity needs, performance is certainly the number one requirement, but that doesn't mean portability isn't important. A truly excellent mobile workstation should reasonably take into account the hardware configuration and fuselage design, while providing high performance, but also as far as possible to reduce the volume, reduce the weight, so that users can enjoy better portability.
Through the experience can be intuitively felt, HP professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 on two aspects of a good combination, its body volume control at 398.4×267.1×26.9mm, lifting about 2.35kg, the overall and most of the game size is basically the same, can be put into most backpacks, luggage to move, basically will not become an additional burden when traveling.
On the B-side part of the fuselage, the HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8 in this review is equipped with a 15.6-inch display, a resolution of 1920×1080 Full HD, and a three-sided narrow bezel design, making the body volume more compact. It is worth noting that the top version of the model can also choose a 4K 120Hz high refresh rate screen, which can cope with more use scenarios.
In addition, HP professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 mold details also have many highlights, it has passed the strict test based on the American MIL-STD-810H standard, including vibration test, humidity test, drop test, high altitude test, low temperature test, high temperature test, dust test, temperature upheaval test, etc., to deal with all kinds of complex use environment can be done with ease, will not be because of a small accident and affect the work.
Keyboard part, HP professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 backlit keyboard with silent design, key range length control at 1.3mm, rapid response, moderate feedback force, can provide users with a better feel. Combined with the splash-proof design, it can effectively avoid liquid erosion and further improve the durability of the whole machine.
Scalability is also an important measure of workstations, after all, additional docking stations are not convenient, and they may also face performance losses when transferring data. For this purpose, hp professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 has prepared a large number of interfaces, taking the 15.6-inch model as an example, which includes an SD card reader, an HDMI 2.0 video output interface, a Mini DisplayPort video output interface, 2 USB Type-C interfaces that support Thunderbolt 4, a power jack, an Ethernet port, a nano-safety lock slot, and 2 USB 3.1 Type-A interface (one of which supports charging function), 1 3.5mm audio interface, 1 smart card reader slot, etc. Not only is the number large, but also very rich, in the same size, the same level of products are very rare, combined with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 and other advanced wireless connection technology, HP professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 can well meet the work needs of all kinds of content creators, outgoing data or pictures, install peripherals, connect monitors and so on are very convenient.
Hardware configuration testing – more powerful Core i9-11950H processor
Flagship products naturally with top-of-the-line hardware configuration, in order to meet the performance needs of the majority of content creators, HP professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 equipped with a new Intel 11th generation Core processor high-performance mobile version, based on the 10nm SuperFin process and Willow Cove core microarchitecture, is a comprehensive upgrade.
Of course, unlike the general game book, the specific model of hp professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 used in this test is core i9-11950H, which not only has 8 core 16 threads and 5GHz turbo specifications, but also supports Intel vPro vPro commercial PC platform qualifications, compared to similar specifications of Core i9-11980HK, not only can provide strong performance, but also has a lot of additional security and manageable features, Perfectly aligned with the product positioning and target audience of the HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8. Of course, HP also offers a low-end model with Core i7-11850H to choose from, and the overall performance is also excellent.
The actual performance test of the processor begins below, including 10 projects such as CPU-Z 1.98, Cinebench R23, Blender, pcMark, etc.
In the Version 17 benchmark integrated with cpu-Z 1.98, the HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8 with Core i9-11950H has a single-thread score of 670.2 and a multi-threaded score of 6095.3. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded are at the top of the board for notebook platforms.
Cinebench is a benchmark based on Cinema 4D software development to measure the rendering capabilities of the processor, and is currently latest version of R23. In this test, the HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8 equipped with the Core i9-11950H has a single-thread score of 1646pts and a multi-thread score of 12839pts. Single-threaded breakthrough 1640pts, surpassing the vast majority of products on the market.
In terms of actual rendering performance, using Blender 2.93 version for testing, manually importing bwm27 and classroom material for rendering (pure CPU rendering, GPU CUDA does not participate), equipped with Core i9-11850H HP professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 to complete bwm27 scene time took 3 minutes and 34 seconds, complete classroom scene time took 10 minutes and 30 seconds, overall it is still relatively fast.
PCMark 10 Professional Edition includes application testing, which can accurately reflect the daily office performance of the PC, and reflect the performance of different hardware such as processor, memory, and hard disk. The share of hp professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 for this test is 12928, depending on the sub-items: Word score is 7024, Excel score is 24049, PowerPoint score is 14126, and Edge score is 11710.
Hardware Configuration Testing – The RTX A4000 Professional Graphics Card protects productivity
Of course, as a graphics workstation, the performance of the graphics card is also crucial. Previously, NVIDIA launched the Quadro series for the professional graphics field, after the introduction of the Ampere architecture, NVIDIA continued to deepen the professional graphics field, launched the latest RTX A series laptop GPU product line. The HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8 tested this time is equipped with the RTX A4000 laptop GPU.
The RTX A4000 notebook GPU is a high-end product for Ampere architecture mobile, featuring a GA104 core, containing 40 sets of SM units: 5120 CUDA, 40 2nd generation RT Cores, and 160 3rd generation Tensor Cores, equipped with 256 bits wide 8GB GDDR6 video memory. In fact, the RTX A4000 laptop GPU can be understood as a professional version of the RTX 3070 laptop GPU.
Of course, as a professional graphics graphics card, the RTX A4000 notebook GPU needs to install the corresponding NVIDIA RTX version driver, which brings better performance and more perfect functional features. The version installed in this test is R470 U7 472.84.
SPECviewperf 13 is one of the industry's recognized benchmarks for professional graphics workstation software, installation and testing time are relatively long, the following is the HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8 test results. It can be found that thanks to the powerful performance of the RTX A4000 laptop GPU, the overall performance of the HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8 is excellent, and it has played well in many sub-projects such as 3dsmax, creo, and maya. Of course, SPECviewperf 13 in addition to testing gpu graphics performance, but also has higher requirements for the computing performance of the processor, so thanks to the Core i9-11950H, so hp professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 in this, the comprehensive performance is more powerful than the previous test with RTX A4000 laptop GPU HP Master this ZBook Studio G8.
Procyon is a brand new benchmark suite from UL, built for professional users, and currently has a built-in photo editing benchmark and video editing benchmark for PC. The Photo Editing Benchmark is a photo editing benchmark that uses Adobe Lightroom to import, process, and modify selected images. In the second part of the test, the photos in Adobe Photoshop will be edited multiple times and layered.
It is worth noting that the performance of hardware such as processors, graphics cards, memory, hard disks, etc. will have an impact on the results of these two tests. Both Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop software called in this test are 2022 versions.
The overall score of the photo editing benchmark test results of the HP Masterbook ZBook Studio G8 is 7453, and the image retouching score is 6987 and the batch processing score is 7952 for the specific sub-project.
Procyon also offers a video editing benchmark that calls Adobe Premiere Pro to export video project files to a common format. Each video project includes a variety of edits, adjustments, and effects. The benchmark score is based on the time it takes to export the video. The project contains four sub-items, namely H.264 hardware encoding, H.264 software encoding, H.265 hardware encoding, and H.265 software encoding, which test the comprehensive performance of processor and graphics card video clips.
The Adobe Premiere Pro version called in this test is 2022, and the overall score of the HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8 is 5601.
Hardware configuration testing – memory and hard drive performance
In addition to processor and graphics upgrades, the HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8 has also been upgraded with other components. For example, thanks to the 11th generation Core processor Tiger Lake-H's support for DDR4-3200MHz frequency memory, hp professional graphics workstation ZBook Fury G8 has also updated the memory, and this test model is equipped with two 16GB DDR4-3200MHz memory to form a dual channel, which can support up to 128GB expansion. Compared to the previous generation model, it has higher bandwidth and greater capacity, which is more conducive to handling various types of heavy load applications.
In terms of storage, the HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8 tested this time is equipped with a combination of an M.2 interface NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD and a 2TB SATA interface HDD, which balances capacity and performance. Of course, the upgrade space is also reserved, and users with additional budgets can upgrade higher capacity hard disks by themselves.
Heat dissipation test and summary
Finally, we tested the level of heat dissipation and power dissipation, using AIDA64 FPU+Furmark to double-bake the processor and graphics card for double-baked stress testing. After about 15 minutes of operation, the Core i9-11950H processor has a stable power consumption of about 44.5W and a package temperature of 88°C, while the power consumption of the RTX A4000 notebook GPU is stable at 81.3W and the core temperature is 73.6°C
From a power consumption perspective, the setting of the HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8 is not particularly aggressive, of course, this may be for the sake of lower core temperatures and less noise. After all, the use cases of workstations and gamebooks are different, and the requirements for stability and low noise are more stringent, so power settings such as the ZBook Fury G8 of HP Professional Graphics Workstation are also understandable. After all, even with the power consumption of 45W+80W, the performance of core i9-11950H and RTX A4000 laptop GPUs is already very powerful.
From the aspects of fuselage mold design, interface scalability, hardware configuration performance, and thermal tuning, the comprehensive performance of HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8 has reached a very good level. In addition to the high-end version of the Core i9-11950H+RTX A4000 laptop GPU in this test, the HP Professional Graphics Workstation ZBook Fury G8 also provides more configuration combinations, and interested users can go to the page to learn more and purchase according to their needs and budget.