The ZBook 17 G4 is HP’s 17-inch model of company’s new line of mobile workstations, offering high performance, battery longevity, and improved visuals. Like ZBook 15 model (which we reviewed a few months ago), the 17 G4 is an impressive-looking mobile solution for professionals on the go and a significant step up from the previous generation. With the exception of the bigger screen size, all models from the new HP line can be equipped with more or less the same options, as the 17 G4 supports up to the 7th Generation Intel Xeon processor (E3-1535M v6, E3-1505M v6 models) for the ultimate mobile performance and offers an array of powerful professional graphics options from the NVIDIA Quadro and AMD Radeon Pro lines, while also offering less expensive integrated options. Users also have the option of equipping their HP ZBook 17 G4 with up to 64GB of standard or ECC 2400 MHz memory and 4TB of NVMe PCIe SSD storage using multiple M.2 HP Z Turbo Drives.
A huge selling point of the new HP ZBook line is its dual Thunderbolt 3 ports via the USB-C connector, both of which support DP 1.2, USB 3.1 Gen 2 and PCIe technology. Its 17.3-inch display can be upgraded to the UHD DreamColor IPS anti-glare option if you’re looking for a bigger, more brilliant 4K native resolution (3840 X 2160). Professionals on the go will also appreciate its impressive power efficiency, as workstations from the G4 line can go from 0 to 50% charge capacity in just a half hour via HP Fast Charge–a rare feature for laptops of this class.
Our configuration includes an NVIDIA Quadro P5000, an Intel Xeon CPU E3-1535M v6 @ 3.10GHz CPU, and 64GB of DDR3 2133 MHz RAM. Warranty ranges from 1 to 3 years, depending on the component. The HP Zbook 17 Mobile Workstation can be picked up for as little as $1,329.
HP ZBook 17 G4 Specifications
Design and Build
Besides the larger screen, the HP ZBook 17 G4 looks identical to the 15-inch model, sporting a plain, slick, black/grey case design. The screen and keyboard also feature the same functionality and have the usual the internal microphone and webcam (with an accompanying LED) as well.
Turning the laptop to the left side you’ll see the security cable slot, RJ-45 Ethernet port, VGA port, two USB 3.0 ports, and the SD Memory card reader slot. The right side features the Smart Card reader, microphone in/headphone combo jack, another USB 3.0 port, HDMI port, VGA External monitor port, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, power connector and the battery status LED.
AS we mentioned above, HP allows users to equip their G4 mobile workstations with a range of GPU options, including NVIDIA Quadro M620, M1200, and M2200 and AMD Radeon Pro WX4150 professional graphics cards. In our case, we will be using the NVIDIA Quadro P5000, which we reviewed back in August 2017. Though expensive, this high-end card packs a lot of punch that is worth the price if it fits in a specific budget. It features 2560 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR5X GPU memory and can handle all intensive applications we put it through. Users can also connect upwards of 32 displays on a single system when combining the P5000 with the Quadro Sync II add-in card.
NVIDIA P5000 Specifications
Performance
To test its performance, we put the HP ZBook 17 G4 through several benchmarks with resource-intensive workloads, which will also show us how well the NVIDIA Quadro P5000 will perform inside one of HP’s newest 17-inch mobile workstations. Like in our previous G4 review, we will be comparing the new HP 17 G4 to the company’s 15u G4 and Z2 Mini just to show the scale of performance when comparing the latest ZBook with an older workstation.
This first benchmark we looked at is the SPECviewperf 12 benchmark, which is the worldwide standard for measuring graphics performance based on professional applications. SPECviewperf runs 9 benchmarks it calls “viewsets,” all of which represent graphics content and behavior from actual applications. These viewsets include 3D Max, CATIA, Creo, Energy, Maya, Medical, Showcase, Siemens NX, and Solidworks.
Using the high-end Quadro P5000, the new 17 G4 recorded impressive results and was certainly in line with what the power-driven mobile graphics card is capable of:
SPECviewperf 12 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Viewsets | HP ZBook G4 17 | HP ZBook 15u | HP Z2 Mini |
3dsmax-05 | 123.41 | N/A | N/A |
catia-04 | 156.40 | 17.86 | 34.38 |
creo-01 | 130.39 | 17.25 | 36.99 |
energy-01 | 14.74 | 0.39 | 4.07 |
maya-04 | 102.72 | 16.50 | 49.88 |
medical-01 | 69.11 | 5.42 | 19.21 |
showcase-01 | 65.34 | 9.76 | 28.45 |
snx-02 | 178.18 | 19.75 | 61.94 |
sw-03 | 168.38 | 31.96 | 91.01 |
We also ran SPECwpc, which is a benchmark designed specifically for testing all key aspects of workstation performance. SPECwpc consists of over 30 workloads that it uses to test CPU, graphics, I/O, and memory bandwidth. The workloads fall under broader categories (average of all the individual workloads in each category) and are comprised of media and entertainment, financial services, product development, energy, life sciences, and general operations. In this scenario, the ZBook 17 G4 continued to demonstrate how well the newest generation of HP workstations has improved with the following results:
SPECwpc v2.0 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Category | HP ZBook G4 17 | HP ZBook 15u | HP Z2 Mini | ||
M&E | 2.44 | 1.2 | 2.37 | ||
ProdDev | 2.3 | 1.31 | 2.21 | ||
LifeSci | 2.55 | 1.14 | 2.29 | ||
Energy | 2.51 | 0.96 | 1.79 | ||
FSI | 3.11 | 0.58 | 1.29 | ||
GeneralOps | 1.27 | 0.99 | 1.36 |
Using our ESRI benchmark, we look at several aspects of the ArcGIS program. In cases like these, we are most interested in the average of the drawtime, average frames per second, and minimum frames per second. With drawtime, the ZBook G4 17 recorded an average time of just 00:06.321, while average FPS and minimum FPS showed an impressive 298.484 and 137.512, respectively.
ESRI Benchmark | |
---|---|
Drawtime | Average |
HP ZBook G4 17 | 0:00:06.321 |
HP ZBook 15u | 0:00:24.489 |
HP Z2 Mini | 0:00:04.929 |
Average FPS | Average |
HP ZBook 15 | 298.48 |
HP ZBook 15u | 55.36 |
HP Z2 Mini | 179.39 |
Minimum FPS | Average |
HP ZBook 15 | 137.51 |
HP ZBook 15u | 24.47 |
HP Z2 Mini | 97.58 |
Conclusion
The HP ZBook 17 G4 is definitely an impressive mobile workstation, especially when equipped with a high-end graphics card like the NVIDIA Quadro P5000. The brilliant 17-inch monitor really sets itself apart from other sizes in the new 4th gen line, giving media professionals an extra bit of real estate to work with, which is an important selling point for many. Users can beef up the ZBook even further with a 7th Generation Intel Xeon processor, up to 64GB of standard or ECC 2400 MHz memory and 3TB of NVMe PCIe SSD storage via multiple M.2 HP Z Turbo Drives. It also offers an array of the usual connectivity options and two new Thunderbolt 3 ports for blistering transfer rates. As we mentioned in the 15-inch model review, users can create a pretty powerful piece of hardware with the 17-inch model if they have a flexible budget; however, the G4 mobile workstation line offers a wide variety of different builds in a range of different price ranges to suit the needs of virtually any use case. This is a versatile line of workstations.
To gauge its performance, we put the ZBook G4 17 through three different graphics-intensive benchmarks–the SPECviewperf, SPECwpc, and ESRI tests–and compared it to a few other of HP’s business-class ultrabooks. Our ZBook build features some of the higher-end components, so the impressive results were unsurprising. Looking at the graphics-intensive SPECviewperf test, the ZBook 17 G4 posted excellent results, while our SPECwpc (which tests CPU, graphics, I/O, and memory bandwidth) followed suit, easily demonstrating the difference in performance capabilities compared to the other HP workstations. In our ESRI test, draw time, minimum and Average FPS showed 09.5260, and 294.189, and 158.465, respectively.
In terms of all around storage, compute and graphics performance, the HP ZBook 17 G4 doesn’t disappoint. It packs in power usually reserved for free-standing workstations, offering everything a high-end user might demand to quickly handle their workflow. The question then becomes, what can your budget handle, as the near endless configuration options do start to quickly raise the price.
The Bottom Line
The HP ZBook 17 G4 is an impressive mobile workstation with a large, beautiful display and more than enough power for graphic-intensive users.
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