HP EliteBook 840 G9 - i5-1235u vs i7-1255u

[PatrickSar]

That would explain that:)

So should I go fot th i5 or the i7? 😄

[TzortzisG · Accepted solution]

This decision is for you to make (obviously). Just giving you some info. If I may put my two cents in, I never go for a (U series) i7 anymore. i5s are balanced and generally better configs for (pretty much) everything.

[PatrickSar]

Ok, Thank You very much for sharing your insight 😉 Best Regards.

[TzortzisG]

Happy to help!

[TzortzisG]

PatrickSar, UPDATE on your question:

You can read notebookcheck's new review for the 450 g9 testing it fully with a Core i7-1255U to see how badly HP power throttles it.

Performance: Potential of Alder Lake-U wasted by HP 

"HP decided to limit the Intel Core i7-1255U to 15 watts. We ran the performance tests after setting the Windows profile to maximum performance. That allowed the processor to draw 39 watts for a short time (PL2) and 15 watts after that (PL2), the latter equating to Alder Lake-U's Base Power. We also tried raising the power limits manually with the "ThrottleStop" tool, for demonstration purposes only, as detailed in the next section. We set the PL1 to 20, 25, and ~28 watts to explore which effects doing that would have......"

According to the manual of 840 g9, cpus are as follows:

 Core® i7-1280P 1.8 GHz (turbo up to 4.8 GHz) processor (14 cores, 24 MB Intel Smart Cache, 28 W)

Intel Core i7-1270P 1.6 GHz (turbo up to 4.8 GHz) processor (12 cores, 18 MB Intel Smart Cache, 28 W)

Intel Core i7-1265U 1.8 GHz (turbo up to 4.8 GHz) processor (10 cores, 12 MB Intel Smart Cache, 15 W)

Intel Core i7-1260U 2.2 GHz (turbo up to 4.7 GHz) processor (12 cores, 18 MB Intel Smart Cache, 28 W)

Intel Core i7-1255U 1.7 GHz (turbo up to 4.7 GHz) processor (10 cores, 12 MB Intel Smart Cache, 15 W)

Intel Core i5-1250P 1.7 GHz (turbo up to 4.4 GHz) processor (12 cores, 18 MB Intel Smart Cache, 28 W)

Intel Core i5-1245U 1.6 GHz (turbo up to 4.4 GHz) processor (10 cores, 12 MB Intel Smart Cache, 15 W)

Intel Core i5-1240P 1.7 GHz (turbo up to 4.4 GHz) processor (12 cores, 12 MB Intel Smart Cache, 28 W)

Intel Core i5-1235U 1.3 GHz (turbo up to 4.4 GHz) processor (10 cores, 12 MB Intel Smart Cache, 15 W)

Therefore, by choosing any one of the 28W cpus you will get the highest performance. Also, according to said manual the 28W cpus have a different cooling system/replacement part which is obviously better/stronger.

You can also read notebookcheck's review:

HP EliteBook 845 G9 in review: 35-watt AMD outclasses Lenovo & Dell 

to check out the other features of the 840 g9 (and how much better it performs with the AMD cpu).

Finally, please be warned that an issue with RAM UPGRADING has been reported. It seems that any kind of change to RAM on 8xxG9 laptops must be done at HP.....

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Notebooks/Issues-with-RAM-upgrade-on-HP-Elitebook-860-G9/td-p...

[PatrickSard]

Hi, Thank You for your update. I have purchased the HP 840 G9 i5 - happy to share any information.

[TzortzisG]

I'm glad. Wishing you trouble free computing.

Well, to be honest and as stated in my previous post it seems the 8xxG9 elitebook series is not RAM upgradeable by end user, it has to be done at HP :

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Notebooks/Issues-with-RAM-upgrade-on-HP-Elitebook-860-G9/td-p...

If you can shed any light on this subject it would help a lot of other users/potential buyers....

[PatrickSard]

Sure, in my case I bought the G9 with 16GB of RAM so I will not need to update, only the disk because I have tested the one on my G5 and it's much faster. 

[TzortzisG]

If you open her up to change the disk, and are willing to do a little test, switch the existing 16gb module from BANK1 to BANK2 because it's been reported that you can't even do that. The laptop won't boot with the RAM in BANK2 and you have to reinstall it again in BANK1 for everything to be fine again. If this behaviour is reproduced in your laptop as well, we'll know for sure RAM is not user configurable. Anyways, I totally get it if you don't want to mess around unnecessarily with the new laptop!

[PatrickSard]

No problem, I can do that 😉