Laptop Specs - Can This Thing Cut It?

[Billy Ramone]

Hello, great and powerful Adobe community.  I'm hoping someone can help me evaluate the laptop specs below.  Our ITS department is offering this as a multimedia workstation for low to mid-intensity production (Premier, AfterEffects, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign)  Seems underwhelming for a multimedia workstation, but looking for another opinon.  Is this thing going to choke playing an unrendered video project in real time?  What could be improved here to make this into something that can deftly handle low to mid-level intensity A/V editing and large graphic design files?  I'm thinking 32MB of RAM is a no-brainer, but not sure how the processor or graphics card rates.  Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

HP ProBook 445 G9

CPU: Ryzen 5 5625U

RAM: 16GB (1x16GB) DDR4 3200

Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe Value Solid State Drive

14 inch FHD

HD Webcam

Asked about the graphics processor specifically and was told this (below). The fact that it's integrated and shares memory seem like red flags.

 Radeon RX Vega 6 (Ryzen 4000)

TGP	15 W
Type	Integrated
Fabrication process	7 nm
GPU base clock	0 MHz
GPU boost clock	1500 MHz
Memory size	System Shared
Memory type	DDR4
Memory speed	3.2 Gbps
Shading units (cores)	384
Texture mapping units (TMUs)	24
Raster operations pipelines (ROPs)	8

[Peru Bob]

It won't be useful for After Effects:

https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/system-requirements.html

Premiere Pro will struggle with 4K:

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/system-requirements.html

The hard drive is too small if you plan on storing media there.

[Billy Ramone]

Thanks, Bob.  I appreciate the advice.  The GPU seems to be the biggest issue.  Seems like I really  want a dedicated card.

[Billy Ramone]

Hoping not too late to add to this thread, but after pushing back on the previous offering, I've been given another laptop option.  My sense from reading reviews is that this one will also underwhelm in terms of performance, but I need some more opinions to either support my case for a better machine or confirm that this one will be okay.  I'd really appreciate it if you (or anyone else) woulkd give me your opinion on ther specs below.  My benchmark is my personal laptop - a 2018 MacBook Pro (2.6GHz 6-core i7, Radeon Pro 560X 4GB), which handles my video work fairly well.  Could I expect this newer HP to perform better than, worse than, or about the same?

Any and all assistance is greatly appreciated.

	Laptop - HP Firefly
MAKE / MODEL	HP ZBook Firefly 14"/16" G10 Mobile Workstation PC
CPU	HP IDS DSC RTX A500 i7-1365U TI PD IC 14 G10 Base
RAM	32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 5200 SODIMM Memory
STORAGE	2TB PCIe-4x4 2280 NVMe TLC Solid State Drive
GRAPHICS	Nvidia quadro ATX 500
WIRELESS	Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6E vPro 160 MHz +Bluetooth 5.3 WW WLAN
MONITOR	14.0 inch AG WUXGA (1920x1200) LED UWVA 250 f5MP bnt LCD Panel
CAMERA	Dual AryMic 5MP USB2 WFOV Integrated Camera
KEYBOARD	Clickpad Backlit spill-resistant Premium Keyboard
EXTRAS	Long Life 51Whr Fast Charge 3 cell Battery
EXTRAS	Fingerprint Sensor
EXTRAS	Active SmartCard

[Peru Bob]

I'm not familiar with that processor or graphics card.

@RjL190365   Can you help?

[Warren Heaton]

The HP Firefly is a good laptop, but I would avoid 1920-by-1080.  I'd ask if you can go with the "2560 x 1600 Dreamcolor" option for the HP Firefly instead.

If going HP and if possible, I'd ask for the HP 16' ZBook Studio G10 Mobile Workstation, making sure it's the 3840 x 2400 model (non-touch or touch) with as much RAM and internal storage as you can get approved.

[Billy Ramone]

Appreciated, Warren.  I actually put in for the OMEN Transcend Laptop 16-u1047nr, but they came back at me the the Firefly.  I was trying to keep it around $2,000 or less to avoid sticker shock, but I think you're on the same page as I am regharding what constitutes a multimedia workstation.  Your input will undoubtedly help, so I thank you for it.  I'll definitely mention the recommendation.

[Warren Heaton]

I'd pick the OMEN Transcend Laptop 16-u1047nr  that you linked to over the HP Filefly as well.  Could a HP ZBook G9 work?  Some resellers still have them at a discounted price since they've been replaced by the G10.  Or maybe a USB-C display to use with the Firefly?

Staying below the $2,000 price point is tricky.  If the display supports WQXGA or higher under that amount, it probably uses integrated graphics.  If it has dedicated graphics at that price point, it's probably HD.

I have a 2019 15-inch OMEN i7 16GB/1.5TB/NVIDIA 2070 Max Q configuration.  It handles Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, and Illustrator very well, but it's mostly for gaming where the 1920x1080 screen doesn't feel so cramped.  Most of my creative work happens on my 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro for on-the-go work.

I miss being able to run Windows under Bootcamp on my 15-inch Retina 2013 MacBook Pro.  

[RjL190365]

Thank you for the specs. At that price you're stuck between a rock and a hard place (as Warren Heaton mentioned). Despite the presence of a recent-generation (albeit low-end) discrete GPU, that Firefly is hardly any faster than a just-recently-discontinued base-spec M1 MacBook Air to justify its price point that's nearly double what the old M1 Air had sold for (that is, it just barely outperformed that MacBook Air judging by the single result for that configuration in the Puget Systems PugetBench for Premiere Pro results list).

And even the now-cheapest M2 MacBook Air that took over the old M1 Air's price point (since the M3 MacBook Airs have arrived) would outperform that HP Firefly laptop in Premiere Pro (except for GPU effects rendering).

It's all because prices for most individual hardware components have crept upwards in recent years, causing a regression in the relative performance-to-price ratio on new PCs.

[Billy Ramone]

Thanks, folks.  You've been super helpful.  Hoping some others might chime in with supporting opinions, but this has been enough for me to go back with.  Appreciated.