HP EliteBook X G1a "Supports" up to 128 GB LPDDR5X-8533 Memory

[T0@st]

At some point this week, HP's North American online store was updated with new high-end EliteBooks that feature AMD Strix Point APUs. Three models appear to support up to 128 GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory—these curious entries were highlighted by tech enthusiast Hoang Anh Phu (AnhPhuH). The advertised maximum 8533 MT/s transfer rate exceeds Team Red's official reference figure (7500 MT/s) for the EliteBook X G1a's Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 APU. Looking further up in the Team Red "Strix Point" product stack, we spotted their Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 spec sheet boasting a maximum LPDDR5x transfer speed of 8000 MT/s. Press outlets have expressed doubt when analyzing three of HP's EliteBook X G1a SKUs. Theories point to product pages containing possible placeholder information, or inaccuracies.

Working with the belief that the specs are legit, AnhPhuH commented: "this is the first laptop featured with 128 GB LPDDR5x-8533 128-bit memory. That would mean it's using four 256 Gb x32 modules(?!). As far as I know, all three major DRAM manufacturers currently only have 128 Gb x32 modules...the EliteBook X G1a uses Strix Point, not Strix Halo, so it only pairs with four x32 modules (two 64-bit channels)." HP's web shop states that the EliteBook X G1a models are due to launch on March 14. We hope that further clarification and concrete specifications appear online closer to release time. Initial pricing starts at $2749 for the lowliest of the three "128 GB LPDDR5X-8533" equipped models. The agonizingly named flagship "HP EliteBook X G1a 14 inch Notebook Next Gen AI PC Wolf Pro Security Edition" offering comes in at an eye-watering $4299.



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[Shou Miko]

Interesting, I really want to see what this chip the bigger 395 can do at 125watts when it comes to gaming performance

 

[MentalAcetylide]

My only question is, what in the hell would one be doing on something like that in order to need that much RAM(that is before the sheer slowness of it drives you crazy)? Until they overcome heat generation & the need for more wattage to keep performance acceptable, regardless of the size, its just not going to perform as well as a desktop. A very niche product & not something I would ever consider using for FPS gaming.

 

[Asni]

2 Thunderbolt™ 4 with USB Type-C® 40Gbps signaling rate (USB Power Delivery, DisplayPort™ 2.1)

I guess something went wrong with the data entry. Or they just copy-pasted from an Intel model.

 

[Shou Miko]

I guess something went wrong with the data entry. Or they just copy-pasted from an Intel model.

Maybe or HP had it by the Thunderbolt team to actually get it Thunderbolt certified and yes this can be done even on a AMD platform.

 

[Cheeseball]

My only question is, what in the hell would one be doing on something like that in order to need that much RAM(that is before the sheer slowness of it drives you crazy)? Until they overcome heat generation & the need for more wattage to keep performance acceptable, regardless of the size, its just not going to perform as well as a desktop. A very niche product & not something I would ever consider using for FPS gaming.

AI inferencing and data-related tasks. The EliteBook series is not HP's gaming lineup.

 

[bonehead123]

The EliteBook series is not HP's gaming lineup.

^^THIS^^

Although it is certainly capable of running gamz, it is primarily designed as a work machine, like the earlier model I work on everyday that contains 64GB of ram, which btw, will surely be replaced by this new model as soon as they are available..

 

[Chaitanya]

According to B&H preorders for laptops based on Ryzen AI Max are supposed to start from 25th Feb.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1877071-REG/asus_gz302ea_xs96_13_4_republic_of_gamers.html

 

[FreedomEclipse]

AI inferencing and data-related tasks. The EliteBook series is not HP's gaming lineup.

But why not both? Why not have a laptop that is good for zoom meetings/M$ Spreadshit by day and senpai elitegamebook by night?

Surely there is room? I mean my repurposed HP 830 G5 with its pitiful UHD 620 is still capable of running some casual/indie games.

 

[hsew]

My only question is, what in the hell would one be doing on something like that in order to need that much RAM(that is before the sheer slowness of it drives you crazy)? Until they overcome heat generation & the need for more wattage to keep performance acceptable, regardless of the size, its just not going to perform as well as a desktop. A very niche product & not something I would ever consider using for FPS gaming.

You could run a 70B-120B parameter LLM locally. And yeah, you could do FPS gaming on a laptop for under $1,000 easily.

Don’t get me wrong, gaming is cool and all, but rasterization has stagnated. I’d love to see articles exploring the areas of growth that the hardware makers are actually targeting. Local LLMs, Generative AI, you name it. nVidia’s RTX 50 series is supposed to bring more than double AI TOPS compared to RTX 40. Notebook CPUs now have NPUs which promise to accelerate AI. AMD fired shots at the 4090 in regards to DeepSeek performance just a couple of weeks ago. AI is where the technology is heading.

If only there was a trusted tech publication willing to do such an investigation…

 

[Cheeseball]

But why not both? Why not have a laptop that is good for zoom meetings/M$ Spreadshit by day and senpai elitegamebook by night?

Surely there is room? I mean my repurposed HP 830 G5 with its pitiful UHD 620 is still capable of running some casual/indie games.

Then HP's Omen or Transcend lineup should fit the bill.

Although I have not seen any plans for a model that has 128 GB of LPDDR5x RAM.

I'm going for the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 so I can use it for both play and work. And apparently (and ironicly) it's cheaper than this HP EliteBook X G1a, $2,700 vs $4,300.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Then HP's Omen or Transcend lineup should fit the bill.

Although I have not seen any plans for a model that has 128 GB of LPDDR5x RAM.

I'm going for the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 so I can use it for both play and work. And apparently (and ironicly) it's cheaper than this HP EliteBook X G1a, $2,700 vs $4,300.

Until I see the price. My next laptop is most likely to be a suped up Zenbook 14.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Working with the belief that the specs are legit, AnhPhuH commented: "this is the first laptop featured with 128 GB LPDDR5x-8533 128-bit memory. That would mean it's using four 256 Gb x32 modules(?!).

This is likely not correct. The supplied graph states "onboard" which directly implies the RAM is soldered on the board.

The EliteBook series is not HP's gaming lineup.

No, but they can do a fair amount of it, given the IGP included. The 880M/890M are very good performing IGPs especially given the raw speed of the RAM supplied with the system.

 

[R-T-B]

My only question is, what in the hell would one be doing on something like that in order to need that much RAM(that is before the sheer slowness of it drives you crazy)? Until they overcome heat generation & the need for more wattage to keep performance acceptable, regardless of the size, its just not going to perform as well as a desktop. A very niche product & not something I would ever consider using for FPS gaming.

Chrome developers. They certainly can use that much.

 

[silentbogo]

My only question is, what in the hell would one be doing on something like that in order to need that much RAM(that is before the sheer slowness of it drives you crazy)? Until they overcome heat generation & the need for more wattage to keep performance acceptable, regardless of the size, its just not going to perform as well as a desktop. A very niche product & not something I would ever consider using for FPS gaming.

Nowadays it's many things. Just compiling something big in some cases requires ridiculous amounts of RAM. Just a couple of years back I had to do a slightly customized build of Android 11 for my side-work, and being out of the game for awhile made me stunned: before I could build a distro on a mediocre laptop/desktop(it'll just take awhile), but then I found out that for Android 11 you need no less than 48GB RAM just to build it at all. 32GB on my desktop + another 32GB swap did the trick, but the build process would fail 3 times out of 4 due to "out of memory" exceptions or random errors.
Had a client just a week ago, who's a backend dev for some outsourcing company. He wanted to put 128GB of DDR5 in his XPS laptop, but all we could find locally is a 64GB kit, so he had to settle for that.
3D scanning (or more specifically editing point-clouds) is very memory-hungry. Built a workstation for my friend with 128GB RAM. But if you, let's say, do scans on the go, then you can do editing on the same machine as well. The thing itself isnt't really that CPU or GPU hungry, just needs a lo-o-o-o-ot of memory.

Looking at the base model: at $2800 it's pricey, but still reasonable. I'm definitely not the buyer, but I see the target audience for it.

The agonizingly named flagship "HP EliteBook X G1a 14 inch Notebook Next Gen AI PC Wolf Pro Security Edition" offering comes in at an eye-watering $4299.

Just looked up the spec for both "base" and "wolf pro" {awooooo} and as far as I can see, the only difference is $1500 for extra 2 years of warranty... which you can tick during purchase for $167 extra.
And that's at the same time as they still offer 3 year warranty for their lower-tier ProBooks and EliteBooks...
Another thing that made me a bit , is that a human support costs less than their "Automated AI powered predictive" crap... I'm really confused.

 

[kondamin]

Just looked up the spec for both "base" and "wolf pro" {awooooo} and as far as I can see, the only difference is $1500 for extra 2 years of warranty... which you can tick during purchase for $167 extra.
And that's at the same time as they still offer 3 year warranty for their lower-tier ProBooks and EliteBooks...
Another thing that made me a bit , is that a human support costs less than their "Automated AI powered predictive" crap... I'm really confused.

Why not make bank on people that just pick the most expensive things as that is going to be the best thing anyway.

 

[Pepamami]

apple should invent this type of memory too
selling laptops with 16GB ram is pathetic in 2025

 

[Dristun]

apple should invent this type of memory too
selling laptops with 16GB ram is pathetic in 2025

14/16" Pro can be specced with 128GB. They will cost you $4699/$4999 though. But then again, a lot of the time the corp one works for will foot the bill with these machines.

 

[T0@st]

Just looked up the spec for both "base" and "wolf pro" {awooooo} and as far as I can see, the only difference is $1500 for extra 2 years of warranty... which you can tick during purchase for $167 extra.
And that's at the same time as they still offer 3 year warranty for their lower-tier ProBooks and EliteBooks...
Another thing that made me a bit , is that a human support costs less than their "Automated AI powered predictive" crap... I'm really confused.

Yeah, I didn't spot many differences when comparing the three aforementioned options.
I suspect that we're looking at placeholder material.

 

[trsttte]

You could run a 70B-120B parameter LLM locally. And yeah, you could do FPS gaming on a laptop for under $1,000 easily.

AI inferencing and data-related tasks. The EliteBook series is not HP's gaming lineup.

Just regular workstation use, not much inference to do with an radeon 880M/890M - this is not strix halo, "just" strix point.

128gb is a lot but 64gb is for sure seeing it's days - or maybe it's just me who doesn't know how to close a program

 

[Pepamami]

14/16" Pro can be specced with 128GB. They will cost you $4699/$4999 though. But then again, a lot of the time the corp one works for will foot the bill with these machines.

I am making fun of Apple selling 8/16GB non-upgradable landfill in 2025

 

[nguyenthucbk]

I guess something went wrong with the data entry. Or they just copy-pasted from an Intel model.

There is nothing wrong
HP adopted Thunderbolt for AMD platform since long time

i used Elitebook G10, G11, Zbook Power G11 , Thunderbolt 4 worked great

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

But why not both? Why not have a laptop that is good for zoom meetings/M$ Spreadshit by day and senpai elitegamebook by night?

Surely there is room? I mean my repurposed HP 830 G5 with its pitiful UHD 620 is still capable of running some casual/indie games.

Nothing is stopping you from using an elitebook for that. I've used business laptops as my main laptop for decades. So long as the cooling holds up the elitebook will be no worse then any other laptop with strix point for gaming.

Some would even say this is preferrable, as the business line is built substantially better than any consumer model. Magnesium reinforcement for the hinges and lower body, better access to spare parts, ece.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Some would even say this is preferrable, as the business line is built substantially better than any consumer model. Magnesium reinforcement for the hinges and lower body, better access to spare parts, ece

Id would 100% do this. But according to notebookcheck. HP doesnt always use the best screen/panels on their elitebooks because they dont need good colour accuracy/reproduction.

I remember trying to find out if there was a better screen out there to mod my 830 but then these HPs dont have a large of a modding community as Thinkpads do

 

[tpuuser256]

Soldered is cool, but LPCAMM2 modularity would be better