AMD Socket FM2 Motherboards Based on A85 FCH Arrive in June

[btarunr]

AMD's upcoming A10 and A8 "Trinity" APUs will be built in the new FM2 package for desktop PCs, requiring new motherboards. These APUs will be launched towards the end of Q2, and into Q3 (June-July). A ComputerBase.de report suggests that sources in the motherboard industry it spoke to, at CeBIT, say that socket FM2 motherboards will arrive in June. Further, these motherboards will be based on the new AMD A85 FCH chipset. Not much is known about the A85, except that with the USB-IF certification, it could incorporate native USB 3.0 controllers.



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[Over_Lord]

damn damn I was hoping for April launch.

Can't wait for benchies, wanna see how the top of the line Lappy 55W APUs as well as the 65W & 100W Desktop ones perform.

Piledriver, new GPU, phew!

 

[Atom_Anti]

Do not worry, FUD says April launch. Might the A85 chipset will be available in July, but Trinity do not need A85, A75 also makes with new socket.

 

[KonstantinDK]

Should have included link to benches, since we are talking about it.

 

[THANATOS]

thunderising there won't be any 55W Trinity, only 17,25,35W and maybe 45W later but I am not sure.

 

[nt300]

thunderising there won't be any 55W Trinity, only 17,25,35W and maybe 45W later but I am not sure.

Yes there will be, there will be 100W and 65W also for the desktop. The mobile Trinity is going to be 17, 25 and 35w all with DDR3-1866 memory support. I think only one of them will be DDR3-1600 memory.

Up to 4.2GHz, 384 Radeon Cores 2.0 at 100W TDP
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/25919-amd-trinity-lineup-detailed?tmpl=component&print=1

 

[THANATOS]

nt300 I was talking about notebook models not desktop ones and there won't be any 55W notebook model and 45W is still questionable.

 

[faramir]

I wonder whether AMD is actually skipping VLIW4 in their APUs and indeed jumping straight to GCN. Yeah, I realize that various websites suggest that GCN will be used in Trinity but given their cautious approach to Llano and the delays that accompanied it nevertheless I'd like to see some reputable source confirm this iin public (say at earnings calls).

 

[THANATOS]

faramir Trinity with VliW4 IGP; successor Kaveri with GCN IGP on par with HD7750.

 

[R_1]

That VLIW or "Graphics Core Next" (GCN) thingy is pretty important, because it defines Crossfire compatibility. Cape Verde , Pitcairn and Tahiti - they all are GCN based, so if Trinity is VLIW, it won't have any new Crossfire companions.

 

[THANATOS]

R_1 Can you tell me why would you put GCN with Trinity IGP into crossfire? The difference in performance is just too big even against the weakest Cape Verde. Trinity IGP just wouldn't be strong enough to help out significantly, for more look at the Llano review where you can find even a crossfire comparison.
If you want to crossfire with GCN, then wait for Kaveri which will come with an integrated HD7750.
BTW if I remember correctly someone from AMD said VliW4(5) can be paired with GCN but who knows what impact it has on performance even with comparably strong cards.

 

[devguy]

lol, looking at the pic in the OP, I seriously thought that chip on the right said "AMD Meth Samples"

 

[NitroWare.net]

That VLIW or "Graphics Core Next" (GCN) thingy is pretty important, because it defines Crossfire compatibility. Cape Verde , Pitcairn and Tahiti - they all are GCN based, so if Trinity is VLIW, it won't have any new Crossfire companions.

You are missing an angle.

These APU are not meant for performance gaming, they are meant for entry and mainstream gaming. The official recommendation is for the dual graphics card to be within a 1-2x performance range of the integrated APU graphics.

All current SI-GCN cards are high performance parts and exceed this guideline. Only a small number of users will be putting large cards in APU systems. This is no different to 68/6900 not being recommended for APU dual graphics.

All Trinity does with whatever GPU they decide to include is raise the bar, it does not redefine the bar.

Eventually the performance CPUs will be updated to maintain the relationship between the mainstream and performance parts.

Some users on the internet think they will be getting a high performance Cayman in Trinity for free just because there has been whispers about what GPU will be included. What architectural it will be doesn't matter as this only affects the effiency.
How they setup whatever GPU is what matters, cores, rop, clockspeed etc

It will be whatever graphics they can fit within to the APU TDP envelope and how much they want to balance CPU v GPU TDP.

Many photos show a larger rectangular trinity die which indicates more emphasis has been put on the GPU but the TDP rules for a desktop still define what they can do, dieshrink and archecture helps but maximum envelopes will never change, the performance achievable within an envelope does however. A mainstream desktop has always been 100W, where as enthusiast can go to 130W safely and workstation 150W. For mobile 45W CPU is seen as the limit?

To complement the headline photo, Here is our own sample of a real Llano die, which gives a better comparison to the relative size of the logic blocks than the press kit die image

http://www.nitroware.net/images/stories/a6_i3/llano_dieshot.jpg

Versus the press kit supplied image

http://www.nitroware.net/images/stories/a6_i3/llano_die.jpg

 

[nt300]

nt300 I was talking about notebook models not desktop ones and there won't be any 55W notebook model and 45W is still questionable.

I thought you were but wasnt sure. Wouldn't 45w be better for notebook and battery life?

You are missing an angle.

These APU are not meant for performance gaming, they are meant for entry and mainstream gaming. The official recommendation is for the dual graphics card to be within a 1-2x performance range of the integrated APU graphics.

Perhaps right now but it looks like AMD is moving to full APU including high performance desktop in the near future IMO. Intel is doing this right now.

 

[THANATOS]

nt300

Wouldn't 45w be better for notebook and battery life?

better than what? depends if you want power or mobility, that's why there will be 17,25,35W trinity, you can buy based on your needs.

 

[faramir]

faramir Trinity with VliW4 IGP; successor Kaveri with GCN IGP on par with HD7750.

Thank you for clarifying that ! As you have surely noticed vast majority of technological news sites suggested that Trinity would be accompanied by GCN GPU (but today's article on Nordic Hardware, posted many hours after my question here, is the first clearly stating Trinity will be VLIW4, meaning previous generation of AMD's architecture).

GCN is the architecture that did wonders in performance tests compared to the previous generation even with lower SP counts. I was *really* hoping to see this kind of jump in GPU performance here (to offset pathetic CPU performance) but OTOH it seemed really odd that AMD would jump one generation, given their cautious approach to Llano. Ergo: higly unlikely that Trinirt would have GCN, despite quite some websites suggesting that.

 

[MikeMurphy]

I'm hoping GCN but given the leaked spec include 384 SPs, then the GPU portion of the CPU would be very large. GCN uses many more transistors per SP than VLIW4-5 etc.

GCN on the other hand is a killer arch with excellent power savings which is right up the APU alley.

Hopefully it makes it in. If it does, it will result in blazing fast integrated graphics, especially when overclocked.

 

[THANATOS]

MikeMurphy GCN uses more transistors also because it has much more cache for compute tasks and other improvements.
Kaveri (Trinity successor) will be paired with HD7750