AMD A-Series APU Smashes IGP Performance Records...Surprise

[btarunr]

Armed with a Radeon HD 6550D graphics core that has 400 stream processors, 8 ROPs, and full DirectX 11 support, AMD A-Series "Llano" accelerated processing unit (APU) was tested to be the fastest integrated graphics solution to date. The tests was run by a forum-member of TweakTown community with early access to engineering samples. On the test-bed was AMD A8-3850 APU, which has four x86-64 cores clocked at 2.90 GHz, and the Radeon HD 6550D IGP with engine clock of 600 MHz. Standard dual-channel DDR3-1333 MHz memory was used, even though the APU supports faster DDR3-1866 MHz. To seat the test bed, Gigabyte A75M-UD2H was used. It's important to note here that the CPU cores were overclocked to 3.773 GHz (145.13 MHz x 26.0), with an insane core voltage of 1.52V.

The setup was put though three generations of 3DMark benchmark, covering DirectX 9.0c, DirectX 10, and DirectX 11 performance. In 3DMark 06, the setup scores 10,492 points. In 3DMark Vantage, it scored P6160 (performance preset, validation). In 3DMark 11, it scored P1591 (performance preset, validation). More details can be read in the screenshots.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[link2009]

This looks really good for AMD. I have a feeling all of their new APUs are going to perform as well as they've had us believe. Go Green team!

 

[WhiteLotus]

Yea these apus are going to bring in the money. I can see these being put into small HTPC's and laptops.

 

[AndreiD]

Any laptop with a decent graphic part with 4~5h battery life is going to sell well. AMD is going to sell these like hot donuts!

 

[legends84]

DO WANT!!!!!!!

 

[RejZoR]

It's really time for AMD to start getting some attention by using the purchase they made some time ago (aka ATI). And for them to start chewing off Intel's piece of pie. If not anything else it will force Intel to start improving their crappy GMA stuff or to lower the prices. Which is all good for us end users.

 

[Hustler]

Holy Shit!!!!!

My Phenom II 955 @3.8Ghz with a 1Gb Radeon 4850 only gets 13450 in 3dMark 2006.....

 

[Nesters]

3d mark score seems to be around hd3870 level.

I just want to see how CPU side compares to Athlon/Phenom. I really hope that even without L3 cache, it's at least a bit of improvement over Athlon.

 

[GSquadron]

@hustler
What do you mean by that? You get double the points

 

[Over_Lord]

I don't care about overclocking, I can't wait for this to hit 599$ laptops. Eat foot those lowly GT540M rip-off laptops priced 799$ above.

 

[Frick]

@hustler
What do you mean by that? You get double the points

Whut? No, he gets 3000 more.

Will test 3dmark06 here and see what it brings me.

I don't care about overclocking, I can't wait for this to hit 599$ laptops. Eat foot those lowly GT540M rip-off laptops priced 799$ above.

Well it depends entirely on what you want from a laptop imo. If I was shopping for one I would definitely look more on build quailty, monitor and battery life over graphics performance.

 

[Nesters]

Whut? No, he gets 3000 more.

Will test 3dmark06 here and see what it brings me.

Substract CPU score (5,5k probably) and you get double GPU score.

 

[Hustler]

@hustler
What do you mean by that? You get double the points

I meant thats pretty amazing performance for an IGP.....only 20-30% slower than a high end 2008/2009 dedicated GPU.

Good job Battlefield 3 has given me the incentive to upgrade in september, as until now, i didnt see the point with all the crappy console port Gfx engines being used in PC games, as my rig was more than adequate..

 

[Shihab]

The thing that intrigues me is the thermal output of those APUs.
Wouldn't stuffing both the CPU and the GPU in the same die lower the OC roof because of the extra heat generated compared to normal CPUs ?

Another question: Why would they stuff an entry level GPU in a high end CPU ? I thought anyone who buys a CPU with more than 2 cores wouldn't go for anything less than a mainstream lvl discreet graphics card. so why bother ?

 

[Hustler]

Another question: Why would they stuff an entry level GPU in a high end CPU ? I thought anyone who buys a CPU with more than 2 cores wouldn't go for anything less than a mainstream lvl discreet graphics card. so why bother ?

Llano isnt the high end CPU, Bulldozer is (will be).....and that sort of Gfx performance combined with a Quad Core CPU is pretty damn impressive, and will be more than adequate for the vast majority of people looking for a mid range laptop, business Pc, or cheap home Pc.

I think AMD are onto a winner here.....

 

[Sihastru]

Looks OK-ish, unfortunately it's probably a suicide run (probably) on water at more then 1.5V... not very indicative of the retail product. I don't want to know the TDP at the time of testing...

I'm more interested in the CPU part of the APU, if that's not competitive, it could have a gazillion SP's on the integrated GPU and still not sell. AMD always had a better integrated GPU then Intel, and still their CPU's did not sell as hot cakes.

And judging by the intensity their marketing department up-talks the GPU part, their CPU part looks like a flop. Because a "balanced" APU is not just about the GPU.

 

[jpierce55]

I certainly have to agree it looks like a winner!

 

[Thatguy]

Looks OK-ish, unfortunately it's probably a suicide run (probably) on water at more then 1.5V... not very indicative of the retail product. I don't want to know the TDP at the time of testing...

I'm more interested in the CPU part of the APU, if that's not competitive, it could have a gazillion SP's on the integrated GPU and still not sell. AMD always had a better integrated GPU then Intel, and still their CPU's did not sell as hot cakes.

And judging by the intensity their marketing department up-talks the GPU part, their CPU part looks like a flop. Because a "balanced" APU is not just about the GPU.

Heres where you off balanace, users judge computer speed by the interactivity of the GUI and how it responds to user requests. given the way these chips can handily accelerate many of the new gui's, this should be a pretty big seller. Even better is the fact that these chips also support opencl. Once opencl gets more adoption for things like transcoding, the cpu power will become less relevant.

the benefits to laptop/oems is going to be lower parts counts and cheaper boards not to mention lower power requirements. this is a win/win for many market segments. AMD is planning for a bulldozer APU in 2012 and I have a feeling they are going to move to all bulldozer cores at some point. They do have some super low wattage apu's for tablets etc to. AMD is right where they need to be to make a strong comeback in the high volume OEM market, which will lead to better enthuasist market parts.

Not to mention that even if they doubled the cpu performance, it might or likly won't equal a doubling in computer performance as x86 cores aren't really good at heavy lifting. I told everybody months ago that AMD had a winner with these designs and look at the fact that they are flat out on production on these with massive orders, I think I am correct on this. Hopefully we see them really ramping production and we see the market become a bit less intel dominated. Nothing could be better for the consumer then intel being the underdog for a while and having to play catchup.

 

[btarunr]

A8-3850's stock TDP is 100W.

 

[ensabrenoir]

Llano isnt the high end CPU, Bulldozer is (will be).....and that sort of Gfx performance combined with a Quad Core CPU is pretty damn impressive, and will be more than adequate for the vast majority of people looking for a mid range laptop, business Pc, or cheap home Pc.

I think AMD are onto a winner here.....

True this is looking like a home run and cashcow for the prebuilt line. Amd is doing well 2 please its customer base. I think they won't. Release bulldozer until its in sandy bridge's performance zipcode.

 

[Thatguy]

True this is looking like a home run and cash. for the prebuilt line. Amd is doing well 2 please its customer base. I think they won't. Release bulldozer until its in sandy bridge's performance zipcode.

I think they are overwhelmed with order for APU's. shipping 500K in the first run is a pretty big strain on there fab house. I think the bigger issue they have right now it FAB output.

 

[yogurt_21]

3d11 scores are impressive for and igp.

 

[Over_Lord]

Whut? No, he gets 3000 more.

Will test 3dmark06 here and see what it brings me.



Well it depends entirely on what you want from a laptop imo. If I was shopping for one I would definitely look more on build quailty, monitor and battery life over graphics performance.

I'm thinking if a Dell Inspiron or XPS comes with Llano, it will have all those features.

Best would be light, because of the low TDP, leading to lower capacity lighter battery...

ANd LLano laptops will be cheaper, so it's a win-win.

It seems to be more than enough for 1366x768 gaming, so I'm cool!

 

[Jstn7477]

My Mobility Radeon HD 5650 + PII X4 X920 mobile does pretty well for me at 1366*768, so if that IGP has enough memory bandwith, it should be a winner.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Wow.. Back when I had a core2duo @ 3.8ghz and an 8800GT @ stock, it was hitting 10k on the 3dmark06!