AMD's A-Series Fusion processors successfully improve upon AMD's Fusion strategy which combines CPU and GPU. In addition to the traditional CPU compute capabilities the new processors offer the fastest and most feature complete integrated graphics solution available today - by far. Our tested A8-3850 CPU comes with an integrated "Redwood" graphics core that features 400 shader cores clocked at 600 MHz. This new technology results in 3D rendering performance sitting right between the discrete AMD graphics card models HD 6450 and HD 6670, or between GT 520 and GT 430 in NVIDIA terms.
In terms of playability the graphics performance of A8-3850 translates into gaming at medium to high details at sub-HD resolution or full HD gaming at low details settings. While this is certainly not enough for any serious gamer it is quite acceptable for casual gaming, especially when compared to Intel's integrated graphics.
AMD's Dual Graphics CrossFire feature is an interesting development which promises extra performance when users add a compatible AMD graphics card to their system. In our testing, the results were fairly disappointing, about +20%, which is nice when considering it's free, but it's nowhere near what you would expect after listening to the marketing people. Scaling is also very dependent on application support, basically Dual Graphics is where CrossFire was in 2006.
The strong points of AMD's A-Series processors are certainly the relatively powerful integrated graphics and its low power consumption. Overclocking potential is surprisingly good, too, even though a few gotchas apply. Certainly the weakest point of AMD's new processors is the CPU performance, which simply can not compete with any of Intel's offerings. Another weak point in my opinion is the current platform pricing. As we demonstrated on the previous page, it is hard to find a clear winning buying scenario for the A-Series processors when taking into account competing products from AMD and Intel. The high motherboard price is certainly a factor in that. Currently the cheapest Socket FM1 boards are available for $70, which is $30 more than the cheapest AM3 motherboard. The A8-3850 processor currently retails at $140. Given AMD's excellent manufacturing capabilities and willingness to innovate in the price/performance segment as we have seen with their other desktop processors, I'm sure AMD can get their A8-3850 price down to $110-$120. At this point, motherboard + CPU could reach a $150 pricing level which would quickly establish this platform as price/performance king. With current pricing, there are simply too many more cost effective solutions available on the market. We are recommending this processor as kudos for AMD's engineering achievement in fusing a full-fledged modern processor with a real GPU, and not with a display controller. Considering inevitable price reductions in the future, this product has great market potential.