Who Controls the User Experience? AMD’s Carrizo Thoroughly Tested
by Ian Cutress on February 4, 2016 8:00 AM EST#4 The HP Pavilion 17z-g100 (Carrizo, A10-8700P)
Of the group, the HP Pavilion sits as the larger screen, medium range hardware component with a similar sort of finesse to the Elitebook, albeit at a much lower price point. This 17-inch model was certainly heavy, suggesting that it is more aimed at that desktop replacement or mobile office group of users who want a large screen, although this one was also a 1366x768 TN panel, which pushes down the sticker price.
| HP Pavilion 17z-g100 (Carrizo) Specifications | |
| Size and Resolution | 17-inch, 1366x768 TN with Touch |
| Processor | AMD A10-8700P Dual module, 4 threads 1.8 GHz Base Frequency 3.2 GHz Turbo Frequency |
| Graphics | Integrated R6 384 Shader Cores 800 MHz maximum frequency GCN 1.2 |
| TDP | 15W |
| Memory | 8 GB in Single Channel Operation 1 x 8GB at DDR3L-1600 C11 Dual Channel Capable |
| Storage | 1TB HGST HDD |
| Battery Size | 41.113 Wh 4 cell Li-Ion design |
| WiFi | Realtek RTL8723BE 802.11n 1x1 |
| Optical Drive | Yes |
| Dimensions | 16.49 x 11.29 x 1.12-inch |
| Weight | From 6.84 lbs |
| Webcam | 1280x720 |
| Ports | Memory Card Reader HDMI 2 x USB 3.0 + 1 x USB 2.0 10/100 Ethernet |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
This unit was purchased especially for our testing (it turns out there’s a Best Buy around the corner from AMD HQ), and comes in low on the hardware all around. Aside from the screen, the A10-8700P processor comes mid-stack of the Carrizo parts, with a 1.8 GHz base and 3.2 GHz turbo frequency for the dual module/quad thread design. The integrated graphics rings in at 384 streaming processors, or 6 compute units, running at 720 MHz.
Memory and storage are at the base level, going for a single module of 8GB (meaning single-channel memory operation) and a 1TB HGST mechanical hard-drive. The Pavilion is dual channel capable though, which would be my first port of call for an upgrade. The Wi-Fi is also bargain basement, being a single stream 802.11n solution in the Realtek RTL8723BE.
There has to be some upsides to this, right? Assuming low power everything, low resolution display, large heavy design with a big battery? Our light battery life test clocked in at 5.43 hours, or 326 minutes, meaning that some of the hardware here is only here because it needs to hit a price point.
The Design
Aside from the specifications, the Pavilion has a good look to it.
Aside from the outside of the chassis at the top of the page, the insides give a near-complete keyboard with a number pad and a curved fold-in display latch that feels aesthetically pleasing to me. The keyboard has some quirks, namely the arrow keys are of different sizes and the lack of a quick access mute/airplane mode button. The trackpad is slightly offset to the left, and I didn’t actually hate the movement on this one. The wrist rest is smooth but plastic, the sort that leaves oils and grease from hands touching it.
The audio strip is a Bang & Olufsen design, with a power button on the left.
On the sides we get two USB 3.0 ports, a single USB 2.0 port, HDMI output, power/drive lights, a 3.5 mm headset jack, the exhaust vents, a full sized Ethernet port, a card reader, and the first laptop in this test with a DVD drive.
The vent on the side is the exhaust, and the intakes for the Pavilion are on the bottom, as shown above. As you might expect, there are a number of rubber feet on the bottom, including a single strip closed to the user, to help with stability, balance and grip.
Pavilion Specific Testing
On the display, the minute someone announces 13x7 TN it should fill most enthusiasts with dread. The lack of viewing angles was fairly obvious, but it wasn’t the worst display we tested from the set. Low brightness was at 0.624 nits while peak brightness was at 203 nits, giving a respectable 325 contrast ratio. The peak brightness is somewhat low, but that low peak brightness fits between the two Elitebooks.
For color reproducibility, both green and red have a good crack at it, with green doing better under 50% and red doing better over 50%. Blue undershot the whole range pretty much, as we saw on the other HP notebooks.
The processor page looks much like the others, with four processing threads and six graphics compute units.
On the integrated R6 graphics, this confirms the 384 streaming processors running at 720 MHz. An interesting element here is the memory bandwidth, showing 19.2 GB/s which is half-way between single channel and dual channel, which means the memory might speed up under load, or we have a wrong reading. Not sure on that one.
On the battery charge, the 41.1 Wh battery gave a 50% charge in 41 minutes, before hitting 98% charge in 96.
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basicmath - Tuesday, February 9, 2016 - link
No it's really not, this laptop came from the factory with dual channel capability but that capability was not utilised because that would have shown the platform in a much better light, he even states that he checked the chips in the G2 to confirm that it was single channel. Upgrading the RAM on a laptop is a simple process that any end user can perform. The only discernible difference between the APU in the G2 & G3 is the number of GPU cores so why did he even bother testing the G3 without using dual channel configuration?Intel999 - Sunday, February 7, 2016 - link
@IanI look forward to that R-series test as it will provide a sneak peek at how much DDR4 relieves the bottleneck on integrated graphics when Bristol Ridge comes out.
That $70 Athlon X4 845 is intriguing as well.
AS118 - Saturday, February 6, 2016 - link
Good article (although to be fair, I mostly skimmed it), and I agree with the conclusions. AMD should try harder to make sure their high-end products are paired with good components. Single-channel ram, bad screens, and slow hard drives with an A10 or mobile FX defeats the purpose of having those higher end APU's.Plus, people will get a bad impression of AMD if a lot of them have poor trackpads, etc. I wish they'd make their own "signature" brand of laptops, and find someone to help make them a thing.
TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
Both clevo and MSI have treated AMD well before, Im sure either would love to have exclusive rights to the high end AMD notebook.That being said, I doubt AMD has the intelligence to pull it off. They seem to be run by monkeys 90% of the time.
Cryio - Saturday, February 6, 2016 - link
I'm really sorry for AMD. Kaveri and Carizzo on mobile, when configured to the proper ram, cooling and when using the highest performing part ... would've provided awesome performance, compared to Haswell and Broadwell. But no one bothered.Bristol Ridge will basically be Carizzo with DDR4 support and since it will be even better binned 28 nm CPUs, maybe we'll get even higher frequency out of Excavator. As for GCN 2.0 GPUs ... it will be interesting to see.
I love my Surface Pro 4, even given the disaster that is Skylake drivers and Windows 10 horrible efficiency compared to W8.1. But MAN. I would've loved a proper Carrizo based Surface Pro/Book.
Gadgety - Saturday, February 6, 2016 - link
A confirmation, with in depth detail. Nice write up.Khenglish - Sunday, February 7, 2016 - link
I would have really liked to see some dual channel results, or at least pulling a memory stick from the Kaveri and Intel systems to get a fair comparison. AMD says Zen brings a 40% IPC improvement. It'd be great to have a baseline to see if that 40% improvement is enough. In the dual channel intel to single channel AMD comparisons it does not appear to be enough, but we don't know how big of a factor memory was.Jon Irenicus - Sunday, February 7, 2016 - link
I want to buy an amd part for my next notebook but as was mentioned in the article, oems only choose bargain basement platforms to put the amd inside. The elitebook is the one exception, along with the lenovo if you don't mind the bulk.But the elitebooks are super overpriced for what you get. They need to release an hp spectre version of a notebook with a zen apu, a dell xps notebook variant with an apu. Ideally, the models that include a discreet gpu should allow the apu to work in tandem.
In 2017 dx12 will be in full effect with games, and having two gpus working together by default could give a lot of amd equipped systems a larger edge, especially if the oversized ipc deficits between excavator and intel parts is minimized with zen.
The future really does rest on Zen, amd needs to laser focus on performance per watt and ipc, and equip the 2017 apus with polaris gpu parts or vega or whatever the first iterations will be called. That has to be the minimum. Put those in nice chassis with solid battery life and that is all they need.
Intel999 - Sunday, February 7, 2016 - link
In DX12 dual graphics will be automatic. Even an Intel Igpu combined with a discrete Nvidia or AMD GPU will "merge" the graphic capabilities in the laptop.Theoretically, an AMD APU combined with an AMD GPU might have an advantage as all graphics would be from the same underlying graphic architecture. Time will tell if this bares out.
Ryan Smith - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Note that it's only going to be as automatic as the game developer makes it, as devs will be responsible for implementing it. For the moment game devs are going to be the wildcard.