The Sandy Bridge Pentium Review: G850, G840, G620 & G620T Tested
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 23, 2011 12:11 AM ESTProcessor Graphics Performance
The Sandy Bridge Pentium lineup features the performance equivalent of Intel's HD Graphics 2000. AMD's A6-3650 on the other hand sports a 320 core GPU called the Radeon HD 6530D. How do the two stack up? What about compared to the A8-3850's Radeon HD 6550D? We're about to find out.
We'll start with the A6-3650 vs. the Pentium G850. I didn't include the slower Pentiums because there's simply no point to. The A6-3650's Radeon HD 6530D GPU is on average 2.33x the speed of the Pentium G850 across all of our tests and all resolutions. There's simply no competition and at these frame rates, even at 1024 x 768, I wouldn't consider the G850's graphics playable unless you go to older games or really make the game look terrible.
AMD A6 vs. AMD A8
What about the AMD A6 vs. A8? On average the A8's higher GPU clock and 80 extra GPU cores give it an 18 - 26% performance advantage over the A6's GPU depending on resolution. Both systems here use DDR3-1600 memory and despite memory bandwidth being constrained across the board, the A8's advantage increases with resolution.
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frozentundra123456 - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
Isnt the clockspeed of the i3 2100 3.1ghz??It is listed in the chart as 2.93 or something like that, less than 3.0 anyway.
zero2dash - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
I'm sorry, I don't know how you can mention SNB Pentium being devoid of HT AND having lower clocks, but then continue on in the same sentence that they're "very similar" to i3.That makes no sense at all. The only way they are "very similar" is if you lower the bclk and turn off HT in the bios and then bench them against each other.
That's like saying a Chevy is just like a Cadillac with cheaper doors, wheels, and less than half of the horsepower and resale value.
erickdingess - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
I'm looking to upgrade and was wondering how the two compare. I don't do a lot of gaming on my PC but I don't want a slower GPU.frozentundra123456 - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
Kind of off topic, but from looking at the graphics card heirarchy on Tom's Hardware, looks like the 9600GT is quite a bit faster, even though it is very old now.Roland00Address - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
It does bring dx11 and lower power consumption though.An A8-3850 is about 75 to 90% the speed of a ati hd5570. They have the same stream processors, but the 5570 has a 8% clock speed advantage. The times that the A8-3850 scores less than 90% of the ati hd5570 is when it is memory starved. There should be no times that the hd5570 should be scoring less than an A8-3850.
The 9600gt is about 10 to 30% faster than a 5570. See here for 5570 vs 9600gt benchmarks.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2935/5
erickdingess - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
Thank you for the reply.mino - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
That is, until I have noticed the removal of any idle power data ... AMD would not loose terribly on power so those are apparently unanacceptable in Intel PR.Nice AT, keep up the good work!
Paul
Concillian - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
Low end processors were quite interesting when you could squeeze extra performance out of them.Now with locked everything, this stuff is boring.
Intel has succeeded in eeking every dollar out of the low end, but I've spent less money on my computer this year than perhaps any yearr in the last decade as a result. Just so 'bleh' out there unless you're spending $400 on mobo + CPU, which is something I haven't done since the 386/486 days.
I need a new hobby
=(
ikeke1 - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
I was about to build a basic web box for my GF sister, almost about to go for i3-2100 - but at the last minute spotted the G620. So few minutes later i had ordered:Msi ITX H61I-E35 motherboard
G620
2x2GB 1333Mhz ddr3
and a cheap ITX case
All in all ~€150.
Scavanged a 2,5" HDD from GFs dead laptop, had a spare DVD writer and Win7 HP x64 licence. Now shes got a SILENT and classy box :) The UPS is showing ~50W consumption with the crappy 300W PSU i have feeding it - so most likely with a brick-psu or efficient one it`ll draw 35-40`ish.
The sister is most pleased - she was going to buy a last gen mac mini :D
superccs - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
This is clearly Intels attempt to dip into AMDs low end turf. Just like AMD attempted to counter the SB with the X6 line up. They are both only attempts.