The Llano Desktop Preview: AMD A8-3850 CPU & GPU Performance
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 14, 2011 12:00 AM ESTCPU Performance: Pretty Much an Athlon II X4
As we found in our look at mobile Llano, the A8 isn't impressive as a general purpose x86 microprocessor. In general the chip is somewhat faster than the Athlon II X4 635 and I'd say it performs more like a 645 based on the numbers I've seen here. Again, nothing to be impressed by but if you're building a value gaming PC it may not matter.
Note that heavily-threaded applications actually favor the A8-3850 to the Core i3 2100 (its most likely target based on pricing rumors) thanks to its four cores. They may not be as efficient as the i3's cores, but you sure do have more of them. We have been discussing this tradeoff with AMD for quite a bit over the past couple of years. You lose out on single-threaded performance but you do gain better performance in heavily-threaded workloads. I had assumed that Turbo Core would partially solve this with Llano but 2.9GHz is going to be the fastest SKU AMD offers and it doesn't ship with any turbo enabled.
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rem82 - Thursday, June 16, 2011 - link
Llanos overclock resultsCPU: AMD APU A8-8350 @3.77GHz aircooling
MB: Gigabyte A75M-UD2H
DDR OC 2320MHz
FSB: 145 MHz ( Stock is 100MHz, oc 45%)
iGPU: 870 MHz, (stock is 600 MHz)
3D Mark 06:
Stock Settings: 7650 3D Marks
Overclocked Settings: 10,492 3D Marks
(10K Barrier broken by a single IGP is a world record)
3D Mark Vantage:
Stock Settings: 4400 3D Marks
Overclocked Settings: 6160 3D Marks (New IGP World Record)
3D Mark 11:
Stock Settings: 1148 3D Marks
Overclocked Settings: 1591 3D Marks
That why Llano is unstoppable in gaming performance! With Hybrid crossfire with small discrete HD6670 we can run everything game with very small total cost !!!
realneil - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link
What if you add a faster GPU i to the mix? Such as a 6870?Does the on board graphics mixed with something more powerful make much of a difference to your numbers?
How about adding a GTX Card? (now I'm being silly)
nick80 - Thursday, June 16, 2011 - link
- When I run game or graphic benches in low resolution I throw the weight in CPU and no so much in GPU (IGP) !!!
Then i cannot show clearly the superiority graphic card ( 6550D) toward a other (intel 3000), if in the feeblest card I have placed stronger processor.
This has made anand and it is absurd because we speak for graphic and try to bring the resolution which is near the current levels so that it has also value what we measure!
In the review anand we see that he is used ΑΤΙ 5570 in 1155 for comparison.What wanted to show us with that?
Thoughts…
1) If anand. wanted to shows us techno -economic results in construction of system, it would be supposed in the platform of Llanos it places an exterior card graphic (ATI 6670), so that system comes in the same pecuniary cost with sandy-bidge 2500k/2600k with their incorporated intel graphic card (igp hd 3000& 2000). And ιn this case exists a surprise!!! Lianos platform makes HYBRID CROSSFIRE (ΙGP & DISCRETE GPU) and doubles the force !!!
2) If anand. wanted to shows us what becomes adding a discrete card in the two platforms of this dynamic range category (5570,5670, 6570,6670 etc.) would be supposed to add one of those card in two platforms, not only in sandybridge!!!
Ιn this case in Llano platform you achieve Hybrid crossfire and you simultaneously have 400 STREAM PROCESSORS from the IGP and 480 stream processors from the discrete card in the system, so you you can play comfortably your games !!!
That is to say, you have in your disposal more and more rapid stream processors from the core 4850 (brought from the line of 6000 amd/ati)!!!! Ιs this little for the speed of games?
Νo I do not believe that ..............
Ηybrid crossfire he is dynamic crossfire. Depending on the intensity graphic in a program it activates automatically crossfire the internal card with the exterior card graphic. With this way you have big force and small consumption in your system.
Also with hubrid crossfire you simultaneously have complete management of all material graphic for achievement of max records in a game, while in case lucid virtu, which exists case you find in the 1155 platform, you only have alternation between internal and external card!
This possibility however does not appear in this review !!!
If this therefore is review then…. lollololololoollol!!!
rnssr71 - Thursday, June 16, 2011 - link
what's the A8-3850? pricing previews in late may showed the A8-3550P(unlocked multiplier) as the top Llano desktop model. http://www.techpowerup.com/146236/AMD-Bulldozer-Ll...what gives? is the one reviewed here just an engineering sample? that might explain why it didn't seem to overclock well.
markontije28 - Friday, June 17, 2011 - link
Like 2000 Mhz +? Will it add graphics performance significantly?doylecc - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - link
Comparing Sandy Bridge and Llano is not truly relevant because they address different market segments. SB is a high-end chip; Llano is a budget chip. The only reason they are being compared today is that they are the first two CPUs with on-chip graphics. However, they could scarcely have more different intended uses. Soon-to-come Bulldozer is the proper chip to compare to SB.Llano was not designed for performance; it was designed for economy by integrating the graphics onto the CPU chip. This can be seen by the fact that it is based on the low-end Athlon II, not the higher performance Phenom II.
Llano's target market is the OEM market for "cheap PCs", not the enthusiast market or high-end market like SB. Expect to see Llano in a large part of the sub-$500 desktop PC marketplace. Once the initial surge of demand is satisfied, Llano's price will drop steeply to where it will cost half of what SB costs.
Given it's 32nm manufacturing process, AMD should be able to sell this CPU + GPU combo chip for around $100 or less. This will position it where Intel has no direct competition for it, allowing Llano to quickly achieve deep penetration in its target (budget) market.
Llano was designed to address the huge mid-range and budget segments of the PC marketplace where its CPU power is plenty sufficient and where consumers largely buy based on price.. This is the same strategy that AMD/ATI successfully employed against Nvidia in the discrete video card market: give up the high end, but take the middle and low end where the real volume and profits are made.
The fact that Llano's superior graphics performance (relative to SB/HD 3000) allows it to compete with SB in gaming is an unexpected gift to buyers. It's really not in SB's class by design, but it is able to compete in gaming because it is a better balanced chip, performance-wise. That is, SB has a very strong CPU, but a weak GPU. The performance of Llano's CPU and GPU are much more closely matched, designed to provide the performance levels necessary for the midrange and budget markets at maximum economy (lowest cost).
If you want an AMD CPU that can (hopefully) compete with Sandy Bridge, you will have to wait for Bulldozer. Llano is a cost-effective solution for the mass market (especially OEMs) for which Intel currently has no answer unless they drop the price of SB and gut their profit margins.
The question is: will Intel be forced to introduce a lower cost CPU+GPU combo chip to compete with Llano?
magmojo - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - link
thanks buddy.it would be interesting to see how 'Bulldozer' fares against Sandy Bridge when its out.
However, I guess pre-bulldozer if one is looking at a medium range computer with a separate graphics card Sandy Bridge is no brainer.
Lolimaster - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - link
Chart with:HD6550 + DDR3 1333 CL7 / 1866 CL9-CL7
Overclocked 6550 + the above
Overclocked 3850 + (OC 6550) with maximum stable mem frequency (2300+Mhz)
Drool.
rachotilko - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link
What a triumphant boasts were made of Bobcat & Bulldozer. The lauch of chips have been postponed several times, only to reveal that in its core the Bobcat is still the same Sledgehammer Opteron of 2003. It took AMD 3 years to shrink the Phenom II to 32 nm and pair it with GPU (that I admitt is very decent). What a disgrace !qqgoodhao - Sunday, July 17, 2011 - link
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