The Llano Desktop Preview: AMD A8-3850 CPU & GPU Performance
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 14, 2011 12:00 AM ESTFinal Words
There are still a number of unanswered questions about Llano on the desktop. In the coming weeks we'll be looking at HTPC performance, power consumption, and hopefully we'll be able to figure out what the deal is with overclocking AMD's new mainstream APUs.
The question of processor graphics performance is open and closed. Llano offers what I'd expect to be the bare minimum from any processor offering a real performance oriented GPU. All of our bench suite is playable on Llano and its actually possible to drive up image quality settings without sacrificing playability. If you're looking to build an entry-level gaming PC, Llano is most likely going to be on your hit list this year.
It took AMD spending half the transistors of Llano on its GPU to deliver the sort of performance we've been asking for from integrated graphics for over a decade; the question I have is whether or not Intel is willing to make a similar sort of move in its architectures.
Ivy Bridge has already been decided upon; it'll be faster but not a significant upheaval in performance. However Intel does have a history of building upon ideas that AMD introduced before their time (e.g. IMC, x86-64, Fusion), and with Llano we may be given a peek at what's to come in the future.
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Anand Lal Shimpi - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - link
Thanks for your input :) I'll definitely get some of this in there.Take care,
Anand
StormyParis - Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - link
Thanks for your answers Anand. I indeed keep trying to play at non-native resolutions, but for a PC (very close to the screen; as opposed to a console), things get very ugly very quickly.I was kinda hoping Llano would be able to play WoW, in a raid 25, lowest settings, on my 1680 screen if not on my 1920... that doesn't seem to be the case ?
Thanks for you very interesting website, and best regards,
Olivier
Veerappan - Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - link
You're making me feel sad here... my primary desktop at home still uses a 19" 1280x1024 Dell 1905FP. My work desktop was also a 1280x1024 19" until that machine was replaced about 2 months ago.My laptops both run 1280x800 as well, which is even less resolution than my desktops.
Dorin Nicolaescu-Musteață - Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - link
According to StatCounter, a quarter of world population still run at 1024x768 and two thirds (!) at 1280 or below.http://gs.statcounter.com/#resolution-ww-monthly-2...
DanNeely - Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - link
For gaming purposes steam's hardware survey is a better dataset. It has about 26% at 1280x1024 or less, and 17% at 720Pish resolutions (1366x768 and 1400x900) . It's still a large share, but is much smaller than the overall web average.http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/?platform=p...
ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - link
Comparing the Sandy Bridge scores on page 4 with your original Sandy Bridge review it looks like you are reposting your original scores for Sandy Bridge with launch drivers.http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridg...
Normally, I don't get too picky about Intel graphics driver updates since they tend to be bug fix focused rather than performance, but the most recent Intel driver update looks to have a new description format and specifically calls out double digit percentage performance increases in a number of games. With it looking like Intel is finally getting gaming serious with their IGPs and now their drivers too, it's disappointing that you didn't use the latest drivers to compare to Llano. Especially when you conclude that the A8-3850's IGP is 56% faster than the fastest Sandy Bridge IGP, if Intel's double digit percentage performance claims are actually realizable, that has a material impact on how significant the IGP difference between Llano and Sandy Bridge is.
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/20035/eng/Graphics...
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - link
Thanks for the post - I've updated the results with the new 2372 drivers :)Take care,
Anand
ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - link
Looks like a measurable improvement overall for Sandy Bridge with the newer drivers, but only a significant performance increase in Starcraft II and Black Ops.Thanks for the prompt response.
iwod - Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - link
Great Itcommanderdata actually points this out here. Which i just did in the other Mobile Review comment.We are comparing ATI Mature drivers to Intel Drivers that can still extract double digit percentage gain in performance.
Exodite - Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - link
While it's not surprising to find out that the GPU end of Llano is memory-starved it's no less disappointing. I had expected performance closer to that of a 400 SP-equipped discrete card.With the current performance levels it's still impossible for the chip to allow for even reasonable gaming power, being within spitting distance of other IGPs.
Unless we'll see solutions that add dedicated GPU memory to Llano motherboards I'd still rather buy the i3 2100 as it offers better performance for the majority of the applications relevant in that segment of the market.
Let's face it... people who buy low-end/midrange chips, AIOs and entry-level graphics aren't going to be doing any amount of work that benefits significantly from multi-threading power or GPU grunt.