AMD's recently launched Fusion A-Series processors, finally makes its way to the computers and buyers looking for a cheap machine that still can deal with their media and also a little game is a treat.
A quick look at our PC group test reveals a fairly strong preference from manufacturers for Intel processors. It is not entirely surprising. While rival AMD has long offered strong, competitively-priced CPUs, Intel pastries proved more powerful consistently denies AMD's cost advantage in all but a few categories.
For higher end machines that are not changing. But AMD's new series A APUs are positioned to make a very sweet deal for budget-minded consumers who want to save some money, but don't want a sub par experience.
Let's get some of the jargon out of the way. AMD's A-series APUs, formerly code name "Llano", signal AMD's SHIFT down to 32 nanometer process, chipping away at the power consumption while increasing performance. "Lynx" is the codename for Llanos stationary iteration. In the notebooks was the code name "Sabine".
A "APU" is a new called was coined by AMD, which means "Accelerated Processing Unit." This means that the CPU and GPU are combined on a single chip, related to the Intel Sandy Bridge processors.
Both Intel and AMD have implemented a form of automatic overclocking: Intel call it Turbo Boost, AMD calls it Turbo Core. Both technololgies works the same way. When the CPU has some spare parts thermal headroom, it overclocks a couple steps, giving an extra bit of speed when circumstances allow. Neither of the two processors that I looked at offers this technique though. AMD will release a model later 2.4 GHZ A8-3800, which will offer Turbo core, but no pricing or availability has been announced yet.
I have put your hardware through its pace and the results are impressive, if not particularly surprising.
For my tests, AMD means a A8-3850 APU, along with a ASRock A75 Pro 4 motherboards. A8-3850 is quad-core, 2.5 GHz chip, with Radeon HD 6550D "discrete graphics class" integrated on the dice.
In layman's terms means that the power of a lower-end graphics cards is baked right into the chip, apparently eliminating the need for a graphics card entirely. By comparison, I tested a dual-core 3.1 GHz Core i3-2100. This Intel Sandy Bridge CPU was paired with an Intel motherboard based on H67 chipset.
With the exception of the aforementioned motherboards and processors, test benches were identical, a 1TB hard drive, 4 GB RAM and a DVD-RW drive to load the drivers and the like. All tests were run on the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium.
So this review were mainly focused on processor and integrated graphics performance of the competing platforms, I don't include a graphics card to try out AMD's new dual-graphics tech.
First up, the old industry standard 3DMark Vantage. We have used 3DMark 11 for our video card testing, since it is the new, DirectX 11 based update to Futuremarks popular benchmark suite. Unfortunately, Intel's Core i3-2100 limited to DirectX 10.
A quick note on synthetic benchmarks: these tests are not indicative of real world performance, but they give a pretty good idea of the hardware handle the strenuous activities.
A8-3850 takes a decisive lead here, with AMD clearly showing the Lynx platform forces. 3DMark is assigned points based on a machine performance during tests. Higher score is better.
Note the GPU performance near comedic difference between Lynx integrated graphics processor, and Intel's Sandy Bridge offer. And then note that Intel's pastries boast the stronger CPU score. AMD's Radeon HD 6550D video trounce finally Intel HD graphics 2000 is implemented in the Core i3-2100, but Intel's pastries pull forward on raw sequential number crunching.
Next up is our WorldBench 6 test suite, homegrown. It simulates an average user workload by running through the test workload in stock products program. Firefox together through Web pages, Photoshop touch up a few photos, master data, you can find itself when you use your computer.
We see more of CPU vs. GPU deviations when we move on to some real world applications. Intel's Core i3 2100 took the lead here, with around 14%, a reasonable margin. It gave a score of 127, while the A8-3850 saw a respectable 109.
We have considered the performance gains you can expect should you install the multiple graphics adapters on a desk, thanks to AMD's Crossfire and Nvidia's SLI technology. AMD's Crossfire enables a sort of here, in the form of dual graphics.
Dual-graphics works much as Crossfire do: adding a discrete graphics card and it works in parallel to the A8-3850 integrated graphics to improve performance. It is a (potentially) inexpensive way to upgrade your machine, if AMD warns that you include a card that is probably more powerful than the integrated Radeon HD 6550D to see much of an improvement.
Set up dual graphics was deceptively simple, although you will need to be comfortable navigating through motherboard BIOS. I quit my component testbed and to a Radeon HD 6570 graphics cards motherboard. After switching between dual graphics option in the system BIOS, the machine starts in Windows. After a few screen flickers machine recognised card, AMD's Vision engine control and automatically enabled AMD Crossfire.
All results, see frames per second. Just cause 2, all settings turned into the lowest values, anti-aliasing was disabled and antistropic filtering was to 2 X. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: call of Pripyat (hereinafter CoP), all foreign bells and whistles were turned off.
I hesitated initially include data for just cause 2 and CoP; this is the most strenuous titles of my video card testing packing, and the numbers offered here approached never "playable." It was a good example of the strength of the Lynx platform integrated graphics but, quite simply, you need to pick up a video card, if you're going with Intel, AMD, leave a bit of their room (provided that you disable all single graphics option or stick to simpler titles).
Add a GPU, and things take a sharp turn for the better. To take advantage of the opportunity that dual graphics transforms A8-3850 from a stuttering slideshow to a proper gaming machine, albeit with the settings that declined. But it is important to bear in mind that Lynx platform are especially geared towards cheap budget desktops, as (traditionally) not intended to be the game much anyway.
With so much to gain from adding a modestly priced graphics card, the player on a budget, having much to look forward in the coming months.
Entry level processors like A8-3850 and Core i3-2100 is designed with low energy consumption in mind, and they are both appropriately sparingly with the wattage. While inactive, the A8-3850 a meager 42 W, while the Core i3-2100 in measured 81.8 W. Both of these measurements were taken directly from the outlet, and not a display or a case, so your measurements will vary.
While you are watching a 1080p video, A8-3850 climbed as high as a meager 66(2) W, while the Core i3-2100 hit 72.6 on our power meters. You can also expect to see those figures balloon, if you add a video card in the mix.
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