AMD Llano Fusion APU to Feature Radeon HD 6550 Graphics

[alwayssts]

Has anyone seen anything about sideport memory on FM1/Llano? This is something I've been interested in for some time, because it could be pretty awesome.

One would *think* it could be connected through HyperTransport. My memory is fuzzy, but iirc it's spec is currently 32-bit/25.6gbps. That would mean that GDDR5 could be connected at up to 6400mhz to saturate it; 10% less than spec for 7Gbps and something very in tune with how AMD sets memory clocks. I don't know how well GDDR3/5 play together, but that opens up the possibility to play nice with discrete cards using cheap low-power (3200mhz) GDDR5 on a 64-bit or 1600mhz GDDR3 on a 128-bit bus (if bandwidth/timing parity is what is needed, and the '4x' clock of GDDR5 could be used in conjunction with the '2x' clock of GDDR3).

At any rate, with GDDR5 currently being 2Gb, and the power of the APU being as it is, no more than 2 chips would really be needed (512MB), although I could see the appeal for 4. Paired with a similar 512MB/1GB card like Redwood/Turks or even a small, low-power next-gen SI part, you could have a pretty bad-ass solution for resolutions that don't require 1Gb of VMEM (ie laptops or 'regular' non-1080p/+ consumer desktops) or perhaps even decent gaming at 1080p if they do end up going 1GB.

Going forward with higher density/speed and/or lower power RAM, more and/or faster HT links along with process improvements allowing greater GPU power within the APU, this kind of low-end crossfire could easily become a very formidable good-enough solution for the mass consumer...Even catapulting laptops out of their second-rate funk for gaming...at conceivably a low-cost to boot.

We shall see how it unfolds, but there is a truly exciting convergence/transformation of the PC platform emerging.

 

[Gjohnst4]

I think this time frame will work out well for my next Laptop purchase. Will be a nice step up from my mobile 8600gs

 

[HalfAHertz]

Ya 400sp is quite a lot but we have to remember that it is clocled a lot slower than most dedicated GPUs and doesn't have ot's own memory. My guess is that performance will be around hd4670/hd5550 levels

 

[bear jesus]

I think one thing a lot of people are looking past is this is just an early model, how many SP's do you think the next gen or the gen after will have?

Think about it, in its current form it can play games (mainly on lower settings) but in a generation or two fusion APU's should be more than powerful enough for pretty much all mainstream gaming, no maxed settings on newer games but compare that to current on board gpu's that the majority use.

Fusion APU's and Intel's on chip GPU's are a great thing for pc gaming as more and more users will have the power to game.

 

[yogurt_21]

Ya 400sp is quite a lot but we have to remember that it is clocled a lot slower than most dedicated GPUs and doesn't have ot's own memory. My guess is that performance will be around hd4670/hd5550 levels

true, but pair that in crossfire with the current onboard igp on the mobos and you have quite a bit of graphics performance for such a low power integrated solution.

 

[Imsochobo]

Even at 1080p, an 8800GT has no issues with most popular games. WoW, CoD, CS1.6, SC2, Portal 2...

Sure, Crysis will have issues, and BF3, and Metro 2033, but even then you'd get away with it on lowered settings (contrary to what some PC hardware reviews suggest, games are still fun on low graphics settings ).

http://benchmarkreviews.com/images/reviews/video_cards/ZOTAC_ZT-88TES3P-FSP/zotac_8800gt_gpu-z.png

gpu-z of 8800 GT shows 57 gb/sec

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/11/03/21/hp3.png

6.4 gb/sec for hd6300, no matter if you put more shaders and all that in there you wont get more than 128 bit (as system memory) and you will not get more than 12gb/sec max on current stars arch if it havent been changed (phenom II derived)
even if it got same as LGA1366, LGa1155 and bulldozer which sits right under 30gb/sec at 1866mhz ddr3 its still going to be half of a 8800GT.
Unless it has sideport its going to be alot slower than 8800GT in terms of texture and AA performance.
You can probably play crysis with low textures and good quality on effects, shaders and so on.

I sincerely hope they put sideport memory on the motherboards, and in laptops to gain a good 50gb/sec which is easy at 128bit, 700 mhz gddr5 will do, system shared memory is not the way forward!

I'm sure they could put on 600mhz GDDR5 chips, thats probably chips they throw cause I have never seen GDDR5 chips that works at 600mhz.
A friend of mine have a GTX470, memory errors so clocked down to 500 mhz and he could play through the lan, but the performance hit was severe, dedicated cards have its memory bandwidth for a reason, 3870 had 60gb/sec for 320sp

true, but pair that in crossfire with the current onboard igp on the mobos and you have quite a bit of graphics performance for such a low power integrated solution.

you dont have onboard on the motherboards with FM1 socket, no northbridge present, only crossfire with dedicated gpu HD6570 HD6550

 

[Pijoto]

I think one thing a lot of people are looking past is this is just an early model, how many SP's do you think the next gen or the gen after will have?

Think about it, in its current form it can play games (mainly on lower settings) but in a generation or two fusion APU's should be more than powerful enough for pretty much all mainstream gaming, no maxed settings on newer games but compare that to current on board gpu's that the majority use.

Fusion APU's and Intel's on chip GPU's are a great thing for pc gaming as more and more users will have the power to game.

Yeah, these Llano chips will be great for 720p gaming, and for the vast majority of people out there, that's just good enough (especially on a small computer screen). I like where AMD is heading in; why try to beat Intel in the CPU arms race when their strenghts are in graphics? A cheap Athlon II dual or quad-core chip is good enough for the vast majority of people, pair it with a powerful GPU to run graphics (where the real processing demands are) and you have one hell of a combo.

 

[Disparia]

Nice. Been waiting for this since getting a 790GX board to cross with a 3470. Unfortunately it was during the start of DFI's decline and turned out to be a shoddy board. Never got around to trying out Crossfire. Then AMD didn't keep up (80sp IGP for 4350/4550, maybe a 320sp IGP for 5550), but no griping here, as I'm glad they brought back this concept with Llano!

Another thing they could bring back, pushing DTX again! Tri-Crossfire the 6550 with a couple 6570's

 

[wolf]

snip

dedicated cards have its memory bandwidth for a reason, 3870 had 60gb/sec for 320sp

I agree there and hope to see some sideport memory involved, say you egen take a 5670 GDDR3 and GDDR5 version, the GDDR5 version is quite noticeably faster (packing around twice the bandwidth). and I used a mobility 5650, which specs wise is extremely close to this APU, except it had DDR3 (800mhz) packing 25.6gb/s of bandwidth, clock that up to 950 and performance rose about 10-15%. this chip will need all the bandwidth it can get, provided it gets it, it will be a FANTASTIC chip for 720p gaming. let alone gen's to follow.

 

[Imsochobo]

I agree there and hope to see some sideport memory involved, say you egen take a 5670 GDDR3 and GDDR5 version, the GDDR5 version is quite noticeably faster (packing around twice the bandwidth). and I used a mobility 5650, which specs wise is extremely close to this APU, except it had DDR3 (800mhz) packing 25.6gb/s of bandwidth, clock that up to 950 and performance rose about 10-15%. this chip will need all the bandwidth it can get, provided it gets it, it will be a FANTASTIC chip for 720p gaming. let alone gen's to follow.

yeah, If they somehow upgraded the memory controller for the stars cpu's to match bulldozer's bandwidth and ran the apu at 128 bit we would see close to 26gb/sec which brings it to your laptops performance, but imagine... half of that again if it haven't.