ASRock A75-Extreme6 AMD FM1 Fusion Motherboard Pictured

[btarunr]

ASRock just couldn't hold its rocks. The third-largest motherboard company released the first picture of its upcoming socket FM1 motherboard that supports AMD's upcoming performance A-series accelerated processing units. The ASRock A75 Extreme6 as it's called, is based on AMD's Hudson-D3 A75 single-chip chipset. With the northbridge component completely relocated to the APU die, what's left of the chipset is a little more than a southbridge. The 905-pin socket is significantly different from the 940-odd pin sockets from AMD in recent times, though its cooler retention brackets haven't essentially changed. So most AM3-supportive coolers should fit on FM1.

The FM1 socket is powered by a 10-phase VRM, it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel DDR3-1866 MHz memory support; and to two of the three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots. The first two PCI-E x16 slots switch to electrical x8 when both are populated. The third slot is electrical x4, and wired to the chipset. Expect a big chop in CPU to discrete GPU latencies. Other slots include one PCI-E x1, and three PCI.



Storage connectivity includes eight internal SATA 6 Gb/s ports, two eSATA, six USB 3.0 ports (four at rear-panel, two by header). Display connectivity (remember, on-chip power GPU is the key selling point of this platform), includes DVI, HDMI 1.4a, and D-Sub. Other connectivity features include 8+2 channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, and FireWire. Expect this board to be out in mid-June. High resolution of the above picture can be found here.

Source: SweClockers

[_JP_]

Looks nice. Reminds me of their 870 Extreme3 boards. I wonder how it will perform.

[xaira]

im guessing that since board manufacturers seem helbent on putting all these pci express x16 slots on these fusion boards that the apus will be about as powerfull as current generation phenom II x4

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by xaira

im guessing that since board manufacturers seem helbent on putting all these pci express x16 slots on these fusion boards that the apus will be about as powerfull as current generation phenom II x4

A-Series APUs are definitely designed to be faster than Phenom II X6.

[Aleksander]

Southbridge cooler is bigger than northbridge?!
LOL

[temp02]

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

Southbridge cooler is bigger than northbridge?!
LOL

The northbridge is a lie!

[rem82]

North-bridge is not in the motherboard but there is inside cpu !!

[faramir]

Originally Posted by btarunr

A-Series APUs are definitely designed to be faster than Phenom II X6.

Except that they're definitely not. They are designed to be a touch faster than Athlon II X2/X4 respectively at same clock speed, provided that GPU portion of the APU is not wasting any memory bandwidth. In tests/situations where Phenoms II do better than Athlons II (due to their L3 cache), these are also going to suffer. These are OEM's dream, better balance of CPU and GPU performance versus Intel, provided that the price is right. Nothing to write home about for enthusiasts who have been using Phenoms II until now though.

When used in a propper APU configuration (= GPU portion doing its job) they're likely to be a tad slower than their corresponding Athlon II counterparts, coupled to slightly lamer version of HD555 which is what makes me wonder why we're seeing ATX-format multiple-physical-PCIe-x16-slot boards for this platform. Anybody planning to use discrete graphics is not likely to go for a CPU that can barely match the performance of three years old chips. This is where Bulldozer comes in for AMD but that still doesn't explain these overpopulated motherboards from Asrock, ECS and others.

[rem82]

Originally Posted by btarunr

A-Series APUs are definitely designed to be faster than Phenom II X6.

No!!! Bulldozers (8-core, 6-core & 4-core) are designed to be faster than Phenom II X6 !!!!

A8-3850 is the best APU from AMD at 2,9Ghz and she has the same performance with PHENOM II X4 840 και PHENOM II X4 925 because she has not L3 CACHE !!!

[rem82]

Originally Posted by faramir

This is where Bulldozer comes in for AMD but that still doesn't explain these overpopulated motherboards from Asrock, ECS and others.

The same socket & same mobos will work with APUs REV. B = APU with bulldozer core !!! Llano has new ΙMC --> 1866Μhz ddr3 , better clock speed !!

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by faramir

Except that they're definitely not. They are designed to be a touch faster than Athlon II X2/X4 respectively at same clock speed, provided that GPU portion of the APU is not wasting any memory bandwidth.

They definitely are. Quad-core A-Series APUs are designed to compete with Sandy Bridge dual-core and lower-end Sandy Bridge quad-core. That automatically makes it faster than Phenom II X4, X6.

[rem82]

Originally Posted by btarunr

They definitely are. Quad-core A-Series APUs are designed to compete with Sandy Bridge dual-core and lower-end Sandy Bridge quad-core. That automatically makes it faster than Phenom II X4, X6.

They speaks for CPU + GPU performance in the same $$$$$$ !!!

A8-3850 is (4-CORE LIano +HD 6550 = APU) is better than PHENOM II X4 810 + discrete HD4350 in the same price

[micropage7]

you know, im kinda tired of these scheme, why dont they choose colorful one?

[Nesters]

Originally Posted by btarunr

They definitely are. Quad-core A-Series APUs are designed to compete with Sandy Bridge dual-core and lower-end Sandy Bridge quad-core. That automatically makes it faster than Phenom II X4, X6.

Last year they said Llano will have ~90% CPU horsepower of the mainstream CPUs in 2010 (and they're most likely referring to Athlon II lineup there because Llano has Stars cores and lack L3 cache).

[faramir]

Originally Posted by btarunr

They definitely are. Quad-core A-Series APUs are designed to compete with Sandy Bridge dual-core and lower-end Sandy Bridge quad-core. That automatically makes it faster than Phenom II X4, X6.

As other have pointed out this refers to combined (CPU+GPU) performance in tests where GPU performance is relevant (mainly games). With relatively strong GPU portion (compared to Sandy Bridge at least) this is likely to happen - both Llano and Sandy Bridge will equally suck in modern games but will be able to run games from 2006 smoothly - Llano much more so than the Sandy Bridge thanks to better GPU and drivers.

As I said before: perfect product for OEMs such as HP/Dell/etc. who now sell desktops with integrated graphics by truckloads, enabling Intel to clinch so unrealistically high portion of the GPU market (considering how crappy Intel's IGPs are).

As for CPU portion of the upcoming Llano alone I'm afraid there is no way that the marginally improved Athlon II with Turbo is going to compete with Sandy Bridge on even terms. According to what litte information we have seen so far even the top of the line 8-core (4-module) Bulldozer can barely compete with i7 2600K.

[jalex3]

board looks like a winner, I wonder what asus and gigabyte will come out with.
feature rich and high quality so when the next gen fusion comes out the board will still be good for it.

[araditus]

Originally Posted by faramir

According to what litte information we have seen so far even the top of the line 8-core (4-module) Bulldozer can barely compete with i7 2600K.

Show your information, now, or hush, afaik bulldozer numbers are so wrapped up its r-e-diculous and you better not link some taiwan site with no credibility either, becuase I know how to photoshop to get hits too. Don't speculate that hard fanboy

ontopic board looks cool, but I dont get the point, for that amount of space you can do much better, I thought APU was for kiosks and micro type applications or oems looking to provide great performance to the avergae user under 400$ or something

[Imsochobo]

Originally Posted by araditus

Show your information, now, or hush, afaik bulldozer numbers are so wrapped up its r-e-diculous and you better not link some taiwan site with no credibility either, becuase I know how to photoshop to get hits too. Don't speculate that hard fanboy

ontopic board looks cool, but I dont get the point, for that amount of space you can do much better, I thought APU was for kiosks and micro type applications or oems looking to provide great performance to the avergae user under 400$ or something

What I know is that "oems" say that servers it will live up to its name, but thats servers, magny cours is still rocking quite good, but comes at a price though.
We got a month to go, 10 days till leaks start comming I guess.

lliano can give you loaads of performance on mini-itx and possibly smaller boards, the transition away from ATX and such is ongoing, I see more and more m-atx systems around, myself running micro-atx without any comprimise.
1055T and 5850 crossfire, I could easily gone sandy 2600K with 6970CF or even GTX580 sli, clocking is limited though.

[Thefumigator]

2 things to say:

1: This is good: 8 SATA ports, no IDE, no Floppy.
2: It has VGA connector, AND just in case, crossfire so GPU upgradeability is there.

Sorry my ignorance but, can you tell me if the GPU portion of the APU would run firestream/quadro stuff? or is it just non-pro gaming GPU? Also... will microsoft just integrate the GPU instruction set into their kernel, bringing some extra power or it will only work just as a GPU...?

[Imsochobo]

Originally Posted by Thefumigator

2 things to say:

1: This is good: 8 SATA ports, no IDE, no Floppy.
2: It has VGA connector, AND just in case, crossfire so GPU upgradeability is there.

Sorry my ignorance but, can you tell me if the GPU portion of the APU would run firestream/quadro stuff? or is it just non-pro gaming GPU? Also... will microsoft just integrate the GPU instruction set into their kernel, bringing some extra power or it will only work just as a GPU...?

It will support opencl and alike, so no issues running it, it's speed is its limit.

[Drone]

ASRock A75-Extreme4 AMD FM1 Fusion Motherboard Pictured

Extreme6 typo

[Aleksander]

What is going to be its price?

[Imsochobo]

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

What is going to be its price?

cheaper than 870 boards due to no northbridge.
the rest comes down to how fast fusion and popularity, better it is, more expensive, there is no telling really...

am2+ was really expensive till phenom II wasnt competetive (yes it was very much competetive, for about 3 months)

[faramir]

Originally Posted by araditus

Show your information, now, or hush, afaik bulldozer numbers are so wrapped up its r-e-diculous and you better not link some taiwan site with no credibility either, becuase I know how to photoshop to get hits too. Don't speculate that hard fanboy

I was referring to the information posted by DonanimHaber, including pricing charts. It is publically avaliable. Feel free to look it up and let us know what conclusions you draw from it.

As for your derogatory remarks, well, whatever tickles your fancy

[araditus]

Originally Posted by faramir

I was referring to the information posted by DonanimHaber, including pricing charts. It is publically avaliable. Feel free to look it up and let us know what conclusions you draw from it.

As for your derogatory remarks, well, whatever tickles your fancy

Saw the article you are reffering to, the word "rumor" is in the title of the page, nice try though.

"I can't vouch for the reputation of this website, but if this is true I'll be one of the first in line to buy this monster!"

is the opening line for the piece, lol you made my day thanks! :P