Thursday, June 30th 2011

AMD Introduces Vision A6-3650 and A8-3850 Desktop APUs

AMD announced two of its first Vision A-Series accelerated processing units (APUs) for desktops today. Built in the socket FM1 package, the A6-3650 and A8-3850 are fabricated on the 32 nm HKMG process. Both pack four x86-64 cores, and while the A6 has 320 stream processors in the GPU component, the A8 has 400 of them. Both chips have 4 MB of cache, dual-channel DDR3-1866 MHz IMCs, and PCI-Express 2.0 hubs to drive discrete graphics.

The AMD A8-3850 has its four x86-64 cores clocked at 2.90 GHz, with the Radeon HD 6550D GPU engine clocked at 600 MHz. This chip has a TDP of 100W, it is priced at US $135. The AMD A6-3650 has its CPU component clocked at 2.60 GHz, and Radeon HD 6530D GPU engine clocked at 443 MHz. This chip goes for US $115. With these two, AMD is targeting higher models of Sandy Bridge-based Pentium Dual-Core and Core i3 Sandy Bridge chips. Both will be available in stores by July 3.
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36 Comments on AMD Introduces Vision A6-3650 and A8-3850 Desktop APUs

#27
HalfAHertz
rem82Link ???
also here [xbit labs]
This is where the major problem emerges. The increase in the clock generator frequency quickly cases issues with SATA or USB devices detection and operation. And this (and not the processor) is the major factor limiting overclocking. According to the existing data, the maximum clock generator frequency when the system remains stable doesn’t exceed 120 MHz. However, as soon as you get past the 133 MHz threshold, most mainboards automatically adjust the multipliers used for external interface frequencies, so there might be one more operational interval somewhere between 133 and 150 MHz. Also note that the variety of clock generator frequencies, at which the system will remain stable during overclocking, may depend on the onboard controllers on each particular mainboard as well as on the configuration of the disk sub-system (for example, with some SSDs there might be fewer operational settings available).
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#28
scazbala86
FourstaffThe only target for this is your budget gamer, richer ones will go for i3+mid end graphics, which is only about $150 more expensive depending on graphics card, and I am quite sure it will be a few miles ahead in the framerate department.
I'm pretty sure AMD is targeting the prebuilt market with these APU's. Check out the review on Tom's Hardware here. I really think these are a winner when it comes to taking back some market share in that area, at least Forbes seems to think so, check it out here. Plus the enthusiast market is only a small fraction of the total volume of PC sales. These would also make perfect htpc chips.
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#29
NC37
FourstaffBobcat did well because it had a target (Intel Atom) and did well in the competition which followed. However, I am not too sure about Llano's target (seems to be the budget gamer and your general internet people), and therefore I am not convinced that its going to sell like hotcakes especially that its going to cost about as much as an i3. Dell and system integrators might like it a lot though, they can tout "good" graphics card in a nice cheap package. Somehow I see Llano's success being based around these integrators, not with the enthusiast market as before like Intel SandyBridge and others.
Yet its these general users which later want to game, mostly just basic gaming, and then raise the most ruckus about their crappy Intel IGP not being able to do anything after they paid out their rear for it. Saw it so often I finally just wouldn't help them. I'd tell them..."What have we learned? Intel graphics suck? Yeah, bet you won't do that again now will you. Sorry but buy a new machine, you're screwed."

Course it made it kinda enjoyable because some of them were ones that I had warned about before they purchased. Then within a few months to a year, so burned.

APUs are what idiot computer buyers/users need. The ones too stupid to read before they buy need an APU that will fill future needs as time goes. Granted not as well as a full fledged GPU, but at least enough performance to promote a less frustration transfer towards a more advanced system. Things even more than games are getting much more graphics reliant. Sure office or work environments probably will be behind in that area, but general consumer wants to be wowed when they boot their PC up.
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#30
Imsochobo
NC37Yet its these general users which later want to game, mostly just basic gaming, and then raise the most ruckus about their crappy Intel IGP not being able to do anything after they paid out their rear for it. Saw it so often I finally just wouldn't help them. I'd tell them..."What have we learned? Intel graphics suck? Yeah, bet you won't do that again now will you. Sorry but buy a new machine, you're screwed."

Course it made it kinda enjoyable because some of them were ones that I had warned about before they purchased. Then within a few months to a year, so burned.

APUs are what idiot computer buyers/users need. The ones too stupid to read before they buy need an APU that will fill future needs as time goes. Granted not as well as a full fledged GPU, but at least enough performance to promote a less frustration transfer towards a more advanced system. Things even more than games are getting much more graphics reliant. Sure office or work environments probably will be behind in that area, but general consumer wants to be wowed when they boot their PC up.
I had no issues working with mobile I5 with HT @ 2.533 ghz that is a dualcore!
I had issues with memory, now I have I7 2.13 ghz with HT laptop with 16 gb ram, using 11 gb ram mostly and 10% on all cores, we need all this cpu power? not really, not in office envoriments anyways.

people complained about intel based graphics with 3d (they watch cad drawings) they don't complain about 8-10 fps, but 1-2 was just too bad.
so yes, they could very well work for office envoriments and general users, cpu power is mostly overrated, and in some cases underrated, theese chips have well earned their place
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#31
TheLaughingMan
rem82with basic frequency of memories in diagram the DDR3 1333Mhz ???
Yes these are improvements over the default of 1333 Mhz RAM.
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#32
laszlo
i think we already discussed in a previous thread that this apu's will target mostly the office segment and media ones...
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#33
damric
I'd like to see these in a review against the sandybridge, nvidia, and radeon 4200 integrated graphics.
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#34
TheLaughingMan
damricI'd like to see these in a review against the sandybridge, nvidia, and radeon 4200 integrated graphics.
Every review put it against Sandybridge and it curb stomped it in graphics. To save you some trouble the 4200 has no chance and Nvidia hasn't made a new IGP since the 9400M which was on par with the Intel 4500HD. Translation: two more free curb stompings.

Considering the IGP on the A8-3850 beat several low end dedicated cards like the Nvidia GeForce GT430 in several test (especially when DX11 was involved), I am pretty sure no IGP currently out stands a chance in hell.
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#35
Thatguy
TheLaughingManEvery review put it against Sandybridge and it curb stomped it in graphics. To save you some trouble the 4200 has no chance and Nvidia hasn't made a new IGP since the 9400M which was on par with the Intel 4500HD. Translation: two more free curb stompings.

Considering the IGP on the A8-3850 beat several low end dedicated cards like the Nvidia GeForce GT430 in several test (especially when DX11 was involved), I am pretty sure no IGP currently out stands a chance in hell.
AMD the fight back has begun.
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#36
WarEagleAU
Bird of Prey
Id definitely grab this and use it for an HTPC with some light gaming.
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