ASRock's E350M1: AMD's Brazos Platform Hits The Desktop First

[cangelini]

We had the opportunity to preview the Zacate APU late last year at AMD’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. Now we have the first retail motherboard based on the Brazos platform in ASRock’s E350M1. Today we’re asking: what can the Fusion initiative really do?

ASRock's E350M1: AMD's Brazos Platform Hits The Desktop First : Read more

 

[iam2thecrowe]

now they need some devs to take advantage of that apu to see its full potential as a processor.

 

[reprotected]

Ironic of how Nvidia quality is worse than AMD.

 

[Reynod]

This is an awesome processor ...

Chris ... did you manage to overclock it at all?

Give it your best shot ... call crashman in with the liquid nitrogen if you need to mate !!

Really impressive stats for such a small piece of silicon.

 

[dogman_1234]

So the Brazo is great for media and hard processing I assume. If someone came to me and asked for a good platrom to watch Blu-Ray...I would say get the Brazo APU for them, right?

 

[sparky2010]

Nice, things are starting to look good for AMD, and i hope it stays that way as they start unveiling their mainstream and highend processors, because i'm really fed up with intel dictating crazy prices.....

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]reynod[/nom]This is an awesome processor ... Chris ... did you manage to overclock it at all?Give it your best shot ... call crashman in with the liquid nitrogen if you need to mate !!Really impressive stats for such a small piece of silicon.[/citation]

Didn't get a chance to mess with overclocking. If this is something you guys want to see, I might try to push it a little harder over the weekend.

 

[joytech22]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]Didn't get a chance to mess with overclocking. If this is something you guys want to see, I might try to push it a little harder over the weekend.[/citation]

Yeah that would be much appreciated, these little chips are so much faster than Atom, let's see if you can get them to perform similarly to a Dual-Core CPU at 1.8GHz

 

[cangelini]

Alright, I'll see what I can do. A shiny new video card landed this afternoon, so that's going to monopolize the bench for much of the weekend

 

[dEAne]

Yes integration is the key to higher performance, lower power consumption and lower price (affordability this is what people really wanted).

 

[haplo602]

can you also run gaming benchmarks with a 5670 or similar plugged into the PCIe slot ? Just to have a look how the limited memory interface will bottleneck ...

also what happens with the intgrated graphics core when you plug in a discreet GPU ? you gave so much detail about this in the sandy bridge review but totaly skip it for Fusion ...

the board got me interested. I am trying to buy a small "workstation terminal" ... something to code OpenGL/OpenCL on a budget. Seems this is what I am looking for.

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]haplo602[/nom]can you also run gaming benchmarks with a 5670 or similar plugged into the PCIe slot ? Just to have a look how the limited memory interface will bottleneck ...also what happens with the intgrated graphics core when you plug in a discreet GPU ? you gave so much detail about this in the sandy bridge review but totaly skip it for Fusion ...the board got me interested. I am trying to buy a small "workstation terminal" ... something to code OpenGL/OpenCL on a budget. Seems this is what I am looking for.[/citation]

Clearly the focus here was on Brazos' place in the Fusion infrastructure (hence the effort to test video decode/encode). Again, I'll look into adding more performance data with discrete graphics as well, though!

 

[apache_lives]

about F*** time AMD, good show

 

[lashton]

yeah overclocking would be good and see how it compares with overclocking of similar playforms

 

[johnbilicki]

Biased; it's awesome all-around. Netbooks aren't going to sport 1680x1050 displays. I'd refer people to the site though they don't understand how to objectively interpret biased reporting.

 

[johnbilicki]

I get a -1 rating for making a criticism by the site's software the moment I post, I recommend others test the system to if they don't believe me; choose negative reaction of course.

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]johnbilicki[/nom]Biased; it's awesome all-around. Netbooks aren't going to sport 1680x1050 displays. I'd refer people to the site though they don't understand how to objectively interpret biased reporting.[/citation]

Netbooks != nettops. This is a motherboard, which goes into a system on a desk/in an entertainment center. Sorry, your princess is in another castle...

 

[Reynod]

Good point about the mobo Chris.

Yes we would ove to see some overclocking if possible ...

This kinda takes me back to the days of Dothan ... remember this landmark article Chris ...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dothan-netburst,1041-6.html

 

[cangelini]

Sure do reynod--those were the days, weren't they?

 

[i_am_aronman]

[citation][nom]sparky2010[/nom]Nice, things are starting to look good for AMD, and i hope it stays that way as they start unveiling their mainstream and highend processors, because i'm really fed up with intel dictating crazy prices.....[/citation]
More like ridiculous prices, i understand them having "top" processors but i don't understand their pricing scheme. I am hoping AMD can pull it together with these processors as well because it will mean Intel will have to get it together as well.

 

[nevertell]

I was hoping for better performance per watt

I really would like a tegra 2 notebook with a proper and supported OS.

 

[GaMEChld]

[citation][nom]johnbilicki[/nom]Biased; it's awesome all-around. Netbooks aren't going to sport 1680x1050 displays. I'd refer people to the site though they don't understand how to objectively interpret biased reporting.[/citation]

That does not mean that it would be unfeasible to pipe out a HDMI output from a Brazos class netbook, allowing you to view HD content on an HDTV at 1920x1080. The monitor capability in that situation wouldn't be a limiting factor.

And if you are going to counter with "Who would do that?" I would. I hook laptops, netbooks, desktops, and all sorts of other gizmos up to TV's. Having that level of power in a small form factor for low cost would be more than welcome.

 

[amdfangirl]

The shear fact that Brazios can play L4D at 1680x1050 all is amazing! My 690G barely clocks 20fps at 800x600. Amazing how far IGPs devloped in 3-4 years!

Chris, can we see a 1.6Ghz shootout? I would appreciate if we could see clock for clock how efficient Brazios is, compared to AMD's own K8 and K10.5 Athlon dual-core series.

 

[Onus]

Very interesting, and promising. I do hope to buy a laptop this year, and long battery life plus a little gaming ability are in my requirements.

Just as interesting though, is that "shiny new video card." GTX560?

 

[dalta centauri]

This looks to be quite interesting, it seems to be a great thing for netbooks and laptops where people don't want the 600+$ ones to play games on medium settings. I bought a 400$ laptop with integrated Radeon graphics almost 2 years ago, and seeing this performing as good as it does makes me want to buy it. I'm not a huge gamer, but being able to play games on low to medium settings at a laptops/netbooks max resolution would be something everyone wants.