The AMD A8-3500M APU Review: Llano Is Unleashed

[deusexmachina]

It appears as though AMD is mopping the floor with Intel. However, my observations appear to be that AMD will appeal to the gamers and frame rate & direct x crowd. Whereas the professionals and their requirements for, CPU-intensive, large file crunching, encryption hungry applications such as Gov't apps and corporations will feel good by these results and continue to stick with Intel.

So essentially, the best of both worlds is still Intel CPU, with discrete ATI and dynamic graphics switching . . .

 

[Guest]

AMD have released junk yet again.

 

[Guest]

"However, my observations appear to be that AMD will appeal to the gamers and frame rate & direct x crowd. Whereas the professionals and their requirements for, CPU-intensive, large file crunching, encryption hungry applications such as Gov't apps and corporations will feel good by these results and continue to stick with Intel."

my observation is that you're a clown. DirectX pushes everything through the CPU prior to it reaching the gpu, if the cpu cannot execute draw calls fast enough to feed the gpu you end up with low gpu usage and poor frame rates. in otherwords, you get Starcraft 2 performing twice as slow on AMD than you do on Intel.

 

[opmopadop]

May have already been posted...

The benchmark that ran for 7:40 on AMD (auto-read a doco from memory on lowest brightness). Can you repeat on high brightness, and on similar sized Intell laptop please?

It would be useful as thats how I use my laptop for work.

 

[Guest]

na take to domace zuvanie

 

[Tamz_msc]

At the moment, AMD has a faster GPU while Intel has a faster CPU.Lets wait till Trinity.

 

[Guest]

When we drop discrete graphics AMD is surely the winner, but AMD A8-3500M (with discrete 6630M) should have been compared with Intel i5-2520M + a discrete Nvidia GT420/430.. or discrete Radeon 6630M.. That was unfair.

PS: Iam no Intel fan

 

[The Greater Good]

Great review! I just want a cheap gaming laptop, that's all. AMD is helping make that happen. For that, I am happy.

 

[psycho sykes]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]The NDA is up on the 30th.[/citation]
So you know!
Can I get your address? Not like I'll break-in and force to say anything or other ;-)

 

[srgess]

Kinda disapointing not a super big difference between apu only and hd intel for gaming wise and what can i say in productivity lol if desktop version go that way it would not be good for amd. But i have to say power consumation look like really good but still the benchmark are not so clear. Would really like to see a gaming battery test to compare with a intel and dedicated graphic solution

 

[middels8088]

Rubbish CPU (Not important unless you do photoshopping and editing) Awesome graphics (Also not really important unless you want to do some gaming) but AWESOME Battery life! That really makes Llano a win here... Battery life!

 

[mkrijt]

[citation]... but AWESOME Battery life! That really makes Llano a win here... Battery life![/citation]

That was exactly what I was thinking. No average user cares about performance. Being able to use it is what counts.

 

[Guest]

Looks like a very decent option if you are going to buy an all-purpose laptop in the next months.
Let's just hope the manufacturers don't set the price point too high so as not to damage their profits from Intel-based hardware too much.

 

[Jimmmmmn]

Its great to see some innovation from AMD, its what they need. Any comments to the tune of 'but if your building a PC why not just go get a G-card' fail to understand what AMD are doing here. They are changing things up to try and grab a nice piece of the mobile market and it looks like they have a nice proposition here.

Forever pushing along the road of lets keep doing the same old thing but just build more ghz into cpu's. Intel are comfortable and it shows, they are still pushing out very good products but they are in a position to lose market where AMD can take it. This might be very good for us the consumer.

 

[sonofliberty08]

i wonder will the crossfirex works on APU+IGP+GPU , make it become 3 way ......

 

[nebun]

this is why i like discrete graphics....these so called new cpus are a joke when it comes to serious gamers....

 

[lradunovic77]

Desktop version of this CPU does not make sense because it sucks at GPU and it sucks at CPU level. At least Intel solution rocks at CPU level.
Gaming with 20FPS (AMD) vs 9FPS (Intel) is not worth of overall package where this AMD CPU is nowhere near Intel CPU Performance. People run descrete video cards in their computers. Not sure why even Intel evere bothered with integrated graphic chip.

As far as netbooks and laptops this can have value since you get all in one package and i guess you could play some games on very lowe resolution but still who really does that?

Overall i believe AMD wasted money and resources on this product. They tried on both fronts CPU/GPU and they failed both. Neither CPU or GPU brings good performance.

Epic Fail

 

[nebun]

[citation][nom]mkrijt[/nom][citation]... but AWESOME Battery life! That really makes Llano a win here... Battery life![/citation]That was exactly what I was thinking. No average user cares about performance. Being able to use it is what counts.[/citation]
buddy, i care about performance....sometimes speed is good...why wait forever to do something....for example, why wait 45sec for a game to load when you can do it in half the time...catch my drift...speed is good, and GOOD graphics is also good

 

[Jimmmmmn]

That was exactly what I was thinking. No average user cares about performance. Being able to use it is what counts.[/citation]
buddy, i care about performance....sometimes speed is good...why wait forever to do something....for example, why wait 45sec for a game to load when you can do it in half the time...catch my drift...speed is good, and GOOD graphics is also good

If you got no battery you cant do anything... then you gotta wait an hour to charge up - does that make sense?

 

[lradunovic77]

A smart man will buy Laptop with i7/i5/i3 CPU and Nvidia or decent standalone ATI GPU onboard. The pricing will come out the same but performance is going to be way above this AMD solution.

 

[lradunovic77]

Get 9 Cell battery and you are good. Just because your battery will last half hour longer with this CPU it doesn't mean you get any value out of it.

 

[Jimmmmmn]

Newsflash: the world is moving on. The geeks in the basement with their 4Ghz cpus are a thing of the past. Mobile computing is the way forward. Seen the smartphone and tablet revolution? 'Hardcore' must equate to approx f-all of the chips these companies sell. Just cos this is a tech forum doesnt mean everything reported on is aimed at adding another 5-10 fps to your uber rig.

An extra half an hour of use is the value.... people dont want to buy a laptop then have to buy a bigger battery. wake up.

 

[lradunovic77]

Smartphones and Tablets can't replace desktop cause they will always lack level of performance and usability desktop has therefore i would not compare those platforms. But if you are trying to compare it...that geek in the basement with his 4Ghz CPU encodes/decodes video in 15 minutes and guess what...you can't even ******* do it on your stupid little smartphone.

 

[lradunovic77]

The funny side of Smartphone technology is that fails very simple task for which phone was invented and that is to make decent call.

 

[MU_Engineer]

[citation][nom]vz7[/nom]After reading the desktop benchmarks on anandtech I can't say I'm impressed. The top of the line a8 3850 manages to scratch the best intel integrated graphics, which doesn't say much. Its CPU power seems to be a toss up with the i3. I think this hardly justifies the +70 premium (over an i3) that you'd have to spend to get it.[/citation]

That's pretty much the opposite result as to what you see in this review. The i5-2520M could only run about 3/4 of the graphics tests, and when it did, the A8-3500M was almost always faster. Anandtech also tested the A8-3500M versus a bunch of very high-dollar quad-core i7s with discrete GPUs instead of the i5-2520M+IGP that costs about the same and would be an actual competitor to the A8. There's a reason why Anandtech is nicknamed "IntelTech"...