Llano and trinity CPUs

[Maxx_Power]

But if it shows discrete in benchmarks, don't you think that it is implied that the discrete is in xfire with integrated?

Also there's a laptop with llano A8 3530m with hd 7690m gddr5 on sale here dunno if it is worth getting this one or trinity with ddr3 discrete hd 7670m

As it turns out, this is called Dual graphics, and it is optional, which means you can choose to enable it in the driver control panel. Should be the same as the older A8's.

The A8 is a little underpowered CPU wise for newer games like SC2, I would personally go for a Trinity, even if it is just a little faster.

 

[shad0wboss]

and they all have L2 cache? How can it affect the performance of the CPU in games or other multi tasking stuff?

 

[Maxx_Power]

and they all have L2 cache? How can it affect the performance of the CPU in games or other multi tasking stuff?

All the Trinities will have L2, but I don't think any of them will have L3, which is one thing Piledriver will provide in addition.

Having a larger cache generally benefits scenarios where the data isn't steam lined like matrices for video encoding. So games will benefit. It has been shown that CPU intensive games benefit the most from more cache.

 

[Wisecracker]

You are going beyond everyone's pay-grade.

AMD with Trinity is essentially in the middle of a design architecture which unifies APU processor cores, graphic 'cores' (they call it a SIMD engine array) and cache, with system RAMs --- they each will utilize and share the same address space in memory. That's the concept behind the 'APU'.

 

[shad0wboss]

Thanks a lot guys, it has been A LOT of help. I was wondering since llano and trinity both come up with L2 cache, though trinity A8 4500m is at 2.2 ghz and llano A8 3530mx is at 1.9 ghz so do you think that if the llano a8 is OCed to 2.2 ghz using K10? would it perform that same mainly in gaming?

 

[Wisecracker]

Not. Gonna. Happen. Fogeddaboudit.

Llano has the old 'Stars' CPU cores. Trinity has 2nd-Gen Bulldozer Piledriver cores with a butt-load (highly technical term) of other enhancements, including a new *Turbo*.

 

[shad0wboss]

But a8 4500m is at 157th and a8 3500m is at 161th so if 3530mx is 400 mhz higher clocked than 3500m then it pulls ahead of 4500m?

http/www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

 

[Wisecracker]

You're on your own, mate. I warned yah

 

[shad0wboss]

You're on your own, mate. I warned yah

well, i'm totally newb at all this, that's why i started the thread but then i looked at the benchmarks and got confused. I guess trinity is "supposed" to be better since it is the newer chip....

 

[Maxx_Power]

well, i'm totally newb at all this, that's why i started the thread but then i looked at the benchmarks and got confused. I guess trinity is "supposed" to be better since it is the newer chip....

Each CPU has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, the old A8 based APU's have a CPU core which is clock for clock and core for core, as fast as or faster than the A10's Partial-Piledriver cores.

However, the A10's cores are usually faster at integer operations and inter-core cooperation tasks.

So, if you have a benchmark which emphasizes on raw FPU and Vector power like encoding tests, or photoshop tests, the old A8 may come out on top. If you use a benchmark that tests for other things, emphasizing on branch prediction, multi core scaling, etc, the A10 may come out on top.

Ultimately, how well a CPU work depends on what the manufacturer has decided that the CPU will spend most of its time doing. The A8 has CPU cores from an era when the CPU is expected to do everything from FPU, Vector to Integer. Now, AMD has decided that a lot of stuff makes sense to be offloaded to GPUs and there is nolonger a need for as much FPU power in a modern CPU, so they traded the space normally used for large and bulky FPUs to do something else. How successful this is depends on what you use the CPU for (or how you BENCHMARK the cpu). Eventually, down the road I think we'll see if the philosophy AMD took on Trinity is a viable one by with standing the test of time.

 

[Guardian2834]

Trinity is pretty good GPU wise, for an integrated. That means if you want to spend only a couple of hundred dollars and want some light gaming, trinity is suitable. Llano on the other hand, is a little out of date, and certainly okay CPU wise (for very light, and non-demanding work) but don't expect much in the GPU department now that Trinity is released (for laptops).

Excuse me? I have a laptop with AMD llano processor and I play Skyrim at high graphics. And I don't think Skyrim is a 'light' game. Please don't think so poorly of AMD's APUs. And the processor runs extremely cool. Intel's i5-2450M processor meanwhile overheats so bad that I can't imagine even using it.

 

[Maxx_Power]

Excuse me? I have a laptop with AMD llano processor and I play Skyrim at high graphics. And I don't think Skyrim is a 'light' game. Please don't think so poorly of AMD's APUs. And the processor runs extremely cool. Intel's i5-2450M processor meanwhile overheats so bad that I can't imagine even using it.

Subjective vs. Objective...

Where the power consumption is lower for AMD APUs (mostly gaming):

The exact opposite work load:

And where it is either just a bit worse, or about the same as Intel i5-2450m:

Whether or not it overheats depends on the cooling subsystem design.


CPU performance wise, the i5 is better hands down. See this review:

http/www.tomshardware.com/reviews/a10-4600m-trinity-piledriver,3202-13.html

So it depends on the workload (or if you ONLY game, what exact game, SC2 for example heavily depends on CPU performance and cache size). That the fact that when your specific budget includes discrete GPUs, the APUs becomes uncompetitive all around.