AMD - Bulldozer Chitchat

[kalniel]

It seems AMD is packing transistors more densely than the current Intel CPUs:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4444/a...apu-a8-3500m/2

In general or just the low-cache llano?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

In general or just the low-cache llano?

Llano.

However,remember that the 45NM Intel processors with no L3 cache were still smaller than the equivalent AMD ones without L2 cache and a similar number of transistors:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2775

Look at the Intel Sandy Bridge 2C (GT2) which is a Core i3 with an HD3000 IGP. The Core i3 has under 4MB of combined L2 and L3 cache whereas Llano has 4MB of L2 cache.

[krazy_olie]

Seeing as most laptop users do not care about running benchmark I think some reviews are missing the point a little bit really. People essentially want stuff to work and have a decent battery life.

It looks as though llano fits the bill and allow for good casual gaming ( I don't know anyone who does hardcore laptop gaming) .

Having said that it does look as though the old cpu architecture is somewhat crippling, but will joe bloggs notice?

[krazy_olie]

sounds like it might be something to pick up from the bargain bin in a couple of years. Possibly many parallels to be drawn with Chinese democracy .

Much awaited games are often poor, Doom 3 for example.

[watercooled]

Llano.

However,remember that the 45NM Intel processors with no L3 cache were still smaller than the equivalent AMD ones without L2 cache and a similar number of transistors:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2775

Look at the Intel Sandy Bridge 2C (GT2) which is a Core i3 with an HD3000 IGP. The Core i3 has under 4MB of combined L2 and L3 cache whereas Llano has 4MB of L2 cache.

Nice! Another tab to add to my growing collection of to-read pages!

sounds like it might be something to pick up from the bargain bin in a couple of years. Possibly many parallels to be drawn with Chinese democracy .

Much awaited games are often poor, Doom 3 for example.

Wrong thread ftw.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

There is a preview of desktop Llano too:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4448/a...rmance-preview

Too many of the games tests are at low settings and resolutions though. On top of this Anandtech used 1333MHZ RAM!! Llano supports 1600MHZ and 1866MHZ DDR3. I suspect the higher end Llano systems will be more senstive to the speed of RAM used.

On top of this Anandtech retested the Intel systems with newer drivers which improved performance in games but could not be bothered to retest the Llano system with faster RAM.

Edit!!

The test setups used were not also revealed. There are GDDR5 versions of the HD6450 and HD5570 which are not common at retail but are much faster.

When the A8 APU is run at the same clockspeeds as an HD5570 DDR3 the performance looks similar:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/a8-350...w-32207-8.html

The HD6550D has a 20% lower clockspeed for the GPU when compared to an HD5570.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here are some more desktop Llano benchmarks:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4447/d...eme6-preview/3

It seems that Anandtech have artificially limited the RAM speed to 1333MHZ and used older AMD graphics drivers.

[krazy_olie]

Nice! Another tab to add to my growing collection of to-read pages!



Wrong thread ftw.

Stupid tabbed browsing!

[watercooled]

Here are some more desktop Llano benchmarks:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4447/d...eme6-preview/3

It seems that Anandtech have artificially limited the RAM speed to 1333MHZ and used older AMD graphics drivers.

Unusual, I've found Anandtech to be relatively fair. He does usually pay attention to comments though so it might be worth pointing it out.

[Terbinator]

Unusual, I've found Anandtech to be relatively fair. He does usually pay attention to comments though so it might be worth pointing it out.

This. They even investigated the NB speed and its effect on the PII X6's so i can't see them not retesting with faster RAM.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This. They even investigated the NB speed and its effect on the PII X6's so i can't see them not retesting with faster RAM.

It still seems very unusual to downclock 2000MHZ and 2133MHZ RAM to 1333MHZ especially for a CPU which supports 1600MHZ and 1866MHZ RAM.

At least Anand said in the comments that he would use faster RAM now in the actual review.

However,he was quick to change the HD3000 results in the preview with newer drivers (someone pointed it out to him today that there were newer Intel drivers) so why not retest A8 processor in the preview with faster RAM? Even the review of the motherboard says that Catalyst 10.12 drivers were used. Why is he using such an old version?? The latest versions are Catalyst 11.4 and 11.5b AFAIK.

Also,what versions of the HD5570 and HD6450 were used?? If the GDDR5 versions were used it is pointless as these are not that common. At least Toms Hardware said they used an HD5570 DDR3.

[Blackmage]

The CPU isn't very fast is it? I thought Llano was suppose to give phenom II like performance?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The CPU isn't very fast is it? I thought Llano was suppose to give phenom II like performance?

Look at the clockspeed.

It seem at similar clockspeeds Llano is either slightly slower or slightly faster than a Phenom II X4:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/a8-350...-32207-17.html

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems Bulldozer has 1GHZ Turbo Core for half the cores:

http://www.techpowerup.com/147408/FX...-1.00-GHz.html

[Terbinator]

Snip...

I hadn't actually read the article at this point (still haven't now! ) and was assuming worst case scenario it was just some 1600MHz stuff downlocked.

[melon]

It seems there was a bug with Cool'n'Quiet which meant the CPU ran at half its rated speed. With it is switched off the CPU benchmark scores are much higher:

http://translate.google.com/translat...66878%26pg%3D5

Supposedly,the CPU was overclocked to 5.4GHZ although the scores do look a tad low for such a large overclock. It could be quite possible that there is some throttling happening.

I take it your not that impressed then ?

Whats you overall verdict ?

m