Finals Words and conclusion
Final words and conclusion
In our initial 3850 review we already stated that we definitely had higher hopes for RAW processor performance on the A8 series. The culprit for AMD is that they made use of the Stars architecture and as such cannot compete with Intel on that level compared to Sandy Bridge. It will take up-to 2012 until Llano gets updated to a new CPU architecture based off Bulldozer, that project is called Trinerty. But Intel is releasing Ivy Bridge in 2012 as well. So yeah we had hoped for much higher-per core performance. It's not all about raw unadulterated processor performance though as AMD abundantly makes clear.
See, the strong point of Llano is obviously the embedded GPU and combined with their A75 chipset features like native SATA-600 and USB 3.0 support. Next to that, the powerful software suite surrounding Llano definitely brings heaps of advantages to AMD opposed to the competition.
And as such I foresee that Llano will be huge in the notebook market, and perhaps a little less strong in the PC market initially. For example in notebooks, with Llano, AMD effectively kills off the market for NVIDIA with products like an AMD processor / NVIDIA GPU combo. Llano offers good CPU performance, excellent multi-media options, the Full HD experience and even a great gaming experience -- I'm still talking laptops here ok?
But back to the desktop platform, for the PC the Lynx based A8-3800 is an "okay" performer processor CPU wise at best. The integrated GPU obviously is a class of its own and it will accelerate all GPU assisted applications very nicely. For HTPC usage the Llano Lynx processors will be hot stuff as for little money you can design an HTPC that just downright kicks ass. The 400 shader processors will allow you to do massive additional post-processing on your content and the UVD3 engine will offer you seriously good Full-HD accelerated playback from pretty much any source. Also think about stuff like AMD Accelerate where you can use the processor and shader processors to compute and accelerate more generic applications. If the software supports it, that's where the A series APU will kick in hard.
We also have to realize that with the embedded GPU the dynamic of the 'generic processor' changed. Combine the processor with the GPU and see that GPU as an extra parallel co-processor for a second. Imagine software taking advantage of both these units simultaneously. That's where the true power is, and unfortunately for AMD... most benchmarks and tests are just not ready for that, as 80% of the tests and benchmarks focus mainly on just the processor. Ironically a test like the 3DMark Vantage P score is probably a very good indicator as it measures both CPU and GPU performance.
For the series A8 processor that we tested we have to admit that the power envelope is decent. With use of the integrated GPU we noted down 38 Watts in idle and roughly 110 Watts when we stress the APU, that's okay really. Heat levels of the APU are a non-issue as well, obviously we always recommend a proper cooler. But expect a thermal envelope of 50 Degrees C with a decent cooler and heavy APU stress.
The A8 3800 itself then.
The A8 3800 is definitely a bit of a weird APU. When you look at processor performance, it's slower than a A6-3650, as the processor part is clocked lower, and the Turbo feature can't compensate enough to beat the A6-3650. On the flipside of the coin, the A8-3800 is faster than the A6-3650 when it comes to GPU performance, it simply has more shader processors. It's up to you what you find more important. Fact remains that after 1280x1024 the IGP will slowly run into problems. Performance wise the lower end games with lower quality settings however will run 1600x800 reasonably, and yeah that is just a colossal step forward for an integrated GPU.
Say if you are on a very steep budget, well... gaming is becoming an option and AMD certainly offers the best IGP in the business. Especially compared to the IGPs in say Core i5 660/661 and the current Core i3/i5/i7 Sandy Bridge series processors, the A8 series will dominate, rule and has set a completely new standard.
From that other point of view, sure... if you have gaming needs in decent resolutions with respectable image quality settings and modern more stringent on the GPU based games, you will need to be on the lookout for a dedicated graphics card. But obviously, that was expected.
Alright, let's sum things up; the AMD A8 processor as tested today offers what AMD always offers, a very affordable alternative with every gadget available on-board. If you purchase an A8 APU with the combination of that A75 based motherboard, you'll have a processor, graphics subsystem, SATA-600 ports, USB 3.0, heaps of USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, HD audio and well... everything you need to get a very up-to-date PC.
Now, if you combine all these features with the APU price you'll be surprised, the AMD A8-3800 APU as reviewed today will cost you give or take 89 EUR, and that's a hard price to beat for all the features and GPU goodness you receive alright. So with the A series APU AMD have started something new, a heterogeneous piece of technology that will address a very specific market and that's from low-end to mid-range PC. The A8-3800 is performance wise entry-level mainstream and should be seen as just that. It is an excellent APU for a nice net PC.
- Leave/read comments on this product
- Sign up to receive an email when we publish new articles
- Or go back to Guru3D's front page.
