APUs on laptops would be so good if laptops were configured with proper cooling, proper dual channel high frequency ram and good displays.

And non-crippled batteries, and maybe even SSD 🙂

APUs on laptops would be so good if laptops were configured with proper cooling, proper dual channel high frequency ram and good displays.

I have an AM APU HP laptop and never had any problems. These new APU's look very nice.

I have an AM APU HP laptop and never had any problems. These new APU's look very nice.

He's not saying that you've got problems with your laptop, he's saying that most laptops with AMD APUs have crippled motherboards that only accept single channel RAM even if you fill 2 slots, and that most laptop manufacturers only put bad quality parts in them (screen, battery, storage...). It's complicated to see premium laptops with AMD APUs in the market, even if you're willing to pay for it.

It's really too bad they cheap out on laptop memory these APU'S could be so much more in notebooks than any Intel could ever be.

APUs on laptops would be so good if laptops were configured with proper cooling, proper dual channel high frequency ram and good displays.

I cannot imagine that going with single channel memory over dual channel memory is that big of a price difference either, that is usually one of the first things to go when the manufacturers are trying to make their laptop's cheaper. Does nothing for the consumer! APU's need higher spec'ed memory, and dual channel.

I cannot imagine that going with single channel memory over dual channel memory is that big of a price difference either, that is usually one of the first things to go when the manufacturers are trying to make their laptop's cheaper. Does nothing for the consumer! APU's need higher spec'ed memory, and dual channel.

Manufacturers put Carrizo/Carrizo-L motherboards (that only support single channel) instead of purely Carrizo motherboards (that support dual channel).

Manufacturers put Carrizo/Carrizo-L motherboards (that only support single channel) instead of purely Carrizo motherboards (that support dual channel).

I know AMD is trying to cut costs for manufacturers to pick them up, but why even make single channel options? In the past and even now, you can get some mid-range to high end APU laptops for under $600 even! I have seen a few for $500.

I know AMD is trying to cut costs for manufacturers to pick them up, but why even make single channel options? In the past and even now, you can get some mid-range to high end APU laptops for under $600 even! I have seen a few for $500.

That's not the reason Carrizo/Carrizo-L motherboard chips exist. Single channel options should exist for extremely-low powered systems, but they're being used for not-so-low powered systems, that's the problem.

I know AMD is trying to cut costs for manufacturers to pick them up, but why even make single channel options? In the past and even now, you can get some mid-range to high end APU laptops for under $600 even! I have seen a few for $500.

I definitely agree with you that they should only offer dual channel parts, but at the same time I think their reasoning for the option is that Intel can match their pricing no matter how low it is. It's pretty clear that the OEM's don't pay ARK pricing. Look at the Y700-15ACZ vs the Y700-15. The Intel model is only $8 more and the only thing you lose is 500GB yet the processor according to ARK is nearly $150 more. There is no way Lenovo is just taking $150 loss on each Intel board they sell over AMD equivalent. Me personally, I don't see the device that AMD wants put out. I have a SP4 i5 8GB that I use for notetaking, general browsing, and work related stuff. I considered getting a SB dGPU version, but when am I really going to be putting that dGPU to use? I have a desktop for gaming. Newer devices have Thunderbolt 3 and external GPU options. I can see maybe CAD/3D artists people using it but how big is the market for that? Like most of those people have desks and wacom tablets and whatnot. Where does a mid-range GPU notebook really fit in? Indie gaming device for Rocket League? Idk, it just seems like AMD is building a product for a niche that doesn't really exist. And it's not like they have the OEM relationships where they can just "Ultrabook" it like Intel did. They can't even get their products into decent OEM lineups. That's why I posted in the Zen thread that Zen needs to completely dominate Intel's lineup or AMD is screwed. They have a massive perception problem in the industry and they lack the clout to fix it. Simply competing wont' be good enough.

It's a shame, because AMD's newest laptop CPUs seems to be legitimately good products but as has been pointed out, it's hard to find one that either isn't crippled in some way, poorly made, or isn't stupidly expensive.

They are banking on HSA. I do hope these are dual-channel... hard to tell.

They are banking on HSA. I do hope these are dual-channel... hard to tell.

You have to do some research before buying... Some are dual channel, some are single channel. While it doesn't make much difference at all in manufacturing costs, it can make a huge difference in performance.

I know AMD is trying to cut costs for manufacturers to pick them up, but why even make single channel options? In the past and even now, you can get some mid-range to high end APU laptops for under $600 even! I have seen a few for $500.

Anandtech explains this well: AMD doesn't WANT to make single channel Carrizo, but Carrizo-L already exists, and is already single channel, and already has devices that exist with it in it. So the OEMs want AMD to make full Carrizo compatible with all their existing Carrizo-L products which are single channel so all they have to do is plop full Carrizo into the existing designs and sell it. No cost to redesign, reengineer, reproduce the parts; they can just use what they already have. Which puts AMD in the position of selling losing products because it's the only thing it can sell, which means their perception problem just gets worse and worse and worse. Because if you can't just reuse other AMD parts...why not just put intel in instead.

I cannot imagine that going with single channel memory over dual channel memory is that big of a price difference either, that is usually one of the first things to go when the manufacturers are trying to make their laptop's cheaper. Does nothing for the consumer! APU's need higher spec'ed memory, and dual channel.

All testing reports I have seen say that dual channel only makes a miniscule difference, if any. The speed of the RAM itself means more but I just saw a report last night that compared gaming performance with RAM of 1333 MHz and everything in between up to 2400. The difference in gaming FPS was practically non existent with every speed staying within 1 fps. The reviewer said that the higher speed RAM comes at a cost of higher latency and in most cases that cancels out the rated speed advantage. Increasing the amount of RAM has the biggest beneficial effect but even that levels out above 8 GB in gaming situations. Rendering and editing is a different story where more is always better. The conclusion was that, for gaming, 8GB of 1333 RAM was sufficient even in a single channel mode. This is in real gaming situations and not any synthetic benchmarks. Yes, faster RAM in dual channel will be better but almost imperceptibly so. The benefit of faster RAM for an APU will be for the GPU unit since it uses shared system memory. Dual channel still is not that big of a difference.

All testing reports I have seen say that dual channel only makes a miniscule difference, if any. The speed of the RAM itself means more but I just saw a report last night that compared gaming performance with RAM of 1333 MHz and everything in between up to 2400. The difference in gaming FPS was practically non existent with every speed staying within 1 fps. The reviewer said that the higher speed RAM comes at a cost of higher latency and in most cases that cancels out the rated speed advantage. Increasing the amount of RAM has the biggest beneficial effect but even that levels out above 8 GB in gaming situations. Rendering and editing is a different story where more is always better. The conclusion was that, for gaming, 8GB of 1333 RAM was sufficient even in a single channel mode. This is in real gaming situations and not any synthetic benchmarks. Yes, faster RAM in dual channel will be better but almost imperceptibly so. The benefit of faster RAM for an APU will be for the GPU unit since it uses shared system memory. Dual channel still is not that big of a difference.

Wouldn't it have been easier to link us to the review? Right now what you just said could be totally invented. Not saying that it is, but other reviews have shown the opposite of what you say.

These 2 links are tests done with a normal discrete graphics setup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWgzA2C61z4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG8HoewIO_s With an APU system, since as I said, the graphics use shared system memory, there are definite significant benefits with faster RAM which only makes sense. dual or single channel still makes little difference. Given that the thread is about APU equipped laptops I wasn't completely disagreeing with anything . I was just trying to show that the difference is not as great as many think.

Both of those examples have nothing to do with the serious bottleneck single channel memory create on AMD APUs. In this case, graphics are using DDR3 in single channel mode. So having a "not weak, but not very strong" CPU, and completely strangling the GPU with very under-powered memory is basically going to kill any chance for the APU to shine in any kind of situation compared to Intel. Games should be one, HSA should be another plus for these APUs, but right now, Intel laptops do better largely due to APU memory starvation.

Both of those examples have nothing to do with the serious bottleneck single channel memory create on AMD APUs. In this case, graphics are using DDR3 in single channel mode. So having a "not weak, but not very strong" CPU, and completely strangling the GPU with very under-powered memory is basically going to kill any chance for the APU to shine in any kind of situation compared to Intel. Games should be one, HSA should be another plus for these APUs, but right now, Intel laptops do better largely due to APU memory starvation.

It's memory speed that is needed for APU's. Even the current APU laptops outperform the Intels using only their integrated graphics in gaming situations because of their stronger GPU's and less aggressive throttling that kills the latest Intel mobile processors.

It's not single or dual channel because that still makes little difference. It's memory speed that is needed for APU's. Even the current APU laptops outperform the Intels using only their integrated graphics in gaming situations because of their stronger GPU's and less aggressive throttling that kills the latest Intel mobile processors.

No, for APUs, multiple channels make a significant performance difference. RAM frequency is important too, but single channel takes a big performance hit for APUs.