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AMD A8-3870K Black Edition Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:53:16 +0000

Late last year I reviewed the AMD A8-3850 APU, which the first high-end Llano based offering from AMD, giving desktop users a taste of how successfully integrated graphics can work with a quad-core processor. And while the performance in multi-threaded applications was decent, as were the onboard graphics, the chip still felt somewhat lacking compared to the direct competition, which is the Intel Core i3-2100.

So today I’ll be looking at the new flagship APU from AMD, the Llano A8-3870K. Apart from having a 100MHz increase over the A8-3850, the ace up the A8-3870K is the fact that it has unlocked core multiplier. Of course, given that the Llano APUs aren’t being targeted towards the hardcore gamer, you won’t find high-end motherboards geared towards overclocking. As such, currently overclocking the A8-3870K is only possible on those motherboards who have an updated BIOS which supports switching the multiplier.

Outside of the unlocked multiplier, the A8-3870K has the same HD 6550D GPU with 400 Radeon cores running at 600MHz speed as the A8-3850. Now one of the coolest things about the Llano APUs is that they are targeted mostly towards HTPC users and the extremely budget conscious gamer who doesn’t want to play Battlefield 3 at Ultra high settings. As such, if the built-in HD 6550D GPU isn’t enough, you can pair it with an AMD Radeon HD 6670 graphics card for asymmetrical CrossFire where both the Llano APU’s integrated HD 6550D and the discrete HD 6670 work in tandem.

AMD roadmap for HD 7000 series graphics cards leaked

Taimoor Hafeez — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:18:48 +0000

With the launch of the new AMD HD 7950 graphics card, a lot of information has come out from various sources. Bright Side of News reported a leaked document from one of AMD’s partners that listed the roadmap for the release of the rest of the HD7000 series graphics cards.

The slide itself is pretty self explanatory with the release schedule. After the HD 79xx series, the first thing we’ll see are the budget oriented, sub-$100 HD77xx cards in mid-February. Following that will be the mainstream, sub-$200 HD 78xx cards out in March, presumably along the same time as the Nvidia 600 series cards. So by the time Nvidia launches their new cards, AMD will have already released most of their line-up.

Of course, that’s not where the Graphics Core Next architecture release ends, as the dual-GPU HD 7990 comes out in early Q2 of this year, most likely in April.

AMD HD 7950 Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:00:50 +0000

Often times AMD and Nvidia release their flagship GPUs with the launch of a new series of graphics card, but it’s the one under the newly crowned king that people most look forward to, the price/performance champion of the people. And in between all the festivities, we usually tend to overlook the middle sibling, the one who sits smack in the middle of the mid-range champion and the performance king. Today marks the launch of one such card, the AMD HD 7950.

The AMD HD 7950 is basically a cut down version of the HD 7970 released a month back. Clocked slightly lower than the 7970 and 256 lesser Stream units, the HD 7950 is made from the same wafer, with 384-bit bandwidth and 4.3 billion transistors and GCN architecture on a 28nm process. Our test units were all 3GB variants, although there will be 1.5GB HD 7950s coming out later, potentially costing $50 to $60 less than the 3GB versions.

Going by those specs and price, AMD has put the HD 7950 squarely against the current Nvidia champ, the GTX 580. And given that the 3GB price of the HD 7950 matches 1.5GB GTX 580s, expect a price drop very soon on the GTX 580.

So let’s take a look at our test cards today, both of which have custom cooling solutions and are factory overclocked to boot.

ASUS HD 7970 Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:31:16 +0000

As the whole PC community was partying last December when the AMD HD 7970s were out for review, our invitation was misplaced as the test unit AMD was supposed to send us didn’t come through until two weeks back. As such, I decided to wait for a retail HD 7970 to review the card. Finally ASUS came through with their standard HD 7970, and today I’ll be looking at stock and CrossFire HD 7970 performance.

For those of you who still don’t know the hoopla surrounding the AMD HD 7970, here’s a quick primer on the new Radeon architecture. First of all, it’s the first graphics card to use a 28nm GPU core, the smaller size bringing with it lesser heat dissipation and lower power consumption. Secondly the HD 7970 uses AMD’s new Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture which is a multi-purpose computation processor designed to handle various applications (not just games) of today and tomorrow.

The HD 7970 is the first implementation of the GCN architecture with double the L2 cache over previous generation VLIW4 architecture. This allows for a massive 2TBps bandwidth capacity across the core of the HD 7970.

The rest of the technical specs can be seen on the chart below:

Now let’s talk about the ASUS HD 7970 that I’ll be reviewing.

The packaging is standard fare for ASUS, nothing overly flashy on the box. Inside we have a manual, driver CD which comes with the ASUS GPU Tweak utility, a HDMI to DVI and a mini-DP to DVI cable. Furthermore we have a 6-pin power cable along with a CrossFireX bridge.

You can now buy AMD branded memory sticks

Mufaddal Fakhruddin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:00:13 +0000

If have an AMD processor, an AMD graphics card and an AMD motherboard, there is no need for your RAMs to feel out of place. The processor makers yesterday announced the availability of AMD-branded RAM modules, which will be developed and distributed in partnership with Patriot Memory and VisionTek Products.

The RAM sticks will be sold in three flavors – 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB, and will cater to “entertainment, performance and enthusiast” computer users. The RAM clock speed will range from 1333MHz and 1600Mhz between the categories.

AMD RAMs are only available in Northern America as of yet. No word on an international release.

Press release:
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced North American retail availability of the first AMD Memory branded desktop system memory modules, debuting with partners Patriot Memory LLC and VisionTek Products, LLC. AMD Memory branded products will help take the guesswork out of DRAM selection, providing an easy and straightforward experience when looking for the ideal match for gaming or multimedia PC needs.

As part of AMD’s development of personal computer platforms, the company has used the AMD OverDrive™ performance optimization tool to test and optimize DRAM in conjunction with the company’s APUs, CPUs, GPUs and chipset platforms. This unique insight is now helping AMD tune and optimize memory modules for other manufacturers.

“Patriot Memory will bring over two decades of experience and expertise into this ecosystem,” said Paul Jones, CEO of Patriot Memory. “Our proven ability to deliver the best technology at the most competitive prices will help pave the way to success for this memory line.”

In addition to leveraging AMD’s experience in creating graphics, CPUs, APUs and motherboard chipsets, this new product line also enables retailers to round out AMD bundles with memory, helping to ensure an easy, confident upgrade experience that places a heavy emphasis on compatibility and stability. Customers can purchase a complete package designed to deliver top performance and maximum value.

“AMD has been our strategic technology partner for ten years and VisionTek has focused our efforts on bringing their PC upgrade products to the North American market,” said Michael Innes, chief operating officer of VisionTek. “The AMD brand means cutting edge technology, as well as uncompromising quality and compatibility for PC users. AMD Memory will help expand the ability to optimize performance in personal computers of today and tomorrow.” VisionTek will have availability of AMD licensed memory through its strategic North American distribution partner D&H. (www.dandh.com).

This initiative builds on AMD’s history of helping to supply high-quality DDR3 modules to video card add-in-board manufacturers in an effort to help ensure availability.

“AMD has been supplying and validating memory for AMD Radeon™ graphics cards for several years,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD GPU Division. “Based on this experience, adding system memory to our product line was a clear opportunity for us. This move provides our partners and end-users with a trusted brand synonymous with quality – we can help ensure performance and reliability with AMD Memory.”

AMD Memory is available at three different levels – 2GB, 4GB and 8GB sizes – in a range of price points and speeds. The Entertainment category will feature 1333 MHz and 1600 MHz speed RAM, designed for quiet Home Theater PC applications. The Performance version supports speed up to 1600 MHz with low latency and comes in matched pairs. Finally, Radeon™ Edition DRAM will run at 1866 MHz, and is tuned, tested and certified for specific AMD platforms to enable maximum performance at competitive pricing.

AMD is collaborating with memory module makers to create AMD Memory branded products from components qualified to meet certain specifications. By testing and certifying the memory components, end-users can be assured of compatibility with AMD platforms. AMD Memory is also designed to deliver quality and reliability with compatible chipsets and processors from other manufacturers. AMD Memory is coming to major retailers including Amazon.com, Bestbuy.ca, Fry’s, Memory Express, Micro Center, NCIX, Newegg, Tiger Direct, VIP Computers (UK) and others.

AMD FX-8150 Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:38:07 +0000

The AMD FX series CPUs have been talked about since longer than I care to imagine, with a lot of excitement surrounding the new architecture coming in from their Opteron, server based CPU, lines. Eight cores with eight threads on a CPU running at 3.6GHz on stock and the ability to turbo up to 3.9GHz on all eight cores or 4.2GHz on four cores, the AMD FX-8150 had a lot of promise. And what with the world record breaking 8.429GHz overclock on liquid helium, the hype for the Bulldozer CPUs was higher than ever.

Instead what we got was something of a mixed bag: a CPU that on paper is powerful enough to outshine any mainstream LGA1155 offering from Intel, but in reality isn’t. With the launch of the FX series, AMD plans to bring back their historical moniker of their previous FX branded CPUs which were the flagship offerings from the company at the time; now the FX brand is fragmented into four, six and eight core CPUs with different speeds and prices.

The specs of the FX-8150, their flagship FX series processor is pretty impressive. Made on a 32nm die with 2 million transistors and compatible with all AM3+ motherboards, the eight cores run at 3.6GHz, supported by 256 KB of L1 Instruction Cache, 8 MB of L2 and L3 Cache. As with the FM1 chips, the new FX CPUs also support DDR3-1866MHz natively.

AMD launches 8 core FX series CPUs

Taimoor Hafeez — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:33:49 +0000

Today AMD finally launched their long awaited FX series performance CPUs. The new FX series comes in three forms, the FX 4100 series which is a quad core processor, the FX-6100 which is their hexa core processor and the FX-8120 and FX-8150 CPUs which are their flagship octa core processors.

AMD pegs the FX-8150 to the Intel Core i7-2600K and i7-980X in terms of performance in multi-threaded applications and games. With all CPUs unlocked and backwards compatible with AM3+ motherboards, AMD suggests the system price to be very low compared to Intel solutions, which certainly looks to be the case.

Those who want to see what’s next in the pipelines may want to look at the image below and…wait I guess.

Look out for our review next week where we go in-depth with the FX-8150 and see how far we can overclock this behemoth.

Zotac A75-ITX WiFi Motherboard Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:37:37 +0000

Zotac is one of the few manufacturers who regularly release HTPC friendly motherboards that are mATX and ITX sized. The only thing I’m expecting out of these puny motherboards is average performance, but a full set of connectivity features to make the HTPC experience as smooth as possible. And today I’ll be looking at their A75-ITX WiFi motherboard which promises to bring the power of the new A and E2 series APUs to this small platform.

The 17x17cm sized board packs an Hudson D3 chipset to support AMD’s latest FM1 based APUs. There are four SATA III (6gbps) ports, two DDR3-1866MHz DIMM slots that can take up to 8GB of RAM, one PCIe x16 slot and six USB 3.0 ports at the back. The connectivity features don’t stop here though, as there are dual LAN gigabit ports in addition to the wireless 802.11n adapter. Closing off the full HTPC tour are the HDMI and DVI port with Optical out near the 8-channel HD audio ports on the back. For an HTPC I really can’t think of anything else that Zotac has skipped in terms of features and speed.

Included in the package itself are three SATA cables, two WiFi antennae and one rear I/O panel and one DVI to VGA adapter. Given all the other bells & whistles, I can’t fault with the price. Now then, let’s see how well the A75-ITX performs.

ECS A55F-A Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:13:40 +0000

The recently released A55 chipsets from AMD are designed to bring their FM1 platform to the masses with budget motherboards. Now I’m not one to advocate for budget boards much, but it makes sense in the case of the new APUs because of AMD’s vision to bring graphical prowess with CPU performance on one small, cool, and very affordable chip.

So what the ECS A55F-A doesn’t feature is USB 3.0 and SATA III (6gbps) ports, but these cuts were designed to save on costs. You still get one PCIe x16 slot, with another running at x4 speeds, plus 4x DIMM slots that support up to 2600MHz DDR3 memory. Oh, and there are 6x USB 2.0 ports on the back, should you need them.

The key thing here is that you have one PCIe x16 slot to add an AMD Radeon HD 5670 or HD 6670 and pair it up with an A8 APU to enable crossfire. The second important factor here is that there are four DIMM slots, all capable of very high RAM speeds. These are the two most important things one should consider if they’re planning to build a Llano based gaming system; the ECS A55F-A certainly supports that. The SATA III and USB 3.0 is just extra fluff that you can live without if you’re under serious budgetary constraints.

Q & A with AMD’s Raymond Dumbeck and Manish Punjabi

Taimoor Hafeez — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:31:19 +0000

We got a chance to catch up with AMD’s Raymond Dumbeck, senior marketing manager for mobile and commercial products, and Manish Punjabi, field marketing manager for MENA and Turkey.

The future is smaller processors.

While discussing the recently released Llano APUs, we also talked a bit about the upcoming Bulldozer high-end processors. There’s also a little bit about AMD’s vision of their ATI graphics cards, now that they’re moving forward to a one chip future.