AMD A-series platform
Bluetooth 18 Dec 2012

Christmas is round the corner, have you decided what platform is the most cost effective solution out there? Last year, AMD delivered the first APU LIano which delivers integrated graphics into the core. This October, AMD delivered the 2nd generation that is built on the strength of the earlier generation.

If you have read our reviews, you would have noticed how well the Trinity or A10-5800K performs especially in the graphics performance against even the high end Intel Core i5-3570K. So what has changed ?

Basically, the the new A-series plaform Socket FM2 features the new X86 architecture featuring the “Piledriver” cores. Some features of it includes supports up to 4 cores and latest ISA instructions including AVX, AES, XOP, FMA4/3. There is also enahnced cache performnce over the previous BullDozer cores. It has also improved it’s max turbo frequency to up to 4.2GHz and is configurable through AMD Overdrive.

The GPU is also improved and feature 384 shaders at 800MHz, It supports 8xAA and 16AF  and DX11 support. UVD and VCE allows video encode and decode hardware to offload CPU and AMD Picture Perfect support with HD post processing technologies are included in this new design.

For those who always do file compression using WINZIP, you can also take advantage of the OpenCL instructions. One of such application is WinZip 16.5 x64 build 10095. Another such application is Cyberlink PowerDirector ver 11.

In fact, something that most users overlook is the support of new display technologies. This new platform comes with AMD Eyefinity technology that can support 3+1 monitors and has Display Port 1.2 support.. In addition, it has AMD Dual Graphics enhancements that allows you to pair up with an external graphics card to boost the graphical performance.

Review of GA-F2A85X-UP4 Socket FM2 board with AMD A10-5800K APU
Bluetooth 21 Oct 2012

A few weeks ago, AMD launches it’s newest A85X chipset and FM2 socket processors. The socket FM2 processors are improved versions of the FM1 processors, especially in the graphics and data encoding function but they do not share the same socket type.

The GA-F2A85X-UP4 is one of the new boards that Gigabyte release to support these new processors.

Featuring the AMD A85X chipset, it supports native USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps. The board itself supports 4 DIMM memory slots with a total of 64GB of memory. It supports up to an official DDR3-1866 but can be overclocked up to DDR3-2400+. It also supporst the AMD memory profile (AMP) standard.

As for graphics, the integrated graphics within the APU, in our A10-5800K is a Radeon 6770D class graphics running at 800MHz. The graphics output can be from the D-SUB, DVI-D (up to 2560×1600), HDMI (up to 1920×1200) or DisplayPort (up to 2560×1600). The board also support Virtu MVP to boost graphics performance with any NVIDIA or AMD card on board together with the APU integrated graphics.

Alternatively external graphics card can be used. It has 3 full length PCIe slots that operates in PCIe x16, PCIe x8 (dual cards) and another PCIe slot at PCIe x4. There are 3 PCIe x1 and 1 PCI slot. The graphics card can run in CrossFire configuration or AMD dual graphics (selected cards in tandem with the integrated graphics in APU).

There are plenty of USB and SATA ports on board. There are 4 USB 3.0/2.0 (2 at back panel and 2 others thru internal USB header). Another 10 USB 2.0/1.1 can be supported (2 ports on the back panel and 8 ports thru USB headers). In addition, Gigabyte supports another 2 more USB 3.0/2.0 ports with the Etron EJ168 chipset.

In terms of features, the specific ones for Gigabyte boards are quite standard. They are @BIOS, Q-Flash, EasyTune, DualBIOS, Auto green, On/Off charge, 3D UEFI BIOS, 3TB+ Unlock etc.

The GIGABYTE motherboard employ award winning GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 5 technology that includes high current capable components for the CPU power zone including IR3550 PowIRstage® ICs from International Rectifier, 2X Copper PCB and high current Ferrite Core Chokes rated up to 60A, which together are able to deliver cooler temperatures than traditional motherboards. Featured on a range of new motherboards based the AMD A85X Chipset, GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 5 technology is the next evolution in quality motherboard design.

In the next few pages, we will go through the details and benchmark it against the BIOSTAR FM2 board and compare it with A8-3850 (FM1) and Intel Core i5-3570K.

With the new FM2 boards available, we took the chance to compare the A10-5800K (3.8GHz) and compare it to the Intel core i5-3570K processor in terms of it’s performance, overclockability etc.

Tbe Trinity FM2 A10-5800K has a built in graphics core of Radeon 6670D which runs at 800MHz which seems to outrun the Socket FM1 and Core i5 3570K in graphics component test.

The AMD A10-5800K is catching up with it’s Intel counterpart especially in the data crunching and data transcoding department but it will probably need to improve it’s design to match the speed. It has improved from it’s FM1 design but still require more time to evolve.

Generally the AMD A10-5800K is a good alternative if you have little budget for a PC with on board graphics.

Read our review of the BIOSTAR Hi-Fi A85X motherboard review with more detail numbers.

http://en.ocworkbench.com/tech/review-of-biostar-hi-fi-a85x-socket-fm2-trinity-motherboard-with-a10-5800k-processor/

BIOSTAR HiFi A85X Socket FM2 Trinity motherboard

Discuss

September 2012 is drawing to a close and October would be an interesting month for AMD as they will launch their new Socket FM2 processors. Although processors are not available as yet, boards have surfaced on manufacturers website. Information about the processors have also been posted almost on every site. We managed to get a glimspe of the almost ready FM2 processor A10-5800K. Here is how it looks like.

The unlocked chip A10-5800K has 4MB Cache rated 100W and has a max. clock speed turbo at 4.2GHz. The internal graphics clock is rated at 800MHz and has 384 cores. AMD did not reveal actual pricing but it should be in the range of USD 120 in units of 1000. The processor will be available from Oct 2 2012.

According to a news article on techworld australia, it is said that the upcoming Advanced Micro Devices’ latest A-series quad-core desktop processors runs at up to 4.2GHz, but can be overclocked to 6.5GHz with liquid nitrogen cooling, the company said.

The two unlocked processors, which we have already listed as A10-5800K and the A8-5600K
are faster and cheaper than competitive Intel chips, said AMD desktop products manager Adam Kozak during a conference call to discuss the new chips.

Compared to the equivalent Intel, the AMD is in the US$100 to $150 price range, Kozak said. Intel’s unlockable processors start at $216, according to a Sept. 2 price list.

The chips are based on the Piledriver microarchitecture, which is also used in the latest laptop processors code-named Trinity released by AMD starting in the middle of this year. AMD’s internal benchmarks revealed the new chips provide 25 percent to 37 percent overall faster system performance than the older desktop chips code-named Llano, which were released last year.

The unlocked chip A10-5800K has 4MB Cache rated 100W and has a max. clock speed turbo at 4.2GHz. The internal graphics clock is rated at 800MHz and has 384 cores. The A8-5600K has a maximum clock speed of 3.9GHz and 256 graphics cores with 760MHz GPU clock speed.

AMD did not reveal actual pricing but it should be in the range of USD 120 in units of 1000. The processor will be available from Oct 2 2012.

Source

AMD is set to launch its latest A series APUs codenamed Trinity in May and will initially only release models for notebooks with models for desktops to wait until August, while the company’s 40nm tablet PC processors codenamed Hondo is set to launch in the fourth quarter to timely fit in with the release of Windows 8, according to sources from notebook players.

The Trinity processors adopt a Piledriver structure and will have a 25% improvement in overall performance and 50% in graphics performance comparing to the existing Llano processors, noted the sources.

AMD is set to launch its desktop Trinity processors including A10-5800K, A10-5700, A8-5600K, A8-5500, while will also releasing A6 (Weatherford) and A4 (Richland) series processors. All these processors are manufactured by Globalfoundries, adopting a 32nm process.

In June, AMD will release low-power consumption, entry-level Brazos 2.0 – the new C and E series processors including 18W E2-1800 (1.7GHz) and E1-1200 (1.4GHz). In the third quarter, AMD will release new FX series processors including FX-8350, FX-6300 and FX-4320.

After Bulldozer, AMD will release Steamroller structure in 2013 and Excavator in 2015 and for notebook processors, the company will launch Kaveri processors to replace Trinity and Kabini APUs to replace Brazos 2.0.

Source