AMD Athlon 5150 Kabini - cat, Jaguar or more fun?

[FlanK3r]

Its from BIOS, there is not OC utility. Not many people will play with OC Kabini . Only few from us

 

[SlowSpyder]

Its from BIOS, there is not OC utility. Not many people will play with OC Kabini . Only few from us

So we probably shouldn't count on any copper heat pipe coolers either. Kind of too bad, with a higher multiplier and a willing motherboard someone might be able to get near 3GHz... haha.

 

[FlanK3r]

I think, with 5350 is something around 2600 MHz possible

 

[coercitiv]

I think, with 5350 is something around 2600 MHz possible

Yes, around 2600Mhz is quite possible

I was able to hit 2500Mhz with stock voltage, for 2600Mhz I had to bump it a bit (+50mV). I did not properly stress test yet, nor did I increase voltage incrementally, but it did complete a Cinebench run in both cases.

Nice little chip, wonder if it undervolts well too...

 

[DrMrLordX]

Flanker, do you think you could push the BCLK higher with the SATA controller in IDE mode?

 

[Shivansps]

Thats the interesting part, how much the BCLK can be pushed? That will be good to know specially thinking about Sempron 3850 OC....

 

[FlanK3r]

I think the next issue for higher BCLK is iGPU clocks. Cant it get down :-/...

coercitiv: very nice, now must be the performance really "awesome".

 

[DrMrLordX]

Hmm, no option to lower the iGPU multi in BIOS? That's an unfortunate oversight. Maybe Asus could take care of that in a BIOS update?

Granted, I'm not sure that they expect much interest in overclocking these chips. They should know better.

 

[mrmt]

How does IPC compare against Kaveri?

 

[Shivansps]

The OC potential of a Sempron 3850 is really a big thing, because it costs like half of the 5350, and to me its the only cpu that really may worth the money for this platform.

 

[Erenhardt]

How does IPC compare against Kaveri?

About the same.
CB11.5:
a10-7850k@3.7GHz = 3,63 PTS
5150@2,12GHz = 2,12

So about 1 point per 4 cores @1GHz

Also, a-10 7850k downclocks to 3.0GHz when igp is used. Still plays games nicely, which means 3.0Ghz AM1 athlon would perform nicely.

 

[mrmt]

About the same.
CB11.5:
a10-7850k@3.7GHz = 3,63 PTS
5150@2,12GHz = 2,12

So about 1 point per 4 cores @1GHz

Also, a-10 7850k downclocks to 3.0GHz when igp is used. Still plays games nicely, which means 3.0Ghz AM1 athlon would perform nicely.

So AMD got basically same IPC but more power efficiency and a far better cost structure with Kabini, and that only gets better with Puma. What they have to find is a way to scale up frequency, then they can kill the derp family for good.

 

[Abwx]

About the same.
CB11.5:
a10-7850k@3.7GHz = 3,63 PTS
5150@2,12GHz = 2,12

So about 1 point per 4 cores @1GHz

Also, a-10 7850k downclocks to 3.0GHz when igp is used. Still plays games nicely, which means 3.0Ghz AM1 athlon would perform nicely.

That s not the same , CB 11.5 is some case that is favourable to Jaguar, other CB tests show 20% difference and even more with X264/Handbrake.

 

[monstercameron]

So AMD got basically same IPC but more power efficiency and a far better cost structure with Kabini, and that only gets better with Puma. What they have to find is a way to scale up frequency, then they can kill the derp family for good.

amd should definitely stay away from high freqs with cat cores and focus on efficiency and ipc, I feel they will take the lazy route and boost clocks and forget to add ipc. I feel that the slight internal competition between cat cores and construction cores could be good for amd.

 

[mrmt]

amd should definitely stay away from high freqs with cat cores and focus on efficiency and ipc, I feel they will take the lazy route and boost clocks and forget to add ipc. I feel that the slight internal competition between cat cores and construction cores could be good for amd.

They can't afford both. R&D expenses fell another 10% YoY, when they were supposing to be growing. I expect AMD to build their x86 business line around the cat core and kill the construction cores ASAP. Even if they are going for a bigger core than cat in the future, I expect it to share design blocks with it in order to cut down R&D.

 

[tential]

Benchmarks are nice and all, but can we get a user experience idea from you?

It's hard to judge these low end processors from benches alone. In general, we're purchasing them for a low power HTPC/Web Browse box. So how is your experience web browsing and playing back media? I'd be VERY interested in you describing your experience using the web. Does the PC choke on tons of tabbed browsing? Is it very responsive? Etc.

Also does something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817129006
or this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104184

work with this?

 

[tential]

The OC potential of a Sempron 3850 is really a big thing, because it costs like half of the 5350, and to me its the only cpu that really may worth the money for this platform.

It's not half/50%. It's 70% of the cost.
A $20 price difference.

But yes, that'd be interesting as well. At this price segment, a $20 increase in price is quite a large increase on the total % increase on the system.

This combo deal though:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1594348
combined with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211718
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820313072
That's what makes me really interested in what Kabini can do. Very cheap price. It's too bad Windows won't sell their OS for $10-$20 for PC's valued under $300 lol.

 

[Shivansps]

The MB on that combo has a USB3 controller, you can expect that any add-on on the pci-e lanes may limit the oc potential.
MB whiout any extra are likely to yield better OC as it will depend only on the SoC and network IC on the mb.

Also, im not sure if every mb will allow OC.

 

[tential]

The MB on that combo has a USB3 controller, you can expect that any add-on on the pci-e lanes may limit the oc potential.
MB whiout any extra are likely to yield better OC as it will depend only on the SoC and network IC on the mb.

Also, im not sure if every mb will allow OC.

"A-Tuning

A-Tuning is ASRock's multi purpose software suite with a new interface, more new features and improved utilities, including EZ OC, Auto Tuning, XFast LAN, XFast RAM, OC Tweaker, System Browser, Live Update, Tech Service and a whole lot more! "

Also, like I posted before, I'm really more interested in the user experience and not how much I can OC the platform. If I get a modest OC, it's just free performance for me. Pushing it to the limit isn't the concern. Getting a cheap HTPC is the concern. If I wanted to use a PC for actual work, I'd purchase a real computer lol. OC should be an extra bonus to the system. Not the primary reason you're getting a system like this.

 

[Abwx]

The MB on that combo has a USB3 controller,

Indeed but the two USB3 ports controlers are inside the SoC that s why all AM1 MBs have two USB3 ports as a minimum.

It's not half/50%. It's 70% of the cost.
A $20 price difference.

But yes, that'd be interesting as well. At this price segment, a $20 increase in price is quite a large increase on the total % increase on the system.

This combo deal though:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1594348
combined with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211718
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820313072
That's what makes me really interested in what Kabini can do. Very cheap price. It's too bad Windows won't sell their OS for $10-$20 for PC's valued under $300 lol.

So far the ock friendly board seems to be the Asus used by Flank3r wich otherwise has only the basic features common to most basic AM1 MBs, that is two 6gbit/s ports and two USB3 ports, USB2 ports can be as much as 8 and rock bottom prices while the most feature rich is undoubtly the Asrock AM1H with 4 6gbit/s sata ports, 4 USB3 and curiously only 6 USB2,
7.1 analog and optical audio output and foremost a 19V DC supply jack, wich i think should be the norm on all thoses kind of MBs, but it seems that this power input is power limited hence it makes no surprise that Asrock cautiously limited the bios set up to non overclocking features in this board.

The two PSUs you linked should work although 150W is quite oversized for this plateform, as for the combo it depend of the bios ocking features but assuming that you manage a 30% Blck overclock , wich should easier than with an Athlon 5350/5150 given the Sempron lower GPU frequency, it would still be only 1.69GHz with 2040MHz Ram frequency, Flank3r s 5150 seems a more relevant choice as he got the APU frequency being the same as the RAM frequency by the virtue of a 1.6GHz base frequency.

 

[Shivansps]

Indeed but the two USB3 ports controlers are inside the SoC that s why all AM1 MBs have two USB3 ports as a minimum.

That board in particular has a extra SATA(ASMedia ASM1061) and USB 3.0 (ASMedia ASM1042A) controllers to provide a total of 4 SATA and 4 USB 3.0.
No idea if the board allows OC, but if it do, the controllers may limit OC potential when the PCI-E speed starts to go up.

Higher BLCK speed may also provide better dGPU perf, not only because cpu performs better, the bandwidth to the GPU goes up too.

 

[Abwx]

That board in particular has a extra SATA(ASMedia ASM1061) and USB 3.0 (ASMedia ASM1042A) controllers to provide a total of 4 SATA and 4 USB 3.0.
No idea if the board allows OC, but if it do, the controllers may limit OC potential when the PCI-E speed starts to go up.

Higher BLCK speed may also provide better dGPU perf, not only because cpu performs better, the bandwidth to the GPU goes up too.

Didnt notice the 4 sata...anyway nice board given thoses features, (quite oddly with an old parralel port as well), of course that since all frequencies will increase perfs will likely scale nicely reducing the need for CPU higher frequencies, i guess that 1.6 would be noticeable while being largely below the 25W official TDP that seems overstated even for the top of the line 5350.

 

[Abwx]

That board in particular has a extra SATA(ASMedia ASM1061) and USB 3.0 (ASMedia ASM1042A) controllers to provide a total of 4 SATA and 4 USB 3.0.
No idea if the board allows OC, but if it do, the controllers may limit OC potential when the PCI-E speed starts to go up.

Higher BLCK speed may also provide better dGPU perf, not only because cpu performs better, the bandwidth to the GPU goes up too.

Right , i didnt see all thoses added chips, it may well be a limit given the generaly meager bios options in low cost MBs.

 

[tential]

Indeed but the two USB3 ports controlers are inside the SoC that s why all AM1 MBs have two USB3 ports as a minimum.



So far the ock friendly board seems to be the Asus used by Flank3r wich otherwise has only the basic features common to most basic AM1 MBs, that is two 6gbit/s ports and two USB3 ports, USB2 ports can be as much as 8 and rock bottom prices while the most feature rich is undoubtly the Asrock AM1H with 4 6gbit/s sata ports, 4 USB3 and curiously only 6 USB2,
7.1 analog and optical audio output and foremost a 19V DC supply jack, wich i think should be the norm on all thoses kind of MBs, but it seems that this power input is power limited hence it makes no surprise that Asrock cautiously limited the bios set up to non overclocking features in this board.

The two PSUs you linked should work although 150W is quite oversized for this plateform, as for the combo it depend of the bios ocking features but assuming that you manage a 30% Blck overclock , wich should easier than with an Athlon 5350/5150 given the Sempron lower GPU frequency, it would still be only 1.69GHz with 2040MHz Ram frequency, Flank3r s 5150 seems a more relevant choice as he got the APU frequency being the same as the RAM frequency by the virtue of a 1.6GHz base frequency.

Ya I think my post is more for just the lowest cost setup I can get that will still reasonably work. I know over here though this is an enthusiast forum so OCing/performance is far more valued at a premium. I was just wondering what the 3850 was capable of in general since lets be real, you aren't getting a system like this to play games. It's an HTPC. Webbrowsing, video watching, that's what I'd use something like this for. The 3850 combo is a $100 combo. The 5150/Asus mobo is $100 by itself before we add the better ram, and a case as well.

Just was interested in how the 3850 performed but ya, I know this is an OC thread and OCing/performance in general is very important to users on here.

 

[coercitiv]

Just was interested in how the 3850 performed but ya, I know this is an OC thread and OCing/performance in general is very important to users on here.

I would choose the Athlon 5150 over the Sempron for a HTPC.