BF3 Beta and AMD Llano

[mrcmtl]

Hey guys,

I'm just reporting my experience of my Llano laptop for BF3 Beta in case some of you were wondering.

My system specs are A8-3500M with integrated 6620G graphics with 6GB DDR3-1333.

I've ran BF3 Beta and to my surprise, it actually ran and gave a playable experience. I've set it to 1366x768 with low settings. My FPS range is between 20 and 30 which is definitely playable. At first I actually thought I would suck bad as these frames weren't comfortable enough but after playing a couple of minutes, I actually got a really good score.

So there it is, if you were wondering if Llano can run BF3 then the answer is yes. I don't know if the A6 can run it but the mobile A8 can. And there is no doubt that desktop A8 can run it as well.

I don't want any flaming here but I just like to say kudos to AMD for providing a BF3 playable laptop at 600$.

 

[formulav8]

Looks good. Wonder where Intel stands... :\

 

[psolord]

Thanks for sharing mate.

Still I am gonna be kinda negative here. You don't claim playability, on a game that is supposed to be the pinnacle of PC graphics, when you set it at low on something higher than 720P. Sorry, my opinion. I bet your laptop is a great machine non the less.

Now if I take that back, will you give me your key so I can benchmark it myself? I promise I will give you due credit!

 

[Venom20]

Hmm, nice. Thanks for reporting.

 

[Capt Caveman]

I'm surprised that you found fps of 20-30 playable. I had a hard time with fps in the high 30s last night playing BF3.

 

[sangyup81]

$600 eh? I'd be impressed if it beat this machine head to head in the BF3 benchmarks

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834215120

 

[trollolo]

30FPS at min settings sounds terrible.

 

[StrangerGuy]

$600 eh? I'd be impressed if it beat this machine head to head in the BF3 benchmarks

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834215120

Slow quad-core + even slower 160 SP 64-bit bus GPU. Thats going to be even worse than OP's unplayable system. Sorry to break any bubbles.

 

[mrcmtl]

Thanks for sharing mate.

Still I am gonna be kinda negative here. You don't claim playability, on a game that is supposed to be the pinnacle of PC graphics, when you set it at low on something higher than 720P. Sorry, my opinion. I bet your laptop is a great machine non the less.

Now if I take that back, will you give me your key so I can benchmark it myself? I promise I will give you due credit!

I agree that playability is a vague term. I does vary from person to person. Someone like me might find 24fps satisfying while other will need 40+. But to me, it's already good enough. I had a 15-5 round with a score of 2400 and during the entire round, I didn't feel any sort of lagginess that would hamper my score.

As for the key, the open beta will be available to everyone tomorrow so you can try it out then.

 

[nanaki333]

nice to see a blockbuster game being run on a mainstream budget system decently. that's what sells pc games. most users aren't going to have a $100+ GPU in their dell or HP

this is just a beta too, so performance may be 30+FPS when it goes gold.

 

[busydude]

Did you install the new 11.10 drivers? If not, please do that and let us know if there is any performance improvement.

Thanks.

 

[OCGuy]

20-30FPS?

Let me know how it does on a 64 man large-map server with vehicles everywhere...

I've been playing the Beta as well, but I think the jury is out until we get a better range of maps, situations, etc.

Personally I wouldnt play that game with anything less than a 4XXX or GT200 on desktop, or thier mobile equivalents for decent resolutions.

 

[sangyup81]

Slow quad-core + even slower 160 SP 64-bit bus GPU. Thats going to be even worse than OP's unplayable system. Sorry to break any bubbles.

You really think Turbo core is going to be at 100% for the CPU when he's running BF3? BF3 is pretty well threaded according to preliminary benches. The built in GPU will be taking away from the TDP allowance the CPU will have. The N970 will run at a higher clock rate in this scenario and for the graphics, we'll have to see whether GPU clock speed is a greater penalty than the memory bus since this is not being run at 1920x1080. I wouldn't be surprised if the shared memory system ends up being a greater penalty than 64-bit memory. It's not like the Llano GPU gets a 256-bit bus like the GDDR5 cards we run on our desktops.

If you really want to be fair, we can stop handicapping the OP's Llano system by giving it an extra $100 and put it up against something more similarly priced like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834215161

 

[Vesku]

Wouldn't have expected it to be able to run at 30fps. I'm still not that interested in non-budget, ~$400, Llano or Bobcat notebooks though. It's still best suited for older or light gaming, imo even if it is a step up from previous integrated graphics. If Trinity comes along with close to a 5750 equivalent graphics capability though, I'd consider buying a mainstream Trinity notebook.

 

[Kevmanw430]

Honestly, if you want a $600, or heck, $500 laptop to play BF3, get the Asus K53TA. A6 in Dual Graphics with a 6650M, for $449 at bestbut. When the CPU is OC'd (all mobiule Llano's are unlocked) and so on, 1700 3DMark11 is possible, a bit better than a 555M and close to 460M.

 

[sangyup81]

Honestly, if you want a $600, or heck, $500 laptop to play BF3, get the Asus K53TA. A6 in Dual Graphics with a 6650M, for $449 at bestbut. When the CPU is OC'd (all mobiule Llano's are unlocked) and so on, 1700 3DMark11 is possible, a bit better than a 555M and close to 460M.

I second using Llano in a Hybrid CrossfireX setup

 

[Vesku]

Any tests of hybrid xfire with latest drivers? Initial Llano reviews showed room for improvement.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Honestly, if you want a $600, or heck, $500 laptop to play BF3, get the Asus K53TA. A6 in Dual Graphics with a 6650M, for $449 at bestbut. When the CPU is OC'd (all mobiule Llano's are unlocked) and so on, 1700 3DMark11 is possible, a bit better than a 555M and close to 460M.

I assume you meant Best Buy?? That sounds like a fantastic deal. I saw a Llano laptop at Best Buy with the A6 without a discrete card for 449.00. Dont recall seeing this though. Are you sure about the specs and price??

EditL: I just looked up the Best buy site. At least in my area (Minnesota), it is not carried in stores, but supposedly is a "ship to store" item. And you appear to be correct about the specs and price. If it is in fact available to ship to the store, this is a fantastic deal.

 

[mrcmtl]

I just did a quick experiment and ran the CPU at both 1.5Ghz and 2.0Ghz.



Of course the results aren't 100% comparable as it is not the same scenes but it's mostly the same as both were taken in the same game at the same spots.

 

[mrcmtl]

You really think Turbo core is going to be at 100% for the CPU when he's running BF3? BF3 is pretty well threaded according to preliminary benches. The built in GPU will be taking away from the TDP allowance the CPU will have. The N970 will run at a higher clock rate in this scenario and for the graphics, we'll have to see whether GPU clock speed is a greater penalty than the memory bus since this is not being run at 1920x1080. I wouldn't be surprised if the shared memory system ends up being a greater penalty than 64-bit memory. It's not like the Llano GPU gets a 256-bit bus like the GDDR5 cards we run on our desktops.

If you really want to be fair, we can stop handicapping the OP's Llano system by giving it an extra $100 and put it up against something more similarly priced like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834215161

The N970 will be faster than my Llano as mine has a nominal clock of 1.5ghz. The CPU isn't kicking in turbo as all four cores are fully loaded. And as for that system, it is a "home" use laptop while mine is a business oriented laptop. I don't think it can be compared the same way.

Did you install the new 11.10 drivers? If not, please do that and let us know if there is any performance improvement.

Thanks.

No as I cannot install 11.10 on my laptop. I had to go with manufacturer's 11.7 drivers.

 

[cebalrai]

Yeah that's the really annoying thing. For some reason we have to rely on notebook manufacturers to publish our Llano drivers. Meanwhile the desktop Llanos get monthly updates from AMD.

BF3 is a game that screams for an updated driver profile. I'm certain it would pack in a few more frames. I've been waiting over 3 months for Gateway to publish an update... Maybe they've been waiting for BF3? lol...

 

[pvc121]

I have the same laptop I think. I am getting 20-30 for mine also, but its kinda of difficult to play. the games pretty choppy, but I think it might also have to do with the fact i suck with a mouse. but alot of the textures pop in really late, ill walk around a bit and suddenly all the flowers and details appear.
But ive been confused on something, you have the radeon 6740g2 graphics card right? its the 6620g and 6650m combined. so how come when I play bf3 it shows it only using the 6620g card? but on all other games it uses both?

 

[mrcmtl]

I have the same laptop I think. I am getting 20-30 for mine also, but its kinda of difficult to play. the games pretty choppy, but I think it might also have to do with the fact i suck with a mouse. but alot of the textures pop in really late, ill walk around a bit and suddenly all the flowers and details appear.
But ive been confused on something, you have the radeon 6740g2 graphics card right? its the 6620g and 6650m combined. so how come when I play bf3 it shows it only using the 6620g card? but on all other games it uses both?

Driver issue? No, I don't have a 6740g2, I'm on a 6620g alone. I don't have your problem where textures appear late. I can even see the flowers far far away. Keep in mind, the game is still in beta, there's a lot of glitches as mentioned in the battlelog forums.

 

[soccerballtux]

he's probably CPU limited. If Llano had an L3 cache he'd be getting much better performance from that quad core. We don't know how "low" the low settings can actually go, but we do know that AMD's quads are limited to about 30FPS without L3 cache.

actually so looks like he should be able to hit as high as 55FPS if he isn't GPU limited.
Sounds like the GPU is a good match for the CPU in Llano with this game.

 

[Rvenger]

he's probably CPU limited. If Llano had an L3 cache he'd be getting much better performance from that quad core. We don't know how "low" the low settings can actually go, but we do know that AMD's quads are limited to about 30FPS without L3 cache.

actually so looks like he should be able to hit as high as 55FPS if he isn't GPU limited.
Sounds like the GPU is a good match for the CPU in Llano with this game.

Really? When I had my HD6790 in my Llano my FPS would barely drop below 60fps in BC2, worked well above 30fps in Crysis 2, and 60fps in Borderlands. L3 cache only accounts for about a 5% decrease in overall performance.


I can tell you that everything that I play on the integrated graphics Llano doesn't go too much over 30fps. I really think its a limitation on the CPU and how the RAM is being used across the platform to serve the CPU and GPU at the same time.