Llano A8 and A6 for sale

[mnewsham]

A8-3850:
SuperBiiz $145.99

A6-3650:
SuperBiiz $124.99


And use the code "FIREWORKS" at checkout for 15 bucks off.


Those are all I have found so far, feel free to post more links.

 

[ShadowVVL]

why does it say phenom 2?

 

[mnewsham]

why does it say phenom 2?

They are just upgraded "stars" K10.5 cpu's and fall in the same family as phenom II, technically, i guess AMD is just keeping it in the family?

 

[pantsaregood]

They are just upgraded "stars" K10.5 cpu's and fall in the same family as phenom II, technically, i guess AMD is just keeping it in the family?

I'd consider it far more likely that the product has been mislabeled.

 

[mnewsham]

I'd consider it far more likely that the product has been mislabeled.

Im not sure, everywhere i have seen it so far has it as phenom II A8(6) X4. Ebay, superbiiz, and provantage.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

why does it say phenom 2?

Because it's a K10.5 "Stars" architecture that's being slightly tweaked to get around 5% higher IPC. For all intents and purposes, the CPU portion of the die is a Phenom II.

The A6-3650 is at a good price if it can over-clock to around 4.5GHz. Tiny bit higher IPC over Deneb plus higher over-clocks could make it a great budget CPU. If it can do this with a reasonable power draw, it's definitely a better alternative to the Core i3 2100. Otherwise, you're better off with a Phenom II X4 955 since at least you can buy an AM3+ socket motherboard, or the i3 2100 if you want low power draw.

Only problem I see with it is the fact that it's on FM1. We don't really know what to expect as far as future-proofing goes, though I imagine it'll be compatible with Trinity.

The CPU portion of this can over-clock, right? If not, it's mostly an epic fail.

 

[-Slacker-]

Place seems overpriced like bestbuy, so this can't be ~msrp.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Place seems overpriced like bestbuy, so this can't be ~msrp.

Did you forget the sarcasm tag? Superbiiz is one of the cheapest online retailers, sometimes beating Amazon and Newegg in pricing.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Because it's a K10.5 "Stars" architecture that's being slightly tweaked to get around 5% higher IPC. For all intents and purposes, the CPU portion of the die is a Phenom II.

The A6-3650 is at a good price if it can over-clock to around 4.5GHz. Tiny bit higher IPC over Deneb plus higher over-clocks could make it a great budget CPU. If it can do this with a reasonable power draw, it's definitely a better alternative to the Core i3 2100. Otherwise, you're better off with a Phenom II X4 955 since at least you can buy an AM3+ socket motherboard, or the i3 2100 if you want low power draw.

Only problem I see with it is the fact that it's on FM1. We don't really know what to expect as far as future-proofing goes, though I imagine it'll be compatible with Trinity.

The CPU portion of this can over-clock, right? If not, it's mostly an epic fail.

AT say they hit 3.8GHz and Toms 3.3GHz but there seems to be problems with motherboards still.

Additionally Toms say there are plans for BE Llano.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Wow, pretty good. The A6-3650 should consume a bit less, so it's competitive with the i3 2100 when it comes to power consumption. Seems like over-clocking is what'll make it or break it. Since it's on 32nm SOI I expect it to reach around 4.5GHz. If it can't over-clock, the only point of it is for a gaming HTPC or a normal HTPC. If it can OC to 4.5GHz, we can expect around 15% higher performance than a Phenom II X4 at 4GHz, which is not bad.

EDIT:

Can you only OC if it has unlocked multiplier? 3.8GHz seems a bit weak, especially for 32nm SOI. Most Phenom II X4s are hitting 4-4.2GHz.

 

[-Slacker-]

Did you forget the sarcasm tag? Superbiiz is one of the cheapest online retailers, sometimes beating Amazon and Newegg in pricing.

Dunno what a sarcasm tag is supposed to be, unless you're, maybe, referring to your post, which I didn't read.

Prices seemed big. $95 for a dual core phenom II, $120 for a phenom II 955.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Dunno what a sarcasm tag is supposed to be, unless you're, maybe, referring to your post, which I didn't read.

Prices seemed big. $95 for a dual core phenom II, $120 for a phenom II 955.

As always, some things are priced cheaper, others the same, others more expensive. Maybe do more than just glance at the prices next time?

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

What's up with the stupid TDP capping by AMD on DESKTOP Llano? Leave this on laptops, where power draw is more important. Looks like over-clocking on them is being limited by it. Is there anyway to disable the TDP capping? OCing as of now is weak sauce, and it lowers GPU performance. Simply a failure. Unless you have a gaming HTPC, steer away.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Hardwarecanucks (http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...a8-3850-apu-review-llano-hits-desktop-23.html) got up 3.9GHz/918MHz and 3.7GHz/934MHz .

Remember, this is a brand new platform for us and like it or not, it has quite a few intricacies. Tweaking the APU bus speed on this platform changes the core clock, the GPU clock, the memory frequency, the NCLK, and can also affect the PCI-E, SATA USB interfaces. So there is a lot to tweak and learn before we can give you any real pointers.
(...)
As you can see, nothing too dramatic so far, but this Lynx platform is definitely showing some promise. We achieved these results while using the IGP, and at these bus speeds the GPU clock is running at between 918MHz and 934Mhz, a hefty overclock over the stock 600Mhz. Apparently, it is much easier to hit high bus speeds when using a discrete GPU, so we will be checking that out as well. By the way, we have seen some insane memory frequencies with Llano (think above DDR3-2300), and it is not even particularly difficult if you have good memory modules.

50% on the GPU portion...

 

[ShadowVVL]

can the igp be turned off or gated to 0?

I think if I was going to oc this chip I would turn the igp off and rely on a 6850 or 460.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Hardwarecanucks (http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...a8-3850-apu-review-llano-hits-desktop-23.html) got up 3.9GHz/918MHz and 3.7GHz/934MHz .



50% on the GPU portion...

3.95GHz... eh, not bad. Actually, it is bad. Their over-clocks are academic at best since the GPU will now run at much lower clock speeds, and if you OC the GPU then the CPU will run at lower clock speeds due to TDP capping. That pretty much destroys the point of the otherwise good IGP. Stupid decision by the engineers.

The competition is the Core i3 2100, though, and that does not over-clock at all. In lieu of that, I cannot really criticize it heavily. It's a bit slower in CPU performance, and a lot faster in GPU performance. Same story as mobile Llano and Sandy Bridge. The pricing is not bad, but the TDP capping kinda kills it for desktop, as does no over-clocking at all for the i3 2100.

 

[GaiaHunter]

3.95GHz... eh, not bad. Actually, it is bad. Their over-clocks are academic at best since the GPU will now run at much lower clock speeds, and if you OC the GPU then the CPU will run at lower clock speeds due to TDP capping. That pretty much destroys the point of the otherwise good IGP. Stupid decision by the engineers

Hmmm?

They say they get 3.95 on the CPU+ 913MHz on the GPU at the same time. Or 3.7GHz+934MHz so I guess that you can get rid of the TPD cap.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Hmmm?

They say they get 3.95 on the CPU+ 913MHz on the GPU at the same time. Or 3.7GHz+934MHz so I guess that you can get rid of the TPD cap.

Apparently the TDP cap is hardwired into the architecture, so don't count on it. That's the reason why they showed that they were able to over-clock but didn't show over-clocking performance when both the CPU and GPU are over-clocked.

Still, though, this is better than the Core i3 for something like a gaming HTPC or a mainstream system. Single-threaded CPU performance is lower, multi-threaded performance is the same, and GPU performance is drastically better. Bit slower CPU; hugely faster GPU. AMD did a better job than Intel balancing performance, and they're also competitive in power consumption.

If you're an enthusiast, though, stay away: you're much more likely to get a faster GPU than the integrated one, so go with a Phenom II X4 955 instead.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I don't understand why they would implement the TDP cap, but not the Turbo Core, in the desktop chips. Seems like they left the negative feature in, and the positive feature out.

I also saw Asrock's A75 mobo lineup, not only is it missing the all-important (for HTPC) mini-ITX mobo, but they had a full-size ATX mobo with three PCI-E x16 physical slots. What's the point of getting a LLano chip, if you are just going to use discrete graphics? You might as well get an AM3+ board instead, and the existing Athlon II/Phenom II chips are cheaper than LLano, and you would still have an upgrade possibility with BD.

 

[GaiaHunter]

I don't understand why they would implement the TDP cap, but not the Turbo Core, in the desktop chips. Seems like they left the negative feature in, and the positive feature out.

Some of them do have turbo core.

Maybe this TDP cap is to avoid specific portions of the chip to overheat?

I also saw Asrock's A75 mobo lineup, not only is it missing the all-important (for HTPC) mini-ITX mobo, but they had a full-size ATX mobo with three PCI-E x16 physical slots. What's the point of getting a LLano chip, if you are just going to use discrete graphics? You might as well get an AM3+ board instead, and the existing Athlon II/Phenom II chips are cheaper than LLano, and you would still have an upgrade possibility with BD.

Maybe already preparing for next BD generation? Wasn't a slide somewhere where next Gen BD uses FMx infrastructure?

 

[Idontcare]

I don't understand why they would implement the TDP cap, but not the Turbo Core, in the desktop chips. Seems like they left the negative feature in, and the positive feature out.

Let's think about this...why would AMD seemingly cap the upper-end of the performance an end-user can extract from AMD's lower-budget platform parts?

The answer is self-evident, is it not? To prevent sales cannibalism of the Bulldozer SKU's that were supposed to be in the channel right now...

We all talk about the top-end Zambezi part in the forum threads but there are numerous lesser-performing Zambezi parts planned.

 

[Topweasel]

Let's think about this...why would AMD seemingly cap the upper-end of the performance an end-user can extract from AMD's lower-budget platform parts?

The answer is self-evident, is it not? To prevent sales cannibalism of the Bulldozer SKU's that were supposed to be in the channel right now...

We all talk about the top-end Zambezi part in the forum threads but there are numerous lesser-performing Zambezi parts planned.

Exactly. Draw a line in the sand for at least the FX-4110 (maybe the A8-3850 beats the eventually released FX-4100, but that is more about saving dies).

 

[Zap]

Now let's hope that Micro Center does their "buy AMD CPU, get free mobo" deal with these. :awe:

 

[GaiaHunter]

Now let's hope that Micro Center does their "buy AMD CPU, get free mobo" deal with these. :awe:

Or maybe get a free card to CF with it?

Let's think about this...why would AMD seemingly cap the upper-end of the performance an end-user can extract from AMD's lower-budget platform parts?

The answer is self-evident, is it not? To prevent sales cannibalism of the Bulldozer SKU's that were supposed to be in the channel right now...

We all talk about the top-end Zambezi part in the forum threads but there are numerous lesser-performing Zambezi parts planned.

I hope that is the correct answer and that it isn't any structural problem of the chip.

 

[formulav8]

Now let's hope that Micro Center does their "buy AMD CPU, get free mobo" deal with these. :awe:

If they do, buy a combo for me when you go as well (If the price is truly good). I hate having to rely on people in the Ga or other areas since I don't have one here in Columbia. Atlanta isn't all that far from here I guess....