Ordered a "Beema" A6-6310 laptop.

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,229
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What should I be expecting?

First thing I do (after making the Win7 Pro recovery discs), is install an SSD.

Next thing might be to upgrade the RAM.

Yeah, it's the $200 Lenovo that's so popular on ebay.
 

krumme

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2009
5,952
1,585
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Bt 2.4 ghz level perf for singlethread cpu. Mt more like low end i3. Gpu like intel 4200.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A6-6310-Notebook-Processor.115403.0.html
Pretty impressive for 15w imo and a far better product than baytrail for sub notebooks because of far better gpu. But Intel destroyed the market so it didnt get the success it deserved initial.
You are in a league where a ssd makes sense. But just barely imo - the solid turbo boost vs jaguar make it worth it. 4G is plenty imo. Notice this cpu is in office use a little faster than the 25w jaguar.
Where is this 200 usd stuff on ebay?
 
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Zodiark1593

Platinum Member
Oct 21, 2012
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My girlfriend has a similar laptop (Dell) with that A6-6310. Don't expect much performance-wise. Even on the gpu side, Source engine games are about the limit. In L4D2, it appears to be about on par or slightly faster than the Radeon 5470 in my laptop. On the cpu side, my laptop's i5-460m stomps the Puma cores pretty brutally, particularly during 3d rendering tests.

On her laptop in particular, the fan seems to be set quite aggressively. Though the heat coming from the vent is barely warm under full load, the fan is quite annoying and loud for really no reason. Though it puts out less than half the heat of my laptop, her laptop is a bit louder. Hopefully this isn't the case for the lenovo.
 
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Abwx

Lifer
Apr 2, 2011
10,852
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On the cpu side, my laptop's i5-460m stomps the Puma cores pretty brutally, particularly during 3d rendering tests.

What is brutal is how Intel CPUs are vastly overated..

2.18 on Cinebench 11.5 for your CPU and 1.8 for a 6310 thanks to ICC, about the same scores in Cinebench R10, all this with a 35W CPU...

Edit : Given its slight turboing the 6310 should perform like an Athlon 5350 overall, its SATA controler is quite fast and benefit a lot from a SSD.

index.php



http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/amd-athlon-5350-apu-and-am1-platform-review,15.html
 
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dark zero

Platinum Member
Jun 2, 2015
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. On the cpu side, my laptop's i5-460m stomps the Puma cores pretty brutally, particularly during 3d rendering tests.
My i3 380m is stomping the 4003u and even gives a decent combat against Broadwell U on CPU side.

Your i5 might defeat easily any i3 Skylake U and gives a decent fight against the i5 one.
 

Zodiark1593

Platinum Member
Oct 21, 2012
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My i3 380m is stomping the 4003u and even gives a decent combat against Broadwell U on CPU side.

Your i5 might defeat easily any i3 Skylake U and gives a decent fight against the i5 one

To be fair, the 1st gen i5 used quite a lot more power compared to 4th gen U-series chips and certainly more so than the A6-6310, though cpu performance held up really well over the 5 years I've had this laptop. Seems this Intel chip was not overrated after all. :D

The 3d rendering test was not done via any standard test like Cinebench and was mostly out of boredom at the time, just a scene I made in Blender Cycles rendered on the two machines just to see how the A6 fares, aka, more representive of my actual use case. The render times were approximately 30% apart in favor of the i5. I'm rather curious to see the results of using the Blender Internal engine though.

Wonder if it's worth doing a detailed, more scientific test, and then throw my desktop in there too for the lols?
 

jhu

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
11,918
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To be fair, the 1st gen i5 used quite a lot more power compared to 4th gen U-series chips and certainly more so than the A6-6310, though cpu performance held up really well over the 5 years I've had this laptop. Seems this Intel chip was not overrated after all. :D

The 3d rendering test was not done via any standard test like Cinebench and was mostly out of boredom at the time, just a scene I made in Blender Cycles rendered on the two machines just to see how the A6 fares, aka, more representive of my actual use case. The render times were approximately 30% apart in favor of the i5. I'm rather curious to see the results of using the Blender Internal engine though.

Wonder if it's worth doing a detailed, more scientific test, and then throw my desktop in there too for the lols?

Let's see your best Blender image! I'll put mine up later.
 
Aug 11, 2008
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Yea, I had (the charging port broke, so cant use it anymore) an atom tablet, and it was decent for the price and formfactor. But I wouldnt even consider atom or Beema in a laptop.
 

krumme

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2009
5,952
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What ssd and at what budget would would you use in a 200usd machine like this?
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,229
9,990
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What ssd and at what budget would would you use in a 200usd machine like this?

Well, I just used my two 480GB Silicon Power SSDs in a pair of Asus X551MAV laptops. (Atom N2830, 4GB RAM)

I've got some Team 240GB SSDs left, and a pile of asst. 120GB ones.

Edit: The 480s were $120, and the 240s were $60.
 

krumme

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2009
5,952
1,585
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60usd and 240g seems reasonable if used for office and some very light or old games.

Can it play tf2 60fps on big servers or is cpu to weak?
 

monstercameron

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2013
3,818
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Yea, I had (the charging port broke, so cant use it anymore) an atom tablet, and it was decent for the price and formfactor. But I wouldnt even consider atom or Beema in a laptop.
Same here, my Dell venue 8 pro USB port broke and I can not charge it anymore. Sigh, I really liked it too.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
221
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Can it play tf2 60fps on big servers or is cpu to weak?

Nope... Unless you lowers the graphic settigs.,

I have the Athlon 5350 (higher base clock than A6-6310) and here is what I got for FPS in TF2:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36794469&postcount=287

I'm done with the first phase of multiplayer testing for Athlon 5350 on Team Fortress 2.

(This phase involved changing resolution with the lowest detail settings being used as a constant.)

Some basic observations:

1. The game appears to spread the load out primarily to three cpu cores. (Activity does exist on core four, but it is extremely light)

2. Some player character classes appear to stress the game more than others. For example, I seem to get the lowest frame rates while playing the Scout.

3. According to FRAPS minimum frame rates have dropped to as low as 16 on multiple logs. I have tested this on resolutions as low as 800 x 600 with lowest settings and it still happens.

4. Determining average frame rate is extremely difficult because once my player dies (and I am waiting to respawn) the frame rate shoots up much higher than what it was in game. With that mentioned, average frame rate appears to be > 30 FPS up to 1920 x 1080 (lowest settings). Some variation in average FPS appears to be dependent on map and number of players.

Overall, I will give the Athlon 5350 a pass (for casual gamers) on Team Fortress 2 up to 1920 x 1080 (lowest settings). However, the minimum frame rates reported by FRAPs can be alarmingly low. As I have mentioned, lowering resolution does not help the reported minimums. Ideally I would like to see AM1 with a higher clock on the CPU in order to help the minimum FPS.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
221
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60usd and 240g seems reasonable if used for office and some very light or old games.

Nice thing about those Team Group Ultra L5s is that $59.99 appears to be the regular price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...tm_medium=affiliates&utm_source=afc-Skimlinks

And upon my teardown of the 120GB version, the controller is SM2246EN (which IMO is one of the good controllers in the budget SSD category):

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2452639&highlight=ultra
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
221
106
Ignore perfectionism and competition by not taking more than needed?

That is a good way of thinking.

I only wish AMD could give us something economical with better single thread. (re: Firefox browser and games like Team Fortress 2). If this requires sacrificing extra iGPU (decoder engine being the exception) then so be it.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,229
9,990
126
Maybe he won't be this time that mobile apu is pretty competent.

That's good to hear. Someone at another site compared it with an Ivy or maybe even Haswell "U" i3 CPU (at lower clocks).

Edit: Not really interested in gaming on a laptop. Firefox / Waterfox, Skype, and maybe some BOINC on the IGP.

I'm currently using a Dell I picked up on clearance for approx. $186, with an N2830. It's not "horrible", but it does feel a bit less snappy than my last laptop with an IB 1007U CPU. Also, has some trouble with Skype taking up 99% CPU and not running right, after I've been running for like a month continuously.
 
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