AMD APU Memory Scaling

[th3dap]

I bought a laptop with an AMD A4 APU, I assume the trinity since it is the newest version. I was wondering if since I only have 4 gigs of ram at the moment, will upping my total ram to 8gb increase my integrated graphics performance? It seems the APU performance scales off of ram when I play DOTA or TF2, but I cannot find a definite answer.

 

[elemein]

AMD APUs most certainly use system RAM as their video RAM. This is 100% for sure.

Increasing your RAM from 4GB to 8GB can definitely yield more graphical performance.

The APU sections off a ratio of your RAM for it's own use. That amount can either be 64 MG, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, and, I'm not 100%, 1024 MB. In your case, I believe it uses about 128MB or 256MB. If you went to 8 GB, that number would bump up to atleast 512 MB.

You would certainly get more performance by upping from 4 to 8, espiecally at higher resolutions.

 

[th3dap]

Okay, thank you. As a follow up, would it be better to go with one stick of 8gb or 2 sticks of 4? The max on the laptop is 8.

 

[elemein]

Two sticks of 4GB for sure.

 

[MU_Engineer]

You also want fairly fast RAM as any GPU, either in an APU or a discrete GPU, uses a ton of bandwidth. I'd try to get DDR3-2133 or better if you can afford it as the APU benefits from the increased bandwidth of faster RAM.

 

[th3dap]

As far as I know, from the HP website at least, it only supports up to 1600. I went ahead and did the 8 gig upgrade as i'd like to be able to play games on lower settings, because with 4 gigs most games aren't even playable.

 

[elemein]

As far as I know, from the HP website at least, it only supports up to 1600. I went ahead and did the 8 gig upgrade as i'd like to be able to play games on lower settings, because with 4 gigs most games aren't even playable.

Correct, Trinity Mobile APUs only support up to 1600 MHz, while Llano is only good for 1333 (I use a Llano APU personally.)

You made a good choice. Enjoy your laptop.

 

[8350rocks]

Actually, according to AMD, trinity supports up to 2400 MHz memory. Kaveri is supposed to support up to 2800 MHz memory (speculatively).

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-bandwidth-scaling-trinity,3419.html

 

[elemein]

Actually, according to AMD, trinity supports up to 2400 MHz memory. Kaveri is supposed to support up to 2800 MHz memory (speculatively).

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-bandwidth-scaling-trinity,3419.html

Take a look: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bulldozer/AMD-A10-Series%20A10-4600M.html

You seem to be a very knowledgeable member around these parts; but I must inform you of something very promptly: The mobile world of CPUs is very, very, different from the desktop world of CPUs. Not to mean it in an offensive way, but it seems a good number of members around here dont acknowledge that.

 

[8350rocks]

I did not realize that the mobile trinity APUs were not utilizing the same memory controller as the desktop versions! That is interesting...

 

[elemein]

I did not realize that the mobile trinity APUs were not utilizing the same memory controller as the desktop versions! That is interesting...

It's not that the memory controller is vastly different (it is, slightly, to accomodate ULV RAM), it is that it is underclocked to accomodate a smaller power envelope with less heat. It's still a Piledriver core processor in the end.

 

[MU_Engineer]

I wonder if tools like TurionPowerControl can increase the IMC speed?

 

[elemein]

I wonder if tools like TurionPowerControl can increase the IMC speed?

It's possible; I don't know if TurionPowerControl is the answer here; but it's possible to change the IMC speed. Those are one of the things that aren't locked down quite as "hard" as other things; I've heard of people even changing the IMC speed of Intel mobile processors, along with AMD APUs.

Though really; if AMD decided to make the limit 1600, it's obviously like that for a reason; so it's best not to mess with it unlses you know exactly what you're doing.