| Test Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processors | AMD A10-5800K (Trinity) 3.8 GHz (19 * 200 MHz), Four Cores, Socket FM2, 4 MB Total L2 Cache, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| AMD A8-5600K (Trinity) 3.6 GHz (18 * 200 MHz), Four Cores, Socket FM2, 4 MB Total L2 Cache, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| AMD A6-5400K (Trinity) 3.6 GHz (18 * 200 MHz), Two Cores, Socket FM2, 1 MB Total L2 Cache, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| AMD A8-3850 (Llano) 2.9 GHz (14.5 * 200 MHz), Four Cores, Socket FM1, 4 MB Total L2 Cache, Power-savings enabled | |
| AMD FX-8150 (Zambezi) 3.6 GHz (18 * 200 MHz), Eight Cores, Socket AM3+, 8 MB Shared L3 Cache, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| Thermal Paste | Zalman ZM-STG1 |
| Motherboard | ASRock FM2A75 Pro4 (Socket FM2) AMD A75 FCH, Beta BIOS |
| ASRock A75 Extreme6 (Socket FM1) AMD A75 FCH, BIOS v.2.00 | |
| Asus Sabertooth 990FX (Socket AM3+) AMD 990FX/SB950, BIOS 1208 | |
| Memory | G.Skill 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600, F3-12800CL9Q2-32GBZL @ 9-9-9-24 and 1.5 V |
| Kingston 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) DDR3-2800, KHX2800OCC12D3T1K2/4GX @ 1.5 V | |
| Hard Drive | Intel SSD 510 250 GB, SATA 6 Gb/s for gaming tests |
| Intel SSD 520 240 GB, SATA 6 Gb/s for productivity/content creation tests | |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon HD 7660D |
| AMD Radeon HD 7560D | |
| AMD Radeon HD 7540D | |
| AMD Radeon HD 6670 | |
| Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 | |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master UCP-1000 W |
| System Software And Drivers | |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Graphics Driver | HD Graphics Driver For Windows 7 (15.26.8.64.2696) |
ASRock sent us its upcoming FM2A75 Pro4 to use a test platform. As its name suggests, the FM2A75 employs the older A75 FCH, which will likely become an approach some manufacturers use to maintain lower prices on FM2-equipped motherboards. We also have an A85-based board in the lab from another vendor, but its BIOS wasn't quite as far along.
You'll have to pardon the lack of comparison data. AMD never sent an A8-3870K to our SoCal lab, and my closest Intel-based competition is a Core i3-2105, which sells for quite a bit more than the A8-3850 in the charts on-hand. So, I took to Newegg and ordered an A8-3870K and a Core i3-2100, which make for a more balanced match-up. Both are on the test bench behind me right now, and we'll be publishing a video in the next few days with our findings. Not knowing how much the A10-5800K will cost, I'll try to get the Core i3-2105's HD Graphics 3000 included as well.
| Game Benchmarks And Settings | |
|---|---|
| Batman: Arkham City | Game Settings: Lowest Quality Settings, Anti-Aliasing: Disabled, V-sync: Disabled, DirectX 11 Mode, 1280x720 / 1680x1050 / 1920x1080, Built-in Benchmark |
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | Game Settings: Medium Quality Settings, FXAA disabled, V-sync: Disabled, 1280x720 / 1680x1050 / 1920x1080, 25-second playback, Fraps |
| World of Warcraft: Cataclysm | Game Settings: Good Quality Settings, Anti-Aliasing: 1x AA, V-sync: Disabled, 1280x720 / 1680x1050 / 1920x1080, Demo: Crushblow to The Krazzworks, DirectX 11, 64-bit Binary |
| Diablo III | Game Settings: Low Quality Settings, Anti-Aliasing: Disabled, V-sync: Disabled, 1280x720 / 1680x1050 / 1920x1080, The Siege Of Bastion's Keep, 120-second playback, Fraps |
| Audio Benchmarks and Settings | |
| iTunes | Version: 10.4.10, 64-bit Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min., Convert to AAC audio format |
| Lame MP3 | Version 3.98.3 Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
| Video Benchmarks and Settings | |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.9.5 Video: Big Buck Bunny (720x480, 23.972 frames) 5 Minutes, Audio: Dolby Digital, 48 000 Hz, Six-Channel, English, to Video: AVC Audio: AC3 Audio2: AAC (High Profile) |
| MainConcept Reference v2.2 | Version: 2.2.0.5440 MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV |
| Application Benchmarks and Settings | |
| WinRAR | Version: 4.11 RAR, Syntax "winrar a -r -m3", Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| WinZip 16.5 | Version: 16.5 WinZip GUI, Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| 7-Zip | Version 9.22 beta LZMA2, Syntax "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5", Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5 | Paladin Sequence to H.264 Blu-ray Output 1920x1080, Maximum Quality, Mercury Playback Engine: Software Mode |
| Adobe After Effects CS 6 | Version: CS5.5 Tom's Hardware Workload, SD project with three picture-in-picture frames, source video at 720p, Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously |
| Adobe Photoshop CS 6 (64-Bit) | Version: 11 Filtering a 16 MB TIF (15 000x7266), Filters:, Radial Blur (Amount: 10, Method: zoom, Quality: good) Shape Blur (Radius: 46 px; custom shape: Trademark sysmbol) Median (Radius: 1px) Polar Coordinates (Rectangular to Polar) |
| ABBYY FineReader | Version: 10 Professional Build (10.0.102.82) Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages |
| 3ds Max 2012 | Version: 10 x64 Rendering Space Flyby Mentalray (SPECapc_3dsmax9), Frame: 248, Resolution: 1440 x 1080 |
| Adobe Acrobat X Professional | PDF Document Creation (Print) from Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 |
| SolidWorks 2010 | PhotoView 360 Render 01-Lighter Explode.SLDASM (SolidMuse.com) Image Output Resolution: 1920x1080, Render: Preview Quality “Good”, Final Render Quality “Best” |
| Visual Studio 2010 | Compile Chrome project (1/31/2012) with devenv.com /build Release |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| PCMark 7 | Version: 1.0.4 |
| 3DMark 11 | Version 1.0.3 |
| SiSoftware Sandra 2012 SP4a | CPU Test=CPU Arithmetic/Multimedia, Memory Test=Bandwidth Benchmark, Cryptography, Cache Latency |
- Trinity: Coming Soon To A Desktop Near You
- Piledriver: Half Of The Trinity Story
- Turbo Core Finds Its Way Into APUs
- Graphics: Fewer Shaders, Better Efficiency
- Memory Bandwidth Scaling: Feed The Beast
- Socket Compatibility And The A85X FCH
- Test Setup And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark 11
- Benchmark Results: Sandra 2012
- Benchmark Results: Adobe CS5 And 6
- Benchmark Results: Content Creation
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Benchmark Results: Media Encoding
- Benchmark Results: File Compression
- Benchmark Results: Batman: Arkham City
- Benchmark Results: World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm
- Benchmark Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Benchmark Results: Diablo III
- Benchmark Results: OpenCL
- Power
- Trinity On The Desktop: Already Announced, But Enthusiasts Must Wait

Once they are pitted against each other, that will be A TRUE measure of the APU Trinity's marketability
Well at least in gaming
really the question is what gpus are able to hybrid crossfire with it. the information was never public. not all amd gpus will hybrid crossfire with it.
Once they are pitted against each other, that will be A TRUE measure of the APU Trinity's marketability
i mean what is the processor usage during the benchmark ? are all CPU cores used? or only one?
Good question--I'll take a look for you.
It was public... It will crossfire with up to the 7670, which is a rebranded 6670 from what i know, but with some slight improvements.
Thats what I was wondering... every time you get an intel cpu review they always throw in an amd or two for comparison. Why didnt they do that here? Cant make an informed purchase if you compare 3 versions of the same car make and model when there are other makes and models out there to look at.
Oh and Jill... amd only has 10% of the market even with the APU's out there. So if they fail intel only goes from 89-99% of the market... dont see them changing their pricing plans over that.
Dual Graphics is actually in there ;-)
Because this is an article of amd's apus. They've already done a comparison between trinity's igp's and intels 4000 series.
Anyone tell me if I'm wrong and why.
EDIT: Oh wait, they're clocked higher, but not by that much, though it is substantial. I would think it's still a big architectural improvement.
Also, I've noticed that in multiple articles, the writers are strapped for time. This isn't good though it could be understandable. Maybe TH should hire more "hands" or something?
I'm not sure how we'll find out when that video mentioned of the comparison with the A8-3870K and the i3-2100/2105 would show up. Well, unless we constantly check back.
Don't worry TH, you haven't lost me as a fan. It's just constructive feedback. I love you guys!
Don't worry--I'm working on the data right now. As it stood, this story took more than a week of all day/all night testing, troubleshooting, new BIOS installing, and re-testing to nail down. It can go on indefinitely if you let it ;-)