AMD Desktop Trinity Update: Now With Core i3 And A8-3870K

Features
By Chris Angelini
published

Benchmark Results: Productivity

Trinity dominates in our OCR-oriented workload, followed by Llano. The Sandy Bridge-based i3 takes second-to-last yet again.

From our preview of the Trinity-based desktop APUs:

“Our audience likes to see Fritz included in our suite, but unlike some of our more applicable benchmarks, a loss in Fritz isn’t particularly concerning for us, given its fairly synthetic outcome.”

Our analysis from Visual Studio applies here as well:

“In contrast, compiling Google Chrome in Visual Studio 2010 is the very definition of real-world. And while we can fairly easily dismiss the results from Fritz, the fact that the second-fastest Llano-based APU outmaneuvers the soon-to-be flagship A10 isn’t something you can argue away using references to heterogeneous computing. If you already own Llano, it's going to be hard to compel an upgrade based on results like these.”

The difference is that Intel’s Core i3 lands right between the Llano-based parts and Trinity. These aren’t the right CPUs to buy for someone who compiles a lot of code, though.

Excellent single-threaded performance grants Core i3 the win when we print a PowerPoint document to PDF, though the A10 isn’t far behind.

The better news is that Trinity completely outclasses Llano in this metric.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
141 Comments Comment from the forums
  • belardo
    OOOPS!!

    And it still doesn't make sense to only reserve the best graphics for the high-end chips. People who want such performance in a desktop or notebook may likely have a dedicated GPU anyway.

    The i3' should have HD graphics 3500/4000.
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    where are the OpenCL benchmarks ? specially in winzip ?

    if Intel cant run those, then technically its a loss for intel and win for AMD, right?
    Reply
  • Onus
    This gives me real hope that Piledriver will be a worthwhile chip to put on my 990FX rather than scrapping it for Intel as software becomes more demanding.

    I made myself read the entire article. I consider myself a literate person, but I still cannot find words to properly (and respectfully) express just how physically Beautiful your announcer is.
    Reply
  • The video review girl is lovely, but being able to see her black brassier pushing her incredible breasts through that see-through shirt made me not pay attention at all to what she was talking about.
    Reply
  • ojas
    Hmmm...you think you could fix to them to the same clock rate and test one real-world productivity test? And perhaps one game with discrete graphics (maybe i've missed this particular test if you've already done it, if i have, sorry about that)...i mean with the i3 benchmarks for comparison.

    Apart from that, i think Trinity is clearly a win if AMD prices it the same as Llano.
    Reply
  • JackNSally
    So cheap gaming performance, AMD. Everything else Intel?
    Reply
  • caqde
    I saw a Trinity Desktop from HP on Walmarts shelves. I just wish the processors and motherboards would show up at places like newegg so I could build them for people.
    Reply
  • Reynod
    She did a good job getting the point across with the tech jargon.

    I'd like to see her doing some more short videos on various products.

    She has improved with each new video too.

    Good move Chris and team.

    :)
    Reply
  • de5_Roy
    trinity's igpu humiliates intel's sb igpu, like llano's did almost a year back. all three are 32 nm products, so i think the comparison's fair. :) if the igpu was well-scalable, intel should have built a 85/95w sb core i3 with 20-30 eus to be competitive with the apus, at least in terms of igpu performance. if intel once again slaps hd 2500 on core i3s and overprices the hd4k + core i3s, trinity will win in terms of price/performance.
    Reply
  • vmem
    REYNODShe did a good job getting the point across with the tech jargon.I'd like to see her doing some more short videos on various products.She has improved with each new video too.Good move Chris and team.Agreed, but she is also now completely covered up do to people "complaining". Would a low v-neck really be too much? She is overly covered compared to news anchors
    Reply