As with the benchmarks we ran on AMD's Mullins APU last month, the company provided us with a prototype platform for evaluation. Also similar to last time, we were given a few short hours to squeeze as much comparative data out of the system as possible. Consequently, we don't have as many results as we'd like, though we did come away with some meaningful results.

The early sample was equipped with AMD's FX-7600P APU and outfitted with 8 GB of memory in a dual-channel configuration. CPU-Z reported it as 1890 MT/s, though we're inclined to believe that could have been a detection error.

With AMD's marketing message honed in on 19 watts, we were a little surprised to test the 35 W APU. Then again, in a story about performance, it makes sense to put the best foot forward.
While AMD appears confident in the ULV Kaveri's ability to compete against Core i7-4500U, the higher TDP meant we needed to find an Intel-based platform with a comparable thermal ceiling. I tapped the 37 W Core i7-4702MQ within Acer's Aspire V3. Although it includes a discrete GeForce GPU, I was able to disable that component using Nvidia's Optimus technology, verifying that it was off before running our tests. Special thanks to Jared and our friends at iTech Computers in Winnipeg, who were kind enough to facilitate our testing. Surprisingly, it was difficult to find a mobile Haswell-based processor rated at 35 W.
That's enough for their 8-core chips to catch up or surpass current i5s, right?
I sure hope not. North Bridges and HT Link are so 5 years ago.
That's enough for their 8-core chips to catch up or surpass current i5s, right?
I agree, though it still makes sense to keep one demanding game in the test suite to give perspective on where this hardware stands compared to dedicated graphics cards and high-end CPUs.
1080p and demanding games are not good benchmarks for this GPUs you must use less demanding games or test lower resolutions It is not the same benchmarking F1s than Nascars or electric cars
That's why we used Dota2, Grid2, and WoW... they have low system requirements, and ran fine.
Mantle only shows an advantage in Battlefield 4 in rare cases, regardless of the driver. The game also requires a ton of VRAM for Mantle to show a gain instead of a loss. I have an in-depth analysis coming soon.
Having said that, Thief shows impressive gains across the board in Mantle.
1080p and demanding games are not good benchmarks for this GPUs you must use less demanding games or test lower resolutions It is not the same benchmarking F1s than Nascars or electric cars
We *did* use 720p where the graphics processor couldn't handle it... in Battlefield 4
The FX-7600P worked fine at 1080p with Dota2, Grid2, and WoW, so why would we lower the resolution?
I take great pride in testing at real-world settings, and I often lower to 720p when 1080p is too demanding.
“That top-of-the-line FX-7600P is a completely functional Kaveri APU, with both of its Steamroller modules (four integer cores) and all 512 of its shaders enabled.”
“While AMD appears confident in the ULV Kaveri's ability to compete against Core i7-4500U, the higher TDP meant we needed to find an Intel-based platform with a comparable thermal ceiling. I tapped the 37 W Core i7-4702MQ within Acer's Aspire V3.”
37 W Core i7-4702MQ this a 380$ dollar part……….. way more than Kaveri
No Firestrike score.
I would prefer different benchmarks.
“AMD is trying to give the impression of fast, responsive performance, and our sample does seem to achieve that.”
“That top-of-the-line FX-7600P is a completely functional Kaveri APU, with both of its Steamroller modules (four integer cores) and all 512 of its shaders enabled.”
“While AMD appears confident in the ULV Kaveri's ability to compete against Core i7-4500U, the higher TDP meant we needed to find an Intel-based platform with a comparable thermal ceiling. I tapped the 37 W Core i7-4702MQ within Acer's Aspire V3.”
37 W Core i7-4702MQ this a 380$ dollar part……….. way more than Kaveri
No Firestrike score.
I would prefer different benchmarks
Hi h2323, great to see you again. I took the liberty of erasing your unproductive rhetoric to address your actual concerns:
1. You've listed the top three quotes with no comments beside them. Not sure what kind of point you're trying to make, there. Does that mean you like them?
2. AMD didn't provide pricing, so we compared a mobile Core i7 part with similar wattage AS PER AMD's DIRECTION. If you disagree with their decision, I encourage you to contact their PR team.
3. I can only assume you have no idea what Firestrike is for. As per Futuremark:
"Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today's high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today."
Mobile integrated GPUs are not "high performance gaming PCs". Would you find it valuable to see benchmark results of a slideshow? We wouldn't.
4. You indicated that you would prefer different benchmarks, but didn't mention which ones, or why?
Have a great day!
Granted most of the tests in that review focus on gaming but AMD's not half bad in everyday tasks. Considering the price of i7-4702MQ, I feel its too expensive to be compared.