After just one generation, Socket FM1 is dead. We test six Socket FM2-based motherboards able to take AMD's newest APUs built using the Trinity architecture. Can any of these platforms, armed with AMD A85X Fusion Controller Hubs, get us to upgrade?
Once upon a time, processor reviews were simpler. Isolating x86 performance made it easy for us to draw comparisons. Today, though, we have on-board graphics, integrated memory controllers, and ISA extensions to look at. The benchmarks we run play a huge part in exposing the benefits of each piece of a modern host processor, and we're naturally very careful about testing as thoroughly as possible.
AMD's Trinity architecture received a lot of attention from us when it launched:
AMD Trinity On The Desktop: A10, A8, And A6 Get Benchmarked!
AMD Desktop Trinity Update: Now With Core i3 And A8-3870K
Gaming At 1920x1080: AMD's Trinity Takes On Intel HD Graphics
AMD's Trinity APU Efficiency: Undervolted And Overclocked
In those stories, we discovered that AMD's Piledriver-based modules are faster than their predecessors based on the Bulldozer architecture. But because AMD never released a Bulldozer-based APU, we also had to face the fact that, in some cases, older Llano-based parts were as quick or quicker. Hardly a reason to toss your old Socket FM1 motherboard and upgrade to Socket FM2, right?
Fortunately, the new APUs do manage to nudge graphics performance forward. And because AMD's on-die graphics engines are already significantly faster than Intel's best effort, the extra speed only served to hammer that point home.
And so, you're faced with an interesting conundrum. On one hand, we wouldn't mind a Trinity-based APU specifically for its 3D capabilities. On the other, we're still compelled to build with an add-in graphics card in mind. Really, then, the ideal customer for an APU is someone able to enjoy the cost savings of an A10 or A8, who won't be stymied by the chip's limitations, and who won't then go get frustrated and buy a discrete GPU. At that point, you're just watering down the platform's value and compounding its power consumption.

With that in mind, we're curious about AMD's latest driver optimizations. We also wonder if motherboard vendors have any graphics performance-optimizing tricks up their sleeves. So, rather than dropping some unrealistically-expensive discrete board into today's test beds, we're evaluating six Socket FM2-equipped platforms using an AMD A10-5800K operating all on its own.

| Socket FM2 Motherboard Features | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6 | Asus F2A85-V Pro | ECS A85F2-A GOLDEN | |
| PCB Revision | 1.04 | 1.01 | 1.0 |
| Chipset | AMD A85X FCH | AMD A85X FCH | AMD A85X FCH |
| Voltage Regulator | Ten Phases | Eight Phases | Five Phases |
| BIOS | P1.30 (10/12/2012) | 5104 (09/14/2012) | 10/12/12 |
| 100.0 MHz RCLK | Variable | Variable | Variable |
| Internal Interfaces | |||
| PCIe 3.0 x16 | None | None | None |
| PCIe 2.0 x16 | 3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4) | 3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4) | 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) |
| PCIe x1/x4 | 2/0 | 2/0 | 3/0 |
| USB 2.0 | 3 (6-ports) | 4 (8-ports) | 3 (6-ports) |
| USB 3.0 | 1 (2-ports) | 1 (2-ports) | 1 (2-ports) |
| SATA 6.0 Gb/s | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| SATA 3.0 Gb/s | None | None | None |
| 4-Pin Fan | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| 3-Pin Fan | 4 | None | 2 |
| FP-Audio | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| CD-Audio | None | None | None |
| S/PDIF I/O | Output Only | Output Only | Output Only |
| Internal Buttons | PWR, RST | BIOS Flash, MemOK, DirectKey | None |
| Diagnostics Panel | Numeric | None | None |
| Legacy Interfaces | 2 x PCI, Serial | 2 x PCI, Serial | 2 x PCI, Serial |
| I/O Panel Connectors | |||
| P/S 2 | 1 | 1 | None |
| USB 3.0 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| USB 2.0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| IEEE-1394 | None | None | None |
| Network | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| eSATA | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| CLR_CMOS Button | Yes | No | Yes |
| Digital Audio Out | Optical | Optical | Optical |
| Digital Audio In | None | None | None |
| Analog Audio | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| Video | VGA, DVI-D, DisplayPort, HDMI | HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, DVI-D | VGA, DVI-D, DisplayPort, HDMI |
| Other Devices | None | None | None |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |||
| Chipset SATA | 7 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s | 7 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s | 7 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s |
| Chipset RAID Modes | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10, JBOD | 0, 1, 5, 10 |
| Add-In SATA | None | None | None |
| USB 3.0 | ASM1042 PCIe (2-ports) A85X Integrated (4-ports) | ASM1042 PCIe (2-ports) A85X Integrated (4-ports) | ASM1042 PCIe (2-ports) A85X Integrated (4-ports) |
| IEEE-1394 | None | None | None |
| Gigabit Ethernet | |||
| Primary LAN | RTL8111E PCIe | RTL8111F PCIe | RTL8111E PCIe |
| Secondary LAN | None | None | None |
| Audio | |||
| HD Audio Codec | ALC898 | ALC892 | VT1819S |
| DDL/DTS Connect | Not Specified | Not Specified | Not Specified |
| Warranty | Three Years | Three Years | Three Years |

| Socket FM2 Motherboard Features | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 | MSI FM2-A85XA-G65 | Sapphire Pure Platinum A85XT | |
| PCB Revision | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 |
| Chipset | AMD A85X FCH | AMD A85X FCH | AMD A85X FCH |
| Voltage Regulator | Eight Phases | Eight Phases | Eight Phases |
| BIOS | F3g (10/03/2012) | V1.1 (10/09/2012) | 0.40 (09/12/2012) |
| 100.0 MHz RCLK | Variable | Variable | Variable |
| Internal Interfaces | |||
| PCIe 3.0 x16 | None | None | None |
| PCIe 2.0 x16 | 3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4) | 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) | 3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4) |
| PCIe x1/x4 | 3 (1 shared with x4) / 0 | 3/0 | 2/1 |
| USB 2.0 | 4 (8-ports) | 3 (6-ports) | 2 (4-ports) |
| USB 3.0 | 1 (2-ports) | 1 (2-ports) | 1 (2-ports) |
| SATA 6.0 Gb/s | 7 | 8 | 7 |
| SATA 3.0 Gb/s | None | None | None |
| 4-Pin Fan | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| 3-Pin Fan | None | 2 | 5 |
| FP-Audio | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| CD-Audio | None | None | None |
| S/PDIF I/O | Output Only | None | Input andOutput |
| Internal Buttons | PWR, RST, CLR | PWR, RST, CLR, OC Genie | PWR, RST, CLR, ROM selector |
| Diagnostics Panel | Numeric | None | Numeric |
| Legacy Interfaces | PCI, Serial | 2 x PCI, Serial (mini) | 2 x PCI, Serial |
| I/O Panel Connectors | |||
| P/S 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| USB 3.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| USB 2.0 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| IEEE-1394 | None | None | None |
| Network | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| eSATA | 1 | None | None |
| CLR_CMOS Button | No | No | No |
| Digital Audio Out | Optical | Optical | Optical |
| Digital Audio In | None | None | None |
| Analog Audio | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Video | VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort | VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort | HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, DVI-D |
| Other Devices | None | None | Bluetooth Transceiver |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |||
| Chipset SATA | 7 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s | 8 x SATA 6Gb/s | 7 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x mSATA 6Gb/s |
| Chipset RAID Modes | 0, 1, 5, 10, JBOD | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 |
| Add-In SATA | None | None | None |
| USB 3.0 | EJ168A PCIe (2-ports) A85X Integrated (4-ports) | A85X Integrated | A85X Integrated |
| IEEE-1394 | None | None | None |
| Gigabit Ethernet | |||
| Primary LAN | RTL8111F PCIe | RTL8111E PCIe | RTL8111F PCIe |
| Secondary LAN | None | None | None |
| Audio | |||
| HD Audio Codec | ALC892 | ALC892 | ALC892 |
| DDL/DTS Connect | Not Specified | Not Specified | Not Specified |
| Warranty | Three Years | Three Years | One Year |
- AMD's Answer To Ivy Bridge-Based Core i3
- ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6
- FM2A85X Extreme6 Firmware
- Asus F2A85-V Pro
- F2A85-V Pro Firmware
- ECS A85F2-A Golden
- A85F2-A Golden Firmware
- Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4
- F2A85X-UP4 Firmware
- MSI FM2-A85XA-G65
- FM2-A85XA-G65 Firmware
- Sapphire Pure Platinum A85XT
- Pure Platinum A85XT Firmware
- Test Settings And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Battlefield 3
- Benchmark Results: F1 2012
- Benchmark Results: Skyrim
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Benchmark Results: File Compression
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Overclocking
- Of Six Socket FM2 Boards, Two Rise To The Top
These sound like great ideas for a platform-oriented story. In fact, Thomas and I have discussed doing a piece on memory and Trinity. Maybe we could expand that to include an exploration of graphics and processor bottlenecks, too. Thanks for the feedback!
You still have never posted your 1GHz+ clocked GPU results.
I am also upset that you didn't run the gaming benches with the OCed RAM. I want to know how a PROPERLY configured setup like this could perform.
8% gains approx from going to 1866 over 1600, does higher clocks after this have any effect?
How does OCing the GPU part limit your CPU clock OCs? or is the heat not too bad ?
So many questions unanswered....
Sneaky, lol. Now he's going to be downvoted.
Penalizing a company over a PCB's color is asinine and petty. Even if you have a case with an acrylic window, do you stare into your PC all day and night? If so, that is trend I don't care for.
There are much more important things to worry about, like quality, price, and features, to name a few...
"Adoby Creative Suite"
just one?
who cares, good job to crash and the rest of the crew . . .
edit: i had to fix a typo . .oh karma!
Heh, apparently, editing motherboard round-ups in a Thanksgiving food coma is not conducive to catching typos. Got that one as well--thanks looniam!
You still have never posted your 1GHz+ clocked GPU results.
I am also upset that you didn't run the gaming benches with the OCed RAM. I want to know how a PROPERLY configured setup like this could perform.
8% gains approx from going to 1866 over 1600, does higher clocks after this have any effect?
How does OCing the GPU part limit your CPU clock OCs? or is the heat not too bad ?
So many questions unanswered....
These sound like great ideas for a platform-oriented story. In fact, Thomas and I have discussed doing a piece on memory and Trinity. Maybe we could expand that to include an exploration of graphics and processor bottlenecks, too. Thanks for the feedback!
Well, in days gone by we'd have had green or gold boards. To be perfectly honest though, unless you're going to have a side window, you're not likely to care about the PCB colour. I'm far more interested in features and performance than the aesthetics, personally.
I thought that the brown PCB meshed decently with the black and grey color scheme utilized by most of the rest of the board. Hey, at least it doesn't look like those ugly low end FoxConn boards
Here is a relevant quote from a randomly-googled article:
Longtime Elder Scrolls fans hoping Skryim would take full advantage of the PC's strengths: unfortunately we have to disappoint you. Game director Todd Howard says besides higher quality textures and bigger resolutions, it "looks the same" as on consoles, and it's "mostly a DirectX 9 game in terms of how the shaders work."
He does note DirectX 11 support is a possibility down the line, however: "When it comes to DirectX 11 there are things they get us for free, like performance gains. You’re going to get performance gains out of it versus an older version. But the specifics DX11 does, like tessellation and all that kinda stuff, we aren’t taking advantage of that right now. That doesn’t mean we won’t in the future. We aren’t right now because we want to author it so it looks great.”
On the bright side, the new engine means Skyrim looks quite lovely as is, just nothing mind-blowing, which it could be. No doubt the modding community will improve the situation before long, though.
He wasn't asking for proof of what DX is utilized by Skyrim, he was asking where in the article was it claimed that Skyrim used DX11.
As far as performance goes, there doesn't appear to be any difference worth noting (which I'd expect).