AMD Trinity On The Desktop: A10, A8, And A6 Get Benchmarked!

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Benchmark Results: Sandra 2012

We know that AMD isn't particularly fond of diagnostics like Sandra, which aren’t indicative of real-world alacrity. But it does help us analyze our results by exposing potential strengths and weaknesses.

Llano doesn’t have a lot of the ISA enhancements included in Trinity. However, its efficient architecture facilitates solid performance, despite a 2.9 GHz clock rate.

Support for AVX helps bolster Trinity’s floating-point performance, despite the fact that its two Piledriver modules share FP resources. The more substantial gain happens in integer throughput, which benefits from higher clock rates and four distinct cores.

Trinity includes acceleration for AES encryption and decryption, and the performance of that feature is closely tied to available memory bandwidth. Llano does not support those additional instructions, which is why it lands at the bottom of this chart for AES throughput.

Despite common data rates and timing settings, the Llano-based APU gets more out of its dual-channel DDR3 memory controller than Trinity. AMD’s newer design technically supports higher settings, though, meaning you should be able to get up to DDR3-2133 using one slot per channel.

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Summary
  1. Trinity: Coming Soon To A Desktop Near You
  2. Piledriver: Half Of The Trinity Story
  3. Turbo Core Finds Its Way Into APUs
  4. Graphics: Fewer Shaders, Better Efficiency
  5. Memory Bandwidth Scaling: Feed The Beast
  6. Socket Compatibility And The A85X FCH
  7. Test Setup And Benchmarks
  8. Benchmark Results: 3DMark 11
  9. Benchmark Results: Sandra 2012
  10. Benchmark Results: Adobe CS5 And 6
  11. Benchmark Results: Content Creation
  12. Benchmark Results: Productivity
  13. Benchmark Results: Media Encoding
  14. Benchmark Results: File Compression
  15. Benchmark Results: Batman: Arkham City
  16. Benchmark Results: World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm
  17. Benchmark Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  18. Benchmark Results: Diablo III
  19. Benchmark Results: OpenCL
  20. Power
  21. Trinity On The Desktop: Already Announced, But Enthusiasts Must Wait
About the author
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.

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  • Youngmind
    This is so exciting! AMD is probably going to dominate the lower-end and give the poor gamers like me more bang-for-buck as their IGP get better and better :)!
  • Anonymous
    Well, where are the Ivy/Sandy i5's and i3's???

    Once they are pitted against each other, that will be A TRUE measure of the APU Trinity's marketability
  • mayankleoboy1
    Nice scoop, Chris!
    • Other Comments
  • mayankleoboy1
    Nice scoop, Chris!
  • Youngmind
    This is so exciting! AMD is probably going to dominate the lower-end and give the poor gamers like me more bang-for-buck as their IGP get better and better :)!
  • dudewitbow
    depending on how its priced, its a really nice alternative for bare budget gaming that opens up a quad core as well
  • Anonymous
    I can't WAIT for this, HAIL AMD!!!!
  • Anonymous
    So this means that a 'Crossfired' Trinity APU would beat ANY similarly-priced Intel (CPU+discrete GPU) ???
    Well at least in gaming
  • dudewitbow
    JiggerByteSo this means that a 'Crossfired' Trinity APU would beat ANY similarly-priced Intel (CPU+discrete GPU) ???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.
  • Anonymous
    Well, where are the Ivy/Sandy i5's and i3's???

    Once they are pitted against each other, that will be A TRUE measure of the APU Trinity's marketability
  • mayankleoboy1
    in the OpenCL Winzip benchmark, when openCL is enabled the workload is done only by the iGPU or the CPU as well ?

    i mean what is the processor usage during the benchmark ? are all CPU cores used? or only one?
  • cangelini
    mayankleoboy1in the OpenCL Winzip benchmark, when openCL is enabled the workload is done only by the iGPU or the CPU as well ?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.
  • monkeymonk
    This is awesome. Glad to hear pile driver is making improvements.
  • bawchicawawa
    dudewitbowreally 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.


    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.
  • bawchicawawa
    Next stop is to overclock and bench the a10-5800k with some nice 1866-2100 memory. Also some dual gpu action with these apu's.
  • Anonymous
    Intel fanboy here but I'd really hope AMD catches up this time, coz once they fail, it'll be all over for us consumers, we can't afford Intel to dictate their ultra-ridiculous pricing scheme yet again, in these tough economic times, fewer and fewer people can afford a 200-dollar CPU, so, PLEASE AMD, don't fail us again
  • shin0bi272
    Randy WestWell, where are the Ivy/Sandy i5's and i3's???Once they are pitted against each other, that will be A TRUE measure of the APU Trinity's marketability


    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.
  • cangelini
    bawchicawawaNext stop is to overclock and bench the a10-5800k with some nice 1866-2100 memory. Also some dual gpu action with these apu's.

    Dual Graphics is actually in there ;-)
  • bawchicawawa
    shin0bi272Thats 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.


    Because this is an article of amd's apus. They've already done a comparison between trinity's igp's and intels 4000 series.
  • tonync_01
    Piledriver is looking good. I'm looking forward to the FX-8350.
  • esrever
    Hope to see these in retail soon, I want to put together a budget box for general web surfing and HD video and I'd love a 65w trinity for it.
  • army_ant7
    I want to point out an observation. If in floating-point intensive applications, Trinity is negligibly worse than Llano, meaning they're pretty much the same. Doesn't that mean the 2 floating-points units (2 modules) of Piledriver are acting on par with the 4 (4 cores) of Llano?
    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!
  • cangelini
    army_ant7I want to point out an observation. If in floating-point intensive applications, Trinity is negligibly worse than Llano, meaning they're pretty much the same. Doesn't that mean the 2 floating-points units (2 modules) of Piledriver are acting on par with the 4 (4 cores) of Llano?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 ;-)
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