AMD Fusion A8-3850 Pro Reviews

We're happy to report that the A8-3850 looks like it's going to be a real winner for AMD. The company has been catching some flak lately over its stagnating product line, and although Llano doesn't bring much to the table for well-funded PC enthusiasts, budget system builders have a lot to be excited about.

While the Radeon HD 6550D may not be the front-runner compared to the discrete AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards, its performance overall was admirable for being an integrated graphics processor. The AMD Fusion A8-3850 APU with Radeon HD 6550D graphics is certainly enough for handling popular open-source games on Linux, compositing with your favorite window manager, and other modest OpenGL workloads. Using the proprietary Catalyst driver also allows OpenCL and XvBA to be utilized, which will be the focus of later Phoronix tests. While the Catalyst Linux driver is working great, there's many Linux consumers that won't touch the binary blob. For those wanting to use the open-source Linux driver, you may be waiting a bit. Llano Fusion support isn't provided "out of the box" in any modern Linux distributions, but it should be by the time there are the major Linux distribution updates this fall, e.g. Fedora 16 and Ubuntu 11.10. Until then, you're left building the Linux kernel, Mesa, and xf86-video-ati DDX. Right now though the Radeon kernel DRM has problems, in at least this A8-3850 + GA-A75M-UD2H configuration, causing the display to not function correctly. Hopefully that will be worked out soon and that the Gallium3D Llano support is in good standing.

Integrated graphics are usually dismissed as not worth the effort for users with anything but the most modest needs; AMD's new APUs kick that idea into touch.

The highlight of the new Llano APUs is clearly the integrated HD 6000 graphics card. This sets new standards for processor and chipset GPUs, and also makes playing current games possible thanks to good driver support. Most current games can be played smoothly with a resolution of 1366x768 using medium detail settings. Intel's Sandy Bridge graphics looks out of date in comparison.

If you are looking to build a low cost gaming machine using integrated graphics, the AMD A-series of APUs presents you honestly with the only solution you need. A discrete card of at least $50-60 is needed to put the Core i3-2100 configuration on the same performance level as the AMD A8-3850 and even then you will see higher power consumption and noise levels. Building a gaming rig targeted at 1680x1050 and lower resolutions might seem odd to some extreme gamers, but that is in fact the majority of the PC market today, and the A-series Llano APUs address that area far better than Intel does.

Retaining low end GPU performance for Brazos could have been accepted, but having the same restrictions on the APUs for the mainstream market doesn't pass muster. The 6550D may be a good first step for AMD to counter Intel's GPUs in the HTPC market, but our expectations from the desktop Llano were much higher.

Readers who demand lusty power from their PC are advised to look elsewhere - discrete CPUs and GPUs, for starters - but that's not the aim of these APUs. Rather, it's to provide a quality base on which to build a cheap-ish PC around. So if you're in the market for a relatively inexpensive, well-balanced, power-efficient, fully-featured system, it pays to take a very close look at AMD's nascent APU technology, more so if motherboard manufacturers release value microATX boards that pave the way for a sleek build.

The almost 50-50 split within Llano between the CPU and the GPU elements sums up AMD's Fusion efforts. Any less and it's likely that Llano would not have such promising performance in 3D games. The DirectX 11 support is an added bonus along with the expected hardware accelerated HD video playback (including stereoscopic 3D Blu-ray support). At US$135 for the top A8-3850 and a target market of between US$400 and US$700 for PCs using these APUs, AMD knows where these APUs belong.

With that said, AMD's A-Series desktop APUs seem well suited to low-power, small form factor applications and would make an excellent foundation for a HTPC or casual gaming rig. The performance offered by the A8-3850's quad-cores is plenty good for the vast majority of users out there and its integrated Radeon HD 6550D core is exponentially better than any other integrated solution. Price points are affordable and A75-based motherboards offer cutting edge feature sets. And the value proposition of the platform will only get better as more OpenCL or heterogenous apps that can level all of the APUs compute performance hit the scene.

The Lynx platform is impressive, but what we're seeing is par for the course from AMD. What the part lacks in raw computing power, in makes up for with a (relatively) powerful integrated graphics processor. Will it be enough? If you're on a tight budget, the answer is a resounding yes. AMD is playing to its strengths, and manages to deliver a platform geared towards media-savvy consumers who want to enjoy high-definition video - and even some light gaming, if they temper their expectations. Adding a discrete graphics card only improves things. Some configuration will be necessary (and AMD promises to improve the transition with BIOS updates later on), but coupling a relatively inexpensive graphics card offers a measurable bump in performance - a great way to eke more performance out of your media center without adding too much cost to your machine.

With its first mainstream desktop APU, the A8-3850, AMD makes a compelling case for its method of fusing processor and graphics functionality. But don't dump your video card yet.

There is good news and bad news about the new A-Series CPU from AMD we reviewed, the A8-3850. The good news is that its integrated graphics controller is simply the best integrated solution we’ve seen so far. It was way faster than the Core i3-2100’s and, on Lost Planet 2, it was even faster than a GeForce GT 430, making us suspect that it is optimized for DirectX 11 games. It was also faster than a GeForce GT 430 for applications that use the GPU for processing (GPGPU), such as converting video files using Media Espresso. Also on the good side, applications that perform better with four “real” cores will perform better on the A8-3850 than on the Core i3-2100, which has only two “real” cores and two “simulated” ones, using Hyper-Threading technology. The bad news is that, aside from gaming and 3D rendering, the Core i3-2100 is faster and, depending on the application, by a large margin.

I am torn by the A8-3850. It is set for release at $135. I certainly think it is a better value for many purposes than the Intel i3-2100. Those purpose mainly being GPU driven. However, for transcoding, this isn't the case. Also, we are talking about entry-level systems here. I suppose what I have to say is this; if your main function is web-browsing, streaming media, and a little gaming on the side, the A8-3850 is great for you. If you transcode a lot of media or don't play any games, it's a toss-up. If you are a heavy gamer, don't even bother. You can play games on the A8-3850, but hardcore gamers will want more. Where the market is right now, the A8-3850 is a good deal. I just wish it would have been a little better.

The AMD A-Series 'Llano' APUs have been released for the desktop 'Lynx' platform and the performance is enough for AMD to catch up to Intel on similarly priced platforms. We'd call AMD having a competitive platform a success for both AMD and consumers as it will help keep prices fair.

All in all, I was pretty pleased with the AMD A8-3850. While not a game changer for the overclocker, it was not designed to fit this purpose. It was developed to bring strong video playback and decent mainstream gaming for a minimal cash outlay and it does just that. If you are looking for a second processor (without breaking the bank) for an HTPC, workstation or maybe that build for a special loved one, then the A-Series may just be what you are looking for.

AMD’s A8-3850 chip brings better-than-ever gaming muscle to on-chip graphics. Just make sure you opt for speedy RAM if gaming frame rates are a top priority.

It can’t match Intel's processors in 2D applications, but the A8-3850 is a good value processor with impressive games performance.

If you're building a new budget-friendly system from scratch that will be used for medium-level gaming, HD movie watching or a long list of other seemingly benign tasks, this new Lynx platform is a no-brainer. The A8-3850 is a terrific all-in-one chip that provides unmatched value when you consider that the integrated GPU is truly equal to a $50 graphics card. Intel's lower-end Sandy Bridge models are absolutely faster in CPU-centric benchmarks, but when you take an overall look it is hard not to come to the conclusion that Llano's graphics capabilities more than makes up for its processing shortcomings. In other words, whereas most users likely will not notice that the A8-3850 is slightly slower than another processor in 2D applications, they will notice that it has much better framerates, decoding abilities and GPU computing performance. To us, that equates to a better overall computing experience.

It goes without saying that this isn’t technology for enthusiasts. Even mainstream gamers with $500 bucks to spend on hardware can do better than the best integrated graphics we’ve ever seen. The fastest Llano-based APU is aimed squarely at entry-level desktops and all-in-ones—folks with $400 or $500 for a complete machine. For anyone else, quicker options are available at only marginally higher prices. AMD sees its addressable market between $400 and $700 with these APUs. Frankly, I think the $400 to $600 range is more realistic.

We're impressed with the AMD A8-3850 Fusion APU, giving the equivalent Intel offering a kicking in both computational and especially graphical performance.