We first laid easily on AMD'southward Fusion series terminal Feb when we reviewed the 18W dual-core Zacate APU, formally known as the Due east-350. Designed for netbook-similar applications, the Zacate APUs brushed bated existing Intel solutions with ease, providing an affordable yet powerful to the then mutual Atom/Ion philharmonic.

Before long afterward Zacate's release, nosotros had an opportunity to test AMD'due south A8-3850 desktop APU, codenamed Llano, which featured "Husky" CPU cores that were essentially the mobile Phenom II architecture along with Redwood-grade integrated graphics (WinterPark for the dual-cadre variants and BeaverCreek for the quad-core versions).

Like Zacate, nosotros felt Llano was going to exist a success for AMD, and for the most part, it has been a hit amid certain users. Even today, top-stop Intel chips such as the Core i7-3770K can't beat the A8-3850's graphics operation, while many Ivy Span-based Core i5 and i7 parts have an even slower HD 2500 graphics engine.

Granted, Intel still dominates the processor market place and its products are generally the mode to become if you lot desire the fastest CPU possible. However, AMD's APUs provide an attractive alternative for folks who don't need the horsepower of Ivy Bridge or a discrete GPU, but still want more graphics power than Intel's IGPs.

AMD has continued refining its Fusion offerings, launching its Trinity series four months agone on mobile platforms -- arguably where its APUs provide the about value. These 32nm parts feature iv CPU cores based on Piledriver, Bulldozer's successor, and a GPU based on Cayman of 2022's Northern Islands (Hard disk 6000) serial.

This week, AMD is finally prepared to offer a desktop version of Trinity, which brings a new socket and a new high-end chipset. Given that Piledriver improved Bulldozer'southward power consumption, we look Trinity to be more efficient than Llano, while Cayman's VLIW4 architecture should boost the GPU's speed -- or so we hope.

32nm Trinity Line-upwards

Piledriver cores are spread beyond three different 32nm APU serial: Trinity, Weatherford and Richland. We'll exist looking exclusively at Trinity, which covers the performance segment and replaces the Llano-based A8-series. Weatherford covers the upper-mainstream market, replacing the Llano-based A6-serial, while Richland covers the lower-mainstream territory, replacing the Llano based A4-series.

There are six new Piledriver-based APUs, iv of which are of the Trinity line, and nosotros'll exist testing the A10-5800K, a quad-cadre part that operates at 3.8GHz with a maximum turbo frequency of 4.2GHz and boasts a 4MB L2 cache. Its GPU is known as the Radeon Hard disk drive 7660D, which features 384 cores and operates at 800MHz. Like Intel'south "One thousand" serial processors, the A10-5800K unlocked for easier overclocking.

A-Serial Core Design

As mentioned, Trinity's Piledriver cores are based on the same Bulldozer architecture used by the current FX serial. Still, AMD has inverse the design slightly. For example, the L3 cache has been abandoned. The new A10 and A8 APUs lucifer the FX-4000 series with 4MB of L2 cache, while the A6 and A4 parts have just 1MB.

Although L3 cache increases performance in certain situations, it also elevates ability consumption and essentially ruins the efficiency of these chips. Whereas the smaller dedicated L2 cache can exist enabled or disabled as the cores are needed, the entire L3 cache stays awake fifty-fifty when only i cadre is being used. Apparently, AMD felt the performance tradeoff wasn't worth it.

Despite dropping the L3 enshroud, Trinity's transistor count is yet greater than the Phenom II X6 1100T and AMD FX-8170. In fact, Trinity's transistor count is only slightly lower than Intel's Core i7 Ivy Span (22nm) processors.

The die expanse of the quad-cadre APUs is 246mm², which is larger than the 160mm² die of high-end Ivy Bridge Core i5 and Core i7 processors. Naturally, larger dies cost more to produce, and considering the Trinity APUs are significantly larger than their competition, we have no dubiety this will cutting into AMD'south bottom line.

That said, Trinity and its ilk are incredible when you wait at processors and platforms from just a few years ago. AMD has taken a 66mm² (13w) northbridge, 200mm² (65-95w) quad-core processor, 108mm² (30w) graphics processing unit -- what were once three entirely separate components -- and merged them into a 246mm² (65-100w) A-Series APU.