Thursday, September 27, 2012

AMD Trinity desktop chips due next week, promise Core i5-matching power at Core i3 price

AMD to release Trinity desktop chips next week, promises Core i5 power for a Core i3 priceBeing the industry underdog means youre always in need of a punchy pitch Fortunately, the marketing around AMDs latest processors the longawaited Trinity APUs for desktop PCs is brutally simple For something like the cost of an Ivy Bridge Core i3, you can get an overclockable A105800K that, were told, belongs in the same weight category as an Ivy Bridge Core i5 with HD4000 integrated graphics In other words, and although exact pricing wont be revealed until the full stack of A10, A8 and A6 processors hit shelves next week, buyers of lowpower PCs like allinones and HTPCs could potentially save around $xx by going with AMD instead of Intel Such a claim just cries out to be tested, which is exactly what we try to do in the video after the break albeit under the auspices of AMD and solely in relation to the game Sleeping Dogs The upshot of the video is that the A10 runs that title at medium settings and 16x10 resolution at almost 30 fps Throw in some conservative GPU and memory overclocking while sticking with the stock cooler and chip will readily stretch to 1920 x 1080 at 37 fps By contrast, an Ivy Bridge Core i5 struggles to get beyond slowmo 10 fps, and of course you cant overclock it without spending extra on unlocked K variant of the chip something AMD sells at no premium whatsoever But thats just one game and moreover one game on a chip that isnt especially targetted at gaming so much as allround entertainment and productivity ie the kinds of customers who dont want to spend $100 extra on a discrete graphics card We need full benchmarks covering more scenarios and general computing performance, and a number of specialist sites will be releasing such data today see the More Coverage links below, with fuller reviews following on October 2nd at which point well do our regular review roundup

Being the industry underdog means you're always in need of a punchy pitch. Fortunately, AMD's latest briefing to journalists in London yesterday contained exactly that: for something like the cost of an Intel Core i3 you'll be able to pick up an overclockable Trinity A10-5800K which, we're told, belongs in the same weight class as a Core i5 with HD 4000 graphics. Exact pricing won't be revealed until the full stack of A10, A8, A6 and A4 processors hits shelves next week, but the top-end A10 will likely cost around $130, based on recent leaks and a glance at what Newegg currently charges for an i3. Unluckily, however, whereas Ivy Bridge was compatible with some previous-generation motherboards, Trinity will require the purchase of a new Socket FM2 motherboard.

The claim of performance parity with the Core i5 just cries out to be tested, but we'll have to wait until early October before we can round up verdicts from full reviews on specialist sites. In the meantime, check out the More Coverage links below for some early previews. Also, if you require something more directly head-to-head with an Intel chip, then that's exactly what you'll find in the video after the break, albeit under AMD's auspices and solely in relation to a single game, Sleeping Dogs. As you'll see, there's nothing to turn hardcore gamers against discrete graphics cards, and there are no clues about non-gaming performance (which is arguably more relevant on an APU-powered system). But the quad-core A10-5800K does offer plenty of scope for escapism on a low-power HTPC or all-in-one. Indeed, the more expensive Core i5 is left for dust, not least because it's locked -- unlike AMD, Intel charges a premium for its overclockable K-denoted chips. We'll add further preview links as they become available.

Update: Just added HotHardware's preview, which shows that the A10 really does game as well as our video suggests in addition to providing a mostly fluid computing experience. As mentioned, however, it's impossible to reach a final verdict until AMD allows sites to publish full benchmarks next week.

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