AMD have already revealed that it has put great efforts into making the integrated graphics of the Fusion A series as fast as possible. The APUs code-named Llano will according to AMD offer up to three times the performance of the integrated graphics circuits of Sandy Bridge, revealed by leaked data sheets.
According to documents claimed to be from AMD the company says that the AMD A8-3550 APU will score P3335 in 3DMark Vantage Performance, which can be compared to P1007 by Intel’s Sandy Bridge Core i5-2300 CPU and its Intel HD Graphics 2000 GPU.
AMD A8-3550 will according to sources sport four cores, 4MB cache and integrated graphics called Radeon HD 6550. The GPU will house 400 stream processors and operate at 594 MHz. The result that AMD mentions in its document can be compared to what the budget card Radeon HD 4670 accomplishes in the same test (around P3700).
AMD Llano APU
That AMD chooses to compare A8-3550 APU with Intel’s Core i5-2300 CPU (four cores, 2.8 GHz and 6MB cache) probably means it will put it on the same price level as Intel HD Graphics 2000 Sandy Bridge processors (~ 140€). It’s worth mentioning that Intel HD Graphics 2000 only has 6 execution units, which makes it a lot slower than the GPU found in Intel Core i5-2500K or Core i7-2600K (The only desktop models with Intel HD Graphics 3000). The latter scores P1700 and P2150 in 3DMark Vantage Performance.
AMD A8-3550 looks like the more powerful solution not matter how you twist and turn it in terms of 3D performance. How much of a difference it makes in actual games is harder to say.
| Model | A8- 3560P | A8- 3550P | A8- 3560 | A8- 3550 | A6- 3460P | A6- 3450P | A6- 3460 | A6- 3450 | A4- 3360 | A4- 3350 | E2- 3250 |
| Die | Stars | Stars | Stars | Stars | Stars | Stars | Stars | Stars | Stars | Stars | Stars |
| Cores | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Stream processors | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 320 | 320 | 320 | 320 | 160 | 160 | 160 |
| CPU freq. | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| GPU freq. |
TBD | 594 MHz | TBD | 594 MHz | TBD | 443 MHz | TBD | 443 | TBD | 594 MHz | 443 MHz |
| Radeon model | HD 6550 | HD 6550 | HD 6550 | HD 6550 | HD 6530 | HD 6530 | HD 6530 | HD 6530 | HD 6410 | HD 6410 | HD 6370 |
| Cache | 4MB | 4MB | 4MB | 4MB | 4MB | 4MB | 4MB | 4MB | 2MB | 2MB | 1MB |
| Memory | DDR3, 1866 MHz | DDR3, 1866 MHz | DDR3, 1866 MHz | DDR3, 1866 MHz | DDR3, 1866 MHz | DDR3, 1866 MHz | DDR3, 1866 MHz | DDR3, 1866 MHz | DDR3, 1866 MHz | DDR3, 1866 MHz | DDR3, 1600 MHz |
| Node | 32nm | 32nm | 32nm | 32nm | 32nm | 32nm | 32nm | 32nm | 32nm | 32nm | 32nm |
| TDP | 100W | 100W | 65W | 65W | 100W | 100W | 65W | 65W | 65W | 65W | 65W |
| Turbo Core | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Sockel | FM1 | FM1 | FM1 | FM1 | FM1 | FM1 | FM1 | FM1 | FM1 | FM1 | FM1 |
| Launch | Q4 2011 | Q3 2011 | Q4 2011 | Q3 2011 | Q4 2011 | Q3 2011 | Q4 2011 | Q3 2011 | Q4 2011 | Q3 2011 | Q3 2011 |
AMD’s Turbo Core technology will be found in the Llano architecture and even if we don’t know the CPU frequencies the Turbo Core technology will enable even higher frequencies on two of the cores with a 300MHz boost.
The good things is, according to X-bit Labs, that the HybridCrossfire technology will enable a direct connection to a discrete GPU. The technology is called Dual Graphics Technology and will primarily be usable for those with a discrete budget cards. Specifically AMD mentions its mobile circuits Whistler (HD 6700M) and Seymor (HD 6400M) where AMD A series GPUs will improve performance with up to 75%, not bad for a mobile solution.
