AMD Exposes Richland
AMD Releases Richland APUs
When we first heard about “Richland” last year, there was a little bit of excitement from people. Not many were sure what to expect other than a faster “Trinity” based CPU with a couple extra goodies. Today we finally get to see what Richland is. While interesting, it is not necessarily exciting. While an improvement, it will not take AMD over the top in the mobile market. What it actually brings to the table is better competition and a software suite that could help to convince buyers to choose AMD instead of a competing Intel part.
From a design standpoint, it is nearly identical to the previous Trinity. That being said, a modern processor is not exactly simple. A lot of software optimizations can be applied to these products to increase performance and efficiency. It seems that AMD has done exactly that. We had heard rumors that the graphics portion was in fact changed, but it looks like it has stayed the same. Process improvements have been made, but that is about the extent of actual hardware changes to the design.
The new Richland APUs are branded the A-5000 series of products. The top end is the A10-5750M with HD-8650 integrated graphics. This is still the VLIW-4 based graphics unit seen in the previous Trinity products, but enough changes have been made with software that I can enable Dual Graphics with the new Solar System based GPUs (GCN). The speeds of these products have received a nice boost. As compared to the previous top end A10-4600, the 5750 takes the base speed from 2.3 GHz to 2.5 GHz. Boost goes from 3.2 GHz up to 3.5 GHz. The graphics portion takes the base clock from 496 MHz up to 533 MHz, while turbo mode improves over the 4600 from 685 MHz to 720 MHz. These are not staggering figures, but it all still fits within the 35 watt TDP of the previous product.
One other important improvement is the ability to utilize DDR-3 1866 memory. Throughout the past year we have seen memory densities increase fairly dramatically without impacting power consumption. This goes for speed as well. While we would expect to see lower power DIMMs be used in the thin and light categories, expect to see faster DDR-3 1866 in the larger notebooks that will soon be heading our way.
Click here to read more about AMD's Richland APUs!
As mentioned before, the majority of the gains we see today are the work of low level software optimizations. The original Trinity had a fairly complex scheme to keep clockspeeds high, balance out power needs, and to keep it all under 35 watts TDP when it comes to heat production. The die has quite a few temperature sensors throughout the design, and these provide feedback as to what unit is heating up and what is idle. The software that controls all this then determines what area needs to be clocked down, what can be clocked up, and how to maximize performance determined by workloads.
AMD has several improvements under differing operations that allows them to increase overall clockspeeds, enable turbo modes to last longer, and balance out CPU and GPU workloads more effectively. They have increased the number of P states (clock vs. voltage) so it is more finely grained. This should allow the processor to more adequately respond to performance needs, instead of making a larger jump to the next P state, it takes a smaller one from the previous state. This again is aimed at maximizing power and clockspeed given a certain workload. The algorithms dictating if the CPU or GPU gets more power and speed have been overhauled as well. AMD claims that these new algorithms can more adequately adjust for corner cases where both units may be bottlenecked, but can correctly decipher which unit actually will show the greatest performance increase by loosening the performance bottleneck.
Finally we get to the operating system level software enhancements that AMD is introducing. These are somewhat interesting, depending on the usage expected from these parts. These are new programs that promise to allow more functionality and flexibility than previous notebook parts have provided. The first is AMD Gesture Control. This does exactly what one would think it would. With a webcam enabled notebook the user can set it up to make gestures correspond to commands. Things such as a hand wave can turn a page on an e-book. The downside to this is if a person is jamming out to “Stop, In the Name of Love” and keeps interrupting the playback with their motions. There is no colorful metaphor app as of yet from AMD.
Other enhancements in software bundle includes AMD Face Login, AMD Screen Mirror (sharing media at low latencies to a variety of playback options), AMD Quick Stream (media streaming that takes priority over networks so no hiccups will occur), AMD Steady Video (already available through Catalyst), and AMD Perfect Picture HD (de-interlacing, contrast enhancement, color saturation, and vibrancy). At first glance these appear to be a bit underwhelming, but consider that they all will be bundled with the new Richland APUs. Intel currently has no software bundle to compare it to.
Richland is not the second coming. It still looks like a very interesting product. AMD certainly is willing to shake things up a bit, and this refresh is coming hard and fast. AMD expects mobile Richland processors to be available in end user products by next month. Low voltage version for ultra-thins should be available before the end of 1H 2013. AMD has no real choice but to release improved products on an aggressive schedule. Make no mistake, Richland is an improvement over Trinity. Now users just have to judge what is more important to them when it comes to usage and features. AMD certainly has the edge in graphics and software, but Intel still has overall CPU performance and power consumption.
No I meant I sense a weird
No I meant I sense a weird attraction to “cocks” in your case. In psychology it’s called latent homosexual. Sorry man.
LOL.
Fuck you, fucking dumb
LOL.
Fuck you, fucking dumb French fucker.
Suck it all the way in.
Yep that’s what I thought.
Yep that’s what I thought. 100% latent homosexual.
PS I’m not French but that doesn’t change your diagnosis.Sorry.
You really have absolutely no
You really have absolutely no idea who I am.
Should I take a pic of myself?
I’ll post it here.
No need man, it’s clear
No need man, it’s clear enough. So much anger cannot be good for ones health. Go outside a bit ,go to gym punch some bags. Let it out.
We’re going to do this a bit
We’re going to do this a bit different.
Post your pic and I’ll post mine.
You want to play multi-muscle? Well I’m all for it.
Hahahah I can’t believe I’m
Hahahah I can’t believe I’m reading this :D. It’s awesome, like 4chan stuff only better!
I can take anybody from 4chan
I can take anybody from 4chan down single handedly…
10 feet tall, genius,
10 feet tall, genius, bulletproof, and the body of Adonis. Pissing in peoples' Wheaties since dial-in BBS days! You've seen my ugly mug, you should show yours!
I am having EXTREMELY hard
I am having EXTREMELY hard time browsing the site since all my proxies are getting blocked one by one from you and your fucking pussy crew and I am banned from the chat as well.
I don’t have your e-mail so I can’t mail you.
Do you really want me to post my pic here?
Hey Johny boy, have you
Hey Johny boy, have you considered that those blocks on IPs are coming for a reason? You are a hostile sociopath who cannot have a normal discussion on an internet forum. You are ignoring facts and constantly berating and attacking other posters. This is probably how you act in real life for which I’m really sorry. If you had stuck with normal tech discussion I can BET your IPs wouldn’t get blocked. You had it coming and rightfully so.
Yes, because the site was
Yes, because the site was losing sales over me.
I guess yours does as well.
I can feel the butt hurt from 5000 miles away.
John, your hostility in a
John, your hostility in a threaded discussion is abnormal. So at what point did you realize that having sex with your mother was wrong and taking out your frustrations anonymously behind a computer would help you cope? As we all know, people like you cower in public with your thoughts as they build up in your head because you lack the courage to speak out in person like you do online.
Sales? Please just go
Sales? Please just go away,you are making no sense at all.
Keeping on holding up buddy,
Keeping on holding up buddy, eh?!
http://imageshack.us/a/img855/7099/93775794.jpg
I am already pretty much done actually.
Good luck at life.
Kid, get a real life.
Kid, get a real life.
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is this guy for real? All
is this guy for real? All this hate on AMD. All this trash talk. Let me inform you of something that you are too young and ignorant to know. AMD is Intel. Yes. Same company! Do not believe me? Look it up. If it wasn’t for shady monopolistic business practices conducted by Intel in the early 1980s, AMD would never exist. AMD splintered off from Intel in the early 90s and within 6 years of being independent managed to shit all over Intel for almost a decade. K62, Athlon, Athlon XP, Athlon 64, Athlon 64×2. AMD Lead the way for 10 years with almost no resistance from Intel. AMD has pioneered technologies that Intel could only dream of. Multi core technology all started with AMD. 64 bit hardware, That was AMD. It was not until second generation C2duo products that Intel started to regain ground and there was a good reason for that. In 2006, AMD made a HUGE investment into a dying corporation. ATi. The goal of this investment was to create a high end main stream platform to usher in the HD revolution. You want to know why AMD does not have a high end CPU core lineup? It is because they spent millions on ATi and then had to invest millions more into research and development to turn ATi around and make the graphics product profitable. Then they had to take this new graphics product they tweaked and find a way to work it on die with cpu cores. APU technology is still a baby and AMD is YEARS ahead of Intel when it comes to it thanks to the acquisition of ATi. AMD is capable of making high end CPU parts, They just do not have the resources to invest into it. Just wait another 5 years. AMD Will be on the top of the food chain in both GPU and CPU technology and they will have a unified all in 1 package that will leave intel begging for Nvidia to reconsider there offer. I am guessing someone as young and ignorant as you do not even know that Intel tried to buy out Nvidia and got the middle finger. Intel has invested billions into research and has a high power cpu. I do not deny that. But that is not what AMD has been working on. I will continue to buy and support AMD because I know my money will go to something big that will revolutionize the industry. Investing in Intel does nothing but invest into advertisement and the dead Idea that raw single core performance in this day and age matters to anyone other than ignorant kids that want to raise room temperatures by another 20c.
And you talk all this trash
And you talk all this trash about AMD laptops saying they are all crap, have no performance or anything. I am guessing you have not heard of the MSI GX70 on its way this summer. A10-57050m Paired with a Radeon HD8970. What the hell could Intel ever offer to compete with that? Last I checked Intel still does not have any type of stream computing platform much less any type of graphics core that can produce over 30 frames a second in Diablo 3 much less a real game. You have to use Nvidia as your crutch and even then all you are using is a gpu that is bound to go up in flames and burn out within a year of ownership. I am yet to see a high end nvidia laptop chip from the gtx series that did not over heat and die. I still have a MSI GT635 with AMD dual core and Radeon hd3850 that I have overclocked the hell out of without even using a notebook cooling pad and it runs fine. My Toshiba I am on right now is a first gen A6-3400m overclocked to 2.8ghz and stays 25-30c under the Tjmax of the chip and that is without a cooling pad also. I will admit early dual and quad core laptop offerings from AMD produced a lot of heat but they still never burned out. Intel fan boys are the most ignorant ever. They are all young and never known anything else. My first PC was a 286dx 25mhz with 2mb ram. It was an AMD chip ontop of that. AMD has been around longer than you child and they will be here long after you are gone. So keep hating and spending double the money I spend on my hardware to produce 10-15fps more even tho all my systems do what they are made to do with no issues.
lol ur a nub
lol ur a nub
Good review, Josh, other than
Good review, Josh, other than the kid’s rude comments.
Yeah thanks for the
Yeah thanks for the review.
I’m looking at getting an MSI GX60 with an A10-5750M paired with a 7970M.
Unfortunately I missed most of the comments because of that lunatic posting.
Shame.
can u tell me is it better to
can u tell me is it better to go for 4600m or 5650m for gaming!!
Im iterested in buying a
Im iterested in buying a laptop with an amd richland apu. My daily work consists of extended web browsing and downloading, with occasional movie viewing and linux security apps running. Which apu would you all reccomend and why?
I want to upgrade to this ,
I want to upgrade to this , and my current is AMD A6-4400m . I can’t find info on if my current BIOS is compatible or not. Which BIOS does the a10-5750m use ?
I am planning on upgrading
I am planning on upgrading from an A6-4400m to an A10-5750m , but I need to know which BIOS version I am using and which one I need for the A10 5750m . I am having a very hard time finding simple concise info on this , any help greatly appreciated . Thanks.