AMD's First Dual-Core Llano APUs: A4-3400 & A4-3300 Launched
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 7, 2011 12:55 PM ESTToday AMD introduced its first dual-core Llano APUs: the A4-3400 and A4-3300. These APUs have only 758M active transistors, a bit over half of the transistors in the bigger quad-core alternatives. AMD originally indicated that it would have a separate die for the dual-core APUs but it's unclear whether or not the first A4s will be on the new die or simply used a fused off quad-core Llano. TDP is kept at 65W and there's no Turbo Core supported on either A4 model. These GPUs only have 160 Radeon cores, which should still result in performance competitive with Intel's Sandy Bridge Pentiums based on what we've seen from the 320 core version of the GPU. If we assume linear scaling with core count there shouldn't be many (any?) areas where the Radeon HD 6410 is slower than the SNB Pentium's HD Graphics GPU.
These A4s will work in all existing Socket-FM1 motherboards. Although not listed in the table above, only the A6 and above officially support DDR3-1866. The A4s only support up to DDR3-1600. This isn't too big of a deal as we found in our investigation: DDR3-1600 is the sweet spot for Llano APU performance.
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chillmelt - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
Last week, I was forced to buy an Intel laptop for work, simply because there seems to be a scarcity in 3530mx-powered laptops. That was my first Intel purchase in a long, long time.The desktop market is slowly losing market share. Laptops, smartphones, and tablets are where the consumers are at right now. Get on it AMD!
Taft12 - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
What you're saying just doesn't align with reality. The laptop OEMs are really behind Fusion. There are far, far more AMD laptops than there used to be. In my latest Best Buy flyers, they seem to outnumber Intel!As for a laptop with a 3530MX, try the HP dv7-6188ca maybe?
GiantPandaMan - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
Makes total sense. He said desktop market share, as in total desktop market share compared to total computing market share, not AMD market share in laptops versus total laptop share.chillmelt - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
I found that exact model... But why is there only *one* model for the flagship Llano processor? Where is Toshiba/Samsung/etc. on the list? I've done my searching/shopping and I can't seem to find anything beyond HP's dv6.When you're out for a decently-powered laptop from AMD, other than AMD's quad core Llanos, you have no choice but to go to i5 and up, which is what I did.
BSMonitor - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
Half as many CPU cores. Half as many GPU cores. And still a 65W processor?Same old story from AMD. NOTHING that stands out. Follow the leader. YAWN!
silverblue - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
TDP is a worst case scenario. Think about the E-350 for a moment - it may be rated at 18W, but does it use it? TDP is the maximum amount of power that a cooling system must dissipate and thus not likely a true reflection of how much power a CPU uses. In the end, a TDP rating is meaningless in the face of actual power readings. I also undervolt my CPU but get the same performance, so again, TDP isn't a perfect indicator of power when I might be using only half of that.Yes, it's puzzling that the same TDP would exist for both the A8-3800 and A4-3300, but a quick glance at the technology on offer for both CPUs will be enough to convince you that a dual-core APU with not even half the number of shaders will not use anywhere near as much power as its quad-core relative, even if AMD have changed the setup of such a CPU to favour the CPU more during heavy load.
MrSpadge - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
You can be sure AMD is pumping at least 1.4 V into these to meet that 65 W TDP ;)Some German site recently overclocked their top of the line A8-3850 as far as the motherboard allowed (not much, about 3.3 GHz) and then lowered CPU voltage as far as they could. They achieved something ~1.1 V instead of the stock 1.4 V and got about HALF the power usage under CPU load than the stock config. That's so totally nuts..
MrS
titan13131 - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
I think it would be neat if a dual core variant came with the 6550D GPU, I mean it's not like the CPU is going to bottle neck it so why not.SunLord - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
Based on the photos of an A4 next to an A8 on Engadget which looks to be almost half the size of the A8 I think AMD has both versions in the market mainly due to the piss poor yields on the new 32nm process.yankeeDDL - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
SunLord, sorry I don't understand your message.If the size of the die is half, it's because AMD has a specific mask set for the A4 compared to the A8.
Which means that they're getting good enough yield on the A8, to the point that they don't have enough patrs with only 2 good cores, to make A4s. So they manufacture A4s with their own mask set.
Which means, the reality is the opposite of what you state .... unless I'm missing something here.