AMD Trinity for Desktops. Part 1: Graphics Core

xbitlabs.com ^ | 09/26/2012 09:00 PM | Ilya Gavrichenkov

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New hybrid AMD Trinity processors for desktop systems haven’t been officially launched yet. However, we prepared a detailed review of their graphics omponent.

I am sure no one doubts that the today’s fastest PC processors do not come from AMD. And this didn’t happen overnight. Since Intel had switched from Pentium 4 to various Core processors, AMD products rolled back to the second place. In fact, all current AMD processors are either entry-level or some special niche products, which are not particularly interesting to the majority of users out there, who value performance the most. However, not very high performance, as well as decrease in the market share are not reasons enough to give up the achievements of AMD processor division for lost. This company’s engineers are known for their ability to produce some unique solutions from time to time, which allow AMD not only preserve their market positions, but to influence the entire industry. And the examples are, in fact, quite recent: 64-bit extensions of the x86 microarchitecture, multi-core processor design, integration of the memory controller and chipset North Bridge into the processor – all these things have been developed and first implemented by AMD and not by the current processor market leader.

This is exactly why we continue to closely monitor all the innovations cooked in the heart of this company. And it looks like they have found that new goldmine, which should not only give them a positive boost, but also inspire the entire processor market. This goldmine is APU (Accelerated Processor Unit) – the ideology, according to which the traditional computational cores are combined with a high-performance graphics core inside a single semiconductor die.

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Part 2 won't appear till after announcement....which is believed to be Oct 2.

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From page 2:

[rarestia]

It’s going to be a long while before a single die will replace the high-performance systems available today.

I’m running on a 2 year-old mobo with a quad-core Intel proc, 12 GB RAM, two GTX460 gfx cards in SLI config and liquid cooled, and it’s still faster than most of the stock, out-of-box solutions from the big box manufacturers (i.e. Alienware/Dell, HP, etc.).

With Intel’s QPI, increases in mainboard bandwidth, lower price points on bottle components such as HDD vs. SSD, and proliferation of high-performance system enthusiasts, making a single die the core of both processing and graphics is going to take a long time to sell, let alone achieve universal adoption.

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*bottleNECK components

[Sparticus]

You’re thinking like an enthusiast and your system probably cost upwards of a thousand dollars. What AMD is pursuing is being able to sell a system with 3/4 of the performance for half of the price, which is what the market really wants. Cheap hardware which is “fast enough” for 99% of what people use it for. Computing hardware reached commodity status a long time ago and the real market for it is now at the Walmarts of the world.

[rarestia]

Certain parts of the paper tried to sell this new product as a performance-system “killer,” and I don’t see it that way. I believe AMD is on the right track, but I don’t see it being anything an enthusiast would scarf up. The biggest shortcoming is the socketing, which would make this processor, and thus the mobo, unique and inflexible for upgrades, etc.

Again, don’t disagree with your assessment. I want to see more of this type of innovation from the big 2 chipmakers.

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Right now IGP's are only competitive with low end graphics.

Serious gamers can ignore all of this.

There is only so much room for transistors on a die.

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There is only so much room for transistors on a die.

Agreed. The cool thing with this iteration is that the IGP is part of the main proc and not just another on-board chip.

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Anandtech :

AMD A10-5800K & A8-5600K Review: Trinity on the Desktop, Part 1

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***********************EXCERPT************************

by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/27/2012 12:00:00 AM
Posted in CPUs , GPUs , Trinity , AMD

After years of waiting, AMD finally unveiled its Llano APU platform fifteen months ago. The APU promise was a new world where CPUs and GPUs would live in harmony on a single, monolithic die. Delivering the best of two very different computing architectures would hopefully pave the way for a completely new class of applications. That future is still distant, but today we're at least at the point where you can pretty much take for granted that if you buy a modern CPU it's going to ship with a GPU attached to it.

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Hothardware has a video:

AMD A10 and A8 Trinity APU: Virgo Desktop Experience