Llano

[max51]

Llano A8-3850 APU, I am very impressed with this CPU and it has suprised me with what it will clock to. Any one intrested in what it is capable of ?
I will post the pics of the overclock next

 

[max51]

It has been running prime now for a couple of hours and still seem to be very stable with temps not over 50c and core voltage 1.45v

 

[max51]

If you keep the CPU at stock clockspeeds how far can you overclock the GPU??

Can you run 3DMark2011 and the Heaven Benchmark to see what type of scores you get at stock clockspeeds and with an overclocked GPU??

I will give it a go and see if the GPU can be clocked as there is no graphics overdrive in the CC. I will check the bios out to see if it can be tweeked there.
Also i will do a 3D Mark bench as well, stock and clocked.

 

[max51]

Just downloading 3D Mark, will post again when i have all the results.

 

[max51]

Setup
CPU Llano A8-3850
Motherboard, Gigabyte A75M-D2H
Memory 8GB Crucial 2-4GB DDR3 Ballistix PC3-12800 CL9, 1.5V Sport
Cooler, Artic Cooler 64 freezer pro
PSU, Thermaltake TR2 450w
HDD, 1TB Seagate barracuda.
Lite On Blu Ray drive
All tucked neatly into a Fractal Design Core 1000 Micro ATX case

Running Win7 Home Premium

 

[max51]

Heaven benchmark reporting wrong clockspeed?

The Heaven bench i did before i hit the 4.7. That i put there just to show that it will run that bench mark.
All the new Heaven and 3D Mark benchies that i am doing now will show clocks at what i am benching.

 

[max51]

I'm watching this thread it looks a good chip - nice case BTW
I really like the minimalist design just simple but looks well made.

Thanks, Yes it is a good case. The only gripe i had with it is the cable managment was a bit of a pain. I will post some pics of it when done with the benchmarking.

at 4.7GHZ imagine that quad-core would be more than a match for most of the Bulldozer processors in their current iteration. that is a damned good clock for a Llano mind, don't think I have ever seen on that high, how is the multiplier set so high though, didn't think they were multiplier unlocked?

Those multipliers where unlocked in the Bios on the Mobo. But they will only go up to 4.7 and then drops back to Auto

 

[max51]

I have been working for hours on this CPU and have come up with a conflict of what the Bios and CPUz is telling me about these and other overclocks that have been recorded. One overclock has sat stable on air at 4.9 GHz on a MSI Mobo. I have run Heaven bench and 3d mark, even Heaven states un overclock of 4.7

So that is the Bios AMD sys monitor and CPUz all telling me the core clock is 4.7GHz.
Now brain has started working overtime as whatever i try with 3DMark performance does not increase on the CPU side and i have only a slight increase of performance from the GPU side.
What started me Thinking was the Max TDP and the temps, which where only increasing by small amounts with each change of the multiplier and each upage of the core clock, so i have been doing some reaserch and have found this.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-A8-3850-APU-Falsely-Supports-Multipliers-Over-29x-210242.shtml
I have also come to the same conclusion with loads of testing.
Do not get me wrong the Llano A8-3850 is a very good proccessor even in standard form and also makes a very good media centre or Home Theatre and is still very good at what it does. as for gaming, it will play but would recomend a discrete GPU to go with it if playing Heavy weight games.
The 3DMark score is 1100
The 3DMark vantage score over 4000
Unigine Heaven score i got to 502 at a res of 1280x720. min frames 12, Max frames 40
This has left me with some very intresting findings.

 

[max51]

Just downloaded Crysis 2 and Tom Clancy's hawk on to it and tried with Xbox controller. Very impressed for onboard GPU, plays both smoothly. Not at max settings, but for the casual gamer who does not require high end or cannot afford high end then this is a ok APU.
Ok apart from the OC shinanigans with the Bios, a real world review i would recomend this CPU.