AMD's new Fusion A-Series A8-8350 and A6-3650 are aimed at desktop users looking for a high-end graphics experience.
Advanced Micro
Devices is bringing its Fusion processors to the desktop.
AMD officials
in January at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show launched the first of their
Fusion APUs (accelerated processing units), which offer high-performance
graphics on the same piece of silicon as the CPU and integrated memory
controller, a move designed to improve computing and graphics performance while
driving down power consumption.
Those first
APUs-and subsequent ones-have focused primarily on the notebook space, as well
as the
embedded market. On June 30, AMD rolled out the
Fusion A-Series A8-3850 and A6-3650 APUs for desktops, giving users what AMD
officials said is high-definition graphics, supercomputer-like performance and
fast application speeds.
Both
32-nanometer chips combine four x86 CPU cores with AMD's DirectX 11-capable
graphics, and up to 400 Radeon cores and dedicated high-definition video
processing. The A8-3850 runs at 2.9GHz, while the A6-3650 runs at 2.6GHz.
The chips are
the first desktop APUs from
AMD's "Llano" family of APUs for mainstream PCs.
The first Llano notebook chips rolled out earlier in June.
The chip
vendor is targeting the new Fusion A-Series APUs for systems ranging in price
from $400 to $600.
In a blog post
on the AMD Website, Sasa Marinkovic, senior manager of desktop and AMD
software product marketing, said the vendor's new APUs are the latest
indication that despite assertions by some in the industry, the PC is not going
away anytime soon.
"Many
consumers are under the impression that the PC is dead, but we beg to differ
and our new A-Series APU will surely surprise you in the best way possible,"
Marinkovic wrote. "We realize that we live in an increasingly digital and
visually oriented world and that consumers demand more responsive multi-tasking,
vivid graphics, lifelike games, lag-free videos and the ultimate multimedia
performance. I believe people are buying PCs today for an outstanding visual
experience, one in which all the component parts are equal partners. And
in the new world, focusing simply on the raw power and speed of the CPU is an
outdated concept. The world is ready for an evolutionary step, a new paradigm
exemplified in our new A-Series APUs."
AMD's Fusion
chips compete with Intel processors based on the "Sandy Bridge" architecture,
which also integrates the graphics and CPU on the same die and also were first
released at the CES 2011 show.
Initial
reviews of AMD's A8-3850 indicate that the chip performs basic computing
functions well, if not great, but that it really shines in the graphics area.
PC Magazine's review said the AMD chip performed
better than Intel's higher-end Core i5-2500K.
Hot Hardware said that Intel's technology has it
all over AMD's in the area of computing, but that AMD's focus on the graphics
side of the equation gives the A8-3850 the edge over Intel in that area.
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