Podcast #252 - Z87 Motherboards, Xbox One, Lenovo Y500 Gaming notebook and more!
Subject: General Tech | May 23, 2013 - 01:00 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: z87, Y500, xbox one, xbox, video, Temash, Richland, podcast, pcper, msi, Lenovo, Kaveri, Kabini, Jaguar, Intel, hgst, gtx 650m, Giagbyte, ECS, asus, APU, amd
PC Perspective Podcast #252 - 05/23/2013
Join us this week as we discuss Z87 Motherboards, Xbox One, Lenovo Y500 Gaming notebook and more!
You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.
The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!
- iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
- RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS reader
- MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file
Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Josh Walrath, Allyn Malventano, and Morry Teitelman
Program length: 1:17:01
-
Week in Review:
-
0:02:40 ASUS Z87 Motherboards
-
0:07:40 Gigabyte Z87 Motherboards
-
0:15:15 MSI Z77A-GD65 Gaming Motherboard
-
0:19:30 Lenovo Y500 Gaming Notebook
-
-
News items of interest:
-
0:26:30 ECS has Z87 motherboards too
-
0:27:50 Xbox One Announced
-
0:45:00 2013 AMD Mobility Platforms
-
-
1:04:30 Hardware/Software Picks of the Week:
-
Morry: Dark - Vampire RPG
-
1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
-
Closing/outro
2013 Elite Mobility APU - Temash
AMD has a lot to say today. At an event up in Toronto this month we got to sit down with AMD’s marketing leadership and key engineers to learn about the company’s plans for 2013 mobility processors. This includes a refreshed high performance APU known as Richland that will replace Trinity as well as two brand new APUs based on Jaguar CPU cores and the GCN architecture for low power platforms.
Josh has put together an article that details the Jaguar + GCN design of Temash and Kabini and I have also posted some initial performance results of the Kabini reference system AMD handed me in May. This article will detail the plans that AMD has for each of these three mobile segments, starting with the newest entry, AMD’s Elite Mobility APU platform – Temash.
The goal of the APU, the combination of traditional x86 processing cores and a discrete style graphics system, was to offer unparalleled performance in smaller and more efficient form factors. AMD believes that their leadership in the graphics front will offer them a good sized advantage in areas including performance tablets, hybrids and small screen clamshells that may or not be touch enabled. They are acknowledging though that getting into the smallest tablets (like the Nexus 7) is not on the table quite yet and that content creation desktop replacements are probably outside the scope of Richland.
2013 Elite Mobility APU – Temash
AMD will have the first x86 quad-core SoC design with Temash and AMD thinks it will make a big splash in a relatively new market known as the “high performance” tablet.
Temash, built around Jaguar CPU cores and the graphics technology of GCN, will be able to offer fully accelerated video playback with transcode support as well with features like image stabilization and Perfect Picture enabled. Temash will also be the only SoC to offer support for DX11 graphics and even though some games might not have the ability to show off added effects there are quite a few performance advantages of DX11 over DX10/9. With more than 100% claimed GPU performance upgrade you’ll be able to drive displays at 2560x1600 for productivity use and even be able to take advantage of wireless display options.
Continue reading our preview of the new 2013 mobility platforms featuring AMD APUs!!
MSI Launches GX70 and GX60 Gaming Notebooks Powered By AMD Richland APUs
Subject: Systems | May 21, 2013 - 08:21 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: Richland, msi, gx70, gx60, gaming notebook, gaming, APU, amd
MSI announced two new gaming notebooks powered by AMD's latest Richland APUs today called the GX70 and GX60. Both gaming notebooks use AMD A10-5750M processors, a discrete AMD graphics card, 8GB of RAM, and a 750GB (7200 RPM) hard drive. Other shared specifications include a Killer E2200 NIC, Blu-ray drive, THX certified speakers, a headphone amp, and a large 9-cell battery.
The GX70 is the largest of the two gaming notebooks at 8.6 pounds and packing a 17.3” display. The GX70 uses the A10-5750M APU and a Radeon 8970M discrete mobile GPU to deliver gaming performance to the 1080p display. The system is also capable of outputting to multiple displays over HDMI and supports AMD's Eyefinity 3D technology. On the outside, the MSI GX70 features a 17.3” 1920 x 1080p display with an anti-reflective coating as well as a SteelSeries gaming keyboard.
Meanwhile, the MSI GX60 is a 15-inch notebook that weighs 7.7 pounds. This gaming notebook uses an AMD A10-5750M APU and a Radeon 7970M mobile discrete GPU. Further, the GX60 has a 15.6” 1080p anti-reflective display and SteelSeries gaming keyboard.
MSI claims that the new AMD Richland APUs will give its gaming notebooks much better battery life. The new GX70 and GX60 will have up to 40% better graphical performance compared to previous generations thanks to the new APUs and discrete cards. According to MSI VP of Sales Andy Tung, “the GX70 and GX60 deliver the ultimate sensory experience for both professional and amateur gamers.” More information on the new gaming notebooks can be found on this MSI press release.
AMD will be reducing APU pricing by April
Subject: General Tech | March 21, 2013 - 12:35 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: amd, price cuts, Richland, a4-4000
It might be worth waiting until next month if you are going to be building a low cost AMD based system as prices on the A8-5600K, FX-8320, FX-6300 and FX-4300 will be dropping in April. You can also expect to see the A4-4000 hit stores the following month at a very low price according to DigiTimes but don't have anything new to report about the release date of the Richland chips. It is nice to have low cost CPUs available on the market, but it seems odd when even the lowest priced motherboard will run you about twice as much as the CPU you will be putting on it.
"AMD plans to cut some of its APU prices at the end of April to welcome its next-generation Richland APUs, set for launch in early June, according to sources from PC players.
Prices of AMD's APUs including A8-5600K, FX-8320, FX-6300 and FX-4300 will see 8-15% drops and the CPU maker will also start shipping its A4-4000 in mid-April for sales in mid-May priced at US$40."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Poking Holes In Samsung's Android Security @ Slashdot
- Nvidia and ARM: It's a parallel, parallel, parallel world @ The Register
- Skype tips up for Blackberry 10 as it hits 100,000 apps @ The Inquirer
- Google’s Note-Taking Service Keep Is Live, And It’s Wonderful @ Gizmodo
- Windows 8 Outperforming Ubuntu Linux With Intel OpenGL Graphics @ Phoronix
- Unigine Valley 1.0 Benchmark Tool Walk Through @ OCC
- Team AU Overclocking in Perth with Liquid Nitrogen - Deanzo's Thoughts @ Tweaktown
Podcast #242 - AMD's new Richland APUs, Steam Box Prototypes, Seagate Hybrid Drives and more!
Subject: General Tech | March 14, 2013 - 03:36 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: Strider, steambox, steam, sshd, Silverstone, Seagate, Richland, quadro 6000, quadro, podcast, hybrid, APU, amd
PC Perspective Podcast #242 - 03/14/2013
Join us this week as we discuss AMD's new Richland APUs, Steam Box Prototypes, Seagate Hybrid Drives and more!
You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.
The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!
- iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
- RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS reader
- MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file
Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath and Allyn Malventano
This Podcast is brought to you by MSI!
Program length: 0:59:45
Podcast topics of discussion:
- Week in Reviews:
- 0:14:33 This Podcast is brought to you by MSI!
- News items of interest:
-
Closing:
-
0:42:40 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
- Ryan: Tranquil PC Intel NUC case
- Josh: Cheap and Pretty!
- Allyn: Automatic
- Morry: Edimax 150mbps wireless nano USB adapter
-
0:42:40 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
- 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
- http://pcper.com/podcast
- http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
- Closing/outro
Be sure to subscribe to the PC Perspective YouTube channel!!
Welcome Richland, another refined die from AMD
Subject: Processors | March 12, 2013 - 02:52 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: VLIW4, trinity, Richland, piledriver, notebook, mobile, hd 8000, APU, amd, A10-5750
The differences between Richland and Trinity are not earth shattering but there are certainly some refinements implemented by AMD in the A10-5750. One very noticeable one is support for DDR3-1866 as well as better power management for both the CPU and GPU; with new temperature balancing algorithms and measurement the ability to balance the load properly has increased from Trinity. Many AMD users will be more interested in the GPU portion of the die than the CPU, as that is where AMD actually has as lead on Intel and this particular chip contains the HD8650G, with clocks of 720MHz boost and 533MHz base and increase from the previous generation of 35 and 37MHz respectively. You can read more about the other three models that will be released over at The Tech Report.
"AMD has formally introduced the first members of its Richland APU family. We have the goods on the chips and Richland's new power management tech, which combines temperature-based inputs with bottleneck-aware clock boosting."
Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
- AMD Richland APU Preview: Trinity Gets a Facelift @ Hardware Canucks
- 2013 AMD Mobile APU (Richland) @ Bjorn3D
- Westmere-EP to Sandy Bridge-EP: The Scientist Potential Upgrade @ AnandTech
- AMD Phenom II X4 955, Phenom II X4 960T, Phenom II X6 1075T and Intel Pentium G2120, Core i3-3220, Core i5-3330 @ ixbt.com
- AMD FX-8350 @ iXBT Labs
- The new Opteron 6300: Finally Tested! @ AnandTech
- Intel Core i5-3570K vs. i7-3770K Ivy Bridge @ techPowerUp
AMD Exposes Richland
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.
PC Perspective Upcoming Events
|
