AMD A8 3850 APU Processor Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2012-05-07
·
1,156 words · ~5 min read
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So today I'm going to be doing an unboxing of a kind of package I've never
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really received before. This is from AMD and it is a an FPP sample program kit.
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Nothing on the outside of the packaging besides that label on the front. So
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let's go ahead and get it opened up. So here we see some information about AMD's
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Lano or their Fusion APUs. We have the
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AMD A4, A6, and A8. So these are all
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APUs. That means they have a CPU and a GPU component on the same package of
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varying performance levels. So let's go ahead and keep opening it up. This is
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kind of a throwback color. Reminds me of the Athlon 64. That was the uh the
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orange packaging color that they used for that particular processor in the AMD
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logo. So, first let's see what AMD has to say for themselves. A discrete
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graphics experience without the cost of an additional component plus support for
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DirectX11 optimizations. This is a much bigger deal than you'd think because
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sure, a low-end discrete graphics card isn't going to run all the latest
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DirectX11 games at high details and 2560
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x600 resolution, but you do get support for things like direct compute where
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your GPU on the CPU can actually assist
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it with certain uh functionality. All right, dual graphics boosts visual
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performance up to 75%. So, what's dual graphics? Dual graphics is similar to
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what we used to call hybrid crossfire where the chipset had a GPU on it and
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then that could work with an uh a standalone PCIe graphics card. So in
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this case some of the lower-end AMD graphics cards are actually capable of
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working in what they call now dual graphics mode to improve the performance
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in DirectX10 and DirectX11 titles by using them together. Next, we have
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multi-core processing with up to four high performance cores, plus AMD turbo
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core technology for optimized performance where it's needed most. So,
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multi-core processing, what that means is we've got
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uh up to four CPU cores on here that are
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each slightly more efficient than an older Athlon uh X2 or Athlon
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2X4, sorry, Athlon 2X4. So, the older
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Athlon cores, these A4, A6, and A8 cores
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are slightly more efficient, especially the A8s because they do have the best
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onboard graphics as well as a little bit more cash or certain other higherend
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features compared to the other ones. So, what else we got in here? We have an AMD
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mug that says, "This is charming." IART
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APU. All right. We've got a shirt, which is probably a large. Oh,
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it's an extra large. So, obviously it's not going to fit me, but it has uh some
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kind of explosion on it. I am the first.
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Okay. And then we have piece of paper. Let's see. Yep.
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Saying what's in here. There's an S2 heat sink. No, we don't want to look at
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this necessarily. And then let's see if there's anything else in here that might
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be interesting. That's pretty much it. There's a copy of of this as well. And
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then we also have a motherboard inside.
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So why don't we make this the unboxing for the A8 APU as well. I'm going to do
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this motherboard separately. This is a socket FM1 motherboard to go with a
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socket FM1 APU. Now FM1 is different
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from the AM2 AM3 family of processor
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sockets. So you do need a new motherboard in order to take advantage
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of an APU. So, let's go ahead and see what AMD has to say for themselves. On
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the outside of the CPU box, you can combine it with DirectX11 graphics
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cards. These ones, 6450, 6570, as well
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as the 6670. Okay. On the back, we see the
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usual spiel. Okay. Unrivaled DirectX11 support. Revolutionary APU. Harnesses
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the power of unrivaled discrete level AMD Radeon HD graphics. Small energy
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efficient design. Yes, that's one of the things that's actually really cool about
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the APU design. is that the idle power consumption
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compared to its closest competitor from the blue side is actually significantly
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better due to the fact that they've taken away so many components by
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building the graphics chip right onto the CPU at a very highly integrated
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level. So, let's have a look at the heat sink. And I think you guys are going to
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be quite surprised to see the heat sink for this new AMD socket.
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There you have it. It looks just like a heat sink for any other AMD socket from
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like the last 6 years or so. Uh going
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all the way back to uh socket 754 where
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you've got the two clips on either side. Okay, you got some fins, you got a
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copper slug. What that means is that you can actually use your old heat sink
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solution as long as it's rated for a TDP up to 100 watts. Remember, these do have
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a graphics chip on them as well, so they kick out a little bit more heat than a
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standalone CPU would. So that's why the higher TDP, even though the overall
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system power consumption will still be very, very low. So you can use any
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properly rated heat sink that was compatible with like pretty much
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realistically if you still own it and it's still high performance, you can use
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it on your APU. Very cool. Oh, it has a
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PWM fan in case you guys were wondering. So, that's a four pin fan. And next, we
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have uh some kind of paper documentation showing different sockets. Okay, I
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haven't seen a socket FM1 yet, but I will soon. So, I'll be telling you guys
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all about that in my motherboard unboxings. I'm going to do a few FM1
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motherboards. And there it is. There is the A8 3800 series APU. So, it looks
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pretty much like any other AMD chip from the last little while. Oo, the pin
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pattern though, that is noticeably different. And you can see actually, oh,
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cool. Look at that. So, it has a dot here marking it. It has the usual
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triangle marking this one. And then it has a dot on the other side and no dot
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here. So, my guess is that that's going to be a lot to do with making sure it's
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oriented correctly in the motherboard socket. Last but not least, we have an
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AMD Vision sticker, which you can put on your case. So, thank you for checking
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out my unboxing of the AMD first APU.
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Don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, and
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