AMD A8 3870K APU Gaming Media Centre

AMD A8 3870K APU

Not to be outdone by new graphics releases AMD is going back to the APU Processor drawing board with its new AMD A8 3870K.

While its flagship Bulldozer FX processors are failing to shine, AMD has a chip that at the other end of the market really ought be cleaning up. Its LIano Fusion APUs, which combine a multi-core CPU and a Radeon graphics chipset all into one die, are actually rather good low-cost gaming chips.

They may be based on older processor architecture, but quad-core examples such as this AMD A8 3870K hold their own against Intel's similarly priced dual-core Core i3 processors in CPU benchmarks.

When it comes to 3D tasks such as gaming, the on-board AMD Radeon HD 6550D is simply in a different league to Intel's laggardly HD Graphics 3000 cores. The on-board graphics in the AMD offerings are capable of gaming with decent settings at decent resolutions.

Trinity: Dodge this

And if you've ever tried working with Intel's onboard graphics to get any of your contemporary games running adequately, you will know that's not something that you could ever pin on its pixel-pumping silicon. How could they get better? We'd like chunky price drop, but that's not going to happen.

There are plans afoot for the Trinity APUs to hit the shelves sometime in the summer. These will combine the latest Bulldozer FX technology (itself a refresh codenamed Piledriver) as well as Radeon HD 7000 series graphics technology on die.

Not to be outdone by new graphics releases AMD is going back to the APU Processor drawing board with its new AMD A8 3870K.These APUs could potentially sit happily at the  heart of a serious gaming rig, but they are not ready yet and so, what have we got to tide us over?

AMD has refreshed its LIano lineup and introduced 'Black Editions' of the chips, recognizable by their 'K' suffix. Just like Intel chips with a 'K' monitor, they come with an unlcoked multiplier, which makes them more suitable for overclocking enthusiasts.

Now, you might think that anyone who wants to overclock a chip will be looking at something a little more high-end than these very basic processors, but the entire raison d'etre for overclocking is to turn something cheap into an unexpected powerhouse. An unlocked, gaming-capable hybrid chip for just over Euro 100 sounds like the stuff hardware hackers' dreams are made of. But does it deliver on that promise?

OC ready?

A stock AMD A8 3870K APU ships with its CPU set at 3GHz and the graphics core clocked at 800MHz. Attempt to increase these weren't exactly stellar - it ramped straight up to 3.4GHz/800MHz, but any attemps to go further were frustratingly unstable.

Wit more fine-tuning and a really good CPU cooler, have seen reports of much higher clockspeeds, but are not overly convinced that it's ultimately worth it for the performance.

Perky APU

It's shame really considering that we managed to get the original 2.9GHz A8 3850 up to 3.7GHz with mimial fuss. The difference between motherboard technology seems to be vital to getting anywhere near the top speeds from AMD A8 3870K APUs.

Additionally, it's unlikely that motherboard manufacturers are going to get behind this particular platform with any high-end boards that are full of good, stable overclocking features, because potential purchasers just aren't going to spend the extra they will cost to make.

Still, since the AMD A8 3870K APU is already available for less than its non-tweakable predecessor, the A8 3850, the unlocked multiplier is more of a pleasant extra to have. And if you do your research you should be able to find a motherboard, such as the Asus F1A75-V Pro, that will make use of the unlocked multiplier.

But even if our dream of overclocking one of these  APUs to outperform an Intel Core i7 isn't going to happen the AMD A8 3870K APU is still a great little chip.

The CPU part of Liano however, was never in much doubt. Based on the same architecture as Athlon II and Phenom II with a die shrink, it's old but still capable.

Because it has four native cores it outperforms and Intel Core i3 in tasks such as media rendering, although Intel's computational engine is still superior in games - even if its graphics lags far behind.

For a workplace system, then, the AMD A8 3870K APU is an exceptional choice, and it'ss beat a similarly priced Core i3 system at everything. It gets a bit more complicated if you're after a budget system that game at 1080p - to use as a media centre, for example.

Mix 'n' match

Even overclocked, the AMD A8 3870K APU alone isn't an alternative to discrete graphics - although it does come very close if you're willing to sacrifice graphics quality, Battle Field 3, for example, is close to being playable at 1,920 x 1,080 with low image quality settings. Which are still bloody good looking. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim at similar settings runs like dream.

If you're thinking of adding in a mid-range graphics card, such as the Radeon HD 6870 or even something as powerful as Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560 Ti, though, Intel just wins though - although it's a draw in games that are CPU limited, such as Total War: Shogun 2 and Skyrim.

AMD's architecture does have the curious disadvantage of performing slower in CPU benchmarks when discrete graphics are attached too.

But that leaves one feature that we haven't discussed yet which brings us down in favor of AMD. That feature is Asymmetrical CrossFire, which is the ability to use both the AMD A8 3870K APU graphics and a low-power GPU, such as an AMD HD 6670, for a gaming experience that's capable of playing most games at 1080p with medium settings. That's a hell of a thing in AMD's favor.

Enough that while it's not going to be our chip of choice for a workstation or enthusiast games rig, if you want a small, low-cost PC which is capable of playing occasional games at console quality, it's a steal.

The potential to overclock is a bonus, but really not enough by itself to make us favor this chip over any other quad core LIano. Where it comes into its own is as either a flexible platform for a quad core office machine or as a capable gamer PC with Asymmetric CrossFire.

Vital Statistics
Price AMD A8 3870K $193 approx.
Manufacturer AMD
Core speed 3GHz
Cores 4
L2 cache 4MB
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6550D
GPU speed 600MHz
GPU cores 400
Socket FMI

Sandy Bridge E Core i7 3960X fastest consumer CPU ever released

Intel has had its own way in the high-end desktop CPU market for a couple of years but, since the six-core i7-980X and i7-990X, it hasn't released any Extreme Edition chips to tempt tweakers. That's all changed with the arrival of the second generation Core i7 chips, it X79 chipset and LGA201 socket.

The three-chip range, also known as Sandy Bridge E, is topped of by the Core i7 3960X - a 3.3GHz monster that delivers six cores (servicing twelve threads) of processing grunt. One step down is the i7-3930K, which has six cores running 100MHz slower, and those on tighter budgets will have to settle for the i7-3820, which is slated for release in Autumn. It will be cheaper still and, despite a higher stock speed of 3.6GHz, it will "only" have four cores.

So, what makes Intel's new chips worthy of the Second Generation name? There's nothing revolutionary here - the underlying 32nm architecture is unchanged over the previous generation - but a range of improvements to key features promises to boost performance in a variety of ways.

Turbo Boost 2 has been, well, boosted. Whereas the last generation of Sandy Bridge chips saw the high-end Core i7-2600K gaining up to 400MHz across a single active core, the new Core i7 3960X can add 600MHz. If all six cores are active, you'll get an extra 300MHz of juice per core - an improvement over the additional 100MHz the i7-2600K provided.

There's more L3 cache on offer, too: the older Sandy Bridge chips have a maximum of 8MB, but that's almost doubled to 15MB on the top-end i7-3960X, with 12MB and 10MB available on the two lesser processors.

Intel Sandy Bridge E Chipset Changes

The new processors are also around twice the size of older Sandy Bridge chips, and Intel has developed a new socket - dubbed LGA 2011 - to house them. The new motherboards built around this socket have a new high-end chipset, too: x79.

One of the big changes introduced with the X79 chipset can be found either side of the socket: two banks of four DIMMs. They're indicative that the X79 chipset can handle a massive 64GB of quad-channel RAM - so that's more gigabytes and more bandwidth than we've ever seen on a consumer systems, with Intel's own calculations claiming a maximum bandwidth of 51.2GH/sec.

A couple of other chipset features are designed to entice enthusiasts. PCI Express 3 support is unofficially included, even if graphics card haven't yet arrived that will take advantage of the increased bandwidth on offer (Intel informed than PCI-E 3 isn't validated because of the lack of expansion cards to test with). There are 40 PCI Express lanes, so you can run two high-end graphics cards at full x16 speed - a boon, as older chipsets restricted two PCI Express x16 slots to half their normal speed, bottlenecking the most expensive GPUs.

It's worth bearing in mind that other areas haven't been improved with such gusto, although with support for only two SATA 6Gbps sockets included. Motherboard manufacturer's, it seems, will still have to rely on proprietary controllers if more are required. There is also still no USB 3 support, so third party controllers continue to be important for connectivity as well.

Intel Sandy Bridge E Performance

That's the theory, then, and we can confirm the i7 3960X - in test rig consisting of 8GB of quad-channel G.Skill Ripjaws-Z RAM, an AMD Radeon HD 5550, and a Samsung Spinpoint F3 hard disk - is very swift indeed. Its score of 1.12 in application benchmarks is an improvement on the 1 scored by the i7 2600K and, when the six cores flex their muscles, it's faster still, with the i7 3960X delivering a superb result of 1.23. For power, test rig idled at a reasonable 97W. Running the Prime 95 stress test on the chip saw a peak power consumption rise to 234W.

Sandy Bridge E Core i7 3960x Pricing

So how much is all of this raw horsepower going to cost? The answer is: a lot. You'll have to hand over $1,250 for the Core i7 3960Xon its own, with between $260 and $540 set aside for an LGA 2011 motherboard. That's an incredibly expensive upgrade. The i7-3930K is a marginally more tempting buy at $659, but even then you'll still need to fork out for a new motherboard.

Given how fast the original K-edition i7 CPUs are, can't see anyone but the most enthusiastic of tweakers and high end workstation builders stumping up the cash, at least while prices remain this high. But there's no denying the world-beating power on offer, and that Intel has extended its lead at the top of the heap yet again AMD must be sweating.

Key Specs 
Price Core i7 3960X - $1,249 approx
Cores/threads 6/12
Clockspeed 3.30GHz  Memory Quad Channel
PCI-E 3 Support
Cache 15MB L3
130W TDP
Multiplier Unlocked
Socket 2011

	Core i7 3960X	Core i7-3930K	Core i7-3820
Frequency	3.3	3.2	3.6
Cores	6	5	4
Threads	12	12	8
Smart Cache	15MB	12MB	10MB
Memory Frequency	1.600MHz	1,600MHz	1,600MHz
Turbo Mode	2.0	2.0	2.0
Unlocked?	Yes	Yes	Yes
Socket	LGA 2011	LGA 2011	LGA 2011

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition High Performance Processor

AMD's shiny new Bolldozer FX processors have been released into the wild for some time now, so you might be wondering what this crusty old Phenom II processor is doing sullying this showcase of white-hot, high performance computing platforms.

Well, it all depends on pricing and product availability. We're not sure if AMD is still cranking out the Thuban processor dies that form the basis of the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition, though we believe that to be the case, if only or manufacturing server processors.

The Anti-Doze

Although it will take a while for the 1090T to be completely flushed from all those retail channels, supply is now somewhat sporadic. There's still a decent choice of retailers, but prices vary wildly. The best price we could find was around $176, while others are charging over $319.

At the lower price point, the 1090T looks very attractive. On a per-core basis, it easily has the measure of the new AMD FX chips. It's not even that far behind the top FX 8150 eight-core model in several of multi-threaded tests, like the Cinebench professional rendering benchmark. It would have been faster than the FX in nearly scenario.

Intriguingly, however, database query benchmark does demonstrate that the theoretical benefits of AMD's exotic new Bulldozer architecture can sometimes translate into real-world gains. The 1090T gets left trailing-and horribly.

Vital Statistics
Price $319 approx
Clockspeed 3.2GHz (3.6GHz Turbo)
Cores and threads 6 and 6
Cache 9MB
Process technology 45nm
TDP 125W
Socket AM3+

Intel Xeon 2687W High Performance Processor

Say hello to the real Sandy Bridge E, for it is this Xeon processor that truly reveals what Intel's ultimate 32nm technology is capable of. Up to a point, anyway.

Yes, the Core i7 3960X is an impostor - a cut-down shyster of a chip. Back when Intel launched the six-core 3960X, the decision to switch off two cores in the shiny new eight-core Sandy Bridge E die was all part of a balancing act. Intel had weighed up the conflict between clockspeed and cores, and decided that the best overall compromise was six cores at 3.3GHz with a little Turbo action on top.

Running eight cores would have meant a significant drop in clock speed and therefore compromising per-core performance. Even if opening out all eight cores would mean a big drop in the clocks with all cores heavily loaded, surely the whole point of Intel's Turbo technology is that the chip could still clock up when only a handful of cores were doing the heavy lifting?

Well, now the fastest eight-core Xeon iteration of precisely the same Sandy Bridge E processor die has arrived and the truth is out. The Xeon 2687W is rated at 3.1GHz, just 200MHz slower than the six-core Core i7 3960X. Thus, the 3960X runs just six percent faster while the Xeon 2687W has 33 percent more cores.

Core, Blimey

In fact, testing suggests the 2687W will run at 3.4GHz in pretty much any scenario save idling. At standard clockspeeds, it absolutely tears the 3960X a new one and fully delivers on the promise of an eight-core Sandy Bridge-based processor.

For the record, the 2687W doesn't just bring those extra cores to the table, it also ups the cache memory ante to fully 20MB. We can just about remember when 20MB was a healthy amount for system memory, much less on-chip CPU cache memory. Oh, and if you were wondering, the 2687W dropped straight into X79 test motherboard, in this case the Gigabyte X79-UD3, without so much as a BIOS update. Nice.

That's the good news, but the bad news comes in three flavors. First, the 2687W proves what we already suspected: Intel is sandbagging with Sandy Bridge E in Core i7 trim. The only reason there isn't an eight-core version is because Intel isn't under any pressure from AMD to deliver one.

Second, there's the minor matter of price. If you thought the 3960X was bad at around $1,270, it's hard to argue that the 2687W offers value at roughly double the price. Finally, there's the question of overclocking potential. Put simply, the 2687W doesn't overclock. The multipliers are locked and it falls over if you mess around with the base clock.

That's a problem, because the 3960X running at 4.5GHz matches the 2687W's performance in most (but not all) of the benchmarks. Of course, oveclocking isn't for everyone, but if it happens to be your bag, it turns out there's little point in paying more for those extras cores.

There's really very little point spending $2,382 for the 2687W's extra cores.

Vital Statistics
Price $2,382 approx
Clockspeed 3.1GHz (3.3GHz Turbo)
Cores and threads 8 and 16
Cache 20MB
Process technology 32nm
TDP 150W
Socket LGA 2011

CPU The Brains Budget Performance

In your search for hardware, start with the CPU. It can influence many other choices you make, such as finding a compatible motherboard, CPU cooler, or power supply.

Intel Core I5-2500K

($295)
Though the 3.3GHz Core i5-2500K is a quad-core processor, it lacks Intel's hyperthreading technology, so you won't see the eight virtual cores that you can otherwise expect from Intel's quad-core wares. It does offer Intel's Turbo Boost, which automatically overclocks the processor to 3.7GHz when applications demand it, provided that the CPU hasn't hit its maximum heat and power threasholds. You'll also get Intel's integrated graphics, which have greatly improved in the Sandy Bridge era.

You could spend less on another Intel CPU, such as the $164 3.1GHz Intel Core i3-2100. But ultimately the Core i5-2500K will net you superior performance and improve the longevity of your PC. The K on the model numbers means it's unlocked and ready to be overclocked, if you're feeling adventurous. (You want to build a PC that will last a long time, and overclocking is a nice way to eke out a bit more power a few years from now, if you're careful). The 2500K costs just $15 more than the standard locked CPU, however; if you have no intention of ever dabbling with your processor's frequencies, that's money you can save.

AMD FX-4100

($171)
To save cash, you could choose the new 3.6GHz FX-4100. This quad-core CPU sits at the bottom of AMD's recently launched Bulldozer line. It offer AMD's Turbo Core technology, which follows the same principles as Intel's Turbo Boost; When your CPU has a bit of thermal headroom, it will automatically overclock up to 3.8GHz, to give applications a bit more oomph.

The FX-4100 is unlocked. The Bulldozer line is generous with overclocking too; you can expect substantial CPU frequency gains with minimal effort. In real-world usage, this CPU isn't nearly as fast as Intel's Core i5-2500K, but given that it's half the price, you probably expected that.

Intel Core I7-2600K

($436)
If you're building a PC for gaming, video editing, or other CPU-intensive tasks, it is recommended going with the highest (reasonable) entry in Intel's Sandy Bridge line, the 3.4GHz Core i7-2600K. This quad-core processor is equipped with Intel's hyperthreading technology, which provides eight virtual threads for your applications to play with. The CPU includes Intel's Turbo Boost and integrated graphics technologies, as well. If your work (or play) is graphically intensive, however, it remains in your best interest to buy and install a proper discrete graphics card, even with a CPU this formidable.

However plenty of room in your performance-PC budget? Take a look at the Core i7-3930K, Intel's new Sandy Bridge Extreme Edition six-core processor. With hyperthreading, this CPU offer 12 virtual cores, and it delivers incomparable levels of performance. Note, though, that it's priced at $900 - which puts it out of the reach of most mortals - and that it requires a motherboard supporting the X79 chipset.

AMD FX-8150

($350)
If you prefer to stay on AMD's side, check out the FX-8150. Altough this processor currently resides at the top of the company's much anticipated Bulldozer line, in most situations it barely outperforms the Intel Core i5-2500K. It's very friendly to overclockers, however, allowing you to make substantial CPU frequency gains without stressing your machine's CPU cooler extensively.

Why choose an AMD processor if you're not planning to overclock? The FX-8150's price has fallen considerably since it launched, so buying this CPU would leave you with extra funds to save, or to splurge on pricier components elsewhere. And if you shop judiciously, AMD-ready motherboards tend to be a bit less expensive than their Intel counterparts.