Recently AnandTech got their hands on the A8-3850 and put it through its paces with benchmark tests, in CPU tests the A8-3850 performed well, however sometimes struggled to keep up with the Intel Core i3 2100, you can see the benchmark results here. In the Cinebench R10 – Multi-Threaded, x264 HD, and 7-zip benchmarks the A8-3850 outperformed all of the competition, however the Core i3 2100 outdone AMD’s APU in six out of the 10 benchmarks, we were also surprised to see that at times the A8-3850 failed to outdo the AMD Athlon II X4 635.

When it comes to the APU’s GPU performance the results are pretty impressive, you can see lots of the benchmark results here, however please remember that what we are looking at are the AMD A8-3850 (Radeon HD 6550D) results vs. the Intel Core i5 2500K (2372 drivers) as these both feature integrated GPUs, whilst the others are paired with separate GPUs. Out of the 11 comparative GPU benchmarks the A8-3850 outperforms the i5 2500K in 8 of the tests, AnandTech say that more CPU intensive games such as Starcraft II and Dragon Age prefer the Sandy Bridge offering.

In the wrap up AnandTech say that Llano should suit those of you who are looking to buy an entry-level gaming PC, we just wonder whether people are that worried about saving a few dollars which they would have spent on a separate graphics card. One thing in Llano’s favor is the fact that it fits in with the smaller, faster less and power consumption mentality which technology seems to thrive on today, it certainly shows that AMD are headed in the right direction.

If you are considering purchasing an AMD Llano APU we must tell you that these APUs use a new socket called FM1, we expect to see more and more motherboards featuring this socket soon, one thing which is worth noting is that existing socket-AM3 coolers will be compatible with FM1 motherboards, this may come in handy if you have already bought an expensive cooler.

We have embedded a couple of photos of the pin layout and FM1 socket below. Do you think that new Llano APUs will take off?

Full specifications are unknown, however after translating 4Gamers’ article and looking at the photos it looks like it features 1 x Dual Link DVI-I output along with 4 x Mini Display Ports, also there appears to be a CrossFire connector, in terms of power input you will need a spare 8-pin and 6-pin PCI express power connector.

The 6990 is pretty large, it measures in at roughly 300mm and will take up two slots on the back of your case (see below), the lower of the two slots will be used for ventilation, which is not uncommon for a card of this calibre.

If you check out this link you can see 4Gamers’ article which includes quite a few photos of the AMD Radeon HD 6990 graphics card, however all of the writing is in Japanese.

Hopefully soon we will find out more about this graphics card, when we do we will keep you up-to-date with all of the relevant information, I wonder how it will do in benchmark tests….

The photos are not amazing, however at least let us see what ports etc we can expect when the cards are launched, both cards feature 2 x DVI outputs, 1 x full-size HDMI out and 2 x Mini DisplayPort jacks.

As these cards offer such great performance they need some extra power input, the 6850 requires 1 x 6-pin power input, whereas the 6870 requires 2 x 6-pin power inputs.

If you are looking to buy one of these cards they will become available from October 22nd, check out the source link below for larger photos.

Will you buy either of these graphics cards?

Source: SlashGear

These new cards utilize variants of the 40nm Barts chip, despite being regarded as mid-end cards they pretty much match Radeon’s previous high-end cards in terms of performance. You can see a spec comparison chart below, as you can see in some regards the HD 5870 is still superior, however let’s not forget that this is a $350-$400 card, whereas the 6770 is expected to retail at roughly $250.

The fact that Radeon can get this performance at a relatively low cost makes you wonder what they have in store for us with the HD 5870′s successor, we have previously briefly spoke about the HD 6970, which should arrive in December, I wonder how this card will compare to the HD 5870.

Source: Engadget