The Ultimate AMD Trinity Notebook List

If Jaguar turns out to indeed improve on E-450/E2-1800 by 15% (and come in a 11-13 chassis) then I think we have found our defacto ultra budget gaming system.

 

True, and it will come with 4 cores meaning it will destroy bobcat, better instructions and GCN GPU, which might even outperform low end A4 APUs.

Now lets wait for Jaguar powered tablets/convertibles.

 

Speaking of such things, FWIW here are a few notes on the budget HP G4-2235dx at bestbuy for 399, sporting the A6-4400M
with the help of one of their guys who knew the credentials to get past all the interference they put on those things, we did a few routine things to let me see how it performs
- the display, as expected, looks like every other cheap display out there. not terrible, not dull, but unremarkable
- its clunky - spec says 4.8lb - if felt every bit of that without the battery to me. stodgy, boxy
- keyboard is typical hp. touchpad works well.
- I don't know what shape windows 8 was in, but it looked about like it does on my own systems minus the customization
- so, we cleared the clutter and ran WEI afresh. I was surprised.... I really thought it would come in the mid-5's overall but it registered low denominator of 4.8 on aero/desktop.
6.2 on gaming graphics
My thinkpad x120e E-350 is at 5.7 on gaming graphics with an older driver [time to update to the 12.10] and my tank/lab-mule old P4 system with a $50 Radeon 5570 card comes in at 6.7 under Windows 8 Enterprise.... that is with the latest stable drivers.
yawn.
- 720p graphics, which is all the display will support, was smooth and lively - no issues despite a flaky network

so there you have it.... rush right out and buy one. me? I'll pass

I hate to sound like a traitor here guys, but is there a thread any of you know about that would give me the shortlist of decent Ivy B systems with Radeon 7xxx GPU's ????? that's where I'm headed for lack of a USA better option

:hi2:

 

hey I just got this computer Hp G4-2149se at walmart is exactly same thing at bestbuy G4-2235dx inside process and graphic chip, only difference mine run windows 7.

is not clunky at all and mine can run 1080p file without any problem.

yeah the screen can be better.

 

There was a nice quad core IB laptop on sale by hp before windows 8 came out and it had a 3D screen with glasses included i believe and had HD7850m in it, i think it was 40% off back then and came in at only $1199 or something, but that's past now, even though its possible to be up again on Black Friday. The only bad thing about it was it was 17'' so quite heavy, but it was an Envy model back then(which was better than now since they made pavilion laptops into envy) so it should have had good build quality for something that expensive

 

I say this because Google turned up these model numbers each with a different APU. I don't know what markets these are for but the model numbers exist. That is all.

A10-4655M (Radeon 7620G) - U38N-C4009P
A8-4555M (Radeon 7600G) - U38N-C4010H
A6-4455M (Radeon 7500G) - U38N-C4013H
....................................... - U38N-C4011H
A8-4555M (Radeon 7600G) - U38DT-R3001H

I'm excited because it sets a new standard for ultrathin ultraportable Trinity notebooks (it sets a new standard for AMD notebooks period!). On the other hand its quite sad that this is the "best" so far. Its just "weird and odd" that Trinity is not being properly implemented when the chips themselves are plenty good for the the majority of consumers. I don't know who's fault it is (OEM's, AMD's, or Intel's, consumer's, etc.) but the situation at hand is getting old and tiring. Consumers such as ourselves have taken notice and we demand answers! I agree, vote with your wallets everyone.

Also, I don't know for sure if the discrete GPU in the U38D is going to be the Radeon 7550M, but that is my "best guess." Currently, there is no such thing as a "Radeon 8550M" so maybe whoever created the Amazon ad typed an "8" instead of a "7" by mistake. Again, this is just me speculating and we won't know for sure until Asus releases the U38.

You think that's crazy? My friend actually plays Minecraft on an Asus EEEPC (Atom N260) sometimes when his brother doesn't let him use his (1st Gen Core i3) ThinkPad Edge. He uses both of these computers to play Minecraft. But of course all the eye candy has to be turned off and even then things are not very smooth. For sure, everyone has different tolerance levels of gaming.

Jaguar is looking very promising indeed. It will definitely be the "defacto ultra low budget gaming system" for many.

=========================================================================================

FYI, Asus has updated the U38N specifications page with " 13.3" 16:9 Full HD (1920x1080) Non-Glare LCD Panel" instead of the old "1366x768 anti-glare panel" description we all saw before. There are still too many unanswered questions and a lot of confusing contradicting data regarding this ultraportable.

EDIT1: Looks like news about the U38D (dGPU) is out! Google "U38DT" and you will find a few sites talking about this model, along with the U38N.

http://liliputing.com/2012/11/asus-vivobook-u38dt-ultraportable-notebook-with-amd-cpu-discrete-graphics.html

http://ultrabooknews.com/2012/11/14/amd-based-vivobook-u38dt-offers-next-gen-graphics/

http://ultrabooknews.com/database/ASUS/VivoBook%20U38DT

 

we need a conspiracy viz asus to grab a load of these and import them to the usa

 

Asus released the ultimate ultrabook, quad core, raid ssd, backlit keyboard, ips screen and 650MGT :

Test Asus Zenbook UX51VZ (U500VZ) Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

Beast. But ultra expensive and temps are a bit too high for my taste.

 

A bit unrelated since it doesn't have a Trinity APU.
But it is a beast, that much is true.

 

Newegg.com - Acer Aspire V3-551G-8454 Notebook AMD A-Series A8-4500M(1.90GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi AMD Radeon HD 7670M
has none of what we're talking about : ordinary display, too big, but a good deal.
look at the reviews [only 5] - the only reason its not a solid 5 is one doa. doa's I don't mind... they're easily dealt with.
stays cool even under pressure
crossfire well-implemented
they say its light [for its size]

Other thought: where's HTW? Could this possibly unseat the reigning budget-gamer king K53TA ????

 

yeah sorry it just makes me sad to see a 35W cpu + 45W gpu in a such thin notebook while still no 35W A10-4600M only ultrabooks...

 

That's a nice package there for $500. You might be right about this being the new budget-gamer laptop king.

The Asus K55N from best buy with the A8-4500M was/is $400 but this Acer adds the 7670M. So is that extra $100 worth it for the crossfire 7670M (and other minor differences)?

Yup, makes us all sad. We sound like broken records. When will these oems figure this out?


Sent from my SPH-M580 using Tapatalk

 

the Acer is cr*p like most of the A10 laptops available. It throttles like hell so what's the point of buying that if we don't get full perf out of an already "average" apu ?

Review Acer Aspire V3-551G-10468G50Makk Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Worst i've seen is the A10 toshiba tested also by notebookcheck. The thing throttles all the time without any reason. Temps are under 70°C. LOL

Trinity has to be the worst implemented tech ever. The only A10 lap i've seen that doesn't throttle for sure is this Lenovo :

Review Lenovo IdeaPad Z585 Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

I agree..And technically AMD has a big advantage with Dual-Graphics tech as Intel nor Nvida are doing this at the moment. What I noticed from the Acer review was that Dual-Graphics showed a + 20% improvement in game frame rates. Some times less resulting in lower frame rates and or micro stuttering. Driver support needs to be pushed to the max so that this advantages is utilized to the fullest. Kinda like the whole Enduro issues as of recently. This is the first time I've seen AMD push so many 12.11 X Beta releases in a while (they should do this to Dual-Graphics).

 

Radeon HD 7660G 384@497 - turbo 686MHz/ 7670m @600mhz

"The two GPUs operated at 335 MHz, but were known to jump up to 500 MHz/685 MHz for a second"

I know these reduced clocks are the results of both prime95 and furmark combined but still, we can't really know how will be the real behavior during long gaming sessions. It gives you the cpu part that throttles at 1,8ghz instead of 2,3ghz (i think the 2,7 ghz doesn't even show up) and both gpus running at 335mhz...All that combined is a huge loss of perf. Trinity is already not that powerfull, so imo it shouldn't be allowed to throttle. It would be nice to see the 7660G always running at max turbo (686mhz) like nvidia gpus, because a fluctuating gpu clock is a pain in the a*s to get a regular framerate, not to mention cpu. It would really shine that way. Of course, it requires a decent cooling system...but it shouldn't be that hard, it's only a 35W part. I mean my 650M gt always runs at full turbo despite having a very average cooling system (shared fan with weak small heatsinks) and never go above 65°C...And it is supposed to be a 45W part. So i really think OEMs show some kind of unwillingness when it comes to Trinity implementing.

Yep 20% but compared to the 7660G apu alone...But i'm pretty sure that's not really better than a lap that have only a 7670m on board...Haha.
Edit: There is indeed a huge gain of perf in Deus ex over a lone 7670m but it doesn't seem to be the case for most of the games. Maybe last drivers will fix that...but it's hard to have a clear view cause there aren't many reviews update about Trinity crossfire.

 

What's even more funny is that while Intel is advertising a "long term solution" to embedded and mobile platforms. By rolling out Haswell, which really is a composite of existing tech with tiny refinements -- it's not going to actually give us any sort of real power-reduction on the chips they will put out there. It's going to stay at the same level as now. They're not going to present power-gating solutions, there won't be on-die controllers, or a removal of the motherboard. There won't be longer instruction words, there won't be a revision of power-saving techniques based on bursts of performance before idling the entire computer as quickly as possible afterwards, etc.

And while they're doing that, AMD has a package operating a full desktop with reasonably good 3d acceleration in around 25-35w on normal to heavy loads. While idling down to as little as 2-4w.

And of course, no vendors will dare to bet on something that intel didn't do first.

It's just the way the industry works. Same old, same old. I swear, if in 2050, we're going to get the first nano-machine constructed chips -- and intel didn't do it first. Then it's going to take an extra 20 years before consumer platforms will have the tech. Anandtech will acknowledge the existence of the tech once an insider from Intel indirectly suggests the technology exists in a whitepaper outlining their own future tech.

Which a lot of people will think makes anandtech really clever. It'll just keep going.

 

I don't want to buy anything Intel because I hate the way they do business, last thing we need is a monopoly and of course 95% of people have no idea about this and buy a laptop just because it say's Intel inside. Also because their graphics (especially drivers) suck! And it's sad that OEMs follow that trend just to keep their costs down

 

endless circle.

 

Office Depot has HP Pavilion dv6-7138us on sale for only $465.93, though right now it's out of stock.

HP Pavilion dv6 7138us Laptop Computer With 156 Screen And Next Gen AMD Quad Core A10 Accelerated Processorc by Office Depot

That's some sick deal, no wonder it is out of stock.

 

Asus K55N with A8-4500M $380 @ Best Buy
Asus - K Series 15.6" Laptop - 4GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive - Matte Light Indigo - K55N-BA8094C

Lenovo IdeaPad Z585 with A10-4600M $500 (after coupon) @ tigerdirect
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4840047&CatId=4935&SRCCODE=LINKSHARE&cm_mmc_o=-ddCjC1bELltzywCjC-d2CjCdwwp&AffiliateID=kmZjHBYatgE-iRwM8VQ0mru3ZMUSI5HgWg

Edit1: Hm, U38N will have the 1080p touch ips display and just apu while the U38DT won't have the premium display but instead have the GCN Radeon 8550M. Tough choice.

ASUS VivoBook U38DT Ultrabook Pops Up with Radeon HD 8550M Graphics

Edit2: And more on the 8550M
AMD Radeon HD 8000 Graphics Surface in ASUS VivoBook Ultrabook
http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-Radeon-HD-8000-Graphics-Surface-in-ASUS-VivvoBook-Ultrabook-308139.shtml

 

Why is it always one or the other? They really can't put a 1080p screen in the same machine as the 8550m? Heck 1600x900 would be great.

 

Wasn't the original speculation that they both have 1080p IPS but the one U38N has a touchscreen and the D is non-touch?

Maybe I missed a post, but I didn't see anything in what davidricardo posted that defied that speculation, as long as you assume that his "premium" = "touchscreen"

 

I understood that there was a mistake on the website and that the notebook would come with a 1080p display. I guess we will have to wait and see.

 

I always thought that the U38D was a 1366X768 since there was no indication at all leading to a FHD panel.

 

The 8550M is probably a rebrand in order to work in hybrid crossfire ?
Anyway, the asus vivo will be severely cpu limited i guess.

 

Backside of the S405 motherboard fully removed in image below. No indication of a RAM slot anywhere.

Spoiler

Also installed an 8GB CAS 10 @ 1600MHz module in there and at 1333MHz it was also showing CAS 5 and ran through 3DMark benches just fine but no improvements in results.

 

ATTENTION: Great news everyone! Anyone who is interested in the Asus U38N, please take some time to visit this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/695333-asus-vivobook-u38n-2.html#post8952545


MikeTLB (fortunately) has a U38N sample in his hands for the next 2-3 days and he's takinng questions, requests, etc. etc.

His quick unboxing of the U38N:



Since some of the little details are still not confirmed and its still very confusing as all I can say is that this choice to make two models doesn't really make it easy for those who will buy the U38. I won't jump to conclusions until Asus officially releases more information or someone like MikeTLB helps us get to the bottom of all of this. All we know is they've gone ahead and made two models (U38N/U38D) but you're stuck choosing between what is essentially a "premium" display or the Radeon 8550M:

U38N - 1920x1080 IPS Touch "Premium" Panel + APU

U38DT - 1366x768 "non-IPS and probably non-touch" Panel ( although some sites say "touchscreen") + APU + Radeon 8550M

Whether the Radeon 8550M is a rebrand or not, it hasn't been confirmed. However, some believe its not just a rebrand and its actually a brand new 28nm GCN part. We'll have to wait for more details.

 

You are really taking apart that little machine to find out everything . However the CAS 5 have to be some misreading by programs, I just cannot believe...

 

that K55n has some nasty hate mail in the reviews.... yikes. not so with the other, but then there aren't many reviews either.

 

It seems that Asus is repeating the strategy they followed with the Zenbook UX31/32. Offer the Full HD version with integrated graphics and the 1366x768 with the dedicated GPU. I don't believe it's anything against AMD but just their way of "restricting" the users to the optimal resolution at which the dedicated GPU presents decent framerates.

This is a very compelling device for the price considering that the equivalent Asus UX31 with the Intel Core i5 costs 1000$-1100$. If this notebook comes without any serious flaws and with decent quality control it can change the perception people have about AMD notebooks.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Generally, if presented with two options, a gamer's going to get the notebook with discrete graphics and a non-gamer will skip those. The graphics solution in either iteration of this notebook is insufficient for most gaming over 1366x768, so they're ensuring that gamers buying this notebook are forced into a resolution that provides better graphics performance.

If you ask me, though, that kind of designing for the lowest common denominator (the person who gets an underpowered machine like this for gaming and doesn't know to drop the resolution himself) is extremely detrimental. If I were offered a choice between the two notebooks, with the only differences being a fraction more weight and a bigger adapter on the D version, I'd go discrete, but choosing between 1080p touchscreen IPS and 768p non-touch TN negates a low-end dGPU about a dozen times over. If ASUS trusted the consumer to tick the right resolution box in their games, the U38D could simply be a U38N with some extra GPU oomph. Instead it's a rather poor excuse.

 

Did anyone else catch the APU in the U38N he's got? He looks at the Windows system screen to prove to us watchers it's an AMD platform and says there, it's a A10-4655.

Good job Asus.

 

I have been looking for a new laptop of late, and am also dissapointed in the selection for AMD A10-4600M. Although, I am pretty set on the HP ProBook 6475b B5P19UT. I was fully expecting to wait until next year, for a Kaveri APU, but Kaveri seems to be off the table at this point, Piledriver extended in mobile and desktop, except with a GCN GPU update. If anyone knows differently about Steamroller for mobile APUs please correct me.

The HP 6475b is the 14" with A10-4600M, 8GB RAM, 1600x900 LED backlit display, 500GB 7200rpm HDD, ect...and 3 year warranty for $829.

Now what threw a wrench in my plans was seeing the MSI GX60. 15.6" gaming machine. Some of the A10 reviews may seem to be CPU limited when gaming, but if you offload the GPU business then the CPU cores can turbo away to 3.2Ghz. So that should have some impressive benchmarks with the HD7970 dGPU.

Considering the AOEO or older AOE games I occasionally play will max out on the A10-4600M I am still leaning to the HP mobile business notebook with 3 year warranty. You pay more for the warranty and less bloatware. That is a "smart buy" preconfigured item though. You cannot configure them for less than $1000 it seems even with the 25% coupon, but this one is fully loaded for $829.

I am just wondering if anyone knows what type of RAM HP uses? I bet they all use CL 11 RAM with AMD stuff, but to get max performance you need the CL 9 RAM.

And now I see the Asus coming out, and wonder if the dGPU will be able to pair with the older VLIW4 APU. Trinity cannot pair with a GCN dGPU, but the lower end dGPU were still VLIW4 I believe so there may be crossfire potential.

 

I heard that also and was quite surprised since he said it was a pre-release model (also i think the retail version will look different as the colors in the unboxing don't match with the images on ASUS's website) sadly my screen is 1440X900 so it looks worse in 1080p than in 720p so i couldn't see the numbers clearly for the system info but it looked like A10 judging by the width of the text and the only models we have heard so far about are the A8 versions.

 

Good luck with the A10 hitting 3.2GHz, it rarely does so and it only happens if one of the modules(2 cores) are power gated and even worse it fluctuates and doesn't stay there for more than a sec, although for two cores it never drops below 2.7GHz under CPU only loads. It also spends a lot of time at 2.7GHz with all cores active in CPU intensive loads as long as the iGPU is not in turbo mode.
And about crossfire, dual graphics only works with VLIW5 GPUs as there are no mobile VLIW4 parts and it doesn't work with GCN at all since its a completely different architecture.

 

But have you seen it with the iGPU in idle mode all together? Not using those cores at all, while instead using a dGPU?

And when Trinity is updated to Richland or whatever with GCN cores, then I suspect it will hybrid xfire to GCN dGPU.

 

MSI GX60 is hardly a good representative of Trinity tech. It's a high-end gaming GPU paired with a cheap CPU to save money, even though this limits the potential of the GPU. The fact that the CPU is an APU is a potential selling point to AMD fanboys, but it's basically just a cost-cutter.

The Probook you mentioned is one of the better Trinity notebooks on the thinner and lighter end of the spectrum as far as providing some nice features when compared to your normal bargain-bin rubbish notebooks.

Naturally, the U38N is a game-changer, though. It's shaping up to be several steps above any APU-based notebook in the thin-and-light category that AMD should be dominating if they could only motivate OEM's to design and customers to buy.

 

I don't see it that way. You dont want to be running without integrated graphics. You need switching graphics to preserve battery life. So might as well have the APU, and its the best one they have. And do you know the CPU will hold the dGPU back? Have we benchmarks showing an A10 bottlenecking games when using a dGPU?

There are some games that are more CPU intensive, but others that it wont even be a factor.

It seems even recent bios updates may help utilize the full turbo capability.

 

Well to begin with this thread has some info on turbo for A10 and A8 APUs: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-pavilion-notebooks/670976-hp-pavilion-dv6z-7000-amd-a10-4600m-trinity-review.html

And i just noticed that there was a bios update that actually improved turbo so it now hits 3.2GHz for up to 7 sec, and they already tried running only discrete GPU before the update with no luck so check it out.
And here is the page with the new posts about the update,although i think that update was only for HP DV6Z-7XXX
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-pavilion-notebooks/670976-hp-pavilion-dv6z-7000-amd-a10-4600m-trinity-review-28.html

 

See this: AnandTech - AMD A10-5800K & A8-5600K Review: Trinity on the Desktop, Part 2

It's the desktop Trinity even and using only a desktop 5870 and it performs worse than a desktop i3 in Metro 2033, DiRT 3, Crysis Warhead, and Civ V.

The A10 mobile is much less powerful than the desktop A10 or A8 and the 7970m is a lot more powerful than the desktop 5870. So it's not too hard to extrapolate.

That's exactly what I meant in my earlier post of why is it one or the other? At worse case make a third version with the best of all worlds: dedicated GPU *AND* 1080p IPS touch. Why restrict them? That would be the ultimate laptop that I would easily pay $1000 for.

 

There is/was a thread (in the gaming forum?) about the MSI GX60 that indicated that it benchmarked notably lower than 7970m's in Intel notebooks, even on the graphics scores of benchmarks like 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark11. There was more to that discussion, and I haven't seen it in a few weeks, but the two most prominent arguments were that it was a silly pairing because the APU bottlenecks the GPU and that it was a nice option because you could get a(n admittedly lower-performing) 7970m for cheaper than was previously available. In other words, all but the most die-hard supporters looked at the information and accepted that it was a bit of a mismatch. And as far as running on integrated graphics when not gaming, you can do the exact same on an Intel platform.

At the very least, wrt the post that I was originally responding to there, if you're considering the U38, a 14" Probook, or the GX60, and your gaming consists of Age of Empires and Age of Empires Online, you're probably best off skipping the big, heavy gaming laptop regardless of CPU or price.

 

Another S405 update. Here's two videos with a general overview and disassembling the machine. I am a horrible presenter and videographer and have a horrible cold at the moment, but whatever:

Lenovo S405 General Overview - YouTube

Lenovo S405 Disassembly - YouTube

 

there's good thought in this post.
thanks for the contribution Dragon!

just for the heck of it I priced out a hp envy dv6 with the 1080p screen and the basic A8 - no dedicated.... still awful pricey at 750...
I don't know what the rep is on that screen but if it is their 'brightview' 1080p it should be a win

 

All that I read was quite the opposite, everyone was enjoying great gaming with little CPU bottlenecking and there were one or two people that refused to believe it. So I am still not buying into the A10 is not good enough. It seemed pretty universal that if you had the resolution at 1080p the GPU was the limiting factor.

A vendor that sells the GX60 and i7 based machines with Nvidia's latest and greatest showed the two running neck and neck at 1080P in CPU intensive games. Lower resolution to 720P and the i7 based laptop had much better frame rates.

 

Did you see my earlier post? 1680x1050 resolution with desktop A10 vs Core i3, i5, i7 showed significantly less performance with Trinity vs. any of the other Intel CPU's, and that's with a desktop 5870. I can show you with an i5 mobile vs i7 mobile with a 680m the performance difference is there too.

 

When you show me a GX60 compared to the i7 with 680m next to each other, I will then care

 

Why? It's a very similar comparison. It doesn't take the exact hardware to make any kind of educated extrapolation. Show me benchmarks from a reliable source using the GX60 at 1080p and I'll be happy to run the exact same ones with my i7 quad and 680m. Send me a GX60 with an A10 and 7970m and I'll be happy to do the comparison.

 

OK you guys are going to far, I have heard that A10+7970m on average performs similar to a i7+670m where the AMD combo performs much better at graphics heavy games while it performs worse at ty games like WoW,

 

It's of course a complete coincidence that those stress-run benchmarks are heavily cpu-dependent (along with the crysis benchmark specifically favoring one core with high clock-speeds. While the average fps in the same games won't fall to anywhere near the "half rate" regardless of resolution and detail setting.

In Battlefield 3, for example, the difference between an i7, i3 and any amd offering over 2.3Ghz - on the same graphics card - is somewhere around 3-10% at worst. That might be significant for some people, but the idea that you get /half/ the performance in a game out of a Trinity cpu/apu on "high end" graphics cards is absurd.

This is something Anandtech is completely aware of, of course. But they specifically avoid telling the readers that in their tests.

 

But is not a comparison at all. The stuff you look at is meaningless to this discussion. They werent even rendering video, where the GPU will bottleneck!!!! If the GPU bottlenecks before the CPU who cares how much spare room you have on the CPU??? So your i7 is at 50% and my A10 is at 80% utilization, in the end do I care? And look at the benchmarks they chose, they are very specific game and resolution and which DX version. Do you think that they were trying to get the closest comparison, or the biggest difference????