*HP dv6z AMD Llano (6XXX series) Owners Lounge*

First dv6z spotted in the wild:

HP - Pavilion Laptop / AMD A-Series Processor / 15.6" Display / 6GB Memory / 640GB Hard Drive - Dark Umber - dv6-6135dx

Model: dv6-6135dx
Processor: AMD A-Series
Processor Speed: 2.4GHz
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6750M

 

Hmmm. Not too up on the A-series from AMD. How do they stack against the i7?

 

A good bit better in gaming on integrated graphics (on par with the 5650M), a bit worse in everything else.

Here's an Anandtech review

 

I am wonder if dv4 also get AMD Radeon HD 6750M discrete graphics?
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I wonder if the AMD chip would have the same problems with gpu switching as the intel chips?

 

The A8-3500M has built in HD 6620G.
AMD Fusion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Switching would be dumb; Hybrid CrossFireX would be available with the Fusion GPU and a discrete AMD GPU.

 

A bit worse is an understatement.

If you plan on using integrated graphics llano is significantly better, if you plan on anything else then it's a piece of junk.

**not an intel fanboy, just telling it how it is

 

the intergrated gpu is much faster than sandybridges. but cpu performance is way behind. (2.4ghz is the turbo speed)

id hold off on llano till they get hybrid xfire to work in games, it actually looks very promising if it does

 

Wait I thought that Llano uses crossfire graphics instead of switchable graphics. They combine. Is that what this model does?

 

The Llano APU would be great for netbooks and tablets but for anything more than a "value" laptop it's terrible. Yes the Llano APU is better graphics wise than an i7+Intel HD but for processing power the i7 wins hands down no comparison.

 

It uses dynamic switching and crossfire simultaneously.

 

I sounds like there is some confusion...

The "Llano" APU has built in 6000 series GPU. To switch or have CrossFire a second discrete GPU is required. Without a separate discrete GPU there is, no switching, and there is no CrossFire.

So far I have not seen any "whitepaper" covering switching between the APU graphics and a discrete one, only the mention of Hybrid CrossFire.

AMD Accelerated Processors for Notebooks

 

I really do not understand what are you talking about, because these APU's are for laptops. LLano offers very good balanced performance, while I7 strong only on CPU side. Loading Word, Excel or IE you will hardly see the I7's extra processing power but whatever .

 

The quad-core APU's are going to offer near midrange Arrandale single-thread performance and SB multi-threaded performance, providing Turbo Core works like AMD says it will, with battery life higher than 90% of SB notebooks and AMD5650 level graphics for <$700. I would say that is pretty good "value"

 

That being as it may, this is not what I see in the machine linked in the original post. It's an $800 machine with a 1366x768 display, a 5400RPM hard drive and an "AMD A-Series 2.4GHz" processor. I actually have no idea what that processor is because none of the published Llano chips run at that frequency. It looks like they've taken the maximum Turbo speed which is incredibly misleading given what we've seen in reviews.

Deceptive advertising aside, at $800 this is simply not a good value. With a decent coupon, you can get a cheaper Intel-based dv6 which comes with a 7200RPM hard drive, a 6770M and, if you're patient enough to get a really good coupon, you might even be able to throw in a 1920x1080 display and still fit within the $800 (I mean the Select Edition, not the Quad one). If you're after a Llano dv6, wait until HP starts offering them directly and buy with a coupon.

 

For one, Best Buy is not know for their fair pricing of laptops. For example, for $830 they have this when the same thing from HP costs $200 less. I definitely agree that no one should buy this from Best Buy.

I also don't know if you noticed but the notebook has Bluray, which itself is a $100 upgrade. Thus, the same specs without Bluray will likely cost around $700 or less, as this Amazon Canada listing does, and something with the one of the two better APUs but no discrete graphics will probably cost about that as well.

We have had the Turbo Core discussion already and we just don't agree. I don't think AMD deceived us about it, I just think it was somehow bugged in the sample.

Edit: Looks like it is shipping

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...rformance&product_code=LW261UA#ABA&catLevel=2

The press release said they would show up in July but I wouldn't be surprised if HP makes all of their Llano-based notebooks available by the end of June.

 

This is not the same complaint. Best Buy is advertising it as a 2.4GHz CPU without any mention of the guaranteed clock speed. It would be like advertising the 2720QM as a 3.3GHz CPU without mentioning the fact that it can only hit that speed with a single core and even then needs good cooling to do so. It's an outright lie.

This is much more reasonable.

 

It's Best Buy. They are just trying to sell you stuff.

 

Clock speed is not an accurate measure of processors that are not in the same family.


A processor goes through a set of instructions to process something, how fast those instructions are went through is the clock speed.
Which would mean 2.4ghz > 2.3ghz and so on.
BUT
If one processors instructions are longer than another processor, clock speed becomes irrelevant.

ex.
If 2 processors were racing to count to 100 and one cpu (cpu1) counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...etc at a rate of 2 numbers per second
and
the second cpu (cpu2) counted every other number to get to 100 and counted 2 numbers every second (as in 2, 4 came in the same second) then cpu2 would be 4x as fast.


tl;dr clock speeds don't matter

 

That is correct, but it just reinforces his point. Not only do the Sandy Bridge CPUs run at higher clock speeds, but they also execute significantly more instructions per clock. This is part of what allows Sandy Bridge dual-core CPUs to be faster than Llano quad-cores even in perfectly threaded applications.

 

Prolly kind of off topic.....but are AMD ever gonna release there Bulldozer CPU's? I mean OEM's have been shipping mobo's for them for around 2mths. Reason I ask, is if we can see what Bulldozer can actually do, perhaps the second gen of Llano may actually be upto the task of taking on SB CPU's........Guess it would be just nice for AMD to come out with a competitive Mobile Chipset that isnt designed for the budget area. Producing low-powered under performing mobile CPU's is just a cop-out when u keep labelling them Budget CPU's in my mind

 

I wouldn't say that Llano is targeted towards the budget sector. It is more aimed at the mainstream. AMD has either given up trying to catch Intel in performance per clock or just can't. Either way, now they are just competing on lower prices, superior graphics and "good-enough" processor power. Whether you think that it is actually "good enough" is a matter of opinion but I think that most would agree that processing power has been "good enough" for the majority of users for a few years. The same can be said for the IGP that Intel offers as well. So, when a mainstream consumer see 2 notebooks that are both "good enough", will he buy the cheaper one or the more expensive one? That is where AMD is aiming.

I also wouldn't count on Bulldozer catching SB. I think that, clock-for-clock, it will fall somewhere between Nehalem and SB but be closer to Nehalem.

 

Just noticed that laptop linked in the OP is "on-sale" for $679.99.
So I imagine because it says it has a 6750 that you can have "Dual-GPU Crossfire" like what was linked in this article? AnandTech - The AMD Llano Notebook Review: Competing in the Mobile Market

(honestly only using it as a reference I know its not the same computer haha, I remember seeing a picture that showed the different fGPU id's and if you combined them with another dGPU it would make some other card name).

 

I'm taking the plunge and buying an AMD Llano laptop...even if it's from HP

HP DV6-6140CA 15.6" Notebook PC (Espresso Black): Amazon.ca: Electronics

Hopefully that's not false advertising and it really is a 35w A8-3500m

I can see Llano(Sabine) being used in inexpensive portables where Brazos just isn't strong enough. Dual/Quad core and good IGP graphics in the 11"-13" range

 

HP Pavilion dv6 and dv6z Quad Edition series | HP Official Store

Hi Llano.

 

Awesome ! Hope dv4 also available very soon with similar configuration .

 

Planning on ordering a dv6z in the next couple of days.

 

What discrete graphics card is in the dv6zqe?

it says Radeon HD graphics, there has to be a model?

 

By the way the deals are pretty damn good....in fact I might get this instead of the buggy dv6t

 

No llano dv4 yet, I'm hoping that they add the 6750m graphics option to both dv4 models.

 

The graphics are probably the 6750M

 

6400 series for 512MB, 6700 series for 1GB

Still an amazing deal if you don't mind a crap CPU component

 

Edit: I mean 6750 and 6770!

 

Thanks but do you know exactly what it is?

I might venture a guess and say 6490m for the 512mb and 6770m for the 1 GB?

Because those are the parts used in the dv6tqe.

 

IIRC the A8-3530MX has an integrated 6630m which shares with the system memory while the ddescrete 6770m has it's 1gb of GDDR5 memory by itself

 

according to anandtech

the A8-3530MX has a Radeon 6620G integrated chip.

The 6770m indeed has 1 GB or 2 GB GDDR5 memory, but is that what is offered by HP on the dv6zqe?

 

Dunno, I wish HP would list the model numbers instead of just the memory size.

 

I think they just haven't gotten around to putting it up yet. It should be listed soon.

 

I might just drop my m15x if this is cheap enough.

 

Well gents I just purchased this laptop from bestbuy as it was on sale for $679.00

It does do the crossfire with the 6620g and the HD 6750m just haven't got a chance to install any games yet.

I'll report back soon

 

When you get a chance could you run some benchmarks with the IGP disabled so we can learn about Turbo Core? Downloading the new CPU-Z would be great as well, so we can see the speeds it is actually hitting.

Edit- I just noticed that it had Bluray as well. For $680, that is a pretty good deal. You didn't get the free Xbox with it, did you? I assume that when they say $699+, they mean before tax but you never know

 

any way you can see if the video card is overclockable? Try Sapphire Trixx or MSI Afterburner

 

Only $680? That's an amazing price.

Can't wait for reviews to start coming in... This could be the new budget gaming champion.

 

PLEASE do some benchmarks with games!

Thanks!

 

No xbox for me (not a student) but I did get it for 679.99 out the door (Tax exempt business card).

I'm downloading some steam games now while I uninstall all the HP Bloatware.

Forgive my ignorance but when you say but what does disable IGP mean?

 

Nevermind, quick google search for disable IGP gave me what I needed. Stand by for some benchmarks.

 

Awesome. Thanks. $680 out the door is a heck of the deal for what you get.

 

do you guys think that returning my dv6t and ordering the dv6z ,going to be a good move?

 

You may save some money for somewhat worse performance

pretty much depends on how valuable your $ is to you

 

If you customize to similar specs, you'll save like $200. However, there are no coupons for the dv6z so you might end up paying only slightly less than what you paid for the dv6t, which offers significantly stronger CPU performance.

And if you buy from Best Buy, you'll lose out on the high res screen and probably some other features.

Not worth the hassle and money getting the dv6z if you already have the dv6t, imo.