AMD "Zacate" APU First Look: Hands On with the Brazos Platform Discussion

AMD was kind enough to give us behind-the-scenes access to their newest Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) which combines a low voltage CPU and a new powerful GPU onto a single piece of silicon. Should your next laptop have AMD inside? Keep reading to find out.

Read the full content of this Article: AMD "Zacate" APU First Look: Hands On with the Brazos Platform

Related Articles:

• AMD Unveils "Brazos" Platform for Notebooks and Netbooks

 

Thank you Jerry, I have been waiting for this test quite long . Good review, although I would rather seen 3DMark 2001 SE or 03 test instead of 06. I don't really trust 06. However I am downloading it to measure my latitude D630. If my heavy and thick latitude gives less score than the Zacate, I'll change for sure .

 

Ok, my Latitude D630 without over-clock the GPU made 1062 Score:laugh:. So the new AMD E-350 more than two times faster, which is pretty awesome . I cannot wait!!!

 

Other than 3DMark06 and the skewed numbers given by the SSD, performance seems very similar to a current AMD Nile platform with the K625/4225 combo. This may sound like an ignorant question, but what does Zacate do differently than Nile does already?

 

I think mainly it takes the separate CPU and GPU of Nile and puts them together on a single chip (APU) at a lower TDP and power draw.

 

power consumption.

 

You can see it compared to Nile in the TechReport review (the Toshiba therein is a Nile laptop with exactly your K625/4225 combo). Zacate CPU performance is inferior to Nile, but its GPU performance is much better. I would assume that since they got the process down to 40nm and the power usage seems low, the battery life will also be better, but no review I've seen so far has made a definitive statement on it.

 

The reason that no tech reporter is really going all out in favor or opposition of the Brazos platform is that there are too many unknowns until we start seeing actual production-level machines.

The engineering sample testbed shows some exciting results, but it's an engineering testbed of just one APU (the most powerful APU in this budget lineup).

AMD is making some impressive claims of total system idle power draw as low as 5W-6W during idle, battery life with standard 6-cell batteries in the 8-hour range, and much lower system temperatures than current AMD-based machines, but those details might change based on what the manufacturers actually do with the hardware in their notebooks.

Again, AMD reps say the production-level drivers that ship with Brazos-based notebooks will help produce even better performance in synthetic benchmarks and real-life tasks ... but tech journalists and the general public won't know that until production-level notebooks start shipping in January.

I'm somewhat excited (particularly about the gaming performance we're likely to see out of these notebooks priced at $500 or less) but I would describe my overall feeling about the Brazos platform as "cautiously optimistic."

 

Are there any plans for higher performer Fusion APUs in the near future? Zacate seems to be a little dissapointing based on benchies from the article.

 

Really excited about this.

Maybe instead of the updated X201 I will opt for the X100e refresh in the summer if these APUs bring enough battery life.

 

Yep. If you look at the AMD slide I included in the article you'll see that AMD has their "Sabine" platform (llano APU) planned for 2011 with higher performance to compete with the mobile Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs from Intel.

AMD just decided to get the APU ball rolling with the entry level chips since that is where the majority of laptop sales are focused.

 

Thanks for the review Jerry.

Zacate looks good enough to mean Intel can't completely ignore AMD in this market segment and that's the real benefit to consumers.

Besides Llano in mid-2011 there's plans for 1-4 core Bobcats on 28nm and Bulldozer based Trinity APU on 32nm in 2012.

 

Thanks for the benches Jerry. I'm very impressed by the performance, for an 18W TDP Atom competitor. I think I've definitely found my next system.

 

Too bad Ontario hasn't been benchmarked yet.

 

I kept pressuring AMD about Ontario while I was looking at the E-350. I suspect the raw computational power of the C-series Ontario APUs is "on par" with Atom and it's the graphics capabilities of the Ontario APUs that make them more attractive than Atom from a HD video standpoint.

I think that's the whole reason AMD decided to add the "HD Internet" category to the VISION performance tiers. I think there are a surprisingly large number of consumers who think Atom-based netbooks have "good enough" performance and only complain when they try to watch video-rich content or video-chat with someone else.

I suspect the C-series is going to be "Atom-like with better video playback capabilities." I can't blame AMD for wanting to use a higher-performance APU for the first public unveiling of the Brazos platform.

 

Thanks for providing the link! I hopped over to AT and after going over his numbers it does indeed seem that the CPU falls below a K325 while the GPU performance goes up by roughly 50%. I can always appreciate longer battery life, but it's weird that AMD would boost GPU muscle at the expense of CPU performance. Would it have been too hard to keep K625 performance levels and simply die-shrink Nile, perhaps creating a K625/6310 combo?

Reason I say this is because I find the K625/4225 a very balanced and useful combination. The CPU is a solid performer, multitasks nicely and handles 64-bit apps like a champ. Based on my tests, the 4225 even ran Crysis, and was efficient enough to run Civ 4 on battery for over 2.5 hours. True, Nile doesn't offer Pinetrail battery times, and Zacate addresses that point, but at the end of the day I've only gone ahead by taking a hit on the CPU. IMO a next-gen platform should not be worse in performance than it's predecessor.

HP's 11" dm1z is a very impressive device, and based on the numbers I've seen, I'd seriously consider hanging on to Nile. An extended battery combined with aggressive power management settings can get Nile to do battery numbers comparable to Zacate.

 

It is settled. over 2k 3dmarks and decent cpu performance for light work Im really thinking about an 11-12in with the zacate 350. I do love the idea of this in an x100e refresh (hopefully they will redo the keyboard too) or a dell business machine. I REALLY wish there will a 1600x900 screen option 11-12in, but Im fine with normal HD. Cant wait to see what these pan out too.

 

You can't just slap an IGP on to a CPU and call it a new architecture. They designed the APU/CPU from the ground up, whereas the K625 is based off the Athlon Neo/Turion Line, which, surprise, surprise, are meant for higher performance.

 

If you look at that Techreport benchmarks, you will see that Zacate performs on per with lower-end intel CULV chips -- it is much better than any Atom. Sure, it is nothing super-fast, but it is very impressive considering its very low price (on par with Atom, AFIAK) and low power usage. 400-500$ 11.6' with Zacate will be a winner. Finally a netbook that has decent speed!

 

Hopefully some brands will offer overcloking option on this platform. It's performance already impressive, but speed up the CPU to 2GHz and the GPU to 800MHz than it would a really kick little machine .

 

We were talking about the C-series Ontario APUs a few posts back, not the E-series Zacate APUs.

Keep in mind that the Brazos platform has four APUs (two lower-performance APUs designed for netbooks and possibly other mobile devices such as slate tablets and two higher-performance APUs designed for entry-level ultraportable and thin-and-light notebooks):

“Zacate” (18W max)

* AMD E-350 with AMD Radeon HD 6310 Graphics (dual-core CPU at 1.6GHz and dual DX-11 SIMDs at 500MHz) (NOTE: SIMD = 80x total Vision Engine nanocores for parallel computer capability and graphics)
* AMD E-240 with AMD Radeon HD 6310 Graphics (single-core CPU at 1.5GHz and dual DX-11 SIMDs at 500MHz)

“Ontario” (9W max)

* AMD C-50 with AMD Radeon HD 6250 Graphics (dual-core CPU at 1.0GHz and dual DX-11 SIMDs at 280MHz)
* AMD C-30 with AMD Radeon HD 6250 Graphics (single-core CPU at 1.2GHz and dual DX-11 SIMDs at 280MHz)

Zacate is ABSOLUTELY better than Atom. Changturkey was commenting about the Ontario APUs and I was responding about those. Sorry if there was any confusion. I don't want people to get these four different APUs mixed up ... or worse, assume that every Brazos-based notebook/netbook is using the E-350 APU.

 

I think you might have defended AMD's choices without realizing it.

At the end of the day one of the biggest problems AMD was facing with vendors (the notebook manufacturers) and consumers was battery life. Nile simply doesn't deliver the battery life that consumers can get from comparable Intel solutions.

Sure, you can "use aggressive power management settings" and underclock/undervolt the CPU and lower the screen brightness to the point that you have trouble seeing it, but most consumers won't do all that just to get better battery life.

As far as average consumers are concerned a notebook either has low power consumption out of the box and gets good battery life or it doesn't. AMD needs the Brazos platform to deliver strong battery life numbers. Yes, raw computational power is important, but battery life is the deal breaker right now.

 

Hm this got me more excited than the release of sandy bridge in 2011. (current mobile cpu's are strong enough for even the most demanding gamers in laptops).
I guess I can call myself lucky for being broke, otherwise I already would have bought some kind of netbook (like the asus 1215n) with ion, only to regret my purchase after a few months already.
Eventhough prices in Europe will still probably be around 500€ (compared to 400-500 dollars in the US, which is like 350-400€ , this will still give you quite a lot of power for a very reasonable price. Espeicllay if you need something small, portable, yet powerfull enough for youtube vids and moderate gaming to make your days in class more comfortable.

 

Up the clock speeds like that and the TDP will be 30W or more. Look at the difference between the Zacate and Ontario: they use the same exact 2 chips (one dual core, one single core), but the difference in clock speeds is enough to go from 9W to 18W.

 

I understand that, but this is the natural concomitant of overclocking. However overclocking a great performance/price APU is very economical.

 

The closest thing to a direct answer about overclocking that I've gotten from AMD is that AMD isn't "officially" supporting overclocking these Brazos APUs.

The Zacate and Ontario APUs are targeting entry-level systems and consumers looking for a general use laptop and overclocking isn't a big issue for the overwhelming majority about those people.

My AMD contact did say there is the technical possibility that notebook manufacturers might offer a BIOS option to overclock the APU. I assume he's talking about an overclocking option in the BIOS similar to what we saw in notebooks like the Alienware M11x R1.

 

The technical possibility is sounds good, little hope that some manufacturer will offer overclock option . Anyway Zacate APU is convinced me even it is overclockable or not. I look forward to get it .
Thank you for the information!

 

Doesn't AMD's Overdrive let you at least up the GPU frequency?

 

so these will be out around CES? Im really interested in getting one for school. and for some light gaming on the side, I was looking at the 1215N (Ion) but the powerplug turned me off, I hope AMD pulls it off on this one.

 

Acer is supposed to have an 11.6" out before the year is over, but who knows where it is...

 

Hopefully yes !

It's an old article, the first Fusion notebook is coming in January.

 

I hope that they pull it off too. I'm very excited about this segment and what the next gen will have to offer.

 

I'm still partial to waiting to see what Sandy Bridge brings to the table, but I think CES can't come soon enough

 

Acer adopts AMD CPU for tablet PCs

Just under the cost of an Atom D525....less than half the cost of an SU2300.

 

Ouch. That's gonna hurt Intel.

... Which of course can only mean good things for the consumer.

 

Not much. Notice that this is Ontario and not Zacate; judging by the clock speeds, the performance will be a lot worse. It will be competing with Oak Trail (the next Atom platform) and ARM's CPUs. It's bad news for ARM though -- AMD is moving into what has been ARM's territory up until now...

 

I know that. However, I doubt that Oak Trail will improve processing and graphics performance enough to really compete very well.

 

so they say these come out around the first week of January then?

 

I don't know who "they" are, but that's when those systems should be announced, at CES in January. Only the manufacturers know at this point when they will release those updated systems.