Upcoming AMD Fusion APU’s will require more RAM

Posted on Jan 1, 2012 in News | 0 comments

Modern AMD Fusion Brazos and Llano hybrid chips give good balance between the CPU productivity and integrated graphics efficiency. However, PC makers and buyers have to pay more attention to RAM volume they are going to install. These chips are rather dependent on RAM speed, in particular the 4-core Llano. This problem is expected to worsen when Trinity chips will appear at market, being produced in order to replace the Llano.

Nowadays AMD APU line consists of basic level Brazos solutions and the Llano family, marketed as medium level ones. The first ones offer a combination of power efficient dual core with basic level graphics, while the second boast with up to 4 Athlon II cores and Radeon 6500 series graphics.

Lacking the L3 cache-memory Llano chips are quite demanding for memory: user gets an appreciable speed-up using RAM modules with smaller delays for CPU and greater frequency for throughput increase. It is possible to receive a 20 % gain in productivity if you change the DDR3-1333 CL7 for DDR3-1866 CL8.
Trinity chip is expected to be equipped with improved Bulldozer cores, code name Piledriver, which should increase CPU-productivity by 20 % compared to Llano. Trinity cores also will possess 50 % more powerful graphics than Llano, predicted to be built-in and even more closely connected with CPU Llano. As a result, the requirements for RAM will significantly increase due to the fact that this new processor will be still based on the 2-channel controller.
VR-Zone resource assumes the DDR3-2400 CL10 to be the most suitable RAM for these novelties. . In future AMD may feel a need to integrate the L3 cache-memory and increase the number of DDR-memory channels in order to lower the throughput restriction.

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