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Llano has arrived
lowlylowlycook
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've been waiting for AMD's Llano processors to come out before replacing my old laptop. And not it seems that HP is the first to hit the market.
What is Llano? Basically it's the first CPU that comes with decent onboard 3D capability. Furthermore the onboard GPU can be crossfired with a discrete card, though this doesn't always lead to much better performance (or better performance at all).
Vs Intel's offerings it lacks CPU power but delivers much better gaming performance. Unlike older AMD CPUs power consumption is low so battery life can be good. It's also pretty cheap.
Anyway you can read more here, here or here.
The exciting thing about this kind of technology is that over time it should result in most computers being good enough to play modern games and not look terrible or have single digit framrates. That could give PC gaming a bit of a boost since it will expand the potential market.
Currently, I'm debating whether to buy the following laptop or whether I should wait a bit and maybe pick up something a bit smaller, maybe 13" or 14". On the other hand this seems like it would suit my needs pretty well (I have a desktop PC so it just needs to be able to keep me entertained while away from home) and it's a pretty nice deal especially since the screen is supposed to be top notch).
Color-- dark umber
Operating system-- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor-- AMD Quad-Core A8-3500M Accelerated Processor (2.4GHz/1.5GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
Graphics-- card 1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD Dual Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
Memory-- FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Hard drive-- 640GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Office software-- No Additional Office Software
Security software-- No additional security software
Primary battery-- 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery (standard) - Up to 5.5 hours of battery life +++
Display-- 15.6" diagonal Full HD HP Anti-glare LED Display (1920 x 1080)
Primary optical drive-- FREE Upgrade to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
Personalization-- HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
Networking-- 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R)
Keyboard-- Standard Keyboard
Total should be $777 after 30% off coupon.
What is Llano? Basically it's the first CPU that comes with decent onboard 3D capability. Furthermore the onboard GPU can be crossfired with a discrete card, though this doesn't always lead to much better performance (or better performance at all).
Vs Intel's offerings it lacks CPU power but delivers much better gaming performance. Unlike older AMD CPUs power consumption is low so battery life can be good. It's also pretty cheap.
Anyway you can read more here, here or here.
The exciting thing about this kind of technology is that over time it should result in most computers being good enough to play modern games and not look terrible or have single digit framrates. That could give PC gaming a bit of a boost since it will expand the potential market.
Currently, I'm debating whether to buy the following laptop or whether I should wait a bit and maybe pick up something a bit smaller, maybe 13" or 14". On the other hand this seems like it would suit my needs pretty well (I have a desktop PC so it just needs to be able to keep me entertained while away from home) and it's a pretty nice deal especially since the screen is supposed to be top notch).
Color-- dark umber
Operating system-- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor-- AMD Quad-Core A8-3500M Accelerated Processor (2.4GHz/1.5GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
Graphics-- card 1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD Dual Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
Memory-- FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Hard drive-- 640GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Office software-- No Additional Office Software
Security software-- No additional security software
Primary battery-- 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery (standard) - Up to 5.5 hours of battery life +++
Display-- 15.6" diagonal Full HD HP Anti-glare LED Display (1920 x 1080)
Primary optical drive-- FREE Upgrade to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
Personalization-- HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
Networking-- 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R)
Keyboard-- Standard Keyboard
Total should be $777 after 30% off coupon.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
lowlylowlycook on
0
Posts
What GPU are you getting with that configuration?
My big beef is that there aren't many laptops with Radeon 67XX which are the ones with DX11 support.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
I could be wrong, but I thought that the on-die GPU that comes with Llano is DX11 capable, and could actually run (some) games in DX11 mode. It seems to be on par with a middling/low end discrete card.
The really interesting thing about Fusion in general is that since the built-in GPU uses main memory, RAM speed actually matters again! I'm really excited about this - for years now its seemed that memory speed was irrelevant.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Got a good example?
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
You're right. The HP ProBook 4530s is about $500 online. That's insane. I guess I'm out of date on low-end i3 pricing. Whoa.
As the next post after you posted this showed, there are some phenomenal deals online. I've been shopping for a laptop for quite some time now as I need to make a purchase in August. Just do some looking around before you buy based on brand loyalty. I have yet to see an actual head to head performance comparison, but given how late to market AMD is, I would be very concerned about paying more for their new stuff.
Personally, I'm probably going with the 17.3" MSI sandy bridge laptops that just came out. Mostly because the one I'm looking at has 16gb ram and 1080p resolution which are two of the things I need for the very memory and processor intense program I need to be able to run (well, screen space is just ... I've seen my professor using a smaller laptop and it's hilariously awful).
Basically, looks like Llano is super low end for folks who have $400 for a complete system.
I'm kind of disappointed. I was hoping to see AMD at least pull even, so there can be some downward price pressure on Intel. If Bulldozer is as disappointing as this is, AMD might be driven out of the market entirely