TR Forums

So I am wondering if anyone has any details on the next desktop chipset for Trinity, and if there are any improvements over the A75?

I was going to build my mom a small desktop to replace her old one, there is a good deal on an Asus a75 pro uatx and 3870k combo ($200). This would far exceed her needs as the old 4600+ S939 does her fine now.

However the socket seems to be a dead end.

Since there is no firm data on CPU performance, GPU performance, new chipset (if not a rebrand) and power usage on desktop trinity vs llano. So I'm kinda on the fence.

Anyone have any info/suggestions?

Thanks

I haven't heard any talk about the new FM2 chipset, but I doubt much will change besides new pin layout to support Trinity APUs.

You can draw some predictions about desktop Trinity based on any mobilie Trinity reviews out there that include Llano. You can then extrapolate those percentage gains on top of current Llano desktop APUs.
Tech Report
Tomshardware
Anandtech

Trinity is a progressive step for AMD (not a game-changer), but you'll have to decide whether or not you want to wait until August to buy a desktop Trinity APU or if Llano is enough for your mom. Also, by that same time, dual core Ivy Bridge CPUs will be out and still be smothering AMD on the CPU performance front while starting to catch up in IGP performance with HD4000 graphics. It will all come down to pricing and her intended usage.

I wouldn't worry about the socket not being future proof.
How often do you upgrade your mom's CPU (just the CPU, not the whole system)?
Go with Llano, if she needs it now, otherwise I'd wait and see what ends up shipping.

sircharles32 wrote:

I wouldn't worry about the socket not being future proof.
How often do you upgrade your mom's CPU (just the CPU, not the whole system)?
Go with Llano, if she needs it now, otherwise I'd wait and see what ends up shipping.

Indeed. it's not like you can upgrade her S939 system now, either.

From leaked specifications, it seems that the two top Trinity APUs will be the A10-5800K and A10-5700.

The A10-5800K will have 4 cores (2 modules) @ 3.8 GHz base clock w/Turbo @ 4.2 GHz and a HD 7660D (384sp) @ 800 MHz. This part is rated @ 100 Watt.
The A10-5700 is quite similar, with 4 cores (2 modules) @ 3.4 GHz base clock w/Turbo @ 4.0 GHz and a HD 7660D (384sp) @ 760 MHz. This part is rated @ 65 Watt.

In my opinion, the A10-5800K will be ~15/20% faster then top Llanos on the CPU side and quite a lot better (>30%) on the GPU side. The A10-5700 will be somewhat slower, still faster then Llano.
As you can see, a relatively small CPU speed bump will cost the top Trinity part (A10-5800K) quite a bit on the power side: I think that the A10-5700 is the APU to go.

Regards.

Doesn't sound like she needs anything more powerful if she's fine with an old dual core Athlon.

I'd suggest hunting for a motherboard/RAM/CPU bundle that fits your budget and being done with it. An A4 or an A6 would still be a significant speed boost for now.

Save money on a CPU where performance isn't really vital to her, and use the savings to change up to an SSD. If it takes 15 seconds instead of 3 minutes to boot, that's probably the most noticeable upgrade you can make for her.