AMD Brazos platform tested - The E350 APU review [Guru3D.com]

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AMD Fusion is here the APU has been born. In this article we'll have a closer look at the Brazos platform with in specific the AMD E-350 APU a processor and GPU all in one .For prices hovering in the...

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dopus · 02-11-2011, 10:36 | posts: 7 | Location: Europe

The most important question if u are gone use that setup in a HTPC, does it support bitstreaming of HD audio like DTS HD Master and Dolby TrueHD over HDMI. I allready have a netbook with the Intel Atom/Nvidia Ion combo, and that combo does not support HD audio bitstreaming over HDMI.

Hilbert Hagedoorn · 02-11-2011, 11:26 | posts: 17,252 | Location: Guru3D testlab

Quote:

Originally Posted by dopus

The most important question if u are gone use that setup in a HTPC, does it support bitstreaming of HD audio like DTS HD Master and Dolby TrueHD over HDMI. I allready have a netbook with the Intel Atom/Nvidia Ion combo, and that combo does not support HD audio bitstreaming over HDMI.

Yes, bitstreaming both TrueHD and DTS-HD MA are supported over HDMI.

robert1990 · 02-11-2011, 12:22 | posts: 734 | Location: Sydney/Indonesia

Wow, that's really interesting. You can do all multimedia tasks, with full support, still have some processing power left all in less than 50W. Really nice

sykozis · 02-11-2011, 12:42 | posts: 13,636 | Location: US East Coast

Looks good Hilbert....thanks for the great review.

Evildead666 · 02-11-2011, 13:09 | posts: 24

An 800W power supply wont be efficient enough running at below 50W to give you an accurate result of power consumption.

You should retry the Power consumption with a 50-90W PicoPSU, and update with those results.

Other than that little point, good review as usual Hilbert

randomizer · 02-11-2011, 13:29 | posts: 808 | Location: Australia,melbourne

Great review! Want one for fun!!!

Doug · 02-11-2011, 15:28 | posts: 4,812 | Location: UK

This Asus one looks good

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...board-graphics

sverek · 02-11-2011, 15:36 | posts: 1,067 | Location: Japan, Soka

What a pretty little fella. I like it. Best solution for gf's pc : P

Renegade8100 · 02-11-2011, 17:11 | posts: 4,842 | Location: jersey shore US (unfortunately)

aweee its so cute!

Phatzy · 02-11-2011, 18:20 | posts: 542 | Location: Manchester, uk

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug

This Asus one looks good

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...board-graphics

never seen that before onboard Anti Surge protection.

Gameslove · 02-11-2011, 18:47 | posts: 630 | Location: Latvia

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug

This Asus one looks good

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...board-graphics

Passive cooler here, not the best for bad airflow cases.

Thank you for review! Great! Sound interesting!

deltatux · 02-11-2011, 18:49 | posts: 18,946 | Location: Toronto, Canada

Looks good, maybe I should rebuild my HTPC with that... if I have the cash ofc.

deltatux

deltatux · 02-11-2011, 18:56 | posts: 18,946 | Location: Toronto, Canada

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gameslove

Passive cooler here, not the best for bad airflow cases.

At 18W, I highly doubt it will generate much heat... A lot of Atom CPU coolers are also passive so I think it's more than enough.

deltatux

davetheshrew · 02-11-2011, 22:31 | posts: 4,091 | Location: where shrews live

with the ram running at 9-9-9-24 surely that must of hampered performance? If I remember low end rigs correctly they benefit greatly from tighter timings, am I right? nice review btw

Exodite · 02-11-2011, 22:45 | posts: 1,628 | Location: Luleå, Sweden

Quote:

Originally Posted by davetheshrew

with the ram running at 9-9-9-24 surely that must of hampered performance? If I remember low end rigs correctly they benefit greatly from tighter timings, am I right?

It's been a good, long while since memory timings (or bandwidth for that matter) had any noticeable impact on performance.

Unless you run SuperPi for a living.

sykozis · 02-11-2011, 23:13 | posts: 13,636 | Location: US East Coast

^ +1

Low-end systems don't focus on performance....so the impact of CL9 vs CL8 is negligible. Most people that will build systems using these processors aren't going to be running benchmarks and most multimedia applications aren't heavily impacted by memory timings anymore.

HeavyHemi · 02-12-2011, 00:27 | posts: 3,111 | Location: Wooing whilst wearing only socks.

I'm nitpicking but there is no such interface called SATA-600

http://www.serialata.org/documents/S...-FAQ-FINAL.pdf

TriGGlety · 02-12-2011, 02:28 | posts: 414 | Location: United Kingdom

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guru3D News

AMD Fusion is here the APU has been born. In this article we'll have a closer look at the Brazos platform with in specific the AMD E-350 APU a processor and GPU all in one .For prices hovering in the...

More...

I kinda like Guru 3d now.

So boring with Anadtech these last few years, with these silly reviews for those silly little hand held devices. Its a yawnathon.
Dont me wrong Anadtech writes dam thourough reviews. But those silly little hand held, lap tops, palm tops, dick tops, fingers tops. ipad, itwat, ipops,
doing my head in.

Guru 3D is about proper PC tech.

ZoranICS · 02-13-2011, 01:27 | posts: 1

Perhaps you should re-test power usage with a sub 200W PSU to get closer to real figures as the minimum suggested load for a switching PSU is 20% - that means 160W on your 800W model. Below that the efficiency drops to miserable levels. No wonder your tested consumption is so high as you do not even cross the 5% mark. That is a real torture for the PSU. Nice review though, I am considering to purchase one of these.

luresky · 03-06-2011, 05:09 | posts: 1

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hilbert Hagedoorn

Yes, bitstreaming both TrueHD and DTS-HD MA are supported over HDMI.

Would you please tell me whether c-50 can support TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio through HDMI port?

Chillin · 03-06-2011, 08:58 | posts: 6,041 | Location: Chilling

Seriously disappointed with the power consumption figures.

Modern Realtek 10xx/11xx chipsets use less than 5W under load and can do 90% of what you plan to do with an HTPC (Movies, music,, pictures, NAS share, web browser, etc.). Netbooks are on the decline due to tablets and their increased computing power (Tegra 2, etc).

I don't see any appeal to this E350 for the most part, it seems like a solution without a problem (or a product without a market).

deltatux · 03-06-2011, 19:51 | posts: 18,946 | Location: Toronto, Canada

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brute Force

Seriously disappointed with the power consumption figures.

Modern Realtek 10xx/11xx chipsets use less than 5W under load and can do 90% of what you plan to do with an HTPC (Movies, music,, pictures, NAS share, web browser, etc.). Netbooks are on the decline due to tablets and their increased computing power (Tegra 2, etc).

I don't see any appeal to this E350 for the most part, it seems like a solution without a problem (or a product without a market).

Issue is that those are ARM processors, there are some operations that are still best performed by x86 CPUs, maybe within the next 5 years ARM will totally overrun x86 in this regards especially with Microsoft putting Windows 8 on to the ARM.

deltatux

Chillin · 03-06-2011, 20:52 | posts: 6,041 | Location: Chilling

Quote:

Originally Posted by deltatux

Issue is that those are ARM processors, there are some operations that are still best performed by x86 CPUs, maybe within the next 5 years ARM will totally overrun x86 in this regards especially with Microsoft putting Windows 8 on to the ARM.

deltatux

But you have to remember the target audience for these chips, they are not looking to doing those operations "best performed by X86 CPUs" (CISC). The target audience couldn't care about the difference between CISC and RISC, all they care about is their web browser popping up to look at facebook.

Remember, we are talking about notebooks, tablets and HTPCs here. All the people want when they buy a notebook/tablet is to surf the internet, listen to music and watch the occasional HD video. All of which can be done for less than 5W these days with Realtek, Sigma, ARM, Tegra, etc.

VIA is about to launch the EDEN X2 which has X86-64 at less than 3.5W!:

Quote:

The Eden X2 (dual core) uses a superscalar design with out-of-order execution and is compatible with 64-bit instructions; it also includes VIA's VT virtualisation instructions and the VIA AES Security Engine for hardware-based data encryption.

This chip, unfortunately, is lacking an audience in my mind.

deltatux · 03-06-2011, 21:01 | posts: 18,946 | Location: Toronto, Canada

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brute Force

But you have to remember the target audience for these chips, they are not looking to doing those operations "best performed by X86 CPUs" (CISC). The target audience couldn't care about the difference between CISC and RISC, all they care about is their web browser popping up to look at facebook.

Remember, we are talking about notebooks, tablets and HTPCs here. All the people want when they buy a notebook/tablet is to surf the internet, listen to music and watch the occasional HD video. All of which can be done for less than 5W these days with Realtek, Sigma, ARM, Tegra, etc.

That is true, but a lot of boxes are unfortunately Windows centric. As much as I hate to admit it, there's no good Linux solutions for TV recording with a nice interface. The interface for Linux looks like they were slapped together as an afterthought.

That's the only reason I'm still using Windows Media Center for these things. For the masses, HTPC for recording are also Windows centric, so until Windows 8, we'd be still stuck with these x86 processors. I'm already waiting for an ARM based microATX board with Windows 8 for my next HTPC rehash.

Probably a Qualcomm + Adreno would do me well

. Of course, need TV tuner support else I'm stuck with x86.

deltatux