Memory Benchmarks – AIDA64 and SiSoft Sandra
AIDA64 Engineer
AIDA64 Engineer is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for engineers. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. Memory and cache benchmarks are available to analyze system RAM bandwidth and latency. Download here.
In memory we see a significant improvement going from Llano to Trinity & Richland but with Kaveri memory actually drops off by quite a lot. In the field of memory there is no obvious improvement to see.
SiSoft Sandra
The SiSoft Sandra memory benchmark is based on STREAM. STREAM is a popular memory bandwidth benchmark that has been used on personal computers to super computers. It measures sustained memory bandwidth not burst or peak. Therefore, the results may be lower than those of other benchmarks. Download a free trial version of SiSoft Sandra here.
SiSoft’s memory test shows something similar, memory performance has stagnated or got even worse. AMD really need to work on their IMC given how their new HSA technology invests lots of technology into the system memory, if the system memory performance is declining then this is going to be a flawed strategy.
Memory Latency – AIDA64 & SiSoft Combined Results
Memory latency showed a boost going from Llano to Trinity to Ricland but then a horrible decline with Kaveri. Again this is something that doesn’t seem right – we have moved forward three generations but gone backwards in memory performance. Fortunately these synthetic memory benchmarks have only a very small bearing on “real-world performance”.
For laptops which are often used without connection to a power supply, I think the iGPU will be great if you need it often (and a better solution for a long lasting battery than a discrete GPU and also for the life of the system by having less heat output). For browsing/office tasks though, the strong Intel CPU’s (i5 and i7) might have the edge since they’ll soundly win the race to idle.
I’d probably prefer the Core i7 with Iris Pro there, despite the much higher price 🙂
This review would be a bit more believable if a current low end i5 was added. But that would hurt Intel’s performance.
So many reviewers are afraid to upset Intel and would rather give the internet public half the story instead.
1) It isn’t a review. 2) We have no issues with upsetting Intel or any other hardware vendor if that’s what the results of objective testing cause. 3) It isn’t possible to test everything, this is about the progression of the APU, the other processors are just in there for a bit of background and relativity. This is not an Intel vs AMD article but great job for trying to make it one.
You say: ‘It isn’t possible to test everything.’ Yes that’s true, but not only have you not included a low end i5 but you haven’t included any i5’s at all. It sound’s like you went to a lot of trouble to find an i5. The biggest loser here is credibility (Intel say’s thankyou once again) of this review and the consumer.
Not at all. If i remove the Intel results from the review it doesn’t add anything. I don’t think any credibility is lost here, especially as I’ve said numerous times we’re not comparing the APUs to the i7, they are just extra results we had that provide interesting context. Of course you’re entitled to your opinion so if you feel this review has no credibility then you’re welcome to that opinion. Should I manage to come across an i5 I may update the graphs at a later date.
Sad to see no worthy improvements on the CPU side of things reason why no one is taking their APU’s seriously its almost just a gimmick to hide their god awful CPU performance that is still around a Llano CPU. At least their GPU was improved doesn’t seem like Amd learned their lessons either since next design is rumored to also have many cores and that probably means low single threaded performance yet again.
The best thing at Amd is hope i guess with Jim keller and their wins on the consoles as well as moving into the Arm market for servers.
Also to be fair this review should of used 2133 ram on the APU’s that supported it.