AMD 2013 A & E-Series Kabini and Temash APUs
CPU and System Level Performance
We didn't have many comparable notebooks on hand to match head-to-head with the Kabini-based test platform featured on the previous page, but we've pulled together some numbers from an Intel CloverTrail-based tablet and similarly-clocked Core i3-2377M to at least begin to paint of picture of where the AMD A4-5000 performance lands in comparison to some competing platforms. All of the machines were running Windows 8. Please note, the Core i3-2377M features integrated Intel HD 3000 series graphics. First up, some system level metrics with PCMark 7...
Up until a couple days ago, Futuremark's PCMark 7 was the latest version of the PCMark whole-system benchmarking suite (PCMark 8 was just released). It has updated application performance measurements targeted for Windows 7 (or newer) environments and uses newer metrics to gauge relative performance. Below is what Futuremark says is incorporated into the base PCMark suite and the Entertainment, Creativity, and Productivity suites--the four modules we have benchmark scores for you here.
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The PCMark test is a collection of workloads that measure system performance during typical desktop usage. This is the most important test since it returns the official PCMark score for the system
Storage
- Windows Defender
- Importing pictures
- Gaming
Video Playback and transcoding
Graphics
- DirectX 9
Image manipulation
Web browsing and decryptingThe Entertainment test is a collection of workloads that measure system performance in entertainment scenarios using mostly application workloads. Individual tests include recording, viewing, streaming and transcoding TV shows and movies, importing, organizing and browsing new music and several gaming related workloads. If the target system is not capable of running DirectX 10 workloads then those tests are skipped. At the end of the benchmark run the system is given an Entertainment test score.
The Creativity test contains a collection of workloads to measure the system performance in typical creativity scenarios. Individual tests include viewing, editing, transcoding and storing photos and videos. At the end of the benchmark run the system is given a Creativity test score.
The Productivity test is a collection of workloads that measure system performance in typical productivity scenarios. Individual workloads include loading web pages and using home office applications. At the end of the benchmark run the system is given a Productivity test score.
We left the Core i3 out of the mix here because the machine had 8GB of memory and a fast SSD--needless to say, it would have taken a clear lead here. With that said, the A4-5000 had no trouble dispatching the Atom Z2760, despite the Atom processor's significantly higher frequency.
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In our custom LAME MT MP3 encoding test, we convert a large WAV file to the MP3 format, which is a popular scenario that many end users work with on a day-to-day basis to provide portability and storage of their digital audio content. LAME is an open-source MP3 audio encoder that is used widely in a multitude of third party applications.
In this test, we created our own 223MB WAV file (a hallucinogenically-induced Grateful Dead jam) and converted it to the MP3 format using the multi-thread capable LAME MT application, in both single and multi-thread modes. Processing times are recorded below, listed in seconds. Shorter times equate to better performance.
The AMD A4-5000 finished well ahead of Atom in our audio encoding test as well, but the Core i3 had a clear advantage. Though the Jaguar cores used in Kabini offer higher IPC performance than AMD's previous-gen Bobcat low-power cores, clock-for-clock they can't keep pace with Intel's Core processors in terms of single-threaded performance.
Next up is Cinebench. Cinebench R11.5 is a 3D rendering performance test based on Cinema 4D from Maxon. Cinema 4D is a 3D rendering and animation suite used by animation houses and producers like Sony Animation and many others. It's very demanding of processor resources and is an excellent gauge of pure computational throughput. This is a multi-threaded, multi-processor aware benchmark that renders a photorealistic 3D scene (from the viral "No Keyframes" animation by AixSponza). This scene makes use of various algorithms to stress all available processor cores. The rate at which each test system was able to render the entire scene is represented in the graph below.
The quad-core A4-5000 is able to overtake the dual-core Core i3 here in the multi-threaded benchmark. And makes mincemeat of the Atom processor, but in terms of single-threaded performance, Intel still rules the roost.
