AMD Zambezi news, info, fans !

[-Boris-]

First indication:

AMD A8-3850
Radeon HD 6550D
100W
4
2.9GHz
400
600MHz


AMD A8-3800
Radeon HD 6550D
65W
4
2.4/2.7GHz
400
600MHz


TDP significant lower while the only constant is gpu resources and clockspeeds.

You know that you can't read TDPs like that? If one chip gets 66W and one gets 63W, the first will be labeled 100W and the other 65W.

second indications:

Reviews A8 3850. They include power figures. it is trading power draw blows with similar clocked 45nm x4 parts.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4476/amd-a83850-review/9
POwer draw figure cpu only is right where it is for gaming.

As I read it the GPU intensive load maxes out the TDP more than the CPU intensive load does.

Like i mentionned, that is the ideal situation, but the same is true for BD. Ideally on a good process BD would be far better than what they can do now with the current issues. Your hypotetical BD replacement with thuban cores in llano form would simply not do what on this process node what you would expect them to do.

And you are making bad conclusions. It's reasonable to believe that the modifications in the silicon and transistor types needed for a working GPU isn't optimal for a CPU. GPUs are generally made for low frequencies but higher density on the most power consuming circuits. The design desicions made to fit a working GPU might be bad for a CPU. Llano is not a good example of CPU performance on 32nm. If a Thuban on 45nm isn't to far behind BD then what would happen with a Thuban made on 32nm? It would be almost half the size of Bulldozer, and be capable of higher frequencies than the original Thuban. And still have room for optimizations. And if your theory is correct and 32nm is botched and worse than 45nm, then maybe AMD should stick to 45nm for a while.