The Desktop Kabini Review Part 1: AMD Athlon 5350 (AM1) Tested
by Ian Cutress on April 9, 2014 8:00 AM ESTThe Competition
It is no secret that AMD is attempting to fire a shot across Intel’s Bay Trail. The low power x86 desktop space is almost all AMD vs. Intel (VIA still produces x86 parts), and the socketed direction for AMD’s Kabini is a new approach in this area. The claim of low power, quad core and low cost is something that entry-level desktop integrators might find hard to ignore – in fact AMD have stated that the feedback from their Latin America integrators for an upgradeable Kabini solution is very good.
While we have not necessarily looked at Bay Trail from a desktop perspective, there are products on the market today. In the UK for example, it is easy enough to purchase an Intel Celeron J1800-based motherboard and have it shipped next-day delivery.
AMD considers the Athlon 5350/5150 parts (quad core, 2.05 GHz and 1.6 GHz) in line with Intel's Pentium J2850/J2900, and the Sempron 3850 with the J1850/J1900 - all Silvermont based SoCs. In fact, I think the 5350 vs the J1900 is a better fit:
AMD Athlon 5350 vs. Intel Celeron J1900 | ||||
Athlon 5350 | Celeron J1900 | |||
CPU Architecture | Jaguar | Silvermont | ||
CPU Cores | 4 | 4 | ||
CPU Frequency | 2.05 GHz |
2.0 GHz 2.4 GHz Turbo |
||
GPU Cores | 128 SPs | 4 EUs | ||
GPU Frequency | 600 MHz | 688 MHz | ||
Memory Interface | 1 x 64-bit | 2 x 64-bit | ||
Memory Frequency | 1600 MHz | 1333 MHz | ||
L2 Cache | 2 MB | 2 MB | ||
TDP | 25 W | 10 W | ||
Price | $55 | $82 |
The big issue that AMD will point out is the price of the J1900. One of AMD’s big selling points will be the price of an APU and a motherboard, which as we discussed earlier should stretch from $56 to $90 depending on the APU/motherboard. On ark.intel.com, Intel does list the tray price of the J1900 as $82, however you can find a motherboard with integrated J1900 at Newegg for $92. Now either the motherboard manufacturer is getting a good deal on the CPU below tray price (most likely), or Intel is subsiding the cost, or the tray price is incorrect. We can only speculate, but it does mean that the Athlon 5350 and J1900 square off in terms of cost.
For CPU core counts and frequency, the 5350 and J1900 are closely matched with both being quad core parts at ~2.0 GHz, although the J1900 can boost up to 2.4GHz. AMD likely holds the GPU advantage with its R3 graphics/Radeon HD 8400 compared to Intel's 4 EU HD Graphics. With the Athlon there is a higher supported memory frequency, but only a 64-bit wide memory interface. That might hamper the IGP in our testing, and provide memory limited benchmarks an easy ride on the J1900. There's a pretty substantial TDP difference between the two as well, with Intel holding the theoretical power advantage. Intel does make a 20W Silvermont based SKU, the Atom C2750, although that is an 8 core module aimed at servers and costs $171.
The Test
Our AM1 Kabini coverage will be in two parts due to time constraints. This first part of the review is to explain the ecosystem with some Athlon 5350 numbers to compare against other platforms including a couple of Bay Trail and older Intel parts. We aim to publish a second review next week with more numbers, specifically a wider range of Kabini APUs and the key battle of the 5350 against the J1900. We were unfortunate to not be able to source a J1900 in time for this launch.
Our main Kabini Test Setup is as follows:
Test Setup | |
CPU |
AMD Athlon 5350 Quad Core, 2.05 GHz |
Motherboard | GIGABYTE AM1M-S2H |
Memory | 2x4GB DDR3-1600 9-10-10 |
SSD | SF-2281 |
Power Supply | Antec High Current Pro 1200 |
Graphics | Integrated |
Graphics Drivers | 14.3 Beta |
For other platforms:
Test Setup | |||||
CPU | Motherboard | Platform |
Cores / Threads |
Frequency | IGP |
AMD A6-5200 |
ASRock IMB-A180-H |
Kabini | 4 | 2.0 GHz | HD 8400 |
Intel Celeron J1800 |
GIGABYTE J1800N-D2H |
Bay Trail | 2 | 2.4 GHz | HD (Ivy) |
Intel Atom C2750 |
ASRock C2750D4I |
Avoton | 8 | 2.4 GHz | None |
Intel Celeron G1101 |
MSI Big Bang Fuzion |
Nehalem | 2 | 2.3 GHz |
Not Tested no IGP outputs |
Intel Celeron G465 |
ASUS Maximus V Gene |
Sandy Bridge | 1 / 2 | 1.9 GHz | HD (Sandy) |
Intel Celeron G2030 |
ASUS Maximus V Gene |
Ivy Bridge | 2 | 3.0 GHz | HD (Ivy) |
Other results in this review were taken from our AMD Kaveri launch review.
126 Comments
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kyuu - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
Yeah I was going to say something about that. The article text and the graphs are not in agreement.kallogan - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
ground breaking new tech ! Wow !Alexey291 - Thursday, April 10, 2014 - link
wowsuch tech
much ground breaking
wow
evonitzer - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
In addition to what you are already planning to test, I would like to see some of the low end A4 or A6 APU's tested. They seem to be a blank spot for your reviews, making it tough to compare the cheap stuff against the previous generation. The A4's come with the same 2 CU GPU, but presumably better cpu performance, and are available pretty close to $50. Sure, they are higher TDP, but whatev.Anyway, interesting review. I'd be seriously tempted if I didn't just put together a cheap PC for my brother already. Maybe grandma can get a surprise upgrade ...
evonitzer - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
Oh hold on, there aren't any A4's or A6's available in Kaveri form, which means no GCN to be had for cheap. That's interesting. I wonder how much difference it makes on the low end. Well either way, the A4-6300 (and below) are still interesting to compare.Glory2God - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
That Atom C2750 looks awesome in the multi threaded benchmarks.rogueninja - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
AMD dualcore, quadcore, octacore, 100 cores. Who give a damn. They're as fast as a turtle.Nintendo Maniac 64 - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
Would have been nice if there were more older CPUs to compare to, like Athlon 64 x2, first gen Phenom X4, and Conroe Core 2 Duo (rather than Wolfdale). It'd be even better if said older CPUs were around 2.0-2.5GHz as wellsaiki4116 - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
Please add comparison with A4-4000(40 USD) and A4-6300,they could cost 10-20usd more than kabini.BushLin - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
Anandtech, where's the power consumption figures? Just quoting the 25w TDP feeds assumptions such as the one I'm replying to.Why is it every time AMD have a CPU worth buying (doesn't happen that often) you guys manage to totally miss the point in the review? It's enough to make an objective person sound like a fanboy.
I'll save you the trouble:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon-5350-am...
Although making the typical reviewer mistake of using a very high wattage PSU on a low power system, we can at least see something close to parity between an Athlon 5350 and a Celeron J1900 (the very same CPUs you reviewed).
Makes quite a different outcome doesn't it?