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Short Review AMD A4-5000 APU "Kabini"

Quad-core for the masses. Tablets, subnotebooks, entry-level devices: AMD's new Jaguar architecture is intended to cover the whole breadth of inexpensive mobile computers. After having taken a first look at the frugal A6-1450, this review will now examine the higher-performance A4-5000, codename "Kabini".

For the original German review, see here.

"More cores, better graphics, all day battery life" -- AMD has used this promise once before with the Brazos line and has done the same with its new line of processors. The inexpensive APUs will be available in stores under the series labels E, A4 and A6 and would be the successors to very popular Brazos generation (ex. E2-1800, codename "Zacate") introduced in 2011.

Like the "Temash" APU we tested in an earlier review of the new chips, "Kabini" is also based on the Jaguar cores. Nonetheless, there are several crucial differences between the two. We will illustrate these differences using the A4-5000 as an example.

Please read this for more information:

The A4-5000

With four CPU cores clocked at 1.5 GHz (no turbo unfortunately), the A4-5000 currently is the second-fastest model in the Kabini line-up. The range starts with two cores at 1.0 GHz (E1-2100) and ends with the fastest chip with four cores at 2.0 GHz (A6-5200). The graphics performance also differs: While the A4-5000's Radeon HD 8330 is clocked at 500 MHz, the frequencies of other models lie somewhere between 300 and 600 MHz.  However, the construction and number of shaders (2 compute units, 128 GCN) are identical for all the APUs.

Compared to the especially frugal Temash tablet-chip, the Kabini's power consumption is a bit higher. This is partly due to the Kabini's higher clock frequencies, but also because it supports faster memory types and additional I/O connectors. The A4-5000 we tested is specified at 15 watts; other models have TDPs between 9 and 25 watts.

The Test Device

The review sample is a ‘reference design’ or ‘white book’ sent to us by AMD. This is a device that will not be available to the consumer from any channel and is to push OEMs in a particular direction when it comes to incorporating these chips. 

The simple design of the 14-inch notebook is has one stand-out feature that we hope some OEM would implement in a future model – a gorgeous IPS Full HD display. Otherwise there's nothing special about the notebook's configuration: 4 GB of RAM and a 320 GB hard drive are standard for an inexpensive notebook. Neither of those parts should have much influence on our measurements.

An overview of the specifications:

  • AMD A4-5000, 4 cores at 1.5 GHz (no Turbo)
  • Radeon HD 8330, 128 GCN shaders at 500 MHz, driver 12.105.0.0
  • 1x 4 GB DDR3L-1600 @ 800 MHz, single-channel
  • Toshiba MQ Series 320 GB (MQ01ABD032)
  • Windows 8 64 Bit


CPU Performance

 

Cinebench R11.5
CPU Single 64Bit (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
0.38 Points
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
0.33 Points
Asus VivoBook S300CA
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
0.76 Points
Toshiba Satellite L830-10F
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba MK5075GSX
0.56 Points
Toshiba Satellite L830-10F
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba MK5075GSX
0.56 Points
Samsung 535U4C
Radeon HD 7550M, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384
0.63 Points
Samsung Serie 3 355E5C-S02DE
Radeon HD 7470M, E2-1800, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547575A9E384
0.33 Points
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
0.59 Points
CPU Multi 64Bit (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
1.49 Points
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
1.02 Points
Asus VivoBook S300CA
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
1.78 Points
Toshiba Satellite L830-10F
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba MK5075GSX
1.34 Points
Toshiba Satellite L830-10F
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba MK5075GSX
1.34 Points
Samsung 535U4C
Radeon HD 7550M, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384
0.85 Points
Samsung Serie 3 355E5C-S02DE
Radeon HD 7470M, E2-1800, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547575A9E384
0.64 Points
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
1.13 Points
X264 HD Benchmark 4.0
Pass 2 (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
8.74 fps
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
6.04 fps
Asus VivoBook S300CA
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
10.35 fps
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
7.5 fps
Samsung 535U4C
Radeon HD 7550M, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384
5.73 fps
Asus U32U-RX042V
Radeon HD 6320, E-450, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
2.89 fps
Pass 1 (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
41.49 fps
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
29.13 fps
Asus VivoBook S300CA
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
57.1 fps
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
41.9 fps
Samsung 535U4C
Radeon HD 7550M, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384
30.66 fps
Asus U32U-RX042V
Radeon HD 6320, E-450, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
16.17 fps
TrueCrypt
AES Mean 100MB (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
0.929 GB/s
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
0.674 GB/s
Asus VivoBook S300CA
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
0.177 GB/s
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
0.126 GB/s
Samsung 535U4C
Radeon HD 7550M, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384
0.512 GB/s
Sony Vaio SVE-1111M1E/P
Radeon HD 7340, E2-1800, Western Digital WD5000BPVT-55HXZT3
0.0891 GB/s
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
0.1 GB/s
Twofish Mean 100MB (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
0.165 GB/s
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
0.109 GB/s
Asus VivoBook S300CA
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
0.16 GB/s
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
0.111 GB/s
Samsung 535U4C
Radeon HD 7550M, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384
0.101 GB/s
Sony Vaio SVE-1111M1E/P
Radeon HD 7340, E2-1800, Western Digital WD5000BPVT-55HXZT3
0.0734 GB/s
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
0.0827 GB/s
Serpent Mean 100MB (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
0.103 GB/s
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
0.064 GB/s
Asus VivoBook S300CA
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
0.094 GB/s
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
0.063 GB/s
Samsung 535U4C
Radeon HD 7550M, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384
0.058 GB/s
Sony Vaio SVE-1111M1E/P
Radeon HD 7340, E2-1800, Western Digital WD5000BPVT-55HXZT3
0.0502 GB/s
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
0.0462 GB/s
WinRAR - Result (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
1078 KB/s
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
785 KB/s
Asus VivoBook S300CA
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
1889 KB/s
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
1535 KB/s
Samsung 535U4C
Radeon HD 7550M, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384
865 KB/s
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E135 NZV5YGE
Radeon HD 7340, E2-1800, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630
486 KB/s
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
1107 KB/s
3DMark 06 - CPU - CPU Score (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
1992 Points
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
1409 Points
Asus VivoBook S300CA
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
2229 Points
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
1726 Points
Samsung 535U4C
Radeon HD 7550M, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384
1372 Points
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E135 NZV5YGE
Radeon HD 7340, E2-1800, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630
1061 Points
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
1487 Points

Even though the A4-5000 barely has higher clock frequencies than the A6-1450 we recently reviewed, the differences between the two in terms of performance are in fact quite substantial. The Kabini chips have been designed to have higher TDPs that facilitate this jump in performance over the Temash line.  In order not to exceed its maximum power consumption of 8 watts (without "Turbo Dock"), the A6-1450 can reach 1.4 GHz in the turbo mode when a single core is under load, but under maximum load the frequency drops to about 1.0 GHz. Thanks to the constant 1.5 GHz available to the APU, the A4-5000 jumps ahead by almost 50 percent in some benchmarks, giving it a considerable lead in the performance stakes.

With all four cores under load, the APU performs at around the same level as the Core i3-2367M and even comes close to the newer Core i3-3217U in some areas. However, the APU's single thread performance is still low. Even Pentium 987 is at least 50 percent faster per core. Although the parallelization of modern applications has greatly improved in recent times, this facet of performance shouldn't be completely ignored.

Even so, in everyday use, the laptop feels quite speedy and quick to react to input. The APU's higher performance compared to the A6-1450 or the older E2-1800 is absolutely perceptible, though it could be even higher were there an additional turbo-mode. It is really a glaring omission by AMD but understandable as they wanted to hit the power envelope just right. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the revised version of the Kabini platform could reintroduce the Turbo mode in future chips with some design optimization. The turbo mode would have improved the core performance in single threaded applications significantly. But for office and multimedia applications, including Full HD videos, the APU performance is quite good.

GPU Performance (Synthetic Benchmarks)


3DMark
1920x1080 Fire Strike Score (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
338 Points
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
241 Points
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130 NZUAXMB
HD Graphics 4000, 3227U, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630
455 Points
Toshiba Satellite C850-1LX
HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), 1000M, TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075
251 Points
1920x1080 Fire Strike Graphics (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
353 Points
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
260 Points
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130 NZUAXMB
HD Graphics 4000, 3227U, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630
494 Points
Toshiba Satellite C850-1LX
HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), 1000M, TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075
279 Points
1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Score (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
2143 Points
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
1560 Points
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130 NZUAXMB
HD Graphics 4000, 3227U, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630
3100 Points
HP EliteBook 2760p-LG682EA
HD Graphics 3000, 2540M, Samsung MZ7PC128HBFU
2484 Points
Toshiba Satellite C850-1LX
HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), 1000M, TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075
1875 Points
1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Graphics (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
2465 Points
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
1914 Points
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130 NZUAXMB
HD Graphics 4000, 3227U, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630
3848 Points
HP EliteBook 2760p-LG682EA
HD Graphics 3000, 2540M, Samsung MZ7PC128HBFU
2428 Points
Toshiba Satellite C850-1LX
HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), 1000M, TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075
2222 Points
1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Score (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
23754 Points
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
18211 Points
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130 NZUAXMB
HD Graphics 4000, 3227U, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630
28088 Points
HP EliteBook 2760p-LG682EA
HD Graphics 3000, 2540M, Samsung MZ7PC128HBFU
26905 Points
Toshiba Satellite C850-1LX
HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), 1000M, TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075
20208 Points
1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Graphics (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
25774 Points
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
21788 Points
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130 NZUAXMB
HD Graphics 4000, 3227U, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630
31435 Points
HP EliteBook 2760p-LG682EA
HD Graphics 3000, 2540M, Samsung MZ7PC128HBFU
26222 Points
Toshiba Satellite C850-1LX
HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), 1000M, TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075
23520 Points
3DMark Vantage
1280x1024 P Result (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
1824 Points
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
1272 Points
Toshiba Satellite U940-100
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U
2604 Points
Samsung 535U3C
Radeon HD 7500G, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
2410 Points
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
1331 Points
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E135 NZV5YGE
Radeon HD 7340, E2-1800, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630
1071 Points
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
789 Points
1280x1024 P GPU no PhysX (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
1526 Points
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
1075 Points
Toshiba Satellite U940-100
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U
2194 Points
Samsung 535U3C
Radeon HD 7500G, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
2322 Points
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
1076 Points
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E135 NZV5YGE
Radeon HD 7340, E2-1800, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630
923 Points
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
626 Points
3DMark 06 - 1280x1024 Standard Score AA:0x AF:0x (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
3361 Points
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
2366 Points
Toshiba Satellite U940-100
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U
4424 Points
Samsung 535U3C
Radeon HD 7500G, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
4903 Points
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
3261 Points
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E135 NZV5YGE
Radeon HD 7340, E2-1800, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630
2470 Points
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
2288 Points

Three factors are responsible for the superiority of the A4-5000 over the A6-1450 when it comes to 3D performance.  At 600 MHz, the Radeon HD 8330 clocks exactly 20 percent faster than the Radeon HD 8250.  Thanks to the APU's DDR3L-1600 memory, the GPU has more memory bandwidth at its command (A6-1450: DDR3L-1066). And finally, the higher CPU performance allows the graphics unit to function with fewer constraints.

That is still not enough for the GPU to attain to the level of Intel's HD Graphics 4000, but at least it beats the HD Graphics 3000 and HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge version) in most cases. For a very inexpensive and frugal entry-level solution, that's certainly not a bad result.

Unfortunately, for the time being we can't share the results from the popular 3DMark 11 benchmark with you. The driver installed by AMD, which is only a few weeks old, seems to be suffering from a few bugs and caused this benchmark to crash repeatedly. But our estimated score for the device in the performance preset is somewhere between 550 to 600 points.

GPU Performance (Games)


low med. high ultra
Battlefield 3 (2011) 15 9.8 8
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) 18.5 13.3 9.1
Anno 2070 (2011) 37.7 16.6 10.4
Diablo III (2012) 35.4 22.4 19.2
Dirt Showdown (2012) 27.7 20.7 16.2
Sleeping Dogs (2012) 26.3 19.4 7.4
Counter-Strike: GO (2012) 41.5 37.2 26.8
Dishonored (2012) 23.5 18.6 16.7
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (2012) 28.5 19.1 8.7
Hitman: Absolution (2012) 14.8 11.9 5.7
Crysis 3 (2013) 13.9 8.3 5.1
Tomb Raider (2013) 27 13.7 9.5
BioShock Infinite (2013) 26 13.3 11.1
Metro: Last Light (2013) 12.8 3 2.7
GRID 2 (2013) 43.1 22.2 16.5
Company of Heroes 2 (2013) 8.4 5.7 2.8
Dota 2 (2013) 24.9 16.8 8.4
Saints Row IV (2013) 11.3 9.3 6.3 3
Total War: Rome II (2013) 19.8 15.2
Fifa 14 (2013) 102.8 57.3 46.1 23.8
F1 2013 (2013) 34 25 23 12
X-Plane 10.25 (2013) 17.7 9
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
Toshiba Satellite L830-10F
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba MK5075GSX
Dell Vostro 3360
HD Graphics 4000, 3317U, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT007-9ZV142
Dirt Showdown
1024x768 Ultra Low Preset
27.7
15.9
24.8

24.8

39.6
1366x768 Medium Preset
20.7
12.6
15.1

15.1

20.3
1366x768 High Preset AA:2xMS
16.2
11.5
9.5

9.5

12.8
Counter-Strike: GO
1024x768 (Very) Low
41.5
17.4
1366x768 Medium
37.2
14.3
1366x768 High AA:2x MS AF:4x
26.8
11.9
Total Average (Program / Settings)

As long as you're content with low graphics settings and an average frame rate between 25 and 40 fps, some less demanding titles from the last few years are playable with the A4-5000. The lead the APU has compared to the A6-1450 is quite surprising. Especially in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dirt: Showdown, we observed drastic improvements, even though the two APUs should actually behave in a more similar manner. This can be explained with the loads that the games put on the APU. If the CPU is bogged down with AI and physics computations, then there is more strain on the GPU to keep up, leading to poorer performance from slower chips.

All in all, one should never lose sight of the fact that the A4-5000 is an inexpensive, low-end product. Its meager gaming capabilities are hardly surprising and can't be criticized. But if you want to play older LAN classics like Warcraft III, then the APU is certainly up to the task.

Power Consumption

Idle: (Measurements on Windows 8 Desktop)

  • Energy-saving mode, minimum brightness, WLAN off: 5.1 W
  • Balanced, maximum brightness, WLAN off: 9.5 W
  • High-performance, maximum brightness, WLAN on: 10.5 W

Load: (Measurements with high-performance, maximum brightness and WLAN on)

  • Cinebench R11.5 Single (1.5 GHz CPU): 13.7 W
  • Cinebench R11.5 Multi (1.5 GHz CPU): 17.0 W
  • Prime95 large FFTs (1.5 GHz CPU): 20.5 W
  • FurMark (1.5 GHz CPU): 20.7 W
  • Prime95 + FurMark (1.5 GHz CPU): 26.6 W
  • 3DMark 06: 19.9 W

In idle mode, the power consumption of the review sample is essentially equivalent to that of the smaller Acer Aspire V5-122P from our A6-1450 review. The power draw under load is interesting, though. Due to the higher clock frequency of 1.5 GHz, the maximum power requirement of the CPU cores in Prime95 rises from 6.6 W (A6-1450 at 1.0 GHz) to around 10 W and for a CPU with this kind of performance numbers, the values are very good.  The quicker graphics unit doesn't seem to have much of an effect on the APU's power draw, at least not enough to be apparent in our measurements.

Looking at the chip under full load with Prime95 and FurMark, it's clear that the chip is sticks to its TDP specification of 15 W. In this "worst case scenario", the consumption increased by 16.1 W. Subtracting the loss from the power supply and voltage converter, the number specified by AMD could be exactly correct. Games generally require about 4 to 6 W less.

(Note: Due to varying measuring devices and methods, the power consumption values we determined here aren't directly comparable to the values from our notebook tests)

Verdict

Short Review: AMD A4-5000 APU "Kabini"
Short Review: The AMD A4-5000 APU "Kabini"

Small differences, big effect: The A4-5000 APU's higher clock frequencies (CPU, GPU and memory) compared to the A6-1450 really pay off, especially when the unit is running games; at least the increase in speed makes some less demanding titles from yester years playable. And normal workloads are easier to handle for the notebook with fewer frustrating pauses than what was observed with the Temash machine. Anyone who just surfs the internet, works on a few office documents or watches videos will hardly need more performance than what the APU has to offer.

Compared with the Intel CPUs, the A4-5000's graphics unit particularly stands out, as it almost attains matches the HD 4000 Ivy Bridge IGP in some performance benchmarks. Unfortunately, the A4-5000 is threatening only to older ULV models like the Core i3-2367M when running multi-threaded workloads. The single core performance is still very poor compared to Intel CPU cores. Introduction of ‘turbo cores’ in the next iteration might help reduce the deficit to an extent.

But the A4-5000 represents a very interesting option for inexpensive subnotebooks offering long battery life and just enough performance to keep the user satisfied. The Kabini processors slot neatly into the space between the Core i3 processors and the Atom. They will be unchallenged in this space for a few months until the new Silvermont Atom.

Addendum

A few more benchmarks without commentary:

Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 1M - 1M (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
41.36 s *
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
46.82 s *
Asus VivoBook S300CA
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
21.14 s *
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
27.4 s *
Samsung 535U3C
Radeon HD 7500G, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
45 s *
HP 655 B6M65EA
Radeon HD 7340, E2-1800, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384
46 s *
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
26 s *
Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 2M - 2M (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
93.1 s *
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
106.3 s *
Asus VivoBook S300CA
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
47.33 s *
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
61.5 s *
Samsung 535U3C
Radeon HD 7500G, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
102 s *
HP 655 B6M65EA
Radeon HD 7340, E2-1800, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384
102 s *
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
58 s *
Super Pi Mod 1.5 XS 32M - 32M (sort by value)
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
2089 s *
AMD Kabini Reference
Radeon HD 8330, A4-5000, Toshiba MQ01ABD032
2089 s *
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS
Radeon HD 8250, A6-1450, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX
2373 s *
Asus VivoBook S300CA
HD Graphics 4000, 3217U, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
1090 s *
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N
HD Graphics 3000, 2367M, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ
1396 s *
Samsung 535U3C
Radeon HD 7500G, A6-4455M, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380
2658 s *
HP 655 B6M65EA
Radeon HD 7340, E2-1800, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384
2254 s *
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007
HD Graphics 2000, 987, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142
1332 s *

* ... smaller is better

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Till Schönborn, 2013-05-26 (Update: 2020-06-11)