The AMD A8-5557M is a mobile quad-core processor based on the Richland-architecture. In contrast to the A8-5550M, the 5557M is a BGA version. As successor to the A8-4500M, the A8-5550M/5557M has a slightly higher CPU and graphics performance and settles in the lower middle class. The APU integrates 4 CPU cores, a DirectX 11 graphics unit and the Northbridge along with a DDR3 memory controller.
Compared to Trinity, Richland has been modified just slightly. Therefore, no changes in the feature set or the Pro-MHz performance can be reported. The design of the chip is still based on the Bulldozer architecture, which consists of so-called modules. Each of the two modules integrates 2 integer units, but only one FPU. Just like Trinity, Richland supports nearly all current techniques such as AVX (including FMA), AES or Turbo Core.
According to the clock rates of 2.1 to 3.1 GHz, the A8-5557M should perform about 15 percent slower than the A10-5750M and just reach a Core i3-2310M. Consequently, the performance in current applications and games is sufficient.
The graphics unit called Radeon HD 8550G offers 256 shader units (VLIW4) and clocks slightly higher than the HD 7640G at 554 - 720 MHz. With fast dual-channel memory, performance is expected to match a dedicated Radeon HD 7570M.
The power consumption of the entire APU is rated at 35 watts, which is comparable to conventional middle-class models of competition. Thus, the APU is best suited for 14 inch notebooks or bigger.