In an attempt to steal some of the thunder away from IDF this week, AMD is showcasing some of its upcoming Fusion APUs in San Francisco.
On display was the 18W Zacate processor that comprises two Bobcat cores and a DirectX 11-capable GPU which is destined for ultrathin laptops and low-power desktops. Unfortunately, the clock speeds weren't disclosed. The competition was provided by an undisclosed laptop said to be running an Intel Core i5 CPU.
Obviously the tests were carefully selected and controlled, but the results were interesting nonetheless. Running through City of Heroes: Going Rogue, the AMD-based system provided fast and fluid gameplay. Unsurprisingly, the Intel system struggled, providing choppy visuals and poor frame-rates on the same settings and playing on the same server.
The next test was an HTML5 demo used to show the advantage of using a GPU to accelerate webpage rendering. As before, the AMD chip trounced the Core i5, showing a much higher frame-rate and providing a very smooth experience.
Again, these tests are fairly contrived and were probably specially chosen to show Zacate in a good light. At the same time, the silicon was clearly running well and the results are nothing if not encouraging.
AMD is bound to show more demonstrations of its upcoming APUs as the week - and IDF - continues.
