Llano vs. Sandy Bridge IGP performance...with a twist
Yet running a discrete Radeon HD 6950 2GB card is missing the point somewhat, you may fairly argue. To this end we've run with the chips' integrated graphics across four benchmarks.
AMD's Radeon HD 5550-like GPU is likely to be faster than Intel's HD 2000 Graphics, so we've added in a Core i5-2500K with HD 3000 Graphics and, interestingly, re-run the Core i3-2100 with a discrete GeForce GT 430 1GB DDR3 - an upgrade that'll cost some £50.
The A8-3850's GPU gives the Intel IGPs a good thrashing in 3DMark Vantage, being over 4x faster than the Core i3's HD 2000 Graphics. The additional of the £50 GT 430 1GB pushes the Intel system just ahead of the APU-only AMD.
AMD's graphics run Call of Duty: Black Ops nice and smoothly at 720p. Intel's HD Graphics return a choppy games-playing experience at the same quality settings. Indeed, even adding in the GT 430 card to the Core i3 system isn't enough to outpace the APU's HD 6550D.
Same kind of story here, too. AMD's APU provides a reasonably smooth experience at 720p; the game's certainly playable. The same experience can be had on the Core i3 system by adding in the discrete card.
Here the GT 430-equipped Intel system is faster than AMD's, but the fact remains that the Radeon APU graphics are fundamentally better than Intel's for casual gaming.
