Memory bandwidth and light-load tests
We've got the three A8-3850 combinations highlighted in different colours. The default performance is the one shown by the dark-green line, the one representing a near-stock CPU speed and elevated bus/GPU/memory in light-green and the full-on OC in red.
Note that overclocking the master-bus speed also enables us to increase RAM frequency from 1,600MHz to 1,772MHz here. The net result is that bandwidth improves by up-to 10 per cent.
The HEXUS PiFast test is a single-threaded benchmark that loves high frequencies and clock-cycle throughput. Marginally increasing the frequency to 2,933MHz does little for additional performance, as does the bump in master-bus speed. However, ramping up to 3.6GHz knocks off around 20 per cent of the time taken for this test.
Bear in mind that a basic Intel Core i3-2100, which costs sub-£100, chomps through this benchmark in 26s - and no A8-3850 chip is going to manage that.
Extra frequency clearly helps in the MP3-encoding test, and it's enough to push the overclocked A8-3850 into mid-pack respectability.
