AMD has been throwing the term Fusion around since the early days of the AM2 CPU. We heard rumors of AMD “fusing” the GPU and the CPU together, integrating the MCP (media control processor) into the CPU and a bunch of other stuff. Each of these rumors was dismissed by AMD one at a time. AMD continued to state that Fusion was not a single thing but a platform (of course the media was not going to let that happen). It was only last year when we finally found out what AMD was talking about. It was a CPU with and APU (auxiliary processing unit) that is there to assist in complex tasks that the core CPU was not able to deal with. Interestingly enough this was not a new idea but was actually a return to some of AMD’s roots. AMD began their CPU debut with the purchase of a company called Nexgen. Nexgen CPU did not include a math co-processor (at least the original ones). If you wanted one you could buy one and attach it as an… you guessed it APU. Well many years have passed since that time and we are sure the APU is a little more than a simple math co-processor. Fortunately for you, we have an AMD A6 3650 and a Gigabyte A75-UD4H motherboard to play with. So let’s take a look at this new motherboard from Gigabyte and while we are at it the AMD Llano A6 3650 CPU…
Features -In the current market motherboard (and indeed almost all component) performance is very close. The days of a large performance advantage between boards using the same chipset are long gone. That is unless someone makes a HUGE mistake (like runs traces completely wrong). Now, the thing that differentiates different products is the features. These are things like power management, extra slots, better audio CODECs etc. It is these items that R&D teams work so hard to drop into what are really identical pieces of hardware at their most basic level.Excellent -AMD APUFive SATA 3.0 Portse-SATA 3.0Crossfire (for a board at this price level)Built in DX11 GraphicsNow some of these I am sure you are wondering about. Well they are here based on the market space and the price of the product. These are all outstanding for this level of product. The DX11 built in graphics is amazing, but we still have to make sure that it is actually able to perform and not just a marketing move.In the middle (sort of good) -Cloud OC (if you can get it to work)108DB SNR Audio CODECDual-Link DVI outDisplayPort and HDMIThese items are also nice and do add to the appeal to the market that the A75-UD4H has.Floor Mats -@BIOS Q-Flash Xpress Recovery2 Download Center Xpress Install Smart 6™ Auto Green ON/OFF Charge Q-ShareThese are very typical across almost the entire line of Gigabyte motherboards. They are nice but as they are part of a general feature set they are not that enticing.
