AMD Llano 6620G Benchmarked with various RAM configurations

[HTWingNut]

BENCHMARKING AMD INTEGRATED GPU RADEON 6620G:

I have always wondered and seen questions asked about the best RAM to buy for one's laptop. The AMD Llano Radeon 6620GP IGP performance is excellent compared with standards of previous IGP's for either AMD or Intel. The IGP does not have its own dedicated memory like a discrete GPU does, so it utilizes system RAM. This obviously means it is dependent on the system RAM for its performance. Utilizing my HP DV6z, I spent some time benchmarking the AMD Llano mobile APU (A8-3510MX) which contains the 6620G GPU, to test for effects RAM of different latency, speed, and single or dual channel mode have on overall gaming performance.

System Configuration:
HP DV6z Quad Edition
AMD A8-3510MX APU with integrated 6620G GPU
Radeon 6750m
15.6" 1920x1080 LCD
WD SiliconEdge Blue 256GB SSD
Blu-Ray Reader / DVDRW

The CPU was clocked at 2.4GHz (stock is 1.8GHz), but integrated GPU 6620G was running at stock speeds of 444MHz core.

Drivers were Catalyst 12.1a pre-release.

In most cases a resolution of 1280x720 was used as well as default benchmark settings. In some cases graphical detail was reduced to ensure a realistic framerate as well as get decent comparison results. Comparing 1vs2 fps isn't quite as effective as comparing 20 vs 23fps. Benchmark details can be found in the second post.

Typical RAM found in laptops is 1333MHz, so you can consider option (4) below as the baseline of performance. RAM changes of significance are highlighted in RED text. The bar color that that component is represented on the graph is shown in (parentheses).

RAM configurations:
(1) 2x2GB Micron 1066 @ CAS 7, 1.5v dual channel (light blue)
(2) 1x4GB G.Skill 1333 @ CAS 9, 1.5v single channel (green)
(3) 1x2GB Hynix + 1x4GB G.Skill 1333 @ CAS 9, 1.5v asymmetrical dual channel (orange)
(4) 2x4GB G.Skill 1333 @ CAS 9, 1.5v dual channel (red)
(5) 2x4GB Samsung 1600 @ CAS 11, 1.35v dual channel (blue)
(6) 2x4GB G.Skill 1600 @ CAS 9, 1.5V dual channel (purple)

Note that the CAS number indicates latency in the memory module. Lower number is typically better (i.e. faster performance).

RAM CPU-Z Screenshots:

Spoiler :

(1) 2x2GB DDR3 1066 CAS 7 Micron


(2)/(4) 1x4GB / 2x4GB DDR3 1333 CAS 9 G.Skill


(3) 1x2GB hynix + 1x4GB G.Skill 1333 CAS 9


(5) 2x4GB DDR3 1600 CAS 11 Samsung


(6) 2x4GB DDR3 1600 CAS 9 G.Skill

Benchmark Results:


3DMark06

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3DMark Vantage

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3DMark11

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Battlefield 3 (on battery)

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Average Power Drain: -38.1W with 30fps frame limiter on (DXtory app)

BF3 FPS:

Min: 25
Max: 31
Avg: 29.9

Crysis benchmark was run using medium settings
Crysis DirectX 9

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Crysis DirectX 10

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DiRT 2 Demo Benchmark run using medium settings

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HAWX 2 Benchmark

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Just Cause 2 Benchmarks run using low settings, high texture, medium water, no AA

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Stalker Pripyat DirectX 9 run using medium preset and full dynamic lighting
Stalker Pripyat DirectX 10 run using medium preset and enhanced full dynamic lighting

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Resident Evil 5 Benchmark

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The Elder Scolls V: Skyrim Intro (on battery)

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Skyrim, 720p, Medium preset but turned off AA, limit FPS to 30, CPU @ 1.8GHz 0.9875V

Average Power Drain: -34.5W

With no FPS CAP Average Power Drain: -37.6W

Street Fighter IV Benchmark

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Trackmania Nations run using Normal detail

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Conclusions:
The speed of the RAM seems to have more of an effect on performance than the CAS latency of the RAM. Running single channel (i.e. one stick of RAM) has a significant detrimental effect on performance, so best to stick with two sticks of RAM.

To summarize the RAM performance, below is a chart showing % performance off the baseline RAM of 1333MHz CAS 9.
- Average is the average of the % off baseline.
- Min represents the benchmark with the lowest % off baseline
- Max represents the benchmark with the highest % off baseline

So effectively it's showing a range, and should probably chart it differently, I'll work on that. So for example the first one DDR3 2x2GB 1066MHz CAS 7 was average of -14.04% spanning from -18.65% to -7.30%. So effectively -14.04% with a range from +7.3% / -4.61%.



Bottom line, it's not very dependent on CAS latency, but moreso on speed and single or dual channel.
- Difference between 1066MHz and 1333MHz RAM was about 15-20%
- Difference between 1333MHz and 1600MHz was about 5-10%
- CAS 9 vs CAS 11 1600MHz was less than 5%, on average almost even.
- Asymmetrical dual channel (2GB + 4GB RAM) resulted in a small performance hit, average of about 3% with a range of 1-5%.

In any case you can see the 6620G offers decent performance for an IGP. Just make sure to run 1333MHz or faster and in dual channel.

The 6620G is a fully capable gaming GPU at 720p even with the latest games like Skyrim and BF3 which I will determine a way to benchmark later.

[HTWingNut]

System settings used for the game benchmarks:

3DMark06 - Stock

3DMark Vantage - Stock Performance settings

3DMark11 - Stock P (performance) settings

Crysis - All medium 1280x720

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DiRT 2 Demo Benchmark

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HAWX 2 Benchmark

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[

Just Cause 2 Benchmarks

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STALKER Pripyat Benchmark

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Resident Evil 5 Benchmark

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Street Fighter IV Benchmark

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Trackmania Nations Benchmark

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[zaanton]

Great job!!

[davidricardo86]

Great job indeed!

Would there have been a more noticeable difference had you used 8gb 1.5v Cas 9 1600mhz RAM instead of "2x4GB (8GB total) Samsung 1.35v 1600MHz @ CAS11, dual channel (blue)?"

[HTWingNut]

Great job indeed!

Would there have been a more noticeable difference had you used 8gb 1.5v Cas 9 1600mhz RAM instead of "2x4GB (8GB total) Samsung 1.35v 1600MHz @ CAS11, dual channel (blue)?"

Well, see here:

Looking for someone to swap DDR3 1600 with me for benchmarking

I also ran the same benchmarks on my AMD Zacate E-350 netbook with the Radeon 6310 GPU, using both single stick of RAM and two sticks. The E-350 only supports a single channel RAM controller, and supports maximum of 1066MHz RAM. But thought I'd test it anyhow. Should be posting those soon. It is also quite impressive. If they allowed for dual channel though you would probably see an additional 20-30% gain in performance there too.

[Vect]

Very Interesting results indeed... then 1333 Mhz at the end is just the sweet spot for our IGPs... thanks for your time doing this.

[FlossBandit]

this is rockin. i just upgraded from 4 to 8gb of ram today. how much would you suggest i reserve for the hardware? right now i've got it at about 2.5gb.

[Meaker]

AMD did comment that LLano is sensitive to latencies too, I wonder if a lower latency kit would help a bit.... Also what happens with overclocking.

But cheers for your effort

[HTWingNut]

this is rockin. i just upgraded from 4 to 8gb of ram today. how much would you suggest i reserve for the hardware? right now i've got it at about 2.5gb.

It will dynamically allocate what it needs. In most cases 512MB is probably more than sufficient.

AMD did comment that LLano is sensitive to latencies too, I wonder if a lower latency kit would help a bit.... Also what happens with overclocking.

But cheers for your effort

You can't overclock the GPU. Overclocking the CPU has no effect on GPU performance (well except for CPU bound games/apps). As stated above, looking to get some lower latency RAM. DDR3 1600 @ CAS 9 at a minimum. From results published at legit reviews, it showed RAM speed was of most significance, and 1333 to 1600 at same CAS was. They used CAS 8 1333 and CAS 8 1600. Granted this was the desktop llano A8-3850, but same architecture. This is why I want to try CAS 9 1600. Unfortunately there's no way to set RAM speed in the BIOS because 1600 @ CAS9 should be able to do 1333 @ CAS 7, which would be another interesting test.

[HTWingNut]

UPDATED FIRST AND SECOND POSTS WITH NEW AND ACCURATE INFORMATION!

Thanks!