Want Trinity? You Need A New Motherboard
Perhaps the biggest downer for early adopters of AMD’s Fusion initiative is the quickness with which the company is deprecating support for the Socket FM1 interface used to enable desktop-class Llano APUs. In much the same way that Intel replaced LGA 1156 with a very similarly-sized LGA 1155, AMD’s existing 905-pin socket is giving way to a 904-pin one.

Presumably, changes to the FM2 interface came about due to power delivery, since the PCIe and DDR3 I/Os shouldn’t be any different. Whatever the reason, though, Llano-based APUs won’t drop into FM2-equipped boards, and Trinity-based APUs won’t work in platforms with Socket FM1. As you can see in the image above, Socket FM2, on the left, and FM1, on the right, are keyed completely differently.
Meet The New A85 FCH
Although Trinity-based APUs are not socket-compatible with Llano, there’s nothing precluding motherboard vendors from attaching existing Fusion Controller Hubs to the new processor’s four-lane UMI interface. We actually have two FM2-equipped motherboards in the lab: ASRock’s FM2A75 Pro4 and a platform based on A85, formerly referred to as Hudson-D4.
In reality, the two chipsets are pretty hard to tell apart. Basically, A85 gives you eight SATA 6Gb/s-capable ports, RAID 5 support, and the ability to divide the APU’s 16 lanes of PCI Express 2.0 into a pair of x8 links.
Otherwise, you’re looking at the same combination of USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports (4 + 10), the same four-lane Unified Media Interface, four lanes of second-gen PCIe, and four-channel audio (along with FIS-based switching, mSATA support, legacy PCI, and so on). AMD has not yet added PCI Express 3.0 support to any of its platforms, and isn’t expected to for some time.
More than likely, you’ll look to A75-based boards with Socket FM2 interfaces to save a little money, or A85-based platforms as a more feature-complete step up.
- Trinity: Coming Soon To A Desktop Near You
- Piledriver: Half Of The Trinity Story
- Turbo Core Finds Its Way Into APUs
- Graphics: Fewer Shaders, Better Efficiency
- Memory Bandwidth Scaling: Feed The Beast
- Socket Compatibility And The A85 FCH
- Test Setup And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark 11
- Benchmark Results: Sandra 2012
- Benchmark Results: Adobe CS5 And 6
- Benchmark Results: Content Creation
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Benchmark Results: Media Encoding
- Benchmark Results: File Compression
- Benchmark Results: Batman: Arkham City
- Benchmark Results: World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm
- Benchmark Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Benchmark Results: Diablo III
- Benchmark Results: OpenCL
- Power
- Trinity On The Desktop: Already Announced, But Enthusiasts Must Wait

The remaining question is how high will it overclock?
Add to that, i read somewhere that the IGPU is 50% of the APU's TDP, so take the IGPU off the 100w TDP 4 core, add another 25w to the TDP, add another 4 core to give you 8. Your left with a 25w TDP to play with.
All of this is rough speculation off the top of my head, please no one take it as me stating facts, i am not.
Intel have already slowed down with the jump from 32nm to 22nm and its going to get worse and Intel and AMD know this... AMD has a real good chance to catch up on performance; even the 28nm will give Intel a run for its money.
Keveri is going to kick Intel into the Stone Age if AMD can keep IGP domination
WinRAR - No AA ?