AMD Fusion Black Edition ready to rock and roll

For years, car companies have been souping up and turbo charging their smallest vehicles. On the one hand, it seems a little crazy, but on the other hand it is hugely appealing. KitGuru spies sniffed around the Alternate stand at GamesCom 2011 and got the whiff of something meaty.

Take the A8 3850 and a weak-arsed mainboard, and you will still be able to clock the Fusion APU up by around 9%.

Invest in something a little more stylish, and the same processor will clock up to 3.5Ghz comfortably. That gives you a corresponding boost on every benchmark. How does that translate into a real world benefit?  Well, when Henry took the first A8-3850 for a spin on the Asus F1 A75 M Pro mainboard, the Dirt 3 scores jumped from 28 to 34 frames per second. As any hardcore technology journalist will tell you – it's the additional frames around the 30 mark that are the most noticeable. Closer to 25 and the game is irritating. Close to 35 and the game feels smooth. This measurable increase in frame rate when overclocking the A8 3850 delivers a massive, usable benefit to customers.

So, how can you improve that even further?

Simple. Black Edition of the Fusion APU. One where you have complete flexibility in the BIOS, to balance the settings exactly how you like them.

As 250,000 game-mad enthusiasts milled around the halls of Koln-Messe for GamesCom 2011, there was talk on the Alternate stand of a Black Edition APU that's already in production and ready to launch.

KitGuru says: No wonder there were so many stories about the drop off in production for AMD's traditional 2 and 4 core Phenom processors. All systems need graphics and these Fusion-class processors deliver gaming at a truly budget price. It will be fascinating to see just how far you can take Fusion with Black Edition options and the right BIOS.

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