AMD's integrated graphics received a new lease on life when the company unleashed its 32nm "Llano" desktop processors earlier this year. Sporting an on-die Radeon Hard disk drive 6550D graphics processor, the AMD A8-3850 APU rendered many low-end discrete graphics cards obsolete and made Intel'due south HD Graphics 3000 engine await foolish in the procedure.

Despite losing its L3 cache completely, AMD'due south A8, A6 and even the upcoming A4-Serial APUs feature a brawnier L2 cache to compensate. Whereas the Phenom II range is equipped with a massive 6MB L3 enshroud, each core is only supported past 512KB of L2 cache. Discarding the complex and power hungry L3 enshroud allowed AMD to double the L2 cache chapters per core.

As a result, the quad-core A8-3850 received a 4MB L2 cache which significantly boosted performance compared to a similarly clocked Athlon II processor. With improved full general processing and graphics ability, the Llano range represents exceptional value as the A8-3850 costs a mere $140, while the A6-3650 tin can exist had for $120 as of writing.

In improver, the Llano platform offers a plethora of affordable AMD A55 and A75 motherboards. A75 products are peculiarly highly-seasoned as they boast of extensive support for USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s (up to iv and six ports, respectively). Past comparing, Intel's H67/P67/Z68 just back up two SATA 6Gb/s ports and no USB 3.0.

Although AMD A75 boards start at around $70, we've decided to check out three more attractive, and inherently pricier options. Some of the best-equipped A75 motherboards include the Asrock A75 Extreme6 ($130), Asus F1A75-V Pro ($130) and Gigabyte A75-UD4H ($123). Currently, the Asus F1A75-V Evo is the most expensive A75 board at $140.

At that toll, AMD is clearly targeting -- and in our stance, commanding -- the budget market. The underdog's new flagship desktop platform can be had for $300 or less, and when cistron in 4GB of RAM ($25), a 1TB hard drive ($55), and a decent case/power supply combo ($55), you have the making of an entry-level gaming figurer for roughly $500.

Although a rig like that won't shatter whatsoever benchmarks, but y'all'll have complete flexibility to add 6Gb/s SSDs, USB 3.0 devices and multiple high-end GPUs every bit you desire. The Llano platform is an fantabulous fashion for budget gamers to become their foot in the door with room to expand in the future. With that in mind, allow'southward carry on with our look at three of the platform's finest...