When China launches into processors, it must be admitted that it has resources. Its latest addition, the Loongson 3A6000, offers very respectable performance.
While Intel is about to launch its fourteenth generation of CPUs and AMD is performing well with its Zen 4 architecture, China is showing that it also has a say. Faced with such behemoths, it must be said that the manufacturer Loongson is lagging behind. Never mind ! The performance of their latest generation of chips was truly commendable considering that the company was only founded in 2002. Their latest CPU, the 3A600, even managed to outperform processors of 10th generation of Intel and the AMD Zen2 if we refer to the IPC (Instructions Per Cycles). Rapid progress to be honestly welcomed.
Performance beyond expectations
The Loongson 3A6000 is a quad-core CPU (4C/8T) and runs at a base clock frequency of 2.5 Ghz. Peaks going beyond this frequency are, however, possible. It is based on the 4th generation of the Dragon architecture, itself integrating LA664 cores designed by the company itself. This processor is capable of supporting 128-bit (LSX) and 256-bit (LASX) vector processing instructions. To ensure this processing, it uses SMT2 (Simultaneous Mulithreading level 2): each physical core of the CPU can simultaneously manage two threads, which increases the chip’s ability to execute several tasks in parallel.
A clear improvement compared to its predecessor, the 3A500, which places it directly opposite processors like the Intel Core I3-100 or the AMD Ryzen 3 3100. These are certainly entry-level processors, but relatively recent.
This processor will be dedicated exclusively to the Chinese market and has been put to the test on a PC which will also only be sold there. The machine was therefore equipped with 8 GB of RAM (DDR4-3200), a 256 GB SSD and a Radeon RX 580 GPU. Once passed to the UnixBench benchmark, the 3A6000 shows exceptional improvements in its performance compared to at 3A5000. +72% in multi-core and +40% in single-core. It therefore finds itself rather comfortable in 1080p and even in 4K, where it can hold 30 FPS rather easily on games like World of Warcraft, Tomb Raider, Dead Cells or Torchlight. Granted, these aren’t exceptionally gourmet titles, but remember that Loongson doesn’t have the experience of its competitors.
Challenges for the future
The results are certainly promising, but performance is not everything. Other very important aspects remain to be considered, notably the energy consumption of the chip and its performance in terms of heat dissipation. Complete support for video games by Loongson CPUs is still in full development and the company must maintain its efforts if it wishes to make a place in the sector.
Two big gaps remain for Loongson to remain competitive with Intel and AMD: the number of cores and the clock frequency. Ultimately, the company plans to launch more high-end processors, intended more for professional use. Thus, other new arrivals will enter in the future: the 3B6000 (8 cores), the 3C6000 (16 cores) and the 3D6000 (32 cores).
Source : WCCFTech
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