The Edge VS8 is powered by AMD’s quad-core Trinity A8-4555 APU clocked at 1.6GHz (up to 2.4 GHz w/ Turbo Core) and the chip features embedded DX11 ready graphics clocked at 424MHz.

The A8-4555M is not a true quad-core processor because it includes only two modules with two floating-point cores and four integer cores. This CPU is based on a reworked Bulldozer architecture called Piledriver. It was officially introduced in Q4 2012 as a direct successor to the Llano A-series. A8-4555M is manufactured in GloFo’s 32nm process. It is a mobile ultra-low-voltage (ULV) quad-core processor with TDP of just 19W, which is the norm in this market segment and it is just a watt more than Brazos chips. Low voltage chips don’t offer top notch performance, but they are not meant to. However, VS8 is fast enough to cope with most applications and needless to say it is significantly faster than Atom or Brazos systems.

Since the embedded graphics relies solely on system memory, the decision to go for 4GB of system memory was a good idea. The A8-4555M supports dual-channel DDR3-1333 memory. Through the GFX configuration menu in Bios we can control the amount of system memory that is allocated to the integrated processor. The options are 32M, 64M, 128M, 256M, 512M.



In terms of storage, it could be better. Just like previous HD-series systems, it features a sluggish, 5400rpm hard drive.