IPASON A9-9820 mobo AMD_BL2 V2.3

[themadhaxor]

First off I'd like to say I really enjoy LTT and all the videos you guys do and have been subscribed for quite a while.

 

So a while back you all may remember Linus mentioning this weird mainboard from China with what is essentially an XBOX ONE S APU soldered to the board.

 

Still available HERE: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001340237782.html

[please note, the mainboard only has stock left in Russia - so it's unlikely anyone outside of Russia can buy this now for obvious reasons]

 

Unless you want to get a whole PC from China...and the shipping costs as much as the item itself:

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Free-Shipping-To-Russia-Gaming-PC_1600342062414.html

 

I had seen this some time before on a random news article and decided to order it...and, well - it's pretty much exactly what it says on the tin.

 

I added in 16GB of DDR3 and the board booted right up...but not after some fenagling and one janky as all heck test bench setup.

 

Weirdly, although the ATX PSU should have had enough juice - adding the USB DVDRW caused the power on LED to spark into life...guess my old Seasonic PSU isn't quite beefy enough.

 

Please see the Imgur gallery here folks:

https://imgur.com/a/jNq3wbo

 

So then began the difficult part - trying to find APU graphics drivers for this [essentially] unreleased board.

 

After a lot of Googling I came across this Japanese blog, which [fortunately] has a link to the mainboard manufacturers drivers section.

 

https://ktyk.seesaa.net/article/478245701.html

 

APU graphics driver link

http://www.dj-product.com:8809/RX350/RX350.rar

 

...unfortunately, this is locked out for IP addresses outside of Japan [either contacting the blog owner for the drivers he downloaded, or trying the mainboard manufacturers link - maybe it's down?]

 

I've contacted the seller on AliExpress, who says he'll send the drivers on a file share link...but nothing back from him yet.

 

So I'm hoping that one of you kind folks on the forum can help me out by either snagging the file - or getting in touch with the blog owner to upload it to a file share.

 

Basically, I just want to get the APU graphics working to run some benches and maybe make something useful out of this unique board.

 

FYI @Admins - can you please wipe my Attachments folder, as I accidentally filled it with images whilst experimenting which pictures to upload, and I am unable to delete anything...

 

Thank you everyone

Edited April 2, 2022 by themadhaxor
link to alternative buying option

[themadhaxor]

So, small update - got myself NordVPN and tried the following:

 

1) Try to download from the link to the manufacturers website - no access or dead, even with VPN...

2) Attempted to contact the Japanese blog writer - captcha is wonky or just doesn't work - so cannot post comments.

 

I have also discovered a Japanese twitter user who has the board at:

I have replied to him in hopes that he may still have the driver file...otherwise I'm out of options, as this is basically custom GPU hardware and no other AMD drivers will work [not even with .INF modding - believe me, I tried]

 

Also, thank you to @Admins for clearing out my attachments folder

[Guest]

https://www.amd.com/en/support/previous-drivers/graphics/amd-radeon-r7-series/amd-radeon-r7-300-series/amd-radeon-r7-350

 

The Dell driver.

 

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=x7ywm

 

 

[themadhaxor]

@ShrimpBrine - thank you very much for trying to find drivers, but this board has a custom APU that does not work with any standard AMD drivers - they just show an error for unrecognized hardware and will not install.

 

The graphics on the APU has a custom hardware ID as below:

VEN_1002&DEV_154C&SUBSYS_154C1002&REV_00

 

This will not be detected by any normal AMD drivers except for the custom ones on the below website:

http://www.dj-product.com:8809/RX350/RX350.rar

Unfortunately, the website does not work.

 

The only other person who may have these drivers is the owner of the below blog:

https://ktyk.seesaa.net/article/478245701.html

 

 

I managed to get a response from the AliExpress seller - but all they sent is chipset drivers...

 

I've asked them to contact the above blog owner, as he once downloaded the custom drivers...but my options are very limited now.

 

If any master .INF modders are willing to have a go - please give it a shot.

[Guest]

OK, so I read the link. There are no drivers there, just an explanation I will quote here for you.

 

Quote

When I contacted AMD, I got the answer, "A9-9820 is an embedded product, so I'm giving the driver to the manufacturer. So contact the manufacturer."

This means contact the manufacturer of the mainboard for the driver....

 

The Rar file is 438mb. I will DL this run a scan and pull the driver from it. Give me  a while the DL is super slow.

[themadhaxor]

@ShrimpBrime - wow! Can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the assistance

Take your time and upload the file if/when possible...

Hopefully it will work...

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, themadhaxor said:

@ShrimpBrime - wow! Can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the assistance

Take your time and upload the file if/when possible...

Hopefully it will work...

Try this link. It's the entire package.

 

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsGarZ7pXdggiT6-VPIipO7nBF3t?e=3zRwbD

[themadhaxor]

AAAAH, Yeah! SUCCESS!

 

Drivers installed and everything is groovy...

 

Full screens and initial benchmarks to follow.

 

@ShrimpBrime - you absolute diamond - you saved my build - thank you so much dude!

 

I will let the Aliexpress sellers know so they can also pass on these drivers to their customers...

 

For anyone trying to download the drivers - the above link is now an empty/dead file - please use the below link from my own G-drive:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mSulIPokSlYls1d2g2pV8xO8d43OpiFy/view?usp=sharing

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, themadhaxor said:

AAAAH, Yeah! SUCCESS!

 

Drivers installed and everything is groovy...

 

Full screens and initial benchmarks to follow.

 

@ShrimpBrime - you absolute diamond - you saved my build - thank you so much dude!

 

I will let the Aliexpress sellers know so they can also pass on these drivers to their customers...

My pleasure. The DL took over 2 hours to complete lol. peaks of 900kb a second XD

 

I have it handy, leave it in my OneDrive for a while. NP.

 

Glad it's working.

[themadhaxor]

Holey moley - 2 hours!!! What are they hosting on...a 486??? Haha

 

Anyhoo - I'm quickly installing a few games and will post initial benches/screens soon.

 

I have an extensive digital game library - but work a full time job - so expect FULL benches sometime next weekend...stay tuned folks...

[Guest]

1 minute ago, themadhaxor said:

Holey moley - 2 hours!!! What are they hosting on...a 486??? Haha

 

Anyhoo - I'm quickly installing a few games and will post initial benches/screens soon.

 

I have an extensive digital game library - but work a full time job - so expect FULL benches sometime next weekend...stay tuned folks...

Maybe we can do a bench or two against my passively cooled 220ge with Vega 3 graphics  

 

Can't wait to see your screen shots!! 

[themadhaxor]

Okay - initial [done very fast] benches are from ioQuake 3 x64 [OpenGL], DMC4 [DX9] and TR2019 [DX11]

 

I also managed to set the custom P-State in the BIOS so the CPU shows correctly in Win 10.

[BIOS screen grab included]

 

...despite the fact that CPUZ has no clue WTF it is - hahaha!

 

If you are running the P-State in 9829 instead of 8120 - you WILL NEED a chonky VRM heatsink, as the VRMs get pretty toasty! [I made one for myself]

 

There was no fixed resolution for each game, but settings screen grabs are included as well - I was mostly using default auto detected settings with minor tweaks for each game.

 

But - DAAAAMN this thing is a little beast

 

Enjoy the initial benches and I'll see you later in the week folks...

 

Imgur link below:

 

https://imgur.com/a/uYRoSov

 

Also below is a GPUZ screen grab:

 

https://imgur.com/a/JPfiMRi

[themadhaxor]

Okay, I had promised "proper" benchmarks and here we go!

Testing methodology
====================

Attempt to achieve as close to 60fps in older [x360/PS3 era] games and 30fps in more modern titles [XO/PS4 era]

First off though, before we get to the benchmarks - lets try to define: What exactly IS this APU in terms of specs?

If we are to believe the GPUZ screen I took, then it is similar to an R7 350:

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-r7-350-oem.c2682

However, this is less likely, as the drivers from the mainboard manufacturer are VERY BETA [more on this later]

There are also specs for the AMD Kryptos APU [taken from the Chuwi Aerobox mini PC]

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/amd-kryptos.g956

These match up to the AMD Radeon R7 360 896SP

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-r7-360-896sp.c2811

...but again, this is still unlikely once you see the below comparison - as the Aliexpress sellers claims of "performance similar to the XBOX One"
are well founded.

Below is a link to an article on the XO APU, if you compare it to the APU on this mainboard - they are 100% identical!

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/171735-xbox-one-apu-reverse-engineered-reveals-sram-as-the-reason-for-small-gpu

So the specs we are working with should be:

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/xbox-one-gpu.c2086

Although due to the overhead of running the Win 10 O.S. in the background and the BETA drivers...performance is rather less than on the actual XO.

These APU chips appear to be Quality Assurance samples [a guess - due to the QA marking on the die]

BENCHMARKS
==========

Right, since we know what this thing is now, onto some actual numbers.

[please see the link below for the actual settings used - and my modified test setup]

https://imgur.com/a/Ka3Dbj0

The games I chose are very easily available to anyone, so benchmarks can be generated on the cheap for comparison sakes

All of the tests were done with the in-built benchmark tools/demos that each game has.

All below are pure FPS figures.

Mainboard settings were default 512MB frame buffer with 1333MHz RAM settings.

Bioshock Infinite - Medium Detail - 16:9 - Steam Ver.

720P // MIN 19.7 // MAX 81.57 // AVG 59.19
900P // MIN 25.61 // MAX 82.02 // AVG 51.15
1080P // MIN 17.26 // MAX 81.61 // AVG 39.89

Batman Arkham City GOTY - FXAA (LOW) - most settings HIGH - DX11 OFF - NO VSYNC - MOTION BLUR OFF - Steam Ver.

720P // MIN 13 // MAX 60 // AVG 105
900P // MIN 15 // MAX 58 // AVG 82
1080P // MIN 27 // MAX 49 // AVG 63

ioQuake 3 [max settings] - disc install

720P // 170.2
900P // 168.3
1080P // 165.3

Tomb Raider 2013 - most settings low - except textures at normal and TressFX hair [see screens] -  disc install

720P // MIN 30 // MAX 50 // AVG 39.3
900P // MIN 21 // MAX 44 // AVG 30
1080P // MIN 16.9 // MAX 34 // AVG 23.7

Rise of the Tomb Raider - most settings at low with PureFX hair [see screens] - Steam Ver.

720P // MOUNT 40.88 // SYRIA 33.70 // VALLEY 30.84 // AVG 35.23 
900P // MOUNT 31.40 // SYRIA 26.84 // VALLEY 28.05 // AVG 28.87
1080P // MOUNT 24.65 // SYRIA 20.49 // VALLEY 21.93 // AVG 22.46

Devil May Cry 4 - high settings - 2X AA - disc install

720P // A 193.35 // B 163.40 // C 193.76 // D 125.67 // AVG 169.05
900P // A 143.83 // B 114.52 // C 168.98 // D 110.05 // AVG 134.35
1080P // A 107.79 // B 85.10 // C 120.66 // D 87.09 // AVG 100.16

So the conclusion is that for many games - you can get XO performance...at 720P

Bonus sections!

1) Can it run?

CRYSIS - barely...720P at low detail 30FPS...so not really worth it.
DOOM Eternal - the CPU has the correct instruction set...but the BETA driver has no Vulkan support..boo!
DOOM 2016 - BETA driver strikes again, the game will load - and hang at the title screen.

2) Power requirements

So, I'm now using a 450W Silverstone SFX PSU, which should be more than enough to power the board and the rest of the test bench hardware...for now it seems to work fine.

I'm eventually hoping to change this for a 150W Pico PSU...but not sure it will be enough...wish me luck!

That's it for now folks - anyone has any questions - please ask.

If anyone wants to use these benches as part of an article/video - please give myself and @ShrimpBrime a shout-out

 

Firstly, here is a very detailed explanation of the APU and mainboard (which actually has more accurate info than my own article) in English:

 

https://thechipcollective.com/posts/cynical/cato/

 

A review [Portugese]

Another review [English]

Some more benchmarks [English]

I've also discovered a nice review [in Russian] with gameplay from some popular titles:

[Psychol321]

On 11/15/2020 at 10:43 PM, themadhaxor said:

If you are running the P-State in 9829 instead of 8120 - you WILL NEED a chonky VRM heatsink, as the VRMs get pretty toasty! [I made one for myself]

I noticed this myself that there are two options, how toasty are we talking about and how dangerous it is for this board to run without a heatsink at 2.35ghz with the 9820 mode? How I can make a VRM heatsink? any tutorials? because paying anything more for this board isn't really worth it so some home made trick would be useful.

 

Do you guys got any more drivers besides the RX 350 one? if yes can you link it? and can we expect more than beta drivers for the gpu? if yes then when should I check up if the new drivers came out? I'll be keeping eye on this thread, would be nice if someone links up any new drivers that appear.

[themadhaxor]

I made my VRM heatsink by cutting/drilling and lining up old VRM heatsinks on some plastic sheet [any tough plastic will do] then gluing them together using Arctic Alumina Thermal glue. Be sure the surface is totally level, and once it's glued - just peel off the plastic.

It's not super pretty, but it works

[Psychol321]

Do you guys also have such slow iops on ssd?

[themadhaxor]

First off I'd like to say HUGE props to @GabenJr of LTT for giving myself and @ShrimpBrime a shoutout on the video about this mainboard [you guys were the only people on YouTube to say thank you...and several people used the drivers on this thread to create their content]

 

Here's the LTT video folks

[PLEEEEASE can you guys do a follow-up of either a build video or more thorough test, I'd recommend older games]

 

 

To Celebrate this video, I present to you all - my finished XBOX-PC build [a gift for my Uncle]

 

https://imgur.com/a/BqMZ70V

 

The only real down side is that it only works in low-power mode [8120], as the 150W X360 PSU can't handle the 9820 P-state.

 

Also, you don't get to see the access LED strip in what would have been the Bluray slot, as the internal M.2 doesn't use the access LED [only SATA drives do]

 

And a little video tour below:

[183.5MB approx 2 mins video]

 

https://www.sendspace.com/file/5dix61

 

Edit

 

Also, Digital Trends got on the bandwagon as well.

 

You can see their video at the Eurogamer article below:

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2021-cyberpunk-2077-pc-played-on-xbox-one-cpu

[Guest]

3 hours ago, themadhaxor said:

First off I'd like to say HUGE props to @GabenJr of LTT for giving myself and @ShrimpBrime a shoutout on the video about this mainboard [you guys were the only people on YouTube to say thank you...and several people used the drivers on this thread to create their content]

The recognition is very nice! Big thanks to @GabenJr and team for the mention. Means a lot and we are happy to help! It's not every day that happens, so it's a permanent memory. Thank you.

@themadhaxor thanks for posting this.

 

[themadhaxor]

No bother

 

If I have some time in the future I will visit my Uncle again [I'm in his support bubble] and try to run some more tests for game compatibility.

 

The only real shame is that we'll never have any newer GPU drivers...so no proper OpenGL or Vulcan support...ah well...

[Guest]

8 hours ago, themadhaxor said:

No bother

 

If I have some time in the future I will visit my Uncle again [I'm in his support bubble] and try to run some more tests for game compatibility.

 

The only real shame is that we'll never have any newer GPU drivers...so no proper OpenGL or Vulcan support...ah well...

Hmm. 

@computersin1987

 

Still have that graphics driver?

 

[themadhaxor]

Would be interesting if he has a different driver...but unlikely - I searched everywhere and only found the one that you downloaded and shared with me @ShrimpBrime

 

...and the link you shared is still active

[Guest]

32 minutes ago, themadhaxor said:

Would be interesting if he has a different driver...but unlikely - I searched everywhere and only found the one that you downloaded and shared with me @ShrimpBrime

 

...and the link you shared is still active

Yes, still on my onedrive. Just in case. The dl link I got that from has expired and no longer available. I'll leave the driver there a while yet for people.

[grandmasterv1000]

I bought this board for curiosity's sake and to do some testing with the Jaguar CPU cores, but I'm finding myself to be very limited on PCIe bandwidth on the NVMe port. Max I can get is 795MB/s - and this is with a Samsung 980 Pro! The post earlier (see below) shows much better bandwidth. So I'm wondering how you have the board configured - any BIOS options to tweak? Or maybe you have a special jumper configuration? If you own this board and your NVMe read speed matches the below, I'd love to know how you did it!

 

On 12/8/2020 at 11:55 AM, Psychol321 said:

Do you guys also have such slow iops on ssd?

 

 

[Psychol321]

23 hours ago, grandmasterv1000 said:

I bought this board for curiosity's sake and to do some testing with the Jaguar CPU cores, but I'm finding myself to be very limited on PCIe bandwidth on the NVMe port. Max I can get is 795MB/s - and this is with a Samsung 980 Pro! The post earlier (see below) shows much better bandwidth. So I'm wondering how you have the board configured - any BIOS options to tweak? Or maybe you have a special jumper configuration? If you own this board and your NVMe read speed matches the below, I'd love to know how you did it!

 

 

 

I used Samsung Rapid option in Samsung Magician but I removed it because there's no difference and there's a chance it will corrupt your data because it's using RAM to boost the speed, more important is 4k speed that is lacking on this board at least in my tests.

[grandmasterv1000]

8 minutes ago, Psychol321 said:

I used Samsung Rapid option in Samsung Magician but I removed it because there's no difference and there's a chance it will corrupt your data because it's using RAM to boost the speed, more important is 4k speed that is lacking on this board at least in my tests.

Thanks - but I'm curious about how you may have configured the board itself or the BIOS? I have the same SSD but I'm getting about half the overall speed. By my reckoning I'm getting the equivalent of 2x the bandwidth of the PCIe x1 slot on the board, but I can't break the 800MB/s barrier.