Methods of severe plastic deformation of ductile metals and alloys offer the possibility of processing engineering materials to very high strength with good ductility. After typical amounts of processing strain, a submicrocrystalline material is obtained, with boundaries of rather low misorientation angles and grains containing a high density of dislocations. In the present study, an Al-Mg-Si alloy was severely plastically deformed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) to produce such a material. The material was subsequently annealed for dislocation recovery and grain growth. The strength of materials in various deformed and annealed states is examined and the respective contributions of loosely-arranged dislocations, many grain boundaries, as well as dispersed particles are deduced. It is shown that dislocation strengthening is significant in as-deformed, as well as lightly annealed materials, with grain boundary strengthening providing the major contribution thereafter.