AMD Launches "Kaveri" A-Series APUs

[exfileme]

AMD has launched three new A-Series APUs.

AMD Launches "Kaveri" A-Series APUs : Read more

 

[toddybody]

I want AMD to win so badly...but they've been nothing but a disappointment on the Desktop Class CPU front for years now. Lets hope they break the trend soon :/

 

[Intervenator]

No review?

 

[loops]

Bf4 + APU - Mantel = wtf!

Dice/EA needs to get some real work done. I'd hate to log into BF4 with these APUs w/o Mantel's "up to 45%" help at 1080p.

 

[shafe88]

I hope AMD does good with these apu's, but why no L3 cache. Wouldn't adding L3 cache boost performance in certin apps. Maybe lower clock speed slightly, to leave thermal head room for L3 cache.

 

[Deleted member 1353997]

I hope AMD does good with these apu's, but why no L3 cache. Wouldn't adding L3 cache boost performance in certin apps. Maybe lower clock speed slightly, to leave thermal head room for L3 cache.

Not if the L2 cache is large enough.

I don't know if 4MB of L2 cache is enough, but as long as it's large enough, there's no need for L3.
Similarly; if your cache is large enough, you wouldn't need RAM either. Unfortunately, a CPU with such a large cache would probably cost more than an entire nation could afford, and that's assuming you somehow manage to fit this much cache onto such little space to begin with.

 

[RazberyBandit]

So much for the AMD-quoted prices... Even MicroCenter, which sells CPUs cheaper than anywhere else (in-store only), is selling them for more than AMD's price. MicroCenter's prices are: A10-7700K = $160 & A10-7850K = $180. Newegg's selling 'em for $170 and $190, respectively.I definitely would have liked to have seen some details regarding the iGPU silicon of each model, such as number the of shaders and clock-speed.

 

[IndignantSkeptic]

So do the consoles have HSA or not? because if not they are probably kicking themselves that they missed it by a couple of months and will now have to wait about 7 years before they can try again.

 

[tolham]

"A10-7850K costing $173 USD. This chip has a total of 12 compute cores: eight GPU cores and four CPU cores."how does that compare to the traditional video card + cpu set up?

 

[anonymous_user]

How does the CPU performance of these APUs compare to the FX-6350/8320?

 

[Mathos]

@Indignantskeptic,Considering they're pretty much the same architectures other than the cpu cores themselves being jaguar based, I'm going to say yes. Since both current gen consoles have access to the same memory that their cpu cores do. DDR5 in the case of the ps4. Something people need to think about, roadmaps say that the gpu's coming from amd this year are suppose to be hsa compatible as well. If you're in a position like they are, were moving to a higher bandwidth ram would be an advantage. But, you don't have the market share to cause a new memory standard to be adopted main stream. Then your next best bet, is to design an HSA system where the GPU equipped with GDDR5, can share that memory with the CPU.

 

[sp00]

So do the consoles have HSA or not? because if not they are probably kicking themselves that they missed it by a couple of months and will now have to wait about 7 years before they can try again.

I think so, since both ps4 and xbox one refer to only 1 set of ram instead of distinguishing the system ram and graphic ram.

 

[IndignantSkeptic]

So do the consoles have HSA or not? because if not they are probably kicking themselves that they missed it by a couple of months and will now have to wait about 7 years before they can try again.

I think so, since both ps4 and xbox one refer to only 1 set of ram instead of distinguishing the system ram and graphic ram.

But XBox 360 had only 1 set of RAM, didn't it?

 

[sp00]

So do the consoles have HSA or not? because if not they are probably kicking themselves that they missed it by a couple of months and will now have to wait about 7 years before they can try again.

I think so, since both ps4 and xbox one refer to only 1 set of ram instead of distinguishing the system ram and graphic ram.

But XBox 360 had only 1 set of RAM, didn't it?

Yup, it also used unified ram.

 

[JD88]

At least they are getting the TDP down, but that's basically at the cost of clock speed. I'm still not sure what the market for these things are. At those prices, a very budget gaming rig is going to still be better off with something like an Athlon x4 and discrete graphics. HTPCs don't need that much graphical horsepower. I don't think there are that many people looking for a very small form factor machine that can play games at low settings. How Kaveri works on the mobile market is going to be what's important.

 

[sp00]

At least they are getting the TDP down, but that's basically at the cost of clock speed. I'm still not sure what the market for these things are. At those prices, a very budget gaming rig is going to still be better off with something like an Athlon x4 and discrete graphics. HTPCs don't need that much graphical horsepower. I don't think there are that many people looking for a very small form factor machine that can play games at low settings. How Kaveri works on the mobile market is going to be what's important.

My take is that the Kaveri launch was spoiled because bf4 and mantle was delayed. If mantle and bf4 came out today with a 45% increase in performance, it would be a different story. Getting a cheap mantle enabled chip with true audio and hsa would be a good selling point.

 

[rolandzhang3]

These are launch prices, so you'd expect price drops eventually down the line, especially since they might lower the prices on older APUs to clear them out. In regards to the price, a 750k and a 7770 should also cost around the same as the 7850k

 

[cd000]

At those prices, a very budget gaming rig is going to still be better off with something like an Athlon x4 and discrete graphics.

Well I suppose that would depend on what gpu you use. The top dog AMD A10-7850K is going for $190. The AMD 760K Athlon X4 is $90, leaving $100. For that you can get a GT 640, 7750, or R7 250. Not sure if I'd trade the A10 for those choices, especially if Mantle pans out.

 

[alextheblue]

But XBox 360 had only 1 set of RAM, didn't it?

Yes, sort of. It used UMA (unified memory architecture) but it still split the memory into distinct pools (as desired by the developer). So a dev could split it however they wanted, but it was still split. Also note that the GPU acted as the "northbridge" and the CPU accessed the memory through the GPU - although since the CPU didn't need as much bandwidth, this was never an issue. Interestingly enough, the GPU could access the CPU cache. The Xbox 360 design was actually quite clever for its time.

Anyway, it was UMA but it wasn't hUMA. The newer consoles are both hUMA, IIRC. CPU and GPU have access to all system memory, and in the case of the Xbox One the eSRAM as well (although they'll probably rarely need to touch it on the CPU side). As part of the GPU block, the Xbox One Move engines also have direct access to RAM and eSRAM, to perform different memory operations without taxing the CPU or GPU.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

far too expensive, no one will buy it at that price.

 

[rdc85]

From what i read it seems AMD ditch the FX lines and bet on APU lines..I think they believe the the HUMA and mantle is the key to fight intel that have better cpu..... since it's intention is to offload the work from the cpu to gpu....is what i'm thinking is wrong/right?

 

[xiinc37]

I sure hope they make a model with 2 Cpu cores and 2-4 Gpu cores for ~$60, my HTPC needs an upgrade.

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

where are the reviews Tom's? 🙁 sad panda... 🙁 and please, compare the chips (if you plan to review them) to intel i5 and i3, even against Pentiums+discrete graophics

 

[f-14]

here is just a very small tiny sample of what i would do with these.would like to see these put into laptops or 12"-15" touch enabled tablets running windows8.the sheer magnitude of the market that would flip over night would destroy iPhones and would decimate the set top box pc sector and create a whole new ball game that leaves intel stuck under a glacier. it's too late for BF4, but BF5 would be played on every school bus in america, study hall, recess, lunch, in class, after school in the commons, road trips with parents and omg those sucky long flights on jet liners or cruise ship trips. WiFi networks beware!so much potential the NSA wouldn't have a prayer and anti piracy lawyers would be sent packing as long as there is no cpu or other hardware based identifier.i have seen this on the horizon when AMD first moved into APU's but now.......the battery limit and WiFi are the limits, and as far as power well we all know how solar calculators extend battery life..mobile internet will instantly be destroyed and overwhelmed just like streaming has done for land lines.

 

[Jaroslav Jandek]

There already are Kaveri benchmarks on the net (Anand)... TH is lagging behind... I haven't seen any power consumption measurements, though - which is something I am VERY interested in.

From what I've seen, I am really disappointed (even though I didn't expect great performance). But if the power consumption is good (doubtful), it might change my mind.