AMD introduces Kaveri apus with configurable tdp for the desktop
AMD has released three new Kaveri-generation desktop APUs. These are chips whose tdp can be set to 45W or 65W by setting the clock speed higher or lower, without affecting the maximum turbo speed.
AMD announced Kaveri for the desktop early this year, but the only APUs that became available at the time were the 7850K and 7700K APUs with 95W TDP. On Thursday, the chip designer will add the A10-7800, A8-7600 and the A6-7400K.
The most important feature is the configurable tdp: the user can specify in the bios that the chips should operate in a 45W-tdp mode instead of 65W. Basically this just means a drop in clock speed from about 400MHz to 500MHz at full load, but retaining an aggressive Turbo boost. As a result, performance drops by an average of 7 percent, according to AMD. The adjustment should make the apus especially suitable for sff systems.
It concerns two quad-cores and a dual-core with undisclosed Radeon R7 and R5 graphics. For example, the A10-7800 has GCN graphics with eight GPU units for a total of 512 shader cores running at 720MHz and has support for Mantle and processing of content based on the h.265/hevc codec. The A8-7600 has six GPU units and the A6-7400K has four.
The CPU cores are based on the new ‘Steamroller’ architecture and are baked at 28nm. The previous generation of APUs codenamed Richland still received ‘Piledriver’ cores, which were baked at 32nm. The chips support the FM2+ socket and HSA, which means that the GPU and CPU have to work together more intensively for better performance.
|
12 (4 cpu + 8 gpu) |
10 (4 cpu + 6 gpu) |
6 (2 cpu + 4 gpu) |
| 3.9/3.5GHz | 3.8/3.1GHz | 3.9/3.5GHz |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 65W – 45W | 65W – 45W | 65W – 45W |
| $158 | $104 | $79 |