Turn off the Ad Banner  

To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu.

    -----------------------------------------------
This story was printed from CdrInfo.com,
located at http://www.cdrinfo.com.
-----------------------------------------------

Appeared on: Wednesday, June 5, 2013
AMD Releases The Elite A-Series Desktop APUs

AMD completed its 2013 APU lineup with the release of the Elite A-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) for desktops, codenamed "Richland".

"The combination of high-performance, third-generation desktop APUs with our existing portfolio of low-power, mobile APUs gives us our strongest-ever lineup of products for our customers and our technology partners," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Products Division at AMD.

The new AMD A-Series APUs combine AMD "Piledriver" CPU architecture with AMD Radeon HD 8000 Series graphics on the FM2 motherboard infrastructure. The ability to support existing A85X, A75 and A55 platforms as well as forward compatibility with FM2+ motherboards provides users the ability to buy now with the flexibility to upgrade as new platforms come to market. In addition, these APUs feature maximum clock speeds over 4 GHz for next generation compute workloads.

Utilizing the latest AMD Radeon HD 8000 Series graphics, the Elite A-Series combines the CPU and up to 384 Radeon parallel processing cores to offer up to 15 percent increased graphics performance over its predecessor, the AMD Second Generation APU (formerly codenamed Trinity). The Elite A-Series APU for desktops supports new AMD Radeon Memory Gamer Series at 2133 MHz. When paired with an A-Series APU, the DDR3-2133 MHz Radeon Memory Gamer Series will give up to a 13 percent performance increase over DDR3-1866 MHz memory.

AMD Elite A-Series "Richland" Desktop APUs
Model
A10-6800K
A10-6700
A8-6600K
A8-6500
A6-6400K
A4-4000
Modules/Cores
2/4
2/4
2/4
2/4
1/2
1/2
CPU Base Freq
4.1
3.7
3.9
3.5
3.9
3.0
Max Turbo
4.4
4.3
4.2
4.1
4.1
3.2
TDP
100W
65W
100W
65W
65W
65W
Graphics
HD 8670D
HD 8670D
HD 8570D
HD 8570D
HD 8470D
?
GPU Cores
384
384
256
256
192
128
GPU Clock
844
844
844
800
800
724
L2 Cache
2x2MB
2x2MB
2x2MB
2x2MB
1MB
1MB
Max DDR3
2133
1866
1866
1866
Price (MSRP)
$150
$149
$120
$119
$80
$46


Compared to the previous generation "Trinity" APUS, all the CPU and GPU clocks of the new "Richland" APUs have been increased - with the exception with the A4-4000. Maximum Turbo Core speeds across the lineup range from 200MHz faster (A10-6800K) to as much as 400MHz faster (A8-6500); the base CPU clocks have also been increased 100-300MHz, with the 300MHz increase coming on the highest performance models. Regarding their GPU, the Richland APUs are clocked 5-11% higher.

Compared to Intel's Haswell chips, the fastest AMD A10-6800K costs $40 less than the least expensive Core i5 Haswell CPU, and it's still $30-$40 less than Core i5 Ivy Bridge. Intel competes against the A10-6800K with their Core i3 CPUs.

Performance-wise, Intel's HD Graphics 4200/4400/4600 should offer the same graphics performance with the HD 8670D, but the GT3e Iris Pro 5200 may prove more potent.

At COMPUTEX, AMD also demonstrated for the first time the upcoming "Kaveri" APU that will introduce Heterogeneous System Architecture.

Also demonstrated at COMPUTEX was technology from cloud-gaming ISV Splashtop that gives users access to enhanced 'personal-cloud' software. Users now have the ability to stream some of the most popular game titles such as "SimCity" on other nearby mobile devices and, with AMD Elite A-Series APUs for desktops, experience responsive performance.

Following the recent launch of three new mobility APUs ? including the 28nm, quad-core x86 SoC APU (formerly codenamed "Temash") and the quad-core SoC APU for entry-level and small-form factor touch notebooks (formerly codenamed "Kabini") -- AMD also showcased new OEM designs. The new APUs are designed to effectively balance the needs of a wide range of new and traditional mobile PC users and are available beginning today from the computer manufacturers, including new systems from Acer and HP, with many others expected throughout the year.

AMD also demonstrated its two recently announced graphics products: AMD Radeon HD 7990, and AMD Radeon HD 8970M. To showcase the features, performance and power of AMD Radeon GPUs, AMD revealed a new "Ruby" technology demo at COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2013, designed from the ground up to demonstrate Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. Ten years after the release of the first "Ruby" demo, the new version illustrates the magic game developers can create today with GCN, allowing users to experience new levels of detail and features such as AMD TressFX hair and AMD Eyefinity technology. The new "Ruby" technology demo was developed in collaboration with IIIFonic, using the Crytek CryEngine3.

In cloud gaming, AMD is working with CiiNow, G-Cluster, OTOY and Ubitus to deploy gaming technology across the cloud. AMD Radeon Sky Series graphics cards enable game developers and service providers to allow flexible streaming of games, without restricting users to a single device.

AMD also works with game developers to optimize PC games for AMD technology and to offer popular titles via the "Never Settle: Reloaded" game bundle. One of AMD?s key gaming partners is Nixxes, the developer behind "Deus Ex: Human Revolution," "Hitman: Absolution" and "Tomb Raider."


Home | News | All News | Reviews | Articles | Guides | Download | Expert Area | Forum | Site Info
Site best viewed at 1024x768+ - CDRINFO.COM 1998-2024 - All rights reserved -
Privacy policy - Contact Us .