AMD Readies A10-7890K, A8-7690K and Athlon X4 880K Socket FM2+ Chips

Boomstick777 · 11 Sep 2015 at 13:36

AMD is planning to expand its socket FM2+ chip lineup with three new parts, the A10-7890K and A8-7690K APUs, and the Athlon X4 880K CPU. The three parts surfaced on the compatibility list of socket FM2+ motherboards by BIOSTAR. The architecture mentioned is "Kaveri," but the silicon could very well be "Godavari," (Kaveri refresh).

The refreshed lineup will be led by the A10-7890K, which features CPU clock speeds of 4.10 GHz out of the box, with an unknown TurboCore frequency (the current series leader A10-7870K offers 3.90 GHz with 4.10 GHz TurboCore). The A8-7690K offers CPU clocks of 3.70 GHz, and an unknown TurboCore frequency. There's no word on the iGPU clock speeds of the two chips. The third and most intriguing part is the Athlon X4 880K, with 4.00 GHz CPU clocks. The Athlon X4 FM2+ series lack integrated graphics, and make for good buys for people planning to build machines with discrete GPUs, on the FM2+ platform. All three chips offer unlocked base-clock multipliers, enabling CPU overclocking.

https://www.techpowerup.com/215881/...690k-and-athlon-x4-880k-socket-fm2-chips.html

Boomstick777 · 11 Sep 2015 at 13:37

Think the Athlon X4 880K might become a real budget gem. FM2+ mobo's are cheap as chips, throw in a 880K 4GHz quad core and something like an 370 and you have a cheap lil gaming build.

ukxenon · 11 Sep 2015 at 17:38

or a cheap media pc

mmj_uk · 11 Sep 2015 at 18:01

The architecture mentioned is "Kaveri," but the silicon could very well be "Godavari," (Kaveri refresh).

It'll just be an increase in clockspeeds due to maturing manufacturing process. AMD are just re-releasing stuff and giving them new codenames to make it seem like they're actually new.

Scougar · 11 Sep 2015 at 18:50

This is great news. Depending on the turbo speeds of the 880k and 7890k this will be a worthwhile upgrade for me, as I currently overclock to 4.3Ghz and I wouldn't mind being able to stably overclock higher on lower voltage. Going from 7850k to the 7870k is not worth the outleigh for me really, but this might do.

I may even consider just going with the 880k since I now have a discrete graphics card, but it depends on how the 880k compares to the 7890k in overclocking and general performance.

Davedree · 11 Sep 2015 at 20:51

mmj_uk said:
It'll just be an increase in clockspeeds due to maturing manufacturing process. AMD are just re-releasing stuff and giving them new codenames to make it seem like they're actually new.

And all that will consist of is a soldered Ihs like the 7870k instead of the conventional tim, and refined p-states.

Scougar · 11 Sep 2015 at 21:34

Soldered IHS did wonders for the sandybridge stuff, so why is that a complaint?

The IPC itself hasn't changed, but then neither has the TDP, so if it clocks further on the same TDP, what's the issue?

Boomstick777 · 11 Sep 2015 at 22:18

Scougar said:
This is great news. Depending on the turbo speeds of the 880k and 7890k this will be a worthwhile upgrade for me, as I currently overclock to 4.3Ghz and I wouldn't mind being able to stably overclock higher on lower voltage. Going from 7850k to the 7870k is not worth the outleigh for me really, but this might do.

I may even consider just going with the 880k since I now have a discrete graphics card, but it depends on how the 880k compares to the 7890k in overclocking and general performance.

You might find the 880K clocks better as it has no IGPU. Interested to see if the GPU part is getting another clock boost on the 7890K, like 7870K VS 7850K.

How to you find the 7850K with DGPU for gaming? Does it hold back your GPU much?

Davedree · 11 Sep 2015 at 22:34

Scougar said:
Soldered IHS did wonders for the sandybridge stuff, so why is that a complaint?

The IPC itself hasn't changed, but then neither has the TDP, so if it clocks further on the same TDP, what's the issue?

it's not a complaint, I'm stating the 2 main reason for the illusion that the silicon is improved. Soldered Ihs provides 10c-13c headroom, meaning brickwall 4.3-4.4ghz now becomes 4.5-4.6 with exceptions above

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=28169072&postcount=12

my complaint is where the .... is Carizzo I need a laptop.

Scougar · 12 Sep 2015 at 03:11

Boomstick777 said:
You might find the 880K clocks better as it has no IGPU. Interested to see if the GPU part is getting another clock boost on the 7890K, like 7870K VS 7850K.

How to you find the 7850K with DGPU for gaming? Does it hold back your GPU much?

Honestly, it's been great. It does not appear to hold back games that I've noticed. The only limitation is my GPU now it seems (which is actually not limiting by the way). Even Planetside 2 which is really CPU intensive (and favours intel) runs fantastically on it. I've actually been really impressed with it.

If hybrid crossfire had worked as intended, it would have been a great match with the other gpu I got for it, but I honestly cannot recommend that setup, at least for the games I tried with it (mostly dx9 stuff at the time though, which doesn't officially support CF).

I honestly don't think I'm doing purchases justification here either. I will completely admit that if I'd save more I would have preferred to get an i5 or better, but at the time I wanted a machine that would just make life bearable again with games, and it achieved that and more. Then with the discrete R9 380 4GB added, bizarrely when I was seeing cpu limitations previously (in PS2) those were now gone, and only showing GPU limitations for example.

If people have the money I will still recommend the i5 given my previous good experience with them, but on a budget these fit the bill, but ONLY if not wanting or being unable to afford a dedicated gpu. I only got it as a stepping stone product and it has worked out better than I ever expected.

TL;DR: It's been great, I would definitely recommend it for single GPU situations if on a budget.

Davedree said:
it's not a complaint, I'm stating the 2 main reason for the illusion that the silicon is improved. Soldered Ihs provides 10c-13c headroom, meaning brickwall 4.3-4.4ghz now becomes 4.5-4.6 with exceptions above

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=28169072&postcount=12

my complaint is where the .... is Carizzo I need a laptop.

Does make me wonder if the 7890k or 880k will clock higher -on average- than the 7870k, or it's as you say, they are just chancing it and there is now naturally more headroom.

On an interesting note, disabling the iGPU has done nothing to help improve overclocking.

TheMorningStar · 12 Sep 2015 at 06:53

Boomstick777 said:
Think the Athlon X4 880K might become a real budget gem. FM2+ mobo's are cheap as chips, throw in a 880K 4GHz quad core and something like an 370 and you have a cheap lil gaming build.

How do they compare to the Phenom II clock for clock, out of interest?

joeyjojo · 12 Sep 2015 at 10:51

TheMorningStar said:
How do they compare to the Phenom II clock for clock, out of interest?

The 2012 X4s were slightly slower than their Phenom II equivalents clock for clock on anand's limited set of benchmarks:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/102?vs=1284
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare_CPUs/AMD_AD750KWOA44HJ,AMD_HDZ965FBK4DGI/

Gaming could be a different story.

Boomstick777 · 12 Sep 2015 at 14:13

joeyjojo said:
The 2012 X4s were slightly slower than their Phenom II equivalents clock for clock on anand's limited set of benchmarks:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/102?vs=1284
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare_CPUs/AMD_AD750KWOA44HJ,AMD_HDZ965FBK4DGI/

Gaming could be a different story.

Looking at that link we can see the older X4 750K was clocked at 3.4GHz, these new chips coming in at 4.0GHz so should do a bit better. Def potential for a great budget CPU.

TheMorningStar · 12 Sep 2015 at 19:09

I knew the Phenom II would be better but not bad performance for entry/mid level and APU parts, as everything clocks over 4ghz these days, even above 5ghz at times more value still.

Scougar · 12 Sep 2015 at 20:17

The phenom 2 I had I wasn't impressed with. This 7850k doesn't seem to be that fast behind an i5 at least in the games I remember playing previously with my i5.

TheMorningStar · 12 Sep 2015 at 20:51

Scougar said:
The phenom 2I had I wasn't impressed with. This 7850k doesn't seem to be that fast behind an i5 at least in the games I remember playing previously with my i5.

I regard the Phenom II as the last good chip that could compare against intel. My mate went with the Q6600 and mine is a much better system overall. He's still got it too, we are pretty poor technician types with mortgages now. Life's a bit **** in your 30s

The mistake I made with my Phenom II system was not waiting for the DDR3 versions, this blocked off incremental upgrades as the only viable path was a CPU swapout which I didn't need for 60hz gaming or a full CPU/MOBO/RAM upgrade which was a lot of outlay for to little reward.

Scougar · 14 Sep 2015 at 13:44

I'm in my 30's doing software dev.... yet still struggle

I was thinking a little about my comments about how impressed I am with the 7850k for the money. I looked at my performance against a random 'ultra' grid autosport chart/bench with the same card. I can't remember where I saw it, but at a higher resolution than mine, and I set everything to the highest it could go (I didn't look at how they configured it except they said 'ultra'), and mine was lower.

Made me think that although I'm impressed with the chip, I don't have another platform to compare it to to say whether or not it is actually holding the gpu back or not. So from now on, until I can make some form of comparison I will not say things like 'it won't hold it back', because I don't really have the evidence to back myself up.

TheMorningStar · 16 Sep 2015 at 05:46

Well the Intels have a fair lead in the high end, integrated gfx are right on top of AMD at the moment I think. Much stronger single threaded performance on intel. DX12 removes a lot of this but that's tomorrows games. A 380 is a realistic match with your CPU, our systems are probably pretty similar in both CPU and GFX performance, wont feel a bottleneck on 1080p 60hz that's worth talking about. If you are CPU bound you can keep upping the eye candy, max AA and the like without noticing a difference in frame rate.

Boomstick777 · 16 Sep 2015 at 16:36

Scougar said:
I'm in my 30's doing software dev.... yet still struggle

I was thinking a little about my comments about how impressed I am with the 7850k for the money. I looked at my performance against a random 'ultra' grid autosport chart/bench with the same card. I can't remember where I saw it, but at a higher resolution than mine, and I set everything to the highest it could go (I didn't look at how they configured it except they said 'ultra'), and mine was lower.

Made me think that although I'm impressed with the chip, I don't have another platform to compare it to to say whether or not it is actually holding the gpu back or not. So from now on, until I can make some form of comparison I will not say things like 'it won't hold it back', because I don't really have the evidence to back myself up.

Out of curiosity what made you choose the 7850K if your using a dedicated GPU? You could have got the Athlon 860K (£50) which is the same CPU as 7850K but without integrated graphics.

That's what is appealing about the upcoming Athlon 880K, it's the same CPU as 7870K (FM2+, PCI 3.0, SATA 3 etc) , higher clocked, binned and soldered like the 7870K but without IGPU, so lower price point. Throw in a DGPU and makes an ideal budget PC.

Scougar · 17 Sep 2015 at 05:51

I didn't initially have a gpu, and I knew this would give me a stepping stone to one later.

880k will be soldered? Nice. Might have to take a serious look at that chip depending on how they review.