AMD Launches Three Kaveri APU SKUs in February 2014 – Feature Set For A10 and A8 APUs Detailed

[Boomstick777]

Between,the X4 760K,A8 5600K,the FX6300 and the FX8320,I find it hard to recommend the Core i3 CPUs,other than for certain niche situations TBH.

Not just i3, Pentium 3.2Ghz Haswell can be had for under £50, Haswell mobo about the same price, and then add a dedicated GPU, for a similar overall price to an 6800K and AMD mobo setup. The Intel system would perform better and consume less power, so it def has it's place. I have built enough of them to know they do lol.

Both Intel low end CPU and AMD APU setups are viable options.

 

[Boomstick777]

You can get the Athlon II X4 760K for around £60 though. Considering it is overclockable too,it is actually quite a decent CPU for the price. Alas,like the good old Athlon II X3,I suspect it will be ignored. The Athlon II X3 was awesome value. A mate managed to get it to unlock to a Phenom II X4 with L3 cache. Happy days!!

Regarding the APUs with IGPs,I think the A8 5600K is the sweetspot for pure value for money. At £70 it has a good IGP and almost the same CPU performance as the A10 CPUs. Only the A10-5700 and A10 6700 interest me among the more expensive APUs,as they seem nice fits for a SFF system.

Yeah agreed, their are decent budget options from both Intel and AMD, for me right now the Haswell Pentiums paired with a dedicated GPU like a HD 7750+ is a similar priced more balanced overall system, performs a lil better and uses less power. Current AMD APU's do have their place in small for factor PC's as well though, where space is very limited. I'm hoping Kaveri is a decent step up from a 6800K, the GCN SP's and SR cores might make it a better option than a cheap CPU / dedicated GPU setup. It will prob all come down to pricing.

 

[Boomstick777]

So with rumors saying there will be no desktop FX chips. Does that mean that AMD are just killing that brand name or does that mean no desktop chips at all?

Also if Kaveri APU's are the only product line, will they be mainstream, like 4670K / 4770K is for Intel, and then they have the 'E' chips for high end, whereas AMD will just have mainstream no high end?

It's confusing where the products will stack against each other..

I.e is the A10 APU 7850K being aimed at 4770K or a lower tiered Intel range? Be nice if AMD would comment on the roadmap leaks.

 

[Boomstick777]

Corsair have shed some light on AMD's lack of high end CPU only chips. It does look like AMD are set to position APU against Intel's midrange stack. Which also really are essentially APU's from Intel as well. As in all Intel's midrange stack comes with integrated graphics.

So for example we could see, A10 7850K be positioned against 4670K but priced lower w better graphics, and no direct competition for Intel's high end server chips for desktop I.e, Ivybridge -E, Haswell -E.

The future really is fusion

 

[Boomstick777]

It seems I was right about the leaked roadmap:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18563656

Im not sure what you mean by being right, but both those roadmaps are identical. The 'fake' roadmap just goes on for longer than 2014. Both roadmaps show nothing but piledriver for the high end for all of 2014. Whatever way you look at this, high end CPU space is very dull. It def looks like AMD are focusing on APU's. It looks like AMD could bring new high end stuff out when DDR4 is available.

I was hoping for a SR 8 core setup in 2014, looks like I'll keep saving for Haswell -E.

 

[Boomstick777]

Although it's got as many cores as a HD 7750, it's also a bit hamstrung by lower clock speeds and as other have pointed out, slower DDR3 memory. I doubt the APU could match a dedicated HD 7750 GPU tbh. It's def a nice step up though. Still a long way off an APU that can handle my 1440P screen... If ever lol.. I can dream.

We've got one of these incoming Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4716#ov To replace an older FM2 mobo and be paired with 5800K. Nice to have the option able to add a Kaveri later on..

 

[Boomstick777]

If HSA is well supported it won't matter about slower RAM, so it could do very well despite this handicap.

HSA is about leveraging the GPU to work alongside the CPU, to work as one unit that shares the system memory pool. It will not enhance the GPU's performance for gaming in the way you're thinking, (Mantle can do that by enabling developers to code nearer to the metal). DDR3 is slower than DDR5, HSA won't change that..

In the future an AMD APU with DDR5 and HSA would be very nice, much like the PS4's setup. The Kaveri's rumored for January look like a nice step up from Piledriver APU's but won't perform better than dedicated GPU's like the HD 7750 DDR5. The next iteration likely could though...

 

[Boomstick777]

You need lightning fast GDDR and a massively fast pci-e bus to feed it due to the massive overhead of transferring data between the system ram and the gpu memory. HSA/HUMA removes that need so even if your memory is fairly slow in comparison, it doesn't matter as it won't need to do anywhere near as many operations.

Mantle is a totally different technology...

I think you're confused.. HSA won't fabricate anymore GPU power.. With regard to ram speeds think about it, if what you're saying is true. Why would the industry be moving onto DDR4 if all we need is HSA? It'll still be faster running DDR5 / DDR4 VS DDR3 in the exact same HSA based system.

HSA allows CPU/GPU a streamlining way of processing data, think of it more as a more efficient way of processing, it would use less power than the current way of doing the same given task, but not provide more GPU power...

So an HSA based setup with the right software could run programs with a lower power envelope.

Mantle isn't technology as such, i.e it's not the hardware itself, it's an API for lower level assess to the hardware. In that respect Mantle can subtract more performance from hardware than other API's...

This is where the whole picture comes clear..

HSA provides more efficient processing, lower power envelopes.

Mantle provides more performance from graphics hardware by getting lower level asses to GPU.

By utilizing both HSA and Mantle, AMD's future APU's have a real chance of offering an all in one solution..

 

[Boomstick777]

Alleged AMD ‘Kaveri’ A10-7850K Cinebench R15 Benchmark Surfaces – Steamroller Performance Compared

Alleged Benchmark of the ”Kaveri” Flagship the A10-7850k have surfaced on the webs. The benchmark is a single image file and reveals the alleged performance of the Steamroller cores in Kaveri, ie. CPU Performance. Conveniently it is a Cinebench Bench (redundancy!) so we can see real life comparisons with other counterparts.

Read more: http://wccftech.com/amd-kaveri-a107850k-benchmark-surfaced/#ixzz2ngTGlHFb

 

[Boomstick777]

^^ Lol, why do people fake stuff like this, it's so lame..

Oh well if it is fake, not to long to wait for launch now anyway. Hopefully get some legit info soon..

 

[Boomstick777]

Looks like a nice upgrade from Piledriver APU's, prob gonna pick up a 7850K at launch just to have a play with on Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H. Time to put the old 5800K out to pasture..

 

[Boomstick777]

Kaveri review by some shady source..

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2795083406

Google translate..

 

[Boomstick777]

If the CPU part really does have that much of a boost, would be a crime not to release a full fat desktop non IGPU, 8 core, SR part

So far Kaveri looks like it could be very nice indeed..

 

[Boomstick777]

The 7800 is a (65w) part, this could mean that the GPU does not clock as high, if the APU has some sort of turbo and (720mhz) is base clock. If that is the case with the (65w) beating the 6800K slightly in GPU performance, it could mean the top part 7850K might have a significant advantage over the 6800K in GPU performance as well as CPU performance.

Looking forward to legit reviews.

 

[Boomstick777]

^^ Yeah that 65w probably has less GPU performance than the top part the 7850K, this was my point.. As a lot of people are disappointment when compared to 6800K in terms of GPU performance gain.. I think the 7850K will have a nice step up in GPU performance.. Hopefully some more reliable info will be leaked soon. CES 2014 not long now..

 

[Boomstick777]

Ok stupid question but if the A10 7850K only has 512 GCN cores why on earth did they call it the 7850K (the 7850 has 1024 GCN cores), just another confusing naming system.
One of these days we are all going to be shocked when a company comes up with a straight forward naming system.

The APU naming scheme is different from the GPU line, there is no direct correlation. A10 indicates top range, 7850K indicates a step up from the previous best chip the 6800K. So the new A10 APU high end part is A10-7850K, the actual graphics part of the chip will have a different name altogether..

 

[Boomstick777]

If they release another FM2 Athlon X4 it will be interesting, say a 770K. A £60 CPU that could stuff the FX-4350 would not be something to sniff at, especially as it would probably be able to beat or at least compete with Intel CPUs up to 2.5x it's price.

Not sure about that tbh, the dual core Haswell's can already compete with AMD's FX chips in a lot of programs and games and they start from £40.. The Haswell refresh might see Intel pull further ahead..

As an all in one solution though, these APU's look great, looking forward to trying out the 7850K.. I think AMD will shift a ton of these APU's..

 

[Boomstick777]

AMD don't price low when they think/know they're onto a winner, the FX8150 launched at what now? Oh yeah, over 200 quid.

Haha I agree, would love AMD's SR chips to have much better IPC, the leaks we had so far do look pretty good, I'll remain cautiously optimistic. The Haswell refresh could pull Intel ahead again, so might still be a large gap...

Lol @ your comment, tis very true. Remember the FX 9590 coming in at about £800 or whatever, that was crazy. I think / hope these chips will be reasonable, although I have seen the A10-7850 at around £165, hopefully that's just launch error pricing..

 

[Boomstick777]

Kaveri + 290X Running BF4 with Mantle.

Nice find.

 

[Boomstick777]

Exactly so out of all the numbers they could have chosen they randomly choose 4 in a combination that just so happens to be the same as one of their Graphics cards, completely stupid.

I dunno bud I think most people understand that a A10-7850K APU isn't the same as a HD 7850 GPU. The GPU part of the APU will have a range number like 'R7' something that indicates it's performance level..