AMD bolsters chip lineup with higher-clocked A10-7890K APU, Athlon X4 880K CPU

[Shawn Knight]

AMD recently announced a pair of new desktop processors, both of which are said to be the fastest chips released to date in their respective classes.

The AMD A10-7890K is the company's fastest APU yet. It features a base frequency of 4.1GHz across its four CPU cores (up to 4.3GHz Max Turbo) with a GPU frequency of 866MHz and a maximum TDP of 95 watts.

The A10-7890K will become the second processor to ship with AMD's new Wraith heatsink and fan combination which is rated at 39dB. When it was announced last month, AMD said the cooler delivers 34 percent more airflow and offers 24 percent more cooling fin surface area compared to its predecessor.

The Athlon X4 880K, meanwhile, is a quad-core CPU clocked at 4.0GHz (up to 4.2GHz Turbo) and is the fastest Athlon X4 chip AMD has ever produced. It, too, features a maximum TDP of 95 watts but ships with the 125W AMD Thermal Solution – essentially the same cooler as the Wraith but without the illuminated fan shroud.

Of course, if you plan to use an aftermarket cooler, neither of these new AMD-branded cooling solutions will matter to you.

Pricing is set at $164.99 for the A10-7890K while the Athlon X4 880K will retail for $94.99. AMD says they should be available for purchase at select retailers and online by the end of the month.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/63978-amd-bolsters-chip-lineup-higher-clocked-a10-7890k.html

 

[oldikes]

How does the X4 perform compared to the comparable fx processors I wonder?

 

[Technician]

Awesome, bolstering the ranks with more second rate junk. well played.

 

[Anthony K]

You are def not much of a good tech with those low comments there - Technician. Seems like you need to go back to college, and beef up your tech knowledge or learn some common curteousy. AMD cpu are very good processors, and without AMD we would all be stuck in the 486 or low end Pentium field right now. Competition is good, be happy they are around.

 

[penn919]

Don't even think about it. Wait for Zen.

 

[cartera]

You are def not much of a good tech with those low comments there - Technician. Seems like you need to go back to college, and beef up your tech knowledge or learn some common curteousy. AMD cpu are very good processors, and without AMD we would all be stuck in the 486 or low end Pentium field right now. Competition is good, be happy they are around.

I think what technician is getting at is that AMD doesn't seem to be even trying to push Intel out of the top spot and is adding more processors to the already saturated lower to mid markets.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

You are def not much of a good tech with those low comments there - Technician. Seems like you need to go back to college, and beef up your tech knowledge or learn some common curteousy. AMD cpu are very good processors, and without AMD we would all be stuck in the 486 or low end Pentium field right now. Competition is good, be happy they are around.

I think what technician is getting at is that AMD doesn't seem to be even trying to push Intel out of the top spot and is adding more processors to the already saturated lower to mid markets.

OK, but isn't the competition as it exists good for consumers? Consider if it were Intel alone - a world with dual core 486's at 2Ghz for a measly $2,000.

 

[cartera]

It's good but could be considerably better. We will have to see what Zen brings but AMD seem to have been hitting the snooze button for years.

 

[madboyv1]

Consider if it were Intel alone - a world with dual core 486's at 2Ghz for a measly $2,000.

Considering the package size and your average 486 was running 50Mhz, I'd be super impressed at a dual core 80486 package @ 40x the original clockspeed, but that's just me.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Considering the package size and your average 486 was running 50Mhz, I'd be super impressed at a dual core 80486 package @ 40x the original clockspeed, but that's just me.

Somewhat impressive, but still it might have been twice the cost for half the speed and 1/16 of the cores. I'm not saying there would not have been some good improvement, just the competition is a prod to better in many cases.

 

[Benjiwenji]

You are def not much of a good tech with those low comments there - Technician. Seems like you need to go back to college, and beef up your tech knowledge or learn some common curteousy. AMD cpu are very good processors, and without AMD we would all be stuck in the 486 or low end Pentium field right now. Competition is good, be happy they are around.

I think what technician is getting at is that AMD doesn't seem to be even trying to push Intel out of the top spot and is adding more processors to the already saturated lower to mid markets.

You fail to recognize the fact that AMD has less than a fraction of Intel's funds and resources. You should have respect for AMDs progress and efforts despite its obvious disadvantages. Don't so quick to overlook AMD innovations such as the x64 architecture. I personally understand the values of APUs. The vast majority of the GPU market is actually in iGPUs, and AMD is the only option for good iGPU performance at an affordable price. Note that AMD has created good iGPU, all that's left is to master its IPC in CPU, hopefully via Zen, then AMD will gain market share.

 

[Technician]

The thing that drives prices down is mass production. The thing that drives better products is the need for new sales. If Intel never made a CPU that was better than its last one, why would anyone buy one? If Intel was only building to just edge out AMD, they wouldn't be making the products they are, they'd be making only slightly better than AMD stuff using their designs. Intel's biggest competition is itself.

 

[Benjiwenji]

It's good but could be considerably better. We will have to see what Zen brings but AMD seem to have been hitting the snooze button for years.

It could always be better. It's easy for you as a bystander to criticize AMD when you are not even held accountable for your comments on the internet. Don't you know that AMD is against a giant in a seemingly impossible match? Just how do you want AMD to beat Intel?

Not to mention that when AMD had a fighting chance, Intel cheated AMD out of the market.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/nov/04/intel-bribed-for-bribery-coercion

 

[Cycloid Torus]

The thing that drives prices down is mass production. The thing that drives better products is the need for new sales. If Intel never made a CPU that was better than its last one, why would anyone buy one? If Intel was only building to just edge out AMD, they wouldn't be making the products they are, they'd be making only slightly better than AMD stuff using their designs. Intel's biggest competition is itself.

I'm going to disagree with that a bit. Yes, mass production helps. Yes, dedicated professional scientists and engineers help. Who takes the benefit depends on the marketplace structure...ask Mr. Shkreli ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli ).

It is not "black or white" - but grays. If AMD didn't exist, something would rise in its place - though possibly less effective / smaller / etc. Without some kind of competition as a stalking horse, the engineers would not get the budget that they do ("suits rule").

 

[Benjiwenji]

The thing that drives prices down is mass production. The thing that drives better products is the need for new sales. If Intel never made a CPU that was better than its last one, why would anyone buy one? If Intel was only building to just edge out AMD, they wouldn't be making the products they are, they'd be making only slightly better than AMD stuff using their designs. Intel's biggest competition is itself.

You couldn't be more wrong. Mass production only lower the production cost. However, in a market economy, competition, or substitutions, actually shifts the demand curve, which ultimately dictates the highest price which consumers are willing to pay for a product.

 

[Cryio]

The Athlon 880K, while overclocked, should be the perfect CPU for GPUs up to Nvidia 960 or AMD 380.

 

[Benjiwenji]

It is! I have the 760k @ 4.6 paired with a r9 280, and they are perfect together. I get solid 1080p/60fps on BF4 Ultra preset and 1080p/50fps on Fallout 4 Ultra with all game works 'features' disabled. It's only cooled by a $20 CM hyper T4, can probably get close 5 Ghz with cryorig h7.