AMD launches Kaveri APU series, promises strong GPU performance

Scorpus

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AMD has officially taken the wraps off their brand new range of APUs, codenamed 'Kaveri'. As the successor to last year's Richland APUs, Kaveri includes new CPU cores based on AMD's 'Steamroller' architecture, plus a Radeon R7 series GPU integrated onto the die.

Starting with the CPU, Kaveri will feature up to four x86-64 cores clocked as high as 3.7 GHz, pushing up to 4 GHz as part of the APU's Turbo mode. AMD claims Steamroller is 10% faster than the last-generation architecture ('Piledriver') per-clock and per-core.

A new memory controller is also included with Kaveri, supporting DDR3-2400 and hUMA (heterogeneous unified memory access), which gives the CPU and GPU simultaneous access to the same memory. There's PCI Express 3.0 support as well, providing up to 24 lanes for better CrossFire performance.

But the best aspect of Kaveri is the improved GPU, which includes up to eight GCN compute units (512 stream processors, 32 TMUs) and clock speeds as high as 720 MHz. This Radeon R7-branded on-die GPU in the flagship A10-7850K makes the APU significantly faster than Intel's 'Haswell' Core i5-4670K with HD 4600 graphics in a number of benchmarks, according to AMD. The company also claims that 35% of Steam users have GPUs slower than the flagship Kaveri chip, and that its on-die GPU is a better option than an Intel GPU with entry-level dedicated graphics.

One of the more interesting slides that AMD provided details the performance of Kaveri versus Haswell with a dedicated Radeon R9 270X graphics card. Kaveri appears to match or perform slightly under Haswell in many of the games listed, which if priced under Intel's offering could be a very competitive option for gamers.

Kaveri naturally supports TrueAudio and Mantle, and AMD has provided some figures to go with it. In an Oxide Games demo Mantle provided up to 3x greater performance on a Kaveri APU versus DirectX, but more importantly gamers could see up to 45% better performance in Battlefield 4 with a high-end Radeon GPU. Ultra HD resolutions are supported by Kaveri, but don't expect fantastic in-game results.

To start with, AMD are launching three Kaveri SKUs: the A10-7850K, A10-7700K and A8-7600. The flagship 7850K comes with four CPU cores at 3.7 GHz plus the full eight GPU CUs; the 7700K has four cores clocked at 3.4 GHz plus six GPU CUs; and the 7600 has four 3.3 GHz CPU cores plus six GPU CUs. All chips come with 4 MB of L3 cache, a GPU clock speed of 720 MHz and configurable TDPs ranging from 45 to 95 watts.

Both the A10-7850K and A10-7700K will come bundled with Origin keys for Battlefield 4 in the box, and meet the minimum system requirements for the game. It's still unclear exactly how much these APUs will cost, but it won't be too long before they're available at retailers.

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How about steamroller desktop CPUs. APUs are great and all but.....I want the new gen of amd CPUs to come out before I buy anything.
 
These are beautiful. It's great to see AMD CPUs finally supporting PCI 3.0, and those GPU specs are pretty awesome for an APU.
 
Does having shared memory between CPU and GPU mean that it is possible to tessellate models on CPU side and may be higher quality motion blurs using pixel buffer objects?
 
Engadget reports that "...the lower-specced A8-7600 will start at $119, rising to $152 for the A10-7700K and,...$173 for the flagship A10."
 
Its on newegg right now for sale at 189.99
Link
So im glad to see up to a 10% clock to clock performance increase over its predecessor, however its sadly not as much as they have promised (Originally AMD had said 20-25%).

Im actually going to pick one of these up soon enough for an inexpensive steam machine running on the APU only (Maybe a hybrid CFX later). The 2400mhz memory controller is a very nice add on for this chip and was something I was not expecting.

I heard that too, and I find it sort of hard to believe. Unless they are trying to make sure steamroller FX will be as good as its hype....
Don't hold your breath, I believe because of the way things are going, AM3+ is dead and there is not going to be an AM4 anytime soon. The fact that AMD has basically held off on saying anything regarding their AMX platform in any of their announcements has basically shown they are focused now on APU's and the FMX platform. Sad to say, but if nothing comes out before Haswell E, I will be sticking with Intel at least for the next couple years and my FX 9590 will be the last AMD CPU I will own.
 
Sad to say, but if nothing comes out before Haswell E, I will be sticking with Intel at least for the next couple years and my FX 9590 will be the last AMD CPU I will own.
That is sad, you have been so loyal.

As long as you don't switch to nVidia. If that happens, I will need to find someone else to bicker with the nVidia FanClub. lol I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. Give me a minute to loose my giggles.

P.S. - I didn't post to be an insult, please don't take it that way.
 
That is sad, you have been so loyal.

As long as you don't switch to nVidia. If that happens, I will need to find someone else to bicker with the nVidia FanClub. lol I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. Give me a minute to loose my giggles.

P.S. - I didn't post to be an insult, please don't take it that way.
LOL none taken, however I have not bee actually that loyal, I normally swap back and forth every time I swap CPUs around. Before my Phenom I had an Core 2 Duo, before that I had an Athlon 64, Before that Pentium 4, before that Pentium 2 (Slot loader Baby, that chip was fun!). The only reason I actually had AMD 3 chips in a row was because of Cheap upgrades while using same motherboard. So its about time to move back over in a year or so to the Haswell 6 or 8 core CPU. As for GPU's, doubt ill be switching anytime soon from my 3 R9 290X's, but depending on the prices or what not, I may go over to Nvidia again though their recent practices constantly leave a bad taste in my mouth. The first ATI cards I have owned (Minus an X300 I returned years ago for compatibility issues) were my 6990's.

Oh also, my laptop is this Link
 
How about steamroller desktop CPUs. APUs are great and all but.....I want the new gen of amd CPUs to come out before I buy anything.

It's just not going to happen man. Best bet is to pick up a Vishera and overclock it to hell and back.
 
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