AMD Unleashes 2nd-Gen A-Series APUs for Laptops, Desktops
AMD has released 13 new A-Series APUs for desktops and laptops.
On Tuesday AMD officially announced a refresh of its A-Series of APUs for notebooks and desktops. The updated APUs not only bring speed and performance improvements over the previous generation, but allows desktop users to tune both x86 and graphics settings in a single processor for boosted performance. The new chips also offer AMD Dual Graphics for an up to 144-percent visual performance boost when a select APU is paired with a select AMD Radeon HD 6500 Series graphics card.
"The new AMD A-Series family of APUs improves the first generation of highly successful and revolutionary desktop and notebook processors, providing an outstanding experience for consumers seeking more responsive multitasking, long battery-life, vivid graphics, lifelike games, lag-free videos and the ultimate multimedia performance," the company said.
According to AMD, the updated A-Series APUs combine up to four x86 CPU cores with up to 400 Radeon cores, delivering DirectX 11-capable, discrete-level graphics and dedicated HD video processing on a single chip. Also included is AMD's Steady Video which is designed to stabilize videos during playback, making unsteady, jumpy content look steady and smooth as you watch. Select systems using AMD A-Series APUs will also receive an AMD Steady Video plugin for Internet Explorer 9, unlocking one-click control "to simplify access to the premium AMD Steady Video feature for video stabilization."
AMD said that the new desktop A-Series APUs in the component channel as well as systems based on the new APUs will hit the retail market over the next several weeks. In the meantime, here is an official list of the new A-Series APUs, broken into desktop and notebooks categories:
AMD A-Series Desktop APUs
* A8-3870K: Four CPU cores, 3.0 GHz CPU base (unlocked), 100W TDP, 400 Radeon cores, 600 MHz GPU base (unlocked), 4 MB L2 cache
* A8-3820: Four CPU cores, 2.5 GHz CPU base (2.8 GHz Turbo Core), 65W TDP, 400 Radeon cores, 4 MB L2 cache
* A6-3670K: Four CPU cores, 2.7 GHz CPU base (unlocked), 100W TDP, 320 Radeon cores, 600 MHz GPU base (unlocked), 4 MB L2 cache
* A6-3620: Four CPU cores, 2.2 GHz CPU base (2.5 GHz Turbo Core), 65W TDP, 320 Radeon cores, 4 MB L2 cache
* A4-3420: Two CPU cores, 2.8 GHz CPU base, 65W TDP, 160 Radeon cores, 1 MB L2 cache
AMD A-Series Notebook APUs
* A8-3550MX: Four CPU cores, 2.0 GHz CPU base (2.7 GHz Turbo Core), 45W TDP, 400 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
* A8-3520M: Four CPU cores, 1.6 GHz CPU base (2.5 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 400 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
* A6-3430MX: Four CPU cores, 1.7 GHz CPU base (2.4 GHz Turbo Core), 45W TDP, 320 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
* A6-3420M: Four CPU cores, 1.5 GHz CPU base (2.4 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 320 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
* A4-3330MX: Two CPU cores, 2.2 GHz CPU base (2.6 GHz Turbo Core), 45W TDP, 240 Radeon Cores, 2 MB L2 cache
* A4-3320M:Two CPU cores, 2.0 GHz CPU base (2.6 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 240 Radeon Cores, 2 MB L2 cache
* A4-3305M:Two CPU cores, 1.9 GHz CPU base (2.5 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 160 Radeon Cores, 1 MB L2 cache
* E2-3000M: Two CPU cores, 1.8 GHz CPU base (2.4 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 160 Radeon Cores, 1 MB L2 Cache
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de5_Roy finally! a 3 ghz llano, and an unlocked one at that! don't mistake it for a sandy bridge e core i7!Reply
amd keeps offering quad core mobile cpus at levels intel cannot match.
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Microgoliath otacon72 these are much cheaper than intels i3 and pack a much stronger GPU compared to what intel usually offers, so i would take these over intels stuff for laptops and low end desktops any day!.Reply -
Novuake Oe!!!! I see a new quad core laptop on the rise. Just gonna wait for the reviews of the A8-3550MX laptops to start popping up. Cant handle the horrible battery life and heat issues of compact gaming laptops.Reply
Otacon72, in the mobile space this is waaaayyyy ahead of Intel, I agree AMD is way behind in desktop processing strength, but for a mobile, low cost, long battery-life, compact product AMD Llano is great.
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BlackHawk91 Let me see: Sandy Bridge-E = 3xxxReply
Ivy Bridge = 3xxx
Llano = 3xxx
2nd-Gen A-Series = 3xxx
This is getting confusing -
dragonsqrrl MicroGoliathotacon72 these are much cheaper than intels i3The A8-3850, the processor the 3870K's replacing, is $140. So I would expect a similar price for the A8-3870K. This isn't "cheaper than intels i3", it's about $15 more.Reply -
rex86 Their apu's are the best thing that has happened after bottled beer. :)Reply
Still, I expected to see their new bulldozer based apu with updated gpu. And the codename of their 2013 platform is "Steamroller". That says something ;) -
pat otacon72...show me the benchmarks! All I want to see... cheaper but at what cost? I'll spend a few extra dollars for an exponential jump in power. Just don;t understand why AMD can't compete with intel anymore. I don't care about APUs it's made up market from AMD.Reply
AMD don't care about you. Seriously, they don't make CPU for you only. You're not going to bring them lots of money ....
For normal computer usage that 99% of people does, they are perfect CPU. The GPU will decently play casual game and video, while the CPU, even if it is not to par with Intel, will probably run at 800MHz 90% of the time thank to cool 'n quiet.
I've once been deceived about a laptop that had great Intel CPU and crappy graphic. Now, I don't care about CPU as they are perfectly powerfull enough for normal task, but rather take AMD graphic over Intel anyday. Sure, gaming or professionnal stuff is an other story... But I'M sure that AMD did not have this market in mind when they release their APU. -
joebakb srgessAmd is the shit, i mean by shit , really shit. Dedicated video card is a lot better , sure consume less but give you more. So depend on what you need you cant compare apu vs dedicated.Reply
Obvious comment is obvious...and by obvious I mean John Madden. Of course dedicated will be better. These are made to reduce power consumption while still having decent graphical smack and to make it easier to move heat out of the machine.
I'd love one of these just for work (and a little play). -
pat MicroGoliathotacon72 these are much cheaper than intels i3 and pack a much stronger GPU compared to what intel usually offers, so i would take these over intels stuff for laptops and low end desktops any day!.Reply
Like: " my I3 rendered my HD home movie fast.. now, let's move to my AMD equipped machine to watch it without choppiness.."