AMD A10 Kaveri Refresh APUs

45W 'Kaveri' APUs primed for the mainstream

In January, 2014, AMD made its newest 'Kaveri' APUs available. Three models were initially launched but only two of those made it to retail: the 95W A10-7850K and A10-7700K. The A8-7600, with its configurable 45W or 65W TDP received only a paper launch. By now there is pent-up demand for lower TDP Kaveri APUs, which AMD is addressing with this latest launch.

A trio of 28nm Kaveri APUs are being launched, with full retail availability - the A10-7800, A8-7600 and A6-7400K. All three parts share a common theme - configurable 45W or 65W operation modes.

AMD's A10-7850K already revealed the promise and performance potential of the Kaveri architecture in GPU-dominant workloads. On the other hand, it's $173 launch pricing arguably exceeds the budget for most mainstream and small form factor machines that are well suited for an APU. Furthermore, the 95W TDP limits suitability to systems with more advanced cooling methods, thus, the market is well placed to receive sub-65W parts.

The essential specifications for the trio of new APUs are illustrated in the above table. As mentioned the key inclusion is the option to select either 45W or 65W operational modes. That selection process is easily made in the BIOS where each motherboard vendor has an option that allows the user to pick a TDP of 45W, 65W and some vendors, like ASUS, allow you to pick values in-between.

AMD terms these power envelopes as 'optimised TDPs'. Each chip will be able to reach the same frequency regardless of the selected TDP, the key difference is that the average frequency will be higher for the elevated TDPs. The 65W configuration will be able to maintain the peak operating frequency for longer than the 45W profile.

In terms of pricing the A8-7600 arrives for less than expected, $101 as opposed to the $119 announced in January. That move should increase uptake among budget system builders as well as providing a decent chip for HTPCs. The addition of the new A6-7400K is an intriguing move as it lowers the entry point for Kaveri down to $77. To achieve this lowered cost AMD cuts the number of CPU cores down to two and trims 128 GCN cores off the graphics component compared to the A8-7600.

The final release, the A10-7800 - pictured above, equips the full range of Kaveri compute cores - all four CPU cores and all eight GPU cores, for 512 GCN shaders in total. Relative to the A10-7850K it is derived from, the primary difference is that the TDP has been cut to 65W/45W, achieved by reducing the base frequency by 0.2GHz and the turbo frequency by 0.1GHz.

Performance analysis

A powerful graphics processing unit is the hallmark of AMD's APU range. The flagship Kaveri parts equip a 512 GCN core Radeon R7 iGPU capable of strong performance in GPGPU compute, gaming and other GPU-centric applications.

Performance assessments from a swath of review sites reveal that Kaveri APUs deliver impressive performance in multi-threaded applications that take advantage of GPU acceleration and compute. PCMark8, shown in the graph above, demonstrates exactly that.

Summary

AMD's Kaveri APUs have been revitalised with an array of energy efficient 45W parts. Not only are these parts ideally suited for compact and small form factor systems but they come to market with lower price points making Kaveri more accessible to the mainstream. As always, Scan Computers will be stocking the widest range of AMD APUs. Please head on over to here to see our listings.