News - AMD Kaveri desktop APUs: three SKUs available from Feb 2014

[MustardCutter]

from chatting to an Asus rep - its cost vs features , as they want to keep the cost down , but a sabretooth style itx board would cost similar to a full sized sabretooth!

They need not go the full sabretooth, just a mid range type affair would be an upgrade to what us ITX AMD APU users had the option to chose from. Asus didn't produce any ITX boards for AMDs APUs whatsoever. Which is really lame since they produced a nice ITX Z77 at the time. Gigabyte were very late to the party, asrock had power/heat issues and MSI and Zotac boards were very entry level to say the least.

For clarity; it was only the A75 Asrock which liked to spontaneously combust (no, really). The rarer A85x one was really good.

I can vouch first hand for the mosfet A75 heat issues, yes. Luckily I noticed the problem before it combusted and mitigated it with a heatsink and undervolting and underclocking. I believe I have also read about the A85 having similar but less severe issues too. I have heard good things about their bigger boards but this has put me off Asrock for life.

[cheesyboy]

Nah, the A85x unit had 4+2 phase VRMs with a heatsink - the 3+1 unsinked setup on the A75 was the weakness.

[Biscuit]

Mate of mine is running the A85x with an A8-5800K and it doesn't seem to get significantly hotter than i would expect VRMs to get.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Bagnaj97 has a pair of them with an A10-5800K and an Athlon II X4 760K. So,far his systems seem fine.

It alos seems the FM2+ version of the motherboard is now available:

http://www.ginger6.com/asrock-fm2a88...FbLLtAodpGcAVw

However,it does appear to have no VRM heatsink:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/FM2A88X-ITX+/
http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/FM2A85X-ITX/

[MustardCutter]

Guess I might be wrong about the a85 board then. But oh dear, no heatsink on the fm2+? They had better have made some improvements to not require one else things are gonna get toasty I'd recommend anyone considering that board slap some enzotech sinks on there.

[DanceswithUnix]

Even intel has managed to get their chips into tablets and phones, and I have yet to see an AMD-powered tablet.

Intel managed to *buy* their way into tablets and phones. I don't think they have won any designs as such. There seem to be three groups of tablets and phones these days: Samsung, Apple, and cheap Chinese stuff. Samsung and Apple make their own CPUs, the white box market want the cheapest thing going so Rockchip and MediaTek are their main suppliers.

It feels like AMD have given up trying to beat Intel at the game of "who can make the most powerful CPU" and instead diversified into new areas which allow them to excel. Particularly as they have an advantage of an in-house GPU design team.

I'd certainly consider the APU chip range as a better match for business PC's given that many business applications are moving to rich graphical interfaces rather than just crunching numbers.

I think what AMD have done makes sense for them. Who makes the fastest CPU these days is really just who can spend the most money, and we know the answer to that.

[wasabi]

Intel managed to *buy* their way into tablets and phones. I don't think they have won any designs as such.

I think what AMD have done makes sense for them. Who makes the fastest CPU these days is really just who can spend the most money, and we know the answer to that.

Have ARM won any designs? Did Asus get bought into producing the Fonepad?

I think AMD's current 'APU' strategy in the PC sector/laptop is suicidal. Other than for a few niche homebuild HTPC builders on here who will pipe up in response, APUs have no mass-market raison d'etre.

[DanceswithUnix]

Have ARM won any designs? Did Asus get bought into producing the Fonepad?

I think AMD's current 'APU' strategy in the PC sector/laptop is suicidal. Other than for a few niche homebuild HTPC builders on here who will pipe up in response, APUs have no mass-market raison d'etre.

I think we can call the iPhone/iPad and all the Samsung Galaxy range a straight win for ARM. They were the best part for the job, and designed in.

Intel allegedly paid Motorola to put an Atom in the Razr. They do that a lot, often in marketing money kick backs. Asus also need Intel motherboard chips to keep their main business afloat, something that Intel can make very good use of in price negotiations. So given the way Intel have behaved in the past coupled with the history of their relationship with Asus, I am not going to call that an Intel win. I simply don't see it as the best chip for the job. Asus wouldn't like Intel if they got angry.

Not sure where you are coming from with the APU bit. Intel are pushing the graphics part of their CPUs harder and harder with each generation, and seem to be using more and more silicon. Haswell has about a third of the die dedicated to GPU doesn't it? The scale and balance are different, but Intel and AMD essentially have the same strategy. It isn't a direction that I like, but as the market is now dominated by laptops I can see why it went that way.

[AETAaAS]

I too am confused at wasabi's APU/mass-market thing. In my view, AMDs APUs are specifically targeted at the mass market. Cheap chips that will do what a vast majority of what users will need to but still accelerate things like video decoding and the occasional video game? If you were building an internet machine/HTPC/office box or anything with a similar work load, an APU is almost certainly the way to go for its blend of value and performance.

[cheesyboy]

Have ARM won any designs? Did Asus get bought into producing the Fonepad?

I think AMD's current 'APU' strategy in the PC sector/laptop is suicidal. Other than for a few niche homebuild HTPC builders on here who will pipe up in response, APUs have no mass-market raison d'etre.

It's about the mobile space - laptops, in this instance. Trinity/Richland silicon is made for Laptops, but can also drop into desktops. The FX-series is a spin-off from their server processors, and AMD's server market share has dropped off a cliff so we aren't likely to see much development there - that's why we may never see Steamroller with 8-cores.

AMD's APUs have massively outsold their CPUs, so it's understandable why they would focus on this area.

The end-game with these APUs is Heterogeneous computing - Kaveri is the start of that and, if it is taken up as expected by developers, could put AMD in a truly enviable position - Intel has a lot of ground to cover on that front, and is a big ship to turn. AMD's smaller size and struggles to compete may have actually forced them into taking a winning path.

[loyal986]

Kaveri, I am waiting for you, here I am this is me, I am the one waiting for you, here I am calling you as intel is out of chice for me, and you are my baby

[PLAYDODGY]

I'll be watch Kaveri like a hawk! Hopefully the benchmarks will be impressive.

the onboard gpu will be same in performance as a 7750 gpu. icant wait.