News - AMD introduces Kaveri APUs

[HEXUS]

New architecture features Steamroller cores, GCN graphics and HSA compliance.

Read more.

[exoticgamerarcelan]

Thats another achievement for AMD! Amd has been an underdog for several years now its showing its true colours! I personally own a VISHERA AMD FX 4350 And thats working up to the hour! I havent found any bad circumstances, and this KAVERI is a whole new technology from AMD APU's! Hope alot of this.

[najiro]

^ I don't think AMD is an underdog. AMD just needs to focus on the mid-range end of the market where intel doesn't really give much attention.

[SkarKrow]

AMD has always been the underdog, they made some great parts and squandered it though. They've been flailing for several years and are just barely recovering now.

Hopefully these parts are good but with that said an APU isn't enough horseppower for my needs, wonder if the rumours of an 8 core APU with more powerful graphics held any stock.

[glitch]

I had a Trinity A6 5600K until 3 weeks ago and I wasn't impressed. It was supposed to be and upgrade from an unlocked Athlon 450 to Phenom X4 (L3 chache unlocked too) but it wasn't. The Phenom was snappier, it could handle the load smoother. Maybe it was the L3 cache that made the difference...Hope the new architecture solved some problems. Let's see some reviews.

[cheesyboy]

...... wonder if the rumours of an 8 core APU with more powerful graphics held any stock.

AMD have published their 2014 server roadmap with no Steamroller units above 4 cores. THere's also an extended server roadmap, which AMD used in a recent conference presentation, which shows no replacement for Piledriver in >4 core format during 2015 either (even with excavator on the scene). If it isn't in servers, it won't be in retail. A real shame

2015 server roadmap article;
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/dis...r_Servers.html

[cheesyboy]

I had a Trinity A6 5600K until 3 weeks ago and I wasn't impressed. It was supposed to be and upgrade from an unlocked Athlon 450 to Phenom X4 (L3 chache unlocked too) but it wasn't. The Phenom was snappier, it could handle the load smoother. Maybe it was the L3 cache that made the difference...Hope the new architecture solved some problems. Let's see some reviews.

Was that the A6 5400k or the A8 5600k?

The A6 is a dual core (single Piledriver module) unit, so would be a substantial downgrade on a Phenom x4. The A8 would be a sidegrade or small downgrade on the CPU side, but with a decent onboard graphics added.

[glitch]

It was an A8, sorry, my bad... A8 5600k quad core, 256 GPU cores.

[scaryjim]

... no replacement for Piledriver in >4 core format during 2015 either (even with excavator on the scene). If it isn't in servers, it won't be in retail. A real shame

I'm pretty sure AMD have now decided that they don't want to invest time and resources developing a new high-core-count server die but still have to put silicon area into a DDR3 memory controller. The only possible reason for the delay (IMNSHO, anyway) is that they want to go DDR4-only with their Excavator (and beyond) server chips and the market won't support that move from just AMD (nowhere near enough server market share for RAM manufacturers to ramp production and bring down costs). Mainstream DDR4 acceptance simply cannot come soon enough for AMD.

Was that the A6 5400k or the A8 5600k?

The A6 is a dual core (single Piledriver module) unit, so would be a substantial downgrade on a Phenom x4. The A8 would be a sidegrade or small downgrade on the CPU side, but with a decent onboard graphics added.

Pretty much the question I was going to ask. I'm not really sure how you would ever get the idea that even an A8 5600k would be a significant upgrade over a 3.2GHz Phenom II X4, let alone an A6 5400k (depending on what you have). I'm also not sure what load you were using that it couldn't handle though, given that I was happily using a 1.3Ghz Core 2 Duo as my main (non-gaming) computer until a few months ago. More details required I think - there's something mising in this story...

[cheesyboy]

I'm pretty sure AMD have now decided that they don't want to invest time and resources developing a new high-core-count server die but still have to put silicon area into a DDR3 memory controller. The only possible reason for the delay (IMNSHO, anyway) is that they want to go DDR4-only with their Excavator (and beyond) server chips and the market won't support that move from just AMD (nowhere near enough server market share for RAM manufacturers to ramp production and bring down costs). Mainstream DDR4 acceptance simply cannot come soon enough for AMD.

DDR4 is a factor, but one among a few. It can explain away the lack of multi-core SR, but not so much Excavator.

My guess is that it's also down to fab capacity on the new 28nm process, and mainstream APUs get priority. AMD already sell approx 2x as many APUs as CPUs (in turnover terms), and that is the direction they want to push in.

Their traditional big core server share is still shrinking, and PD is still selling reasonably well in retail - so it's just not worth the cost of designing, taping out, and ramping up production of a whole new core (all the Kaveri chips are the same tape-out, as were Richland and Trinity - they just laser off the links to the redundant bits).

They could drop SR into AM3+, though not with onboard graphics - a new chipset would be required for that, and DDR4's arrival makes that move a bit short term. However, Excavator is being designed with DDR4 support, per AMD's slide, so it must be strategic that we aren't seeing >4-cores.

[shaithis]

About time these saw the light of day....

Now I might be tempted to build a HTPC/Steambox for the bedroom

[Platinum]

/n00b, so 8 GPU cores, I am assuming that's shader clusters? whats that in actual core count? 512?

[shaithis]

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bulldo...A10-7700K.html

[glitch]

Let me tell you the whole story... The Phenom has underclocked to 2.6GHz, undervolted and passively cooled by a Scythe Ninja (I am a silent freak...). At that time I played a mmorpg and having 3 or more instances of the game opened at the same time. Even with this load I was able to see an youtube clip, browse webpages with flash content. With the Trinity I couldn't do this, the clips start freezing from time to time. And the A8 was running at full speed.

[DanceswithUnix]

There was originally talk of 6 cores on FM2, but looks like they dropped that in favour of using the space for graphics.

[Platinum]

Even though I have a media machine I now have the itch to get one, pair it with some very fast ram and attempt to build a ultra SFF media / Steam box, hmm, damn you AMD!
Edit only 384 shaders though, was expecting 512, time to wait for the reviews

Great to see AMD pushing forward and innovating though.