To extend its lineup of desktop processors for OEM systems, AMD has officially launched its 7th generation Bristol Ridge APUs, which are going to be used for AM4 desktop systems. The newly launched series of processors are going to be far better than the AM3+ desktop systems and we’ll highlight all of these differences for you shortly.
In total, there are 8 Bristol Ridge APUs for AM4 desktop systems, and they will also provide support for HSA compute acceleration and the latest DDR4 memory standard. The advantage of using the AM4 socket is that it will be unified for both CPUs and APUs, and provide support for Zen-architecture processors too. In short, the socket will cater to entry-level users, all the way up to enthusiasts. The core reason behind the release of AM4 socket was to ensure that the socket can be used for a variety of processors for years to come.
There are two chipsets that are going to be used on AM4 socketed motherboards:
- B350, which will cater to mainstream users
- A300, which will cater to entry-level users
The Bristol Ridge APUs also features 8 Gen 3 PCIe lanes, dual channel DDR4 support, 4 USB 3.1 channels and 2 SATA + 2 NVMe or 2 PCIe expansion support. Additionally, efficiency has a new meaning for the AMD B350 chipset, and it is able to deliver up to 70 percent power reduction compared to its AM3+ predecessor. If you look at the benchmarks in the slides, the latest DDR4 memory controller is able also able to deliver up to 22 percent more bandwidth compared to the DDR3 standard.
The A12-9800 is the crown jewel of AMD’s Bristol Ridge APUs, and comes with a base clock speed of 3.8GHz and boost clock speed that goes up to 4.2GHz. Furthermore, the embedded GPU comes with the latest GCN core architecture with a total of 512 stream processors and a clock speed of 1108MHz. The highest TDP of these 7th generation Bristol Ridge APUs is 65W, while the lowest is 35W. AMD has also provided benchmarking tests against Intel’s processors and they have been detailed in the slides given below. If you are interested in finding about the rest of the Bristol Ridge APU lineup, the entire list has been given below:
- A12-9800E: 4 cores 4 threads. Base clock/boost clock: 3.1GHz/3.8GHz, Radeon R7 Graphics with clock speed up to 900MHz. TDP 35W
- A10-9700: 4 cores 4 threads. Base clock/boost clock: 3.1GHz/3.8GHz, Radeon R7 Graphics with clock speed up to 1029MHz. TDP 65W
- A10-9700E: 4 cores 4 threads. Base clock/boost clock: 3.0GHz/3.5GHz, Radeon R7 Graphics with clock speed up to 857MHz. TDP 35W
- A8-9600: 4 cores 4 threads. Base clock/boost clock: 3.1GHz/3.4GHz, Radeon R7 Graphics with clock speed up to 900MHz. TDP 65W
- Athlon X4 950: 4 cores 4 threads. Base clock/boost clock: 3.5GHz/3.8GHz. TDP 35W
- A6-9500: 2 cores 2 threads. Base clock/boost clock: 3.5GHz/3.8GHz, Radeon R7 Graphics with clock speed up to 1029MHz. TDP 65W
- A6-9500E: 2 cores 2 threads. Base clock/boost clock: 3.0GHz/3.4GHz, Radeon R7 Graphics with clock speed up to 800MHz. TDP 35W
The Bristol Ridge APU lineup will have their pricing details revealed shortly, and we’ll keep tabs on them and inform you accordingly.