AMD has announced its lineup of seventh generation A-series processors which will be utilizing the new AM4 socket that was announced earlier this year. In total, the company is set to bring seven brand new A-series desktop APUs to the consumer market, namely the A12-9800, A12-9800E, A10-9700, A10-9700E, A8-9600, A6-9500, and A6-950E. It’s worth mentioning that these processors will initially be made available for AMD’s OEM partners before being released for retail; which currently includes HP and Lenovo.
AMD’s most powerful seventh generation APUs are introduced under the A12 lineup of processors. These include the A12-9800 and A12-9800E; both of which are equipped with four x86 Excavator CPU cores. In addition, both APUs are also fitted with the Radeon R7 graphics processor that is capable of a maximum frequency of up to 1108MHz. Being the more powerful processor, the AMD A12-9800 APU comes with an eye-popping base and boost CPU clock speeds of 3.8GHz and 4.2GHz. Meanwhile, the AMD A12-9800E has a modest base and boost CPU clock speeds of 3.1GHz and 3.8GHz respectively.
Next are the seventh generation A10-series APUs, comprised of the AMD A10-9700 and A10-9700E processors. Like the A12 APUs, AMD has also fitted its A10 APUs with four x86 Excavator cores along with a Radeon R7 graphics processor that is capable of frequency speeds of up to 1029MHz. That aside, the A10-9700 APU comes with a base and boost CPU clock speeds of 3.5GHz and 3.8GHz respectively. Being the more energy efficient processor, AMD’s A10-9700E processor boasts CPU clock speeds of 3.0GHz (base) and 3.5GHz (boost).
Interestingly, AMD’s A8 APU lineup is made up of only a single APU called the A8-9600. Nonetheless, the A8-9600 APU has four x86 Excavator CPU cores that are capable of churning out base and boost CPU clock speeds of 3.1GHz and 3.4GHz respectively. In addition, this APU also comes with the Radeon R7 Graphics that is said to have a maximum frequency speed of 900MHz.
The final, least powerful APU from AMD is featured under its seventh generation A6-series APUs, which includes the A6-9500 and A6-9500E processors. Unlike other previously mentioned A-series APUs, AMD has decided to equip the A6 APUs with two x86 Excavator CPU cores instead. Besides that, both APUs also feature a less powerful Radeon R5 graphics processor (up to a maximum frequency speed of 1029MHz). The AMD A6-9500 APU has a CPU clock speed of 3.5GHz (base) and 3.8GHz (boost). Meanwhile, AMD’s A6-9500E APU comes with a base and boost CPU clock speed of 3.0GHz and 3.4GHz respectively.
Surprisingly, A-series APUs aren’t the only new processors that has been announced by AMD. The company has also announced a new Athlon processor called the X4 950, which features a base and boost CPU clock speeds of 3.8GHz and 3.5GHz. Being a non-APU processor means that the X4 950 does not come with an integrated graphics chip.
AMD also took the opportunity to reveal more details regarding its new AM4 socket. According to the company, this new socket will allow its new processors to have DDR4 memory support (up to 2400MHz) along with an improvement in performance compared to the previous generation processors of up to 17%. AMD will also be using the AM4 socket for its highly anticipated Zen-based processors as well.
Pricing and the exact date of availability was not mentioned by AMD. However, the company did mention that all of its new desktop-based processors can be found immediately in selected OEM PCs from its partners; which could mean that it wouldn’t be too long before we get to see these systems being sold here in Malaysia. Meanwhile, AMD also expects all of its seventh generation processors to be made available to consumers by the second half of 2016.
