"Mysterious" AMD launch (Mobile Kaveri APUs under FX)

[Bubbleawsome]

ifitcanreachspace.com
I could have sworn I saw a thread on this here, but I can't find it. Must have been another forum.

Anyways, on to the launch. All we know is that it launches June 4th. (3 days, 23 hours, 18 minutes in my time zone as of now.) Other sites (wffc through the fellows at TweakPC.de) have found a thumbnail with FX branding on it.

However, a dive into the code a few days back (Not by me) showed a script that said something to the effect of "our most advanced APU ever, coming to earth" but has been changed to:

$(this).on('finish.countdown', function(event) {
            $(this).addClass('hidden');
            $(this).parent().html('<h1 class="countdownfinish">Don’t be so impatient</h1>');

The FX branding matches the new mobility Karveri APUs.
(chart from wffctech)

I think it is safe to say they are correct with the guesses. What do we expect out of these chips?

 

[monstercameron]

it was in the vc&g forum, and they took down the mobile kaveri listing so the probability is high...

 

[Arkaign]

Somewhat OT but still related to possible launches :

I wish AMD would work a deal out to make a socket variant of the XB1 APU. The PS4 one with GDDR5 would probably be unfeasible, but the XB1 version uses shared DDR3. They might have to cut off the ESRAM, but it would be a killer laptop/HTPC chip so long as they could manage the heat.

Hmmm, maybe next die shrink if it's not currently possible. I would have to think that it would be economically not too much of a stretch considering the cost that they have them in the XB1 deal per unit.

~7770 performance with 8 Jaguar cores for $159 retail? Think it would sell decently?

 

[ninaholic37]

"our most advanced APU ever, coming to earth" but has been changed to:

Drats, maybe it's only coming to ISS then (that FX logo seems to be launching into orbit).

 

[Bubbleawsome]

~7770 performance with 8 Jaguar cores for $159 retail? Think it would sell decently?

Maybe. I loved my 7770 a year ago, but even at 1280x1024 it was struggling with medium-lows and I imagine it boxed in with a meh CPU it wouldn't do to well today as a gaming part. Great backup though.

 

[bononos]

......
Hmmm, maybe next die shrink if it's not currently possible. I would have to think that it would be economically not too much of a stretch considering the cost that they have them in the XB1 deal per unit.

~7770 performance with 8 Jaguar cores for $159 retail? Think it would sell decently?

7770 perf would be very good for mobile gaming but Jaguar cores would hold it back since Jaguar is only slightly better than Bobcat cores.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Mobile is the only place it would be attractive, otherwise I would not want to burden myself with such a slow cpu in case I wanted to upgrade to a high level card later.

Dont really think it is going to happen anyway. HD7770 draws 80 watts I believe, and the cpu would draw another 30 watts or more, so to get that performance in a mobile power envelope they would need 2 or 3 times the performance per watt, not to mention a method to overcome the bandwidth problem.

 

[parvadomus]

Hope this be a 6-core part, that would be amazing. Btw, that FX-7500 may be competitive with mobile i5/i7 in performance/watt, lets see if it really delivers.

 

[NostaSeronx]

All the mobile "Kaveri" APUs will be able to have flat memory(hUMA) with Topaz(Iceland) and Amethyst(Tonga) dGPUs.

 

[piesquared]

7770 perf would be very good for mobile gaming but Jaguar cores would hold it back since Jaguar is only slightly better than Bobcat cores.

Jaguar is substantially better performance than Bobcat. In fact it has higher performance than silvermont both in performance and IPC.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Somewhat OT but still related to possible launches :

I wish AMD would work a deal out to make a socket variant of the XB1 APU. The PS4 one with GDDR5 would probably be unfeasible, but the XB1 version uses shared DDR3. They might have to cut off the ESRAM, but it would be a killer laptop/HTPC chip so long as they could manage the heat.

Hmmm, maybe next die shrink if it's not currently possible. I would have to think that it would be economically not too much of a stretch considering the cost that they have them in the XB1 deal per unit.

~7770 performance with 8 Jaguar cores for $159 retail? Think it would sell decently?

why would they need to work out a deal? and why would you want pitiful jaguar cores instead of steamroller? Give me the 2 module/4 core steamroller over 8 jaguar cores any day (although, since we're resurrecting FX, might as well at least go 3 module/6 core). The only thing the console APUs have going for them is the fact that they pack much beefier GPUs which can be justified by fast memory; quad channel GDDR5 or quad channel DDR3 with ESRAM buffer, whereas AMD has been on dual channel DDR3 for years now for their desktop CPUs/APUs

All they need to do is up the GCN cores for the iGPU and then find a way to feed it some real bandwidth, but they're choosing not to do that, likely because its just not going to be a very elegant solution, one that will really only benefit their flagship SKUs. they could give us a quad channel memory controller, but we're still stuck on DDR3, and they'd still need to give it a ton of "L4" cache like the XBone or Intel with Crystalwell, something that isn't an easy decision to make when you don't have the same silicon budget like Intel does (MS had to sacrifice on GPU size)

Now it seem like the most ideal situation would be to have a stacked memory solution like with HBM or HMC to feed it some killer bandwidth on a massive buffer, but it doesn't look like consumers will see that technology for another year or two.

 

[monstercameron]

for me -even though multithreaded s/w support is spotty at best- give me 16-32 puma+ cores vs 4 steamroller modules+tonnes of cache. Why? if mantle/dx12 is the way forward then fast cpus wont be the end all be all as they are with the current driver module. As for general software, more and more things get multithreaded, also just multitasking will benefit.

example scenario:
playing a game, recording it locally, encoding and streaming in online, multiple browser tabs open on a 2nd or 3rd monitor...not saying this couldnt be done efficiently now with a fx8350 but 16-32 puma+ cores @3ghz would do just fine, that is if it is priced at ~$200

 

[Fjodor2001]

Some comments:

* I think these SKUs look the most tempting (because of high performance, but still low TDP)

AMD A6-7000: 2C, 2.2/3.0 GHz, 192 R4 GPU cores @ 494/533 MHz, TDP 17 W
AMD FX-7500: 4C, 2.5/3.4 GHz, 384 R6 GPU cores @ 533/756 MHz, TDP 19 W

* Looking at the data in the previous bullet, it's interesting to notice how much "extra" you get for only 2 W more TDP when going from the A6-7000 to the FX-7500!

* Why are they using the FX brand for mobile/laptop CPUs? Previously it was only used for top end desktop CPUs. What does the FX brand actually mean nowadays?

* I'd like to see some real performance and battery life test results before making up my mind on these CPUs. But I think it looks quite promising.

 

[parvadomus]

Some comments:

* I think these SKUs look the most tempting (because of high performance, but still low TDP)

AMD A6-7000: 2C, 2.2/3.0 GHz, 192 R4 GPU cores @ 494/533 MHz, TDP 17 W
AMD FX-7500: 4C, 2.5/3.4 GHz, 384 R6 GPU cores @ 533/756 MHz, TDP 19 W

* Looking at the data in the previous bullet, it's interesting to notice how much "extra" you get for only 2 W more TDP when going from the A6-7000 to the FX-7500!

* Why are they using the FX brand for mobile/laptop CPUs? Previously it was only used for top end desktop CPUs. What does the FX brand actually mean nowadays?

* I'd like to see some real performance and battery life test results before making up my mind on these CPUs. But I think it looks quite promising.

The FX brand means it goes again i5/i7 (at least thats what I think).

 

[Techhog]

for me -even though multithreaded s/w support is spotty at best- give me 16-32 puma+ cores vs 4 steamroller modules+tonnes of cache. Why? if mantle/dx12 is the way forward then fast cpus wont be the end all be all as they are with the current driver module. As for general software, more and more things get multithreaded, also just multitasking will benefit.

example scenario:
playing a game, recording it locally, encoding and streaming in online, multiple browser tabs open on a 2nd or 3rd monitor...not saying this couldnt be done efficiently now with a fx8350 but 16-32 puma+ cores @3ghz would do just fine, that is if it is priced at ~$200

$200 for all that? Well, at least you have dreams.

I'd also hate to see the size of this chip. And the cooler? Oh boy...

 

[TeknoBug]

There's an FX 670K out there too, probably a renamed A10 7600 (identical specs).

And hehehehe "tonnes".

 

[inf64]

There's an FX 670K out there too, probably a renamed A10 7600 (identical specs).

And hehehehe "tonnes".

Nope, that is Richland(PD based).

 

[Homeles]

Drats, maybe it's only coming to ISS then (that FX logo seems to be launching into orbit).

Extremely unlikely that Kaveri would pass radiation hardening requirements.

 

[AtenRa]

I dont believe there is that much radiation if at all in that orbit, otherwise you wouldnt have humans stay for long periods of time in the ISS.

 

[PPB]

Extremely unlikely that Kaveri would pass radiation hardening requirements.

Llano was really good radiation tolerant itself (still functioning after 17 Mrad)

 

[frozentundra123456]

Some comments:

* I think these SKUs look the most tempting (because of high performance, but still low TDP)

AMD A6-7000: 2C, 2.2/3.0 GHz, 192 R4 GPU cores @ 494/533 MHz, TDP 17 W
AMD FX-7500: 4C, 2.5/3.4 GHz, 384 R6 GPU cores @ 533/756 MHz, TDP 19 W

* Looking at the data in the previous bullet, it's interesting to notice how much "extra" you get for only 2 W more TDP when going from the A6-7000 to the FX-7500!

* Why are they using the FX brand for mobile/laptop CPUs? Previously it was only used for top end desktop CPUs. What does the FX brand actually mean nowadays?

* I'd like to see some real performance and battery life test results before making up my mind on these CPUs. But I think it looks quite promising.

Those TDPs dont make sense. I mean you can set the TDP at whatever you want, but twice the cpu cores, twice the gpu cores, and faster clocks for only 10% higher real world power usage seems impossible.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Those TDPs dont make sense. I mean you can set the TDP at whatever you want, but twice the cpu cores, twice the gpu cores, and faster clocks for only 10% higher real world power usage seems impossible.

Unless the A6-7000 is just really bad silicon maybe. It probably is a salvaged die that has the other parts still physically there, and I think some of those parts even if not in use can still take energy. Also, for the A6-7000 to have a lower speed and half the cores on the GPU/CPU, it must really be the 'worst' part from the finished wafer other than completely unusable parts.

*edit - I don't think it is so much that the FX-7500 needs only two watts more for doubling up everything and faster clocks so much as the silicon in the A6-7000 needs the 17 watt TDP just to run as it does due to manufacturing defects.

 

[Homeles]

I dont believe there is that much radiation if at all in that orbit, otherwise you wouldnt have humans stay for long periods of time in the ISS.

They're subjected to the same radiation in day that the average human on Earth would receive in a year.

Llano was really good radiation tolerant itself (still functioning after 17 Mrad)

Grammatical train wreck aside...

Llano was built on SOI.

 

[PPB]

They're subjected to the same radiation in day that the average human on Earth would receive in a year.

Grammatical train wreck aside...

Llano was built on SOI.

So SOI wasnt the POS every usual suspect here claimed it was? Good to know

 

[Homeles]

So SOI wasnt the POS every usual suspect here claimed it was? Good to know

SOI isn't a "POS." The question that's usually raised is its cost effectiveness for terrestrial applications. But it's definitely good for use in space.

If I recall correctly, FinFETs are better than planar as well, and better still would be SOI-FinFETs.

I suppose it's possible that they're bringing Kaveri on board the ISS... they just had a team go up there. I just wouldn't expect Kaveri to be very durable in that environment.

Kind of seems silly to announce some astronauts have Kaveri laptops on the ISS... AMD loves their gimmicks.