AMD Price Cuts

[Roland00Address]

From Anandtech Pipeline

Besides the price drops, AMD is also announcing a gaming bundle through the end of October for their A10 APUs (7850K, 7800, 7700K, 6800K, and 6790K): purchasers of one of those APUs can select one of Murdered: Soul Suspect, Thief, or Sniper Elite 3 using the code that comes inside the box. Alternatively, the code can be used to purchase Corel Aftershot Pro 2 for $5 (instead of the normal $60+).
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8637/amd-apu-price-cuts-and-bundles-october-2014

So after the price cut the cheapest SKU with a bundle would be the 6800k for $112 and the cheapest Kaveri would be the 7700k for $123

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

The x4 860K is an unlocked processor whose clockspeed we know won't be affected by GPU loads. Its stock clocks are also higher than the A8-7600.

If the A8-7600 (a locked processor) throttles under GPU load like the A10-7850K and A10-7700K, this will increase the cpu gap between it and the Athlon x4 860K even further.

Again, you are ignoring the fact that the 860K and 7600 chips are roughly the same price -- but you are forced to buy a dedicated video card with the 860K..... Thus, making it a considerably more expensive option.

The vast majority of APU's in the wild are not running dedicated video cards.

 

[cbn]

Mini-ITX will always carry a price premium, it seems, though there isn't ample justification for such pricing other than people are keen on SFF right now. But an SFF HTPC is a good place for an APU, imo.

You are right in that Mini-ITX does carry a price premium, but I feel there is still room for lower priced FM2+ Mini-ITX (re: the lowest chipset being currently used for FM2+ Mini boards is the A78 and using the A58 would make the board cheaper. Furthermore, I believe there is room to reduce some other features on the boards as well.)

 

[crashtech]

Again, you are ignoring the fact that the 860K and 7600 chips are roughly the same price -- but you are forced to buy a dedicated video card with the 860K..... Thus, making it a considerably more expensive option.

The vast majority of APU's in the wild are not running dedicated video cards.

I think what he is saying is the APU might not achieve its full potential if it is throttling due to high simultaneous loads on both the CPU and iGPU. An aftermarket cooler may be the cure for this.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Is that still the case under a decent budget air cooler like the Hyper 212 Evo?

Nope, none of these chips throttle with an aftermarket cooler. A $16 DeepCool cooler is good enough for even the hottest A10.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281379634239?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

I think what he is saying is the APU might not achieve its full potential if it is throttling due to high simultaneous loads on both the CPU and iGPU. An aftermarket cooler may be the cure for this.

It is -- the throttling is a result of the cheap factory coolers.... Even my FX-8320 was throttling down under full load on the factory AMD cooler. Those factory coolers are good enough for basic/casual users (business applications) -- but heavy users like video editors or gamers really need to upgrade their cooling.... I had the same problem with the factory Intel cooler on my i7 3770K.

 

[schmuckley]

A10-7850K = $179
Really?
I'd rather spend $120 on a Thuban.
It's pretty late in the game for AMD to be so asinine.

 

[cbn]

With this new price, it's a lot like buying an Athlon X4 and getting the GPU for free.

The x4 860K is an unlocked processor whose clockspeed we know won't be affected by GPU loads. Its stock clocks are also higher than the A8-7600.

If the A8-7600 (a locked processor) throttles under GPU load like the A10-7850K and A10-7700K, this will increase the cpu gap between it and the Athlon x4 860K even further.

Again, you are ignoring the fact that the 860K and 7600 chips are roughly the same price -- but you are forced to buy a dedicated video card with the 860K..... Thus, making it a considerably more expensive option.

We can't say buying a A8-7600 is like buying an Athlon x4 860K (which is actually cheaper BTW) and getting the GPU for free. (see the first post I quoted)

Why? because the cpu on the A8-7600 is not the equivalent of the cpu of the Athlon x4 860K. The A8-7600 comes with an inferior cpu that may or may not have throttling issues which would widen the cpu gap between Athlon x4 860K even further.

 

[AtenRa]

Throttling only occurs when both CPU and iGPU are being used. When A8-7600 is used as a CPU with dGPU it doesn't throttle.

 

[positivedoppler]

Oh wow, it comes with a game bundle, ok I'm game =D

 

[cbn]

Throttling only occurs when both CPU and iGPU are being used. When A8-7600 is used as a CPU with dGPU it doesn't throttle.

That is true, but then the Athlon x4 860K is cheaper, has faster stock clocks, and is unlocked.

 

[AtenRa]

You can buy the A8-7600 and later add a dGPU as an upgrade. But I was just pointing out what happens with the throttling situation.

 

[Erenhardt]

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/memor...133,302400,302600,302666,302800,302933,303000

Can this be shown (and by, "shown," I don't mean 3% in a single benchmark, and <1% in the rest)? I've not seen it, instead basically no gains with a [single] dGPU, for at least a decade, now, in games. It would be new for games to like faster than 1600@9 by more than 0-2% (more than made up for elsewhere, even by as little as a different factory-OC GPU model).

Example:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bulldozer-ddr3-overclocking,3209-11.html

Around 10% by going with higher clocked memory (dual channel doubles bandwidth without increasing latency):
http://pclab.pl/art59350-6.html
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2349158
http://www.overclock.net/t/1438222/battlefield-4-ram-memory-benchmark

 

[crashtech]

It is -- the throttling is a result of the cheap factory coolers.... Even my FX-8320 was throttling down under full load on the factory AMD cooler. Those factory coolers are good enough for basic/casual users (business applications) -- but heavy users like video editors or gamers really need to upgrade their cooling.... I had the same problem with the factory Intel cooler on my i7 3770K.

OK. Relevant to the OP is the value proposition of the AMD APU, which according to the data, seems to be positioned just below low-end dGPU gaming systems outfitted with either 760K, 860K, G3258 CPUs, none of which will require an aftermarket cooler to prevent throttling, though obviously a dGPU needs to be added. But if an aftermarket cooler has to be figured into the cost of the system, the APU loses some of its price/performance value relative to other alternatives.

 

[cbn]

You can buy the A8-7600 and later add a dGPU as an upgrade. But I was just pointing out what happens with the throttling situation.

Thanks for the info.

How much cpu throttling can we expect from a A8-7600 under iGPU load using the stock cooler?

P.S. This was the question I should have asked you before writing my earlier response (sorry, my mistake).

 

[Paul98]

Good to see, some of those prices look nice.

But Kaveri's GPU portion has always been very bandwidth limited, I am waiting to see Carrizo and what the new compression will do to help that. Should give something like 25% boost in GPU performance alone.

 

[AtenRa]

Thanks for the info.

How much cpu throttling can we expect from a A8-7600 under iGPU load using the stock cooler?

P.S. This was the question I should have asked you before writing my earlier response (sorry, my mistake).

If I remember correctly CPU go down to 2.4GHz at 45W TDP when iGPU is working.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

We can't say buying a A8-7600 is like buying an Athlon x4 860K (which is actually cheaper BTW) and getting the GPU for free. (see the first post I quoted)

Why? because the cpu on the A8-7600 is not the equivalent of the cpu of the Athlon x4 860K. The A8-7600 comes with an inferior cpu that may or may not have throttling issues which would widen the cpu gap between Athlon x4 860K even further.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

We can't say buying a A8-7600 is like buying an Athlon x4 860K (which is actually cheaper BTW) and getting the GPU for free. (see the first post I quoted)

Why? because the cpu on the A8-7600 is not the equivalent of the cpu of the Athlon x4 860K. The A8-7600 comes with an inferior cpu that may or may not have throttling issues which would widen the cpu gap between Athlon x4 860K even further.

We can say the A8 7600 is the equivalent of the Athlon x4 860K because both CPU's are technically identical. The only real difference between them are the results of binning (different clock speeds and the Athlon variant has the iGPU disabled).

 

[cbn]

If I remember correctly CPU go down to 2.4GHz at 45W TDP when iGPU is working.

For a 65 watt comparison, It would be interesting to compare cpu throttling under iGPU load on the a8-7600 vs. the a6-7400k.

Both have 65 watt coolers, but the a6-7400K has only one module (with higher clocks, but some cache disabled) and 256 GCN stream processors rather than 384.

My guess is that under iGPU load the A8-7600 and A6-7400K would be closer than we originally thought for cpu, but the A8-7600 still wins the multi-threaded.

 

[schmuckley]

We can say the A8 7600 is the equivalent of the Athlon x4 860K because both CPU's are technically identical. The only real difference between them are the results of binning (different clock speeds and the Athlon variant has the iGPU disabled).

That architecture sucks.They knew it sucked,but went ahead and rolled with it.

and have been for 4 years. :thumbsdown:

 

[frozentundra123456]

We can say the A8 7600 is the equivalent of the Athlon x4 860K because both CPU's are technically identical. The only real difference between them are the results of binning (different clock speeds and the Athlon variant has the iGPU disabled).

Not really, because you can overclock the 860k.

 

[cbn]

We can say the A8 7600 is the equivalent of the Athlon x4 860K because both CPU's are technically identical.

They are not technically identical due to one having an unlocked multiplier and the other being locked. Furthermore, the clockspeed differences between the two chips are not exactly trivial.

With that mentioned, being technically identical wasn't even the topic of discussion.

Here was your original comment:

With this new price, it's a lot like buying an Athlon X4 and getting the GPU for free.

 

[Cerb]

Around 10% by going with higher clocked memory (dual channel doubles bandwidth without increasing latency):
http://pclab.pl/art59350-6.html

Unknown configuration, and $35 more expensive at 8GB, not merely $10 (2400@11 is very low latency stuff!). Looks like multi-GPU.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1438222/battlefield-4-ram-memory-benchmark

One game, minor improvement, and other posters were getting inconsistent results, even with that one game.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2349158

Marketing slides. Impressive.

Meanwhile, everywhere else the same thing gets tested, it amounts to nil, almost every time, for single-GPU builds, with a sharp corner around 1600MHz@9-9-9:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7583/adata-xpg-v2-review-2x8-gb-at-ddr32800-121414-165-v/4
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/32-gb-ddr3-ram,3790-10.html
It's not the games, usually, but the multi-GPU configs (in particular, compare the Xfire and single-GPU pages of the AT article). That's why I used the word, "single."

 

[CHADBOGA]

I have a lot of respect for you because of the knowledge you have, however this guy likes to behave as a troll - not just here and also on SemiAccurate forum (as nvidiot).

He is easily the best regular poster on SemiAccurate.