AMD APU Price Cuts and Bundles, October 2014
by Jarred Walton on October 22, 2014 3:05 PM EST
AMD officially announced price cuts on their current APU product stack yesterday, which means the cost of a "mainstream" AMD system is now $20-$30 lower than before. Here's the quick rundown of features and pricing for the affected APUs, which include both the new Kaveri APUs as well as previous generation Richland APUs:
| AMD APU Pricing, October 2014 | ||||||
| Kaveri APUs | ||||||
| A-series APU Model | CPU/GPU Cores | CPU Clock | Graphics | GPU Clock | TDP (cTDP) | MSRP (USD) |
| A10-7850K | 4CPU + 512GPU | 3.7-4.0 | R7 | 720 | 95 (65/45) | $143 |
| A10-7800 | 4CPU + 512GPU | 3.5-3.9 | R7 | 720 | 65 (45) | $133 |
| A10-7700K | 4CPU + 384GPU | 3.4-3.8 | R7 | 720 | 95 (65/45) | $123 |
| A8-7600 | 4CPU + 384GPU | 3.1-3.8 | R7 | 720 | 65 (45) | $92 |
| A6-7400K | 2CPU + 256GPU | 3.5-3.9 | R5 | 756 | 65 (45) | $58 |
| Richland/Trinity APUs | ||||||
| A10-6800K | 4CPU + 384GPU | 4.1-4.4 | 8670D | 844 | 100 | $112 |
| A8-6600K | 4CPU + 256GPU | 3.9-4.2 | 8570D | 844 | 100 | $92 |
| A4-6300 | 2CPU + 128GPU | 3.7-3.9 | 8370D | 760 | 65 | $34 |
| A4-5300 | 2CPU + 128GPU | 3.4-3.7 | 7480D | 723 | 65 | $31 |
| A4-4000 | 2CPU + 128GPU | 3.0-3.2 | 7480D | 720 | 65 | $27 |
Obviously there are differences between the Kaveri and Richland/Trinity platforms and APUs, so keep in mind that Kaveri requires a socket FM2+ motherboard while Richland/Trinity uses socket FM2 (though there are boards that support both chips). The Kaveri graphics are also GCN based while Richland/Trinity use the older VLIW4 architecture, so you can't simply compare the number of GPU cores and clock speed to determine which is faster. The CPU architectures are also different, Steamroller for Kaveri and Piledriver for Richland. Finally, Kaveri APUs support Configurable TDP (cTDP), which allows you to run the APU at lower power targets while potentially giving up a bit of performance in fully loaded situations.
In terms of performance, the fastest AMD APUs basically match up against the Core i3 Intel parts on the CPU side, while the GPU portion of the APUs tends to be quite a bit faster. You can legitimately run most games at moderate details with the Kaveri R7 options, while in many cases Intel's HD 4600 will need to drop the resolution and/or quality to reach reasonable frame rates. As for Kaveri vs. Richland, the CPUs end up mostly being equal (Kaveri wins some tests and Richland wins others) while the GPU favors Kaveri.
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+).
Finally, AMD notes that the above price changes may take some time to show up at retailers. Checking Amazon and Newegg, it looks like the APUs are still priced a bit higher than the suggested prices in the above table. I've linked the prices, and all of the Kaveri APUs remain $15-$25 than the MSRP. The faster Richland APUs on the other hand are much closer to the above prices, but the budget APUs tend to be closer to $15 above MSRP right now. Most of the prices should sort themselves out in the coming days, but you'll want to shop around. Note that there are other APUs that AMD did not specifically list in the price cuts, so prices may or may not decrease on those parts.
Source: AMD PR
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Bob Todd - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
Maybe this goes to the old adage of "no bad products, just bad pricing". The A10-7850K actually looks interesting at this price compared to an i3-4330.Salvor - Thursday, October 23, 2014 - link
Although the price cut helps a bit, the main issue is still that a $60 Pentium + $80 r7 260 will perform better at that price in games. APUs are still very much for saving space (HTPC, LAN box) rather than performance/price gaming machines.przemo_li - Thursday, October 23, 2014 - link
Can that combo be loaded with 8GB (ok 4GB :P ) 2133 DDR3 RAM?Salvor - Thursday, October 23, 2014 - link
It doesn't need ot be since the discreet GPU has GDDR5 with a much higher clock.przemo_li - Saturday, October 25, 2014 - link
For that price? Will You find anything more than 2GB?While thats 4GB ram for You, right there (and another 4GB for CPU). And HUMAed too!
So its not so easy comparision.
However if somebody can't buy that 8GB of higher quality ram then ok, You prop have its merits.
Salvor - Saturday, October 25, 2014 - link
You don't need anything more than 2gb at the resolutions and settings you'll be playing at. Having more than enough RAM doesn't help your frames. Not to mention the cheaper RAM you'll buy for the CPU makes the discrete card an even better deal.Bob Todd - Thursday, October 23, 2014 - link
Indeed, which is why I have some Sandy Bridge G550 Celerons + Radeon 7850s in HTPCs at home. But that doesn't really change my point. At the new price, some of these SKUs are actually relatively competitive from a performance/price standpoint on the CPU side which has been sorely lacking from AMD. If I was going to drop $140 on an i3-4330, it would be worth my time to really consider the A10-7850K. I'd never even think twice about it previously when it was priced closer to an i5-4430 which would stomp all over the A10 cpu perf wise.eanazag - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
I skipped considering the AMD APUs because I would be interested in the higher end models and they were priced against the i5s, which was just a non-decision. This makes much more sense and should have been done earlier. At least it is now a consideration instead of straight to Intel choice.I really like the A8-7600. I think AMD should still go lower, but this is the right direction. This needs to be done with their CPU lineup.
meacupla - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
it would have been nice if they did this at around the launch of 20th anni. pentium. Then I might have considered an A8 or A10.Ken_g6 - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
It's a shame the Athlon X4 860K, or a lower-clocked version of it, wasn't discounted to more closely match, say, the Pentium G3258. Although it's on sale at Newegg for $78 after promo, so maybe it's heading that way.