AMD Kaveri Review: A8-7600 and A10-7850K Tested
by Ian Cutress & Rahul Garg on January 14, 2014 8:00 AM ESTLlano, Trinity and Kaveri Die: Compared
AMD sent along a high res shot of Kaveri's die. Armed with the same from the previous two generations, we can get a decent idea of the progression of AMD's APUs:
Llano, K10 Quad Core
Trinity and Richland Die, with two Piledriver modules and processor graphics
Kaveri, two modules and processor graphics
Moving from Llano to Trinity, we have the reduction from a fully-fledged quad core system to the dual module layout AMD is keeping with its APU range. Moving from Richland to Kaveri is actually a bigger step than one might imagine:
| AMD APU Details | ||||
| Core Name | Llano | Trinity | Richland | Kaveri |
| Microarch | K10 | Piledriver | Piledriver | Steamroller |
| CPU Example | A8-3850 | A10-5800K | A10-6800K | A10-7850K |
| Threads | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Cores | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| GPU | HD 6550 | HD 7660D | HD 8670D | R7 |
| GPU Arch | VLIW5 | VLIW4 | VLIW4 | GCN 1.1 |
| GPU Cores | 400 | 384 | 384 | 512 |
| Die size / mm2 | 228 | 246 | 246 | 245 |
| Transistors | 1.178 B | 1.303 B | 1.303 B | 2.41 B |
| Power | 100W | 100W | 100W | 95W |
| CPU MHz | 2900 | 3800 | 4100 | 3700 |
| CPU Turbo | N/A | 4200 | 4400 | 4000 |
| L1 Cache |
256KB C$ 256KB D$ |
128KB C$ 64KB D$ |
128KB C$ 64KB D$ |
192KB C$ 64KB D$ |
| L2 Cache | 4 x 1MB | 2 x 2 MB | 2 x 2 MB | 2 x 2 MB |
| Node | 32nm SOI | 32nm SOI | 32nm SOI | 28nm SHP |
| Memory | DDR-1866 | DDR-1866 | DDR-2133 | DDR-2133 |
Looking back at Llano and Trinity/Richland, it's very clear that AMD's APUs on GF's 32nm SOI process had a real issue with transistor density. The table below attempts to put everything in perspective but keep in mind that, outside of Intel, no one does a good job of documenting how they are counting (estimating) transistors. My only hope is AMD's transistor counting methods are consistent across CPU and GPU, although that alone may be wishful thinking:
| Transistor Density Comparison | ||||||||
| Manufacturing Process | Transistor Count | Die Size | Transistors per mm2 | |||||
| AMD Kaveri | GF 28nm SHP | 2.41B | 245 mm2 | 9.837M | ||||
| AMD Richland | GF 32nm SOI | 1.30B | 246 mm2 | 5.285M | ||||
| AMD Llano | GF 32nm SOI | 1.178B | 228 mm2 | 5.166M | ||||
| AMD Bonaire (R7 260X) | TSMC 28nm | 2.08B | 160 mm2 | 13.000M | ||||
| AMD Pitcairn (R7 270/270X) | TSMC 28nm | 2.80B | 212 mm2 | 13.209M | ||||
| AMD Vishera (FX-8350) | GF 32nm SOI | 1.2B | 315 mm2 | 3.810M | ||||
| Intel Haswell 4C (GT2) | Intel 22nm | 1.40B | 177 mm2 | 7.910M | ||||
| NVIDIA GK106 (GTX 660) | TSMC 28nm | 2.54B | 214 mm2 | 11.869M | ||||
If AMD is indeed counting the same way across APUs/GPUs, the move to Kaveri doesn't look all that extreme but rather a good point in between previous APUs and other AMD GCN GPUs. Compared to standalone CPU architectures from AMD, it's clear that the APUs are far more dense thanks to big portions of their die being occupied by a GPU.
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jjj - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
lol now that AMD is paying you,you jumped at the other extreme , what do you get over Richland and how does that deserve a positive conclusion? (and maybe a reminder is needed A10-6800K is 140$)Drumsticks - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
The author recognized that 100W TDP isn't really any different...? The 45W more mainstream range is where things are a lot more interesting, but please, ignore the 30+% gains.Conduit - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
I have been waiting almost 2 years for a mobile Kaveri telling myself the wait will be worth it. Looks like it actually may be as Kaveri performs better at lower TDP's than Trinity and Richland.Hubb1e - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
This guy actually gets it. These should make very nice cheap laptops able to actually play a game or two without vomiting all over themselves. At 95W the gains are not there, but at 45W it's impressiveJDG1980 - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
What an odd choice of benchmarks. Why not use Photoshop (which supports OpenCL and is an important real-world application) instead of Agisoft (who?) I can't help but wonder if Agisoft paid for their inclusion in Anandtech's benchmark suite.ddriver - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
You may notice that the entire review is not exactly OpenCL compute rich... I mean even for gaming cards AT usually includes several OpenCL benchmarks, but not for this product, where it is supposed to be its strongest point???Conduit - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
I have to say, the 45W A8-7600 kicks ass. It's competitive with the 100W A10-5800K, I think that's where the benefit of Kaveri lies, in the low TDP department.UtilityMax - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
Indeed. However, I personally would like to see benchmarks that measure the power draw. The 65watt TDP Richland A10s were nearly as power thirsty as the +100watt TDP parts. A8 does look interesting.thegreatjombi - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
Any chance we can get HD5200 and HD5400 benches? The 5000 series has started to catch up with AMD in terms of GPU Compute. I am curious if AMD has left Intel in the dust once again, or has Intel actually made a big enough leap to stay in the game.thegreatjombi - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
Oh! It seems the 5000 series is just omitted in the CPU Performance benchmarks? Why is that?