AMD A10-6800K and A10-6700 Richland APUs Tested


Introduction and Related Information

A few months back, AMD unveiled a handful of mobile Elite A-Series APUs, formerly codenamed Richland. Those products built upon the company’s existing Trinity-based products but offered additional power and frequency optimizations designed to enhance overall performance and increase battery life. In addition to these optimizations, AMD also began offering a host of specialized software with their Richland APUs that’s leveraged their inherent strengths--namely, AMD Face Login, Gesture Control, Screen Mirror, and various video enhancement features like AMD Steady Video, Quick Stream, and Picture Perfect. The ultimate goal was to make AMD hardware and software more appealing to OEMs and consumers alike.

Today AMD is taking the same approach and launching a handful of new Richland APUs but for desktops and small form factor PCs. Though these APUs offer all of the same features and benefits as their mobile counterparts, the additional power and thermal headroom afforded by desktop form factors has allowed AMD to crank things up a few notches further on both the CPU and GPU sides. You’ll see what we mean on the pages ahead, but first let’s get some specifications out of the way and cover some related information pertinent to today’s launch...


AMD Richland / Trinity Quad-Core APU Die Shot

AMD Elite A-Series APUs For 2013
Specifications & Features

AMD A-Series APU

Description

Tech/Package

32nm, FM2 socket

TDP Configs

65W and 100W configurations

Processor Core

“Piledriver” 32nm HKMG process core (up to 4 cores), up to 128 KB L1 Cache (64 KB Instruction, 64 KB Data) Up to 4 MB L2, 2 x 128-bit FPUs / compute module

Memory

Up to DDR3 2133 @ 1.5V

Graphics Core

Up to 384 Radeon™ Cores 2.0, DirectX 11 capable, UVD3, VCE

Displays

Digital Display I/F DP0: Display Port, HDMI, DVI
Digital Display I/F DP1: Display Port, HDMI, DVI
Digital Display I/F DP2: Display Port, HDMI, DVI
Additional digital display supported using DP 1.2 daisy-chain connection
VGA on FCH

Power Management

Multiple low-power states 
32-nm process for decreased power consumption 
System Management Mode (SMM)
ACPI-compliant, including support for processor performance states (P-states), processor power states
(C-states), and sleep states including S0, S3, S4, and S5 
Per compute module power gating (CC6) 
PCIe core power gating 
PCIe speed power policy 
GPU power gating of Radeon™ Cores and video decode (UVD3) 
Enhanced AMD Turbo Core technology featuring Temperature Smart Turbo Core

AMD A85 FCH

Integrated DAC supporting VGA.

Tech/Package

65nm / FC BGA, 605-Ball, 23x23mm, .8mm pitch

TDP Configs

2.7W to 4.7W for typical configurations

UMI

x4 Gen 2 + DP

SATA

8 Ports, 6 Gbps

RAID

0, 1, 5, 10

USB

A85X: 4 USB 3.0 Ports, 10 USB 2.0 Ports, 2 USB 1.1 Internal Ports

PCIe GPPs

4x1 Gen2

HWM

Incorporates Fan Control, Voltage Level Sensing

Consumer IR

CIR Receiver


AMD’s A-Series APUs debuted back in 2011 with Llano and were updated in 2012 with more powerful Trinity-based products. Though Richland supplants Trinity in AMD’s APU line-up, the die shots (and specifications) above reveal that Trinity and Richland are actually based on the same silicon.


AMD's New A10-6700 and A10-6800K Richland APUs

AMD has put in some additional engineering effort and done some new things with chips, which we’ll discuss a little later, but since Trinity and Richland are fundamentally similar, a refresher on the technology and platform as a whole couldn’t hurt to help lay some foundation for what we’ll be showing you on the pages ahead.

In our AMD Trinity A10-4600M coverage, we go into detail on the Trinity architecture and the Piledriver microarchitecture on which its CPU cores are based. And in the remaining AMD A10- and A8-related articles, we cover last year’s Trinity-based desktop APUs and detail the Virgo platform as a whole, which encompasses the APUs and associated chipsets and motherboards.


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