So, here is the new AMD A10-7800. It’s a slight refresh of the original desktop Kaveri APU line, sitting between the top-end A10-7850K and the middling A10-7700K in terms of both pricing and specs. It’s operating with a dual-module Steamroller CPU component, giving it a total of four cores, four threads and the full complement of Graphics Core Next shaders for its GPU part.
In current AMD parlance that translates to 12 compute cores comprised of four GPU cores and eight GPU clusters.
That’s the same basic configuration as the top-end desktop Kaveri chip. As the A10-7800 is only some 100MHz shy of the peak Turbo mark of the A10-7850K, it doesn’t actually deliver much lower CPU performance than
the best Kaveri can offer. Importantly for an APU, it’s also running the exact same GPU configuration as the top A10 part – there are the full 512 GCN cores and they’re all running at the same 720MHz as the A10-7850K.
There’s not a lot to get too excited about there then – for a tenner less than the top APU you get one that’s only slightly slower. But with the weak CPU power of the Kaveri lineup compared with a similarly priced Intel chip, you might as well pay the extra if you really have to have an APU.
Bear in mind that because the AMD A10-7800 is lacking the all-important K-series tag, there’s no overclocking allowed. This is a locked-down CPU that simply cannot do anything about the weak single-threaded performance of its Steamroller cores.
Power friendly
It’s not all bad news. This APU is a 65W chip, compared with the 95W TDP of both the A10-7850K and A10-7700K. You can even go a little further and knock the TDP down to an impressively low 45W. That will impact the chip’s general performance because the lower TDP reduces the base clock of the CPU part, yet it still retains the same top Turbo speed – impressive.
If you’re going to be dropping a hefty GPU into your system that doesn’t make a lot of difference, but the performance drag that the A10’s weak single-threaded power places on the graphics
card means you probably wouldn’t do that anyway.
However, if you’re looking for a PC to run purely on the processor graphics of your APU then the A10-7800 is the most efficient, cost-effective option. It’s still got the same level of graphical grunt as the top Kaveri and, even though it’s got a lower clockspeed, the combined compute power of the GPU/CPU combo will deliver almost as well in accelerated applications.
Knock the TDP to 45W, drop in some high-speed memory, and you’ve got a decent small form factor base.
Verdict
Your best bet for an APU if you’re only interested in processor graphics. There’s nothing here for gamers though…
Vital statistics
Price £113
Manufacturer AMD
Web www.amd.com
Socket AMD FM2+
Clockspeed 3.5GHz
Turbo 3.9GHz
Cores 4
Threads 4
TDP 65W
You can buy from this Store : AMD A10-7800
