14 DAY TRIAL // The 12-Core APUs with R-Series graphics for DIY desktops will be the main stars of AMD's product lineup for a while, now that they are finally out, but they are not the only chips that the Sunnyvale company has unveiled.
The company has also introduced a pair of central processing units, chips without integrated graphics of any kind: the Athlon 860K and the FX-8300.
At least this is what one report claims. Advanced Micro Devices itself has yet to send out the chips, and it probably won't do it for a while still.
We'll check out the FX-8300 first. It is a processor with an AM3+ socket and based on the Vishera 32nm silicon. Thus, it has eight CPU cores, grouped in pairs of two as dictated by the Piledriver design. Each pair of cores forms a Piledriver module as it were.
The base clock of the processor is 3.2 GHz, while the top Turbo Core potential is of 3.5 GHz. It might sound low, but this is an 8-core chip, so some concessions had to be made.
The other technical details worth mentioning here are the 2 MB of L2 cache per module (so 16 MB in total, Level 2), as well as 8 MB of L3 shared cache. All for the TDP (thermal design power) of 95W.
The other processor is a bit more normal, even though it lacks a graphics processing unit, just like the FX-8300. Called Athlon 860K, it is based on the Kaveri silicon.
This means that the chip is actually more advanced than the FX-8300 Vishera-based processor, as Kaveri is an architecture built on the 28nm manufacturing technology, not 32nm.
There are four “Steamroller” cores inside, each functioning at a 3.7 GHz frequency most of the time. There is no mention of Turbo Core support, but there is an unlocked base-clock multiplier that enables manual overclocking.
Technically speaking, Kaveri has integrated graphics, but the GPU is disabled here, which means that the Athlon 860K is probably based off processors that didn't come out quite right from the foundry lines. Most mid-range and/or low-end CPUs/APUs are like that, crippled but still usable versions of the main star of a series.
Then there's the total L2 cache, which is 2 MB. Quite low really, half of what Steamroller 2-core modules usually sport. Finally, the AMD Athlon 860K CPU is compatible with motherboards built around the A88X, A85, A75, and A55 chipsets. It does, after all, use an FM2+ socket. All in all, we suppose that the Athlon 860K is a chip for overclockers who have to work on a budget.