14 DAY TRIAL // Advanced Micro Devices may already have a number of A-Series accelerated processing units for sale, but there is a gap between the A10-7850K 3.7 GHz quad-core chip and the A10-7700K 3.4 GHz unit. That gap has now been filled by the A10-7800 APU.
AMD may have decided to stop the world from defining its processors in relation to Intel's, but there are some tactics that can't be safely abandoned, such as the general order of processor releases.
When a new CPU (or in this case APU) collection comes out, the company releasing them outs a high-end model or two as well as a mid-range chip. The mobile chips may or may not come out at the same time (for laptops).
Sometime later, entry-level processors debut (though it's possible for one or two to ship at the same time as the better ones).
And after that, Intel and AMD start filling the gaps, as it were. Launching chips that sit in-between the ones already out in terms of performance, price, and energy needs.
Such is the case of the new AMD A10-7800 Accelerated Processing Unit, which is better than the A10-7700K (3.4 / 3.8 GHz) but slower than the A10-7850K (3.7 / 4.0 GHz).
More specifically, the quad-core unit has a base clock speed of 3.5 GHz and a maximum Turbo Boost potential of 3.9 GHz.
You will notice that AMD advertises its newest products as 12-core processors. This is because, in addition to the four x86 CPU cores, there are eight GPU compute modules available as well, forming an R7-Series graphics processor.
All in all, the newcomer, complete with support for AMD TrueAudio technology, HSA (Heterogeneous System Architecture), and Mantle, has a price of $158 / €118.
The A10-7800 is just one of three new APUs though. The other two are the A8-7600 and A6-7400K, which also possess HSA and TrueAudio support, plus Mantle (AMD's new API for game development).
The former is a quad-core unit with 6 GPU modules (10-core as it were), running at 3.1 / 3.8 GHz. Its price tag is $104 / €78. The latter is a dual-core unit with 4-module GPU (so 6-core) with 3.5 / 3.9 GHz clocks and a price of $79 / €59.
All three of AMD's new APUs have a TDP of 45W, so they will make for some really strong but energy-efficient PCs. If you intend to build gaming PCs with them, however, you may still want to get at least a mid-range or low-end add-in R-series graphics card to back it up (Dual graphics technology will combine their assets, allowing games to run at full visual settings).