Gets its power from an AMD A6-3300M APU paired with a dedicated GPU

Sep 26, 2011 08:36 GMT  ·  By

Asus has recently started selling in Europe a new 17.3-inch notebook model powered by AMD A-Series accelerated processing units, which promises to deliver strong multimedia performance at an affordable price.

The notebook is built around the A6-3300M APU, which combines together two high-performance Husky K10.5 processing cores with an on-die graphics unit.

The quad-core chip has a base frequency of 1.9GHz, 2MB of Level 2 cache, a 45W TDP and also supports AMD's new Turbo Core 2.0 technology, which can dynamically adjust the frequency of the CPU according to the tasks run.

Thanks to this addition, the chip can reach speeds as high as 2.5GHz when the operating system uses only one processing thread.

The two processing cores are paired together with a built-in Radeon HD 6480G graphics core, which features 240 stream processing units and has an operating frequency of 444MHz.

Users who require more graphics power would also be glad to know that Asus' K73TA also comes with an AMD Radeon 6650M discrete graphics card that can run together with the A6-3300M integrated GPU in a special CrossFireX mode.

The two GPUs are used to drive a 17.3-inch LED backlit display with a resolution of 1600x900 pixels and featuring a ColorShine glossy finish.

The rest of the K73TA specifications include 4GB of system memory, a 750GB hard drive with a spindle speed of 5400RPM, a DVD burner as well as the usual WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.

A VGA webcam and an USB 3.0 ports also come as standard and these are joined by an HDMI video output and a multi-format card reader.

Just like the K53TA that we reported about at the end of last week, the K73TA also packs a chiclet keyboard with Asus' proprietary IceCool technology which promises to keep the wrist at a comfortable temperature even after extended periods of typing.

Equipped with a Li-Ion 6 cell 5200mAh battery pack, the Asus K73TA notebook retails in Europe for € 599, which translates into about $800 USD. (via Laptop Spirit)