14 DAY TRIAL // Advanced Micro Devices has many central processors on sale, but if there's one thing that all the overclockable, FX-branded current-generation ones have in common is that their names are in the thousands. Alas, there seems to be an exception even to this rule.
When we say that the names of AMD FX CPUs are in the thousands, we don't mean that there are thousands of them.
Instead, we mean that they have monikers like FX 4300, FX 6300 series, and so on and so forth. Alas, a chip has arisen that doesn't abide by this naming convention.
It is called AMD FX-670K and hasn't actually been formally launched by the Sunnyvale-based chip maker.
Instead, it has been found in OEM computers, like the Pavilion 500-266ea desktop from Hewlett-Packard.
Some digging by folks from HardwareCanucks Forums (among others) has revealed that the chip is not really a CPU at all, or wasn't one in the first place.
Instead, it was a Richland accelerated processing unit. However, likely due to the GPU part of the die coming out faulty from the factory, it has the GPU part completely disabled.
Disabling areas of the die is a standard practice of chip makers, and what enables the variety of performance levels/series on CPUs, APUs and GPUs.
Normally, a Richland-based CPU with disabled graphics would get the Athlon brand, but this obviously hasn't happened here.
Apparently, it got lobbed with the other FX because of the K in the name: the chip has an unlocked base-clock multiplier, something that Athlon chips usually lack and AMD probably didn't want to change for this one CPU.
That said, the HP Pavilion 500-266ea still has a socket FM2 motherboard (it is powered by the AMD A75 chipset), so the processor will work on all others as well, though you'll need an add-in video card.
Spec-wise, AMD FX-670K is a quad-core processor because it has two Piledriver modules, each of which has two x86 cores inside. The frequency is of up to 3.7 GHz.
We're not sure what price the CPU has, but the HP Pavilion 500-266ea sells for CA $650 / $578 / €420, and that's with a discrete Radeon R7 240 graphics card added into the picture.
The photo included in this article is that of a CPU-Z examination of the AMD FX-670K quad-core Richland central processing unit. You'll notice the A10 Series logo in there, despite the fact that this is most definitely not part of the collection of accelerated processing units.