14 DAY TRIAL // AMD has announced earlier today the availability of two new dual-core APU chips for desktop computers, the A4-3300 and A4-3400, which bring the entry-level price for accelerated processing units down to just $70.
According to the specs posted by the Sunnyvale-based chip maker, the two APUs have a TDP of 65W and are compatible with motherboards using the FM1 socket.
Starting with the most powerful of the two options, the A4-3400, this includes dual processing cores clocked at 2.7GHz, 1MB of Level 2 cache memory and an integrated Radeon HD 6410D graphic core, which packs 160 shader units clocked at 600MHz.
Its smaller brother, the A4-3300, is also built to include dual processing cores, but this time their clock speed is set at 2500MHz.
Outside of this change, the chip features pretty much the same specifications as the A4-3400 since it also includes 1MB of Level 2 cache and an integrated DDR3-1600 memory controller, while the Radeon HD 6370D on-die GPU packs the same 160 stream processors.
Compared with the Radeon HD 6410D used in the A4-3400, the A4-3300 is still somewhat slower as the shaders are clocked at just 444MHz.
None of the two chips support the Turbo Core technology, which automatically adjusts clock speeds depending on the processor load.
The AMD A4-3300 and A4-3400 desktop APUs are now available for purchase from Amazon.com, NCIX as well as from other retailers and their MSRP is set at $70 and $75, respectively.
By the end of this year, AMD is expected to launch three other Llano APUs, including the top of the line A8-3870 Black Edition chip that will feature an unlocked multiplier, 3.1GHz quad processing cores with 4MB of Level 2 cache memory, an integrated dual-channel DDR3-1866MHz controller, and Radeon HD 6550D graphics.