AMD AM4 Chipset Detailed. Coming First To Mainstream & Budget Segment
AMD today released the information about their AM4 chipsets, rolling out to OEMs this Q2 of 2016. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard news about the chipset, and this most likely confirms the impending introduction of the AM4 platform this coming October. Zen wont be out this October, so AMD is introducing the platform first for AM4 based APU devices. These APUs are the 7th generation ones with the AMD Excavator cores inside.
Now the AM4 platforms in question are the AMD B350, and the AMD A320 chipsets. These AM4 based chipsets are under the mainstream, and basic segments similar to that of the older generation platform’s placements. For example, the B350 is the mainstream AM4 chipset which is similar to the AMD 970 chipset for the AM3+ platform. Now the basic chipset, the A320, is synonymous to the 760G AM3+ platform and will be the lowest end out of the bunch. The most interesting part about this announcement though is the SFF category, where the AMD X series is denoted, suggesting that the enthusiast segment will feature that X prefix for the AM4 platform and may come in an ITX form factor.
According to AMD, the 7th Generation AMD A-Series desktop processors will consist of 65-watt and 35-watt variants, will offer superior power efficiency, and enable flexible solutions in a wide variety of form factors. Now there are 7 SKUs currently for the AM4 platform, with 6 of them being APUs with Radeon R7 and R5 class graphics. The Athlon X4 950 is our favorite out of the bunch, since most gamers wanting to upgrade to the AM4 platform will most likely make full use of the platform’s PCI slots with a discrete graphics.
The new 7th Generation 65-watt A-Series processors according to AMD, delivers 99% higher graphics performance when compared to the Intel Core i5 6500. They also tested the A12-9800 vs the i5 6500 too with performance per watt in mind. Suffice to say, these controlled benchmarks are leaning towards AMD’s latest AM4 based APUs.
The AMD AM4 socket is a new unified socket infrastructure that provides compatibility between 7th Generation AMD A-Series processors and the upcoming high-performance “Summit Ridge” AMD desktop CPU. AM4 platforms feature DDR4 Memory and next-gen I/O and peripheral support, including PCIe® Gen 3, USB 3.1 Gen 2, NVMe, and SATA Express.
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