AMD has just announced their 7th generation APU family, which is codenamed Bristol Ridge. Bristol Ridge is the next chapter in AMD’s APU lineup which will bring with them improved performance, faster graphics cores, high efficiency, and new technologies such as DirectX 12. These new APUs are an update to the Carrizo APUs which have been available in the market since last year.
Bristol Ridge is a general update to the Carrizo APU and features a SoC (system on chip) design. AMD has said that they will be bringing Bristol Ridge to both desktops and notebooks, but we are specifically talking about the notebook part today. Bristol Ridge notebook APUs will bring with them general improvements.
“We know that consumers want more for their money than ever before – sharper graphics, faster performance, and longer battery life. We have focused on working with key OEM partners to develop outstanding computing platforms that will fully take advantage of the powerful 7th Generation AMD APUs,” said Jim Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, Computing and Graphics Business Group, AMD. “I’m excited that consumers will start to see some of these fantastic systems come to market so soon. I’m very proud of the exceptional AMD engineering execution that enabled us to accelerate these exciting new products into the market for our customers and end users.” via AMD
One of the biggest changes users will see with Bristol Ridge is that it has a new memory controller. Carrizo supported DDR3L/LPDDR3 memory types on the notebook side, Bristol Ridge will feature an improved DDR4 memory controller making this the first AMD notebook series to support the new memory standard.
AMD says that the Bristol Ridge APUs bring a 10% increase in x86 performance compared to Carrizo APUs and up to 50% increase in performance compared to Kaveri APUs. So we are seeing an improved architecture and DDR4 memory bringing better performance.
When it comes to graphics performance AMD notes up to 18% performance increase over their own FX-8800P APU. When compared to the Intel Core i7-6500U AMD also leads with better graphics in 3DMark 11, but is behind the Intel chip in the PCMark Performance test.
The new Bristol Ridge APU family will be formerly announced at Computex on May 31, 2016. AMD may also showcase their upcoming AM4 platform and motherboards at the show.
Source: WCCFTech | News Archive
