AMD has finally started to distribute stock of its E-suffixed Bristol Ridge APUs. There's a trio of new such new APUs now available and they are all 35W parts, great for users who want to build low-power systems. As Anandtech reports, the A12-9800E, A10-9700E, and A6-9500E have now all become available, depending upon your region. They've been a long time coming, the first Bristol Ridge A9000-series APUs were released to OEMs in mid-2016.
|
Bristol Ridge |
Modules / Threads |
Base / Boost Clock |
Graphics |
Stream processors |
GPU Max Freq |
TDP |
|
A12-9800E |
2M / 4T |
3.1 / 3.8GHz |
Radeon R7 |
512 |
900MHz |
35W |
|
A10-9700E |
2M / 4T |
3.0 / 3.5GHz |
Radeon R7 |
384 |
847MHz |
35W |
|
A6-9500E |
1M / 2T |
3.0 / 3.4GHz |
Radeon R5 |
256 |
800MHz |
35W |
These Bristol Ridge APUs use Excavator v2 compute modules and, as you can see clearly in the table above, employ either one or two such modules. Within the SoCs the compute modules are paired with a Radeon R5/R7 iGPU featuring AMD's GCN 1.2 architecture and up to 512 stream processors. The TDPs are kept in check with optimally reduced CPU/GPU clock speeds compared to the rest of the A9000 range.
AMD's newly available APUs will appeal to folk looking to build compact energy efficient systems and are a welcome addition to the lineup. Anantech reckons there's a growing trend in inexpensive Mini-ITX systems and these SoCs are a flexible solution to address this market.
The best US prices for the A12-9800E, A10-9700E, and A6-9500E are approx $105, $85, and $55 respectively (from Newegg). Meanwhile, in the UK you will have to stump up approx £140 for the A12-9800E, and £122 for the A10-9700E, with the new A6-9500E available at Scan for just £45.
The 35W Bristol Ridge APUs appear to be a useful stopgap while AMD readies its first range of Raven Ridge APUs, wielding Ryzen and Vega technologies.
