NVIDIA’s new Kepler graphics cards (such as the GTX 660 we recently reviewed) will be getting most of the PC enthusiast attention today, but there is a bit of news about AMD to talk about as well.
The Trinity APU die.
Thanks to a Gigabyte motherboard compatibility list that was accidentally leaked to the internet, it was revealed that Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) would be repurposing Trinity APU dies that don’t quite make the cut due to non-operative graphics cores. Instead of simply discarding the processors, AMD is going to bin the chips into at least three CPU-only Athlon-branded processors. The Athlon X4 730, X4 740, and X4 750K are the three processors that are (now) public knowledge. All three of the CPUs have TDP ratings of 65W, and the X4 750K is even unlocked – allowing for overclocking. Further, the processors are all quad core parts with a total of 4MB of L2 cache (1MB per core).
The new Athlon-branded processors will be supported by the A75 chipset and will plug into FM2-socket equipped motherboards.
The following chart details the speeds and feeds of the Athlon processors with Trinity CPU cores.
| Clockspeed | TDP | |
| Athlon X4 730 | 2.8GHz | 65W |
| Athlon X4 740 | 3.2GHz | 65W |
| Athlon X4 750K | 3.4GHz | 65W |
Unfortunately, there is no word on pricing or availability. You can expect them to be significantly cheaper than the fully fledged Trinity processors to keep them price-competitive and in-line with the company's traditional CPU-only processors.
Would you consider rolling a Trinity-based Athlon in a budget build?
Read about the new direction of AMD as it moves to producing Vishera processors and beyond.
“Would you consider rolling a
“Would you consider rolling a Trinity-based Athlon in a budget build?”
Na. The best thing about APU’s for budget builds is the GPU. However I think enthusiasts with discrete GPUs will be interested in an unlocked quad.
Yeah, in that respect this
Yeah, in that respect this product is rather odd because the GPUs are the best part of the APU… But yeah, if you are going to get a discrete card anyway and are set on an AMD system, this would probably do the trick. Just not sure on where exactly AMD is planning on pricing these things 😉
If they operate on the FM2
If they operate on the FM2 boards its an alternative if you buy an a10-5800k now. Then next year or two you can buy the next Athlon with steamroller and the newest GPU. If the Athlons come in cheaper then “Trinity”. You really are forced to question if the already bargain basent processor is actually “good enough”. I actually see this working really well.
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This is something that
This is something that actually gets me excited about the x86 CPU market again, besides the clockwork like (get it) timing from Intel, which is cool dont get me wrong.
However, seeing AMD really take its price-performance APU’s with great feature sets, and running with it to fill wider product lines is great!
I would be very interested in trying out a Trinity based APU both in A10/Athlon forms, fun to test with.
I am still having fun with the A8-3870K I managed to win from QuakeCon/PCPer/AMD 🙂 Though my primary system is still an Intel X79 platform.
Congrats on winning 🙂 That’s
Congrats on winning 🙂 That's one of the downsides for writing for PCper, I can't win any of the awesome hardware we give away LOL
True, but im sure it comes
True, but im sure it comes with some other perks, like reviewing/testing/playing with unreleased hardware 🙂
Edit: Thank you by the way, I forgot to even say that… its been a long week :p
OK, quad-core. Is that four
OK, quad-core. Is that four modules or two modules? I still don’t like the fact AMD is marketing a module as two cores. It’s just confusing.
Judgeing by what we know of
Judgeing by what we know of Trinity, and the die shot of it. I would say these will pack two (2) modules, to equal four (4) total x86 execution cores.
Yeah I can see what you mean by the marketing aspect of it, but remember a single module has two x86 execution cores so its not wrong, I sometimes think of the Bulldozer/Trinity design as a kind of “reverse Intel HyperThreading”.
Low clocked (tweaked)
Low clocked (tweaked) bulldozer cores without the gpu? That is going to be hard to sell.
Even if priced right, if you’re going to shell out for a gpu you might as well go Intel or Am3+. Unless you can push upwards of 4ghz out of the unlocked one…
I dont know if its really a
I dont know if its really a hard sell per say, maybe at the moment with the difference in RAW CPU power more in thier CPU side and not the APU side of things, but that could change later on down the road if AMD continues to evolve their APU series.
i want one. simply, if you
i want one. simply, if you want a micro atx amd rig, trinity is the only option. the fx 4300 and a10 are neck and neck in games, but bulldozer has no good micro boards. would love the 750k to put into my little rig at home 🙂