Day of the Dead: AMD Releases new Carrizo FM2+ APU, the A8-7680
by Ian Cutress on October 29, 2018 8:00 AM EST
Reports of a new Carrizo APU have been floating around for the past couple of weeks as several ASRock FM2+ recently had BIOS updates stating ‘now supporting new Carrizo APU’. Of course, this sounds preposterous: why would a new Carrizo APU, on an old platform, on an old 28nm process, be launched? When we spoke to our contacts at ASRock, even they did not know. It looks like AMD has let the cat out of the bag, albeit without an official announcement.
In AMD’s own Master Product List, which lists every SKU that AMD makes / has stock of, several new listings have shown up which correspond to the naming conventions of a Carrizo APU.
In this listing, we see the AD767KXBJCWOF, which is the A8-7670K, a known product. Then we have several listings that start AD7680, for the new A8-7680 processor, followed by the A8-7690K, another known unit.
AD7680ACABBOX will be the code for the boxed processor, and AD7680ACABCBX is likely for the tray units sold to OEMs to put into their systems. Currently, out of all the FM2+ boards in the market, only a few A68 boards have it listed as compatible:
- ASRock FM2A68M-HD+
- ASRock FM2A68M-DG3+
- ASUS A68HM-K
- ASUS A68HM-Plus
- GIGABYTE F2A68HM-DS2
- GIGABYTE F2A65HM-H
- GIGABYTE F2A68HM-S1
- MSI A68HM-E33-v2
It would appear that all of these boards (and some by Biostar, which don’t list the CPU), have processed an AGESA Carrizo PI-1.3.0.0 update for the chipset in order to accept the new processor. This means that most of these boards currently on the shelves will need to be flashed to the latest update.
Specifications for the processor are still a little unknown. Given the name, the A8-7680, it is expected to fall somewhere between the A8-7690K and the A8-7670K, which means it should be a dual module processor with four threads (remember AMD’s ‘one module, two threads’ hardware? No, we don’t want to either), a base clock of 3.5 or 3.6 GHz, a turbo clock of 3.8 GHz, a Radeon R7 integrated graphics with 757 MHz base frequency, two channels of DDR3-2133 support, and a TDP of 65W.
The processor seems to be listed at two shops in Europe already, however both are listed as out of stock: LambdaTek for £51.67 ($55) and CentralPoint in the Netherlands for 52 EUR + tax ($59)
Our only guess for this new processor is that AMD has a particular customer who needs a refresh processor custom to their needs. Normally this would fly under the radar and be an OEM only part (and probably be part of the 8000 series), but for whatever reason (they made too many?) it seems to perhaps be coming to retail.
At around the $55-$59 mark, AMD also offers the Athlon 200GE with Ryzen cores and Vega graphics, although that system requires DDR4. This new Carrizo part is DDR3, but I doubt that the price difference in the memory would really make up for the difference in performance. If we happen to pick up a sample, we’ll let you know if the dead have truly risen, or if it’s just for a single night/SKU only.
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bananaforscale - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link
Nah, we just realize AMD probably has old stock they want to sell. I wouldn't *buy* one but there's a valid reason in wanting to *sell* them. If AMD can make a profit off the stuff it makes business sense.Alexvrb - Wednesday, October 31, 2018 - link
These chips are slower than the Godavari chips that were out for FM2+ forever ago. I imagine there was idle 28nm production, and demand in developing nations for cheap chips. It probably also helps clear out old stock boards.ET - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
That's an awesome title, Ian. I said what I wanted to say elsewhere multiple times (looks like AMD is re-purposing Bristol Ridge), but still had to comment.quorm - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
I wish they would unexpectedly release a new AM1 processor with hardware x265 support.PeachNCream - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
I need something for my Socket 7 motherboard to replace an AMD K6-III. :P0ldman79 - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
I've got a K6-III+ mobile chip that is guaranteed to hit 600MHz right in front of me.I actually pulled it from my family's system after they killed the board. It was unique.
HardwareDufus - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
You are taking me back to my Super7 days! I had one K6-III+ (450Mhz w/ 256k L2 on die) hit 672 Mhz (6 * 112Mhz bus speed), about 3 that hit 618Mhz (6 * 103Mhz bus speed) and all of them hit 600Mhz. I even had a few K6-2+ (128k L2 on die) and I put those in a bunch of Toshiba laptops at 570Mhz (6* 95Mhz the maximum I could do and still cope with the heat in a laptop).Yeah, those Via mVP3 boards with the ATI Rage 128 Pro AGP Video Card, VIA Envy PCI Sound Card (inexpensive alternative to SoundBlaster), 3COM Fast EtherLink XL PCI network adapter, and USRobotics V92 56k PCI Modems and 384MB of SDRam.. All fitted in InWin chassis with an IDE-UD33- LiteOn CD andWEstern Digital Caviar 2.0GB drives. Built soooooooo many of setups exactly like that in the 97-98 time frame (may have my years mixed up... can't remember everything).
0ldman79 - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
Nice.My Super Socket 7 board could only do 100. I had to use CPU Cool to actually make it stay at 100MHz for some reason. Can't remember why.
I had an K6-2 550 and upgraded to a K6-III+, 25 micron to 18 micron. Sis 630 chipset, quite horrible chipset, but it did the trick.
The K6-III+ was faster encoding divx than my Duron 700 that replaced it. The Duron had to hit 948MHz to match the K6-III+.
abufrejoval - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
Seriously? Did you need to mention that?Actually I think I got infected with morbus upgraditis in those Socket 7 days, starting with a K5, going on with K6, K6-2, K6 II+, K6 III/III+ from 75 to 550MHz in lots of painfull little steps...
I reveled in L3 induced benchmark frenzy and banged my head when Socket 7 memory bandwidth killed those games evidently designed on those really wide Slot 1 CPU buses...
That's probably why I am still hunting for leftover Z170/D3 boards to recycle the last DDR3-2400 modules I bought for underperforming Kaveris with some grandfatherly Kaby Lake when I really should make a clean break with DDR4: But 32GB at those prices?
abufrejoval - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
Just in case anybody wants them, I think I still have a full set of A10-5800K (Trinity), A10-6700K (Richland) and A10-7850K (Kaveri) to swap for an ordinary i5-7600K if anyone is interested....