AMD Accelerates Availability of Mobile 7th Generation AMD A-Series Processors

[btarunr]

AMD today announced early availability of its new mobile 7th Generation AMD A-Series Processors, timed to support an exciting new notebook design by HP Inc. Equipped with advanced video, graphics, performance, and security features designed to boost productivity and enhance the entertainment experience, 7th Generation AMD A-Series Processors (codenamed "Bristol Ridge") also provide outstanding energy efficiency.

New OEM PC designs powered by mobile 7th Generation AMD A-Series Processors -- from ultrathin notebooks and convertibles to sleek All-in-Ones -- will come to market first with HP in the new HP ENVY x360, and with other OEM announcements expected later in the year. AMD will officially introduce 7th Gen A-Series APUs and showcase a wide range of OEM designs at Computex 2016, May 31-June 4, 2016, in Taipei, Taiwan.



"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."

"It is exciting for HP to be first in bringing 7th Generation AMD A-Series APU technology to market, especially in such a compelling new notebook design," said Kevin Frost, vice president and general manager, Consumer Personal Systems, HP Inc. "We think the HP ENVY x360 will resonate with consumers who are looking for the entertainment- and productivity-enhancing capabilities of the ENVY x360 design, which really showcases AMD computing and graphics prowess."

Now shipping in volume to OEM customers are both quad- and dual-core 7th Gen AMD A-Series processors, featuring mobile-optimized "Excavator" x86 CPU cores for high-speed computing, and Radeon R7 or R5 graphics for smooth online gaming and enhanced HD streaming capabilities. The 7th Generation AMD A-Series FX part shows up to 50% improvement in compute performance over the FX part released just two years ago.

The 7th Gen AMD A-Series APUs will allow users to enjoy the latest multimedia experiences in up to Ultra HD 4K video resolution, and AMD FreeSync Technology support for fluid, artifact-free online gaming performance in capable notebook and All-in-One configurations.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[LoonyBuck]

Yeah, and no matter how good AMD made these APUs, various Vendors and OEM will always come up with some magical ways to cripple the performance.

Let me guess, in the product demo they will show you a full 35-42W rated APU, a dual-channel DDR4 running at DDR4-2133, and integrated graphics that is fast enough to be used in casual gaming scenario.
While in real-life products, we will have:
- Crippled to death 15W rated APU just so vendors can save $ on the VRM design and cooler
- The lowest single-channel RAM they could find, or even using Carrizo-L motherboard design so even they put 2 DIMM slots, users can only use single-channel
- Dual-graphics solution that don't even work, or an Add-on GPU that have LOWER performance than the IGP
- IGP share memory limited to 512MB and no way to change it
- OS full of bloatware shoved in a slow-ass HDD
-And they will price that unit as expensive as a MacBook!

I mean, I hate Apple, their pricing and how they do business, but at least they came up with ways to make a slowpoke Core M works quite well, not f**k a good CPU and make it slow. And vendors wonder why their laptop won't sell and 'the PC business is dwindling'

/rant

 

[RejZoR]

And driver support. My AMD E-450 APU has non existent GPU driver support and I have the laptop for like 3 years. I literally cannot install ANY driver except the garbage that comes from Windows Update. It's absolute BS how they treat customers with their BS support for hardware. Which naturally makes me stay away from AMD APU's by default because I just don't want to risk getting another APU that will have no support at all after 3-4 years. No matter how much I dislike Intel's business practices, at least they provide god damn drivers even for prehistoric iGPUs.

 

[thevoiceofreason]

And driver support. My AMD E-450 APU has non existent GPU driver support and I have the laptop for like 3 years. I literally cannot install ANY driver except the garbage that comes from Windows Update. It's absolute BS how they treat customers with their BS support for hardware. Which naturally makes me stay away from AMD APU's by default because I just don't want to risk getting another APU that will have no support at all after 3-4 years. No matter how much I dislike Intel's business practices, at least they provide god damn drivers even for prehistoric iGPUs.

This should be supported by the legacy drivers (http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/legacy?product=legacy3&os=Windows 7 - 64) since it's 6320G (VLIW5). I'd try installing the driver manually (pick from a list -> have disk-> point to .inf file)

 

[RejZoR]

It's NOT supported. I've tried multiple times, even forcing. Nothing works. It's lame as hell and has destroyed all and any confidence in APU products because from now on I cannot be ever sure that APU I'll buy will be supported by the drivers after few years. If they have problems maintaining drivers, then don't release so many bloody versions of essentially same things for few $ difference. Logic.

And while I don't play games on it anymore since it's too weak, updated drivers are a necessity for properly functioning hardware acceleration of Youtube videos and acceleration of webpages. Because when HW acceleration works, this little old GPU can decode even 4K @ 30fps. Without HW support, 1.6 GHz Dual Core cannot smoothy decode 480p Youtube video in software mode. Which is why I'm ranting about it so much.

Fix your driver shit AMD or people won't buy your hyped APU's.

 

[cdawall]

You have to mod the driver to show support for that GPU. Couple of guides exist for it.

 

[RejZoR]

I don't understand why they say HD6000 are supported when they just aren't. Also, why is it up to users to mod drivers where AMD could easily add those 3 lines of text in INF and make the damn thing work out of the box? They lost me as a future customer because of it and I'm proactively warning people from doing the same mistake. Then it's up to AMD to fix this mess they themselves created. But of course, they'll blame it on everyone else but themselves.

 

[cdawall]

I don't understand why they say HD6000 are supported when they just aren't. Also, why is it up to users to mod drivers where AMD could easily add those 3 lines of text in INF and make the damn thing work out of the box? They lost me as a future customer because of it and I'm proactively warning people from doing the same mistake. Then it's up to AMD to fix this mess they themselves created. But of course, they'll blame it on everyone else but themselves.

So you purchased an old low end product and you are upset after 5 years amd doesn't offer a new driver? Get over it.

 

[Digital Dreams]

So you purchased an old low end product and you are upset after 5 years amd doesn't offer a new driver? Get over it.

He manages to bring up this SAME rant in just about every AMD thread, let him throw his hissy fit

 

[cdawall]

He manages to bring up this SAME rant in just about every AMD thread, let him throw his hissy fit

You know what here is my answer to his rant. I want him to go buy an Intel Atom D2700, and let me know how it does. Actually try and run a VM on it, man I hope intel enabled 64bit on the chipset for that specific model motherboard. Bitching about AMD's lack of driver support at least it was usable new.

 

[RejZoR]

"Run VM on a mobile low end APU". And then he calls me mad. Ok...

You know what's really the maddest part? AMD CCC is constantly bitching there is an update for currently installed drivers. And when I download them it says no supported devices found. That's one of the biggest fuck ups from AMD side. and the fact they mention HD6000 as supported, but this particular HD6000 is somehow not. Because reasons. And they don't mention that anywhere. Their left hand doesn't know what their right hand is doing. Apparently.

And yeah, I'll bitch on every occasion I can so people stay away from APU's, because in the end, you can't even use it for non gaming stuff like browsing and Youtube because someone at AMD decides to cease support on random. I don't expect game profiles or anything fancy. But all browser devs complain drivers for this GPU are buggy as fuck and no one gives a damn about it. It's a freaking DX11 spec'd GPU that was capable of running games quite decently back in its days. And I'm not talking Solitaire, but proper 3D games. Not at 100fps, but it worked. And now it can't even run Youtube smoothly because of buggy drivers that aren't getting updated. Again, because "reasons".

 

[cdawall]

"Run VM on a mobile low end APU". And then he calls me mad. Ok...

You know what's really the maddest part? AMD CCC is constantly bitching there is an update for currently installed drivers. And when I download them it says no supported devices found. That's one of the biggest fuck ups from AMD side. and the fact they mention HD6000 as supported, but this particular HD6000 is somehow not. Because reasons. And they don't mention that anywhere. Their left hand doesn't know what their right hand is doing. Apparently.

And yeah, I'll bitch on every occasion I can so people stay away from APU's, because in the end, you can't even use it for non gaming stuff like browsing and Youtube because someone at AMD decides to cease support on random. I don't expect game profiles or anything fancy. But all browser devs complain drivers for this GPU are buggy as fuck and no one gives a damn about it. It's a freaking DX11 spec'd GPU that was capable of running games quite decently back in its days. And I'm not talking Solitaire, but proper 3D games. Not at 100fps, but it worked. And now it can't even run Youtube smoothly because of buggy drivers that aren't getting updated. Again, because "reasons".

So because you had a bad experience with AMD's bottom of the barrel no one should buy any AMD APU's? Guess what you are wrong. APU's work quite well and when you don't buy garbage product support is fine. What you purchased was a throw away laptop. Stop trying to turn it into something it is not.

Again if you don't like it throw it away and get an Intel Atom D2700 it was released after the E450 and has less support for LITERALLY EVERY PART, but no AMD is in the wrong for selling something low end that is feature packed.

 

[TRWOV]

"Run VM on a mobile low end APU". And then he calls me mad. Ok...

You know what's really the maddest part? AMD CCC is constantly bitching there is an update for currently installed drivers. And when I download them it says no supported devices found. That's one of the biggest fuck ups from AMD side. and the fact they mention HD6000 as supported, but this particular HD6000 is somehow not. Because reasons. And they don't mention that anywhere. Their left hand doesn't know what their right hand is doing. Apparently.

Sometimes laptop vendors modify the device IDs. Why? My guess would be to save on tech support... make a custom driver that only works with their own device IDs so that newer drivers fail to install and ... voila... they only have to support a single driver release.

I have an old emachines with a Radeon 320m IGP that wasn't compatible with anything but the official emachines driver. I had to mod ATi's oficial mobility drivers for them to install on my laptop.

Even Intel laptops suffer from this, my Lenovo L412 won't let me install newer Intel drivers for the chipset and GPU.

The only laptos with which I haven't got problems installing official drivers are Acer laptops... then again I've only had 2 of them ever so don't quote me on that.

 

[Frick]

And driver support. My AMD E-450 APU has non existent GPU driver support and I have the laptop for like 3 years. I literally cannot install ANY driver except the garbage that comes from Windows Update. It's absolute BS how they treat customers with their BS support for hardware. Which naturally makes me stay away from AMD APU's by default because I just don't want to risk getting another APU that will have no support at all after 3-4 years. No matter how much I dislike Intel's business practices, at least they provide god damn drivers even for prehistoric iGPUs.

No driver in the world is going to make that thing fast. My sister has the E350 and it's painful.

 

[RejZoR]

They say HD6000 and APU's from G series are supported. Guess what, E-450 sports a HD6320G. It's both of that. WHat's even more weird is the fact that Wrestler is listed within INF but if you want to install drivers, they say it's not for that GPU.

I could always install desktop driver package on it till they've gone to this Crimson nonsense at which point they just dropped it from everything, even from legacy support while still stating it's supported.

 

[RejZoR]

No driver in the world is going to make that thing fast. My sister has the E350 and it's painful.

Not true. When drivers weren't broken for browsers, I could smoothly scroll any kind of webpage and view any kind of HD video. Even 4K. It was a proper pocket rocket. Now it's struggling with most webpages and has horrific problems with 1080p60. And there is no way of using older drivers because Windows 10 insists on installing the very latest (broken) drivers.

I have one guy on the case working with Mozilla to fix video playback but that may take some more time. But all this could be solved if AMD stopped breaking their damn drivers and then not releasing updates for them after they break them.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

They say HD6000 and APU's from G series are supported. Guess what, E-450 sports a HD6320G. It's both of that. WHat's even more weird is the fact that Wrestler is listed within INF but if you want to install drivers, they say it's not for that GPU.

I could always install desktop driver package on it till they've gone to this Crimson nonsense at which point they just dropped it from everything, even from legacy support while still stating it's supported.

You're OEM most likely uses a different hardware ID, as has been pointed out in this thread already, which prevents the AMD driver from seeing the GPU. Blame your OEM, not AMD.

 

[Ruru]

HTPC's are the only use I could imagine I would build an APU machine. We want to see what Zen is, not these..

 

[Rockarola]

Not true. When drivers weren't broken for browsers, I could smoothly scroll any kind of webpage and view any kind of HD video. Even 4K. It was a proper pocket rocket. Now it's struggling with most webpages and has horrific problems with 1080p60. And there is no way of using older drivers because Windows 10 insists on installing the very latest (broken) drivers.

I have one guy on the case working with Mozilla to fix video playback but that may take some more time. But all this could be solved if AMD stopped breaking their damn drivers and then not releasing updates for them after they break them.

Your posts on AMD APU posts are getting so predictable (It's not even funny anymore) . I had the same problem on an old laptop, googled 'custom drivers' for the make/model...all solved!
You usually have some worthwhile things to say, but on this subject you've become a one-note song...don't be THAT dude, okay? ☺

 

[HalfAHertz]

And driver support. My AMD E-450 APU has non existent GPU driver support and I have the laptop for like 3 years. I literally cannot install ANY driver except the garbage that comes from Windows Update. It's absolute BS how they treat customers with their BS support for hardware. Which naturally makes me stay away from AMD APU's by default because I just don't want to risk getting another APU that will have no support at all after 3-4 years. No matter how much I dislike Intel's business practices, at least they provide god damn drivers even for prehistoric iGPUs.

Dude seriously! You're blabbering about this in EVERY AMD driver thread. This is something that's beyond AMD's (or nVidia's) control . Most OEMs purposefully change the the ID and demand that the ID is not included in the standard driver stacks. That's because they're cheapscates and are too lazy to vet new drivers for compatibility. They don't care about their users and don't want to provide any support after the first 6 months. Every budget laptop from HP, Dell & Toshiba has exactly one and only one driver release. If you're not happy with that, don't buy their shitty laptops, end of story.

Just read the first few lines on the driver support page:

AMD recommends using the graphics drivers provided by your notebook's manufacturer as the manufacturer may customize the drivers to support the built-in display and the features and functions specific to the notebook. Customized graphics drivers are available for download from most notebook manufacturer's web site.

and later on

AMD provides a reference for AMD Mobility Radeon graphics drivers with limited support for notebook specific features and functions. This is not intended to be used as a replacement for the notebook manufacturer's driver.

Another link from Anandtech, hinting at what total shills all the laptop OEMs are:

That’s huge, and if AMD can deliver it will assuage most of our concerns with their hardware/software. Hopefully none of the OEMs get bent out of shape or refuse to allow support, which is a problem we've seen in the past.

 

[RejZoR]

Then how have I installed DESKTOP version of driver on it till now? From AMD site, never from the laptop maker site? This isn't Mobility Radeon!

 

[HalfAHertz]

Then how have I installed DESKTOP version of driver on it till now? From AMD site, never from the laptop maker site? This isn't Mobility Radeon!

Doesn't matter. As long as it's a laptop from a crummy OEM, the above still applies.

 

[Sempron Guy]

And driver support. My AMD E-450 APU has non existent GPU driver support and I have the laptop for like 3 years. I literally cannot install ANY driver except the garbage that comes from Windows Update. It's absolute BS how they treat customers with their BS support for hardware. Which naturally makes me stay away from AMD APU's by default because I just don't want to risk getting another APU that will have no support at all after 3-4 years. No matter how much I dislike Intel's business practices, at least they provide god damn drivers even for prehistoric iGPUs.

right on cue XD how long it's been since you started your advocacy? a year now? Keep it up mate, any tpu amd driver/apu thread won't be the same without you

 

[nme]

Not true. When drivers weren't broken for browsers, I could smoothly scroll any kind of webpage and view any kind of HD video. Even 4K. It was a proper pocket rocket. Now it's struggling with most webpages and has horrific problems with 1080p60. And there is no way of using older drivers because Windows 10 insists on installing the very latest (broken) drivers.

I have one guy on the case working with Mozilla to fix video playback but that may take some more time. But all this could be solved if AMD stopped breaking their damn drivers and then not releasing updates for them after they break them.

--

Very strange, I've had 0 problems installing a Crimson 16.1.1 Non-GCN/NIEG ('special' driver for older non-GCN gpus) on some older APUs, including arhaic Llano, so far... Don't wanna sound rude, but maybe you tried installing GCN Crimson instead of non-GCN version?