I understand why they did it, but it's still disappointing. Six months ago, I would have jumped on an A12 build for a cheap IGP/APU gaming/entertainment machine for the kids, but now with Raven Ridge so close... I do love that it's compatible with FreeSync though.
You are correct that Raven Ridge does appear to be limiting this. Still, there is a market of people who need something cheap, and don't want to wait, because they don't need the greater performance of Raven Ridge.
On Newegg, Bristol Ridge prices range from $56 to $111, whereas Ryzen prices range from $111 to $460. Since the Ryzen chips require a discrete GPU (at least $80), there's no overlap here. I'm guessing that the first Raven Ridge parts will be 4 core parts priced higher than the 4 core Ryzen parts.
It won't be until AMD releases 2 and 3 core Raven Ridge variants that there will be Raven Ridge and Bristol Ridge chips a the same price point. At that point the survival of Bristol Ridge will depend on Global Foundries' price structure, which will in turn depend on how much demand there is for Global Foundries' 32mm process there is from other players.
Cheap cost of entry, I suppose, allowing a user to get started and then have pleanty of headroom with upgrades. Many OEMs won't mind what this product offers either. Cheap builds, but decent performance.
I'm a bit disappointed as well. While I do understand the need to clear out older stock and such, this still smacks of something Intel would do. Oh - they DID (ie: KBL-X). I am anxiously awaiting some simple ITX AM4 boards, and the Zen based APU. My Kodi box could use a bit of an upgrade.
While these probably wouldn't be bad at all for a Kodi box (in fact they might be overkill), I would rather just get the part I -want- vs a stop-gap.
Finally! I was looking to build some basic office computers, depending on price this will fit in nicely, and messenger leaves room for Zen and possibly Zen2 APU upgrade.
yeah, nothing exciting here; but it lets AMD and their partners start winding down manufacturing for legacy sockets half a year earlier than if they waited for the Zen APU to launch one for AM4. Biggest win is probably for system integrators that can use the same base model for Bristol Ridge and Ryzen 3 with an entry level GPU.
This is great to see. My light gaming machine, attached to the living room TV, runs an A10-7800 ( which AnandTech reviewed here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8291/amd-a10-7800-re... in a tiny mini-itx form factor. I would be really interested to see how the new A12-7800 compares, to see how much more perf they've squeezed out. I adore my 7800-based machine, it's snappy in general use and powerful enough to play HoTS on medium settings — to me for a 65W APU that still feels little short of miraculous.
It may not be the sexiest part of the market, but I think it's really incredible the way AMD has squeezed every bit of performance & efficiency out of a somewhat challenged architecture & node size. Can't wait for Raven Ridge though!
I also have a light gaming machine, inside an arcade cabinet with Happ joysticks. I'm using a tiny mini-itx case (Morex 557) running an A8-7600. Since it runs MAME the vast majority of the time, that's a perfect APU for it. But I've been planning to upgrade it to Raven Ridge as soon as it's available.
I might put a Bristol Ridge in there very soon, because that would make the upgrade to Raven Ridge really easy. I'm just hoping there's a 65 watt Raven Ridge with decent graphics performance, at least in the RX 460 neighborhood.
That's cool to hear, I think a lot of people have found really nice uses for these chips, although I haven't heard too much about this in the press/blogs. I used a Powercool Q6 case, although I added a large hole + grille in the top for heat dissipation.
Someone should start a blog documenting such hobbyist projects that these AMD APUs are so good for, could be quite inspiring.
28nm in 2017 for a new chip...ROFL. Whatever. Wasted opportunity here as it should be 16nm at worst which would add to margin no doubt as you would have been much faster and thus, been able to charge much more. AMD, always concentrating on the low end where there is no margin. The difference between 30% margins and 60% is low end vs. high end. If you're a struggling company (AMD for a decade or two), you have no business concentrating on anything OTHER than the high end where margins allow much more flexibility while still allowing for you to make money. AMD still seems to not know how to make PROFIT, even with a full quarter of sales with a new cpu release (you priced it wrong and killed your own margins). 80% of the money (PROFIT) is made on crap over $200 (cpu or gpu, just as Intel or Nvidia). When Intel is charging $1730 for 10 cores, you should have priced well above $1000 for the 16 core chips (think $1000-1200 for 12 core and $1500 for 16 core) until Intel forced you down. Sure I love that you knocked half the price off of Intel chips (and a great price for your own), but you're not in business to do US favors. You are (supposedly...LOL) in business to make MONEY.
As long as they were running off the shelves, price it as high as possible. PERIOD. When they start getting stuck on shelves, lower the price. This making profit stuff isn't rocket science. ROFL. You probably could have done that for the next 6mo-1yr before sales might have slowed as the high end stuff is selling like hotcakes (see Intel/Nvidia Q reports - both just made records). There is a reason Intel stacked chips on TOP of HEDT chips. Intel gets it. I love a low price, but AMD shouldn't like it as much as me. :)
You don't seem to get it -- this is an old design being released to fill a gap in their line up. Porting Bulldozer to 16nm, or more likely 14nm, would have been an incredible waste of money and engineering time. But I am very disappointed that they did not release these when AM4 motherboards first showed with Ryzen about 5 months ago -- I probably would have bought one, then upgraded to Raven Ridge when it comes out. But now, meh.
The timing probably is as much about limited manpower as anything else. Not just on AMDs part; but also on the board makers who need to create AM4 board variants with video out now.
Most AM4 motherboards supported integrated graphics back when Ryzen was first released. The only boards I've seen that don't support integrated graphics are $200+ boards aimed at gamers.
Agreed. I've built with 3 different AM4 motherboards, and all of them have video outputs. The official "supported CPU" lists have Bristol Ridge listed as well.
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nathanddrews - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
I understand why they did it, but it's still disappointing. Six months ago, I would have jumped on an A12 build for a cheap IGP/APU gaming/entertainment machine for the kids, but now with Raven Ridge so close... I do love that it's compatible with FreeSync though.MajGenRelativity - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
You are correct that Raven Ridge does appear to be limiting this. Still, there is a market of people who need something cheap, and don't want to wait, because they don't need the greater performance of Raven Ridge.ddriver - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
Zen APUs are still half a year away, maybe more. Some APU options for AM4 is better than none for that period of time.MajGenRelativity - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
AgreedKAlmquist - Wednesday, August 30, 2017 - link
On Newegg, Bristol Ridge prices range from $56 to $111, whereas Ryzen prices range from $111 to $460. Since the Ryzen chips require a discrete GPU (at least $80), there's no overlap here. I'm guessing that the first Raven Ridge parts will be 4 core parts priced higher than the 4 core Ryzen parts.It won't be until AMD releases 2 and 3 core Raven Ridge variants that there will be Raven Ridge and Bristol Ridge chips a the same price point. At that point the survival of Bristol Ridge will depend on Global Foundries' price structure, which will in turn depend on how much demand there is for Global Foundries' 32mm process there is from other players.
MonkeyPaw - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
Cheap cost of entry, I suppose, allowing a user to get started and then have pleanty of headroom with upgrades. Many OEMs won't mind what this product offers either. Cheap builds, but decent performance.bill.rookard - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
I'm a bit disappointed as well. While I do understand the need to clear out older stock and such, this still smacks of something Intel would do. Oh - they DID (ie: KBL-X). I am anxiously awaiting some simple ITX AM4 boards, and the Zen based APU. My Kodi box could use a bit of an upgrade.While these probably wouldn't be bad at all for a Kodi box (in fact they might be overkill), I would rather just get the part I -want- vs a stop-gap.
MajGenRelativity - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
I'd like to see reviews, but I'm cautiously optimistic about this being a challenger to Intel's Pentiums and i3s.MajGenRelativity - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
Ian, can you confirm that the Ryzen 1200 only has 8 PCIe lanes? I'm seeing elsewhere that it has 16, like the rest of the RyzensIan Cutress - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
That's a copy paste typo. It has 16 :)MajGenRelativity - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
Thank you good sir! The chart's not showing as updated for me, but I'm sure that will change soon.ET - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
I'll be looking forward to prices and reviews. Not that I'll buy one.Glock24 - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
Finally! I was looking to build some basic office computers, depending on price this will fit in nicely, and messenger leaves room for Zen and possibly Zen2 APU upgrade.MajGenRelativity - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
My thoughts exactly. I run a small business to build PCs, and this looks perfect.DanNeely - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
Shouldn't Ryzen 3 be 4x## for cache sizes not 8x## since it only has 4 cores/threads?MrCommunistGen - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
I don't immediately see where I'd use this for a myself, a friend, or family member, but it certainly doesn't hurt having additional choices.DanNeely - Friday, July 28, 2017 - link
yeah, nothing exciting here; but it lets AMD and their partners start winding down manufacturing for legacy sockets half a year earlier than if they waited for the Zen APU to launch one for AM4. Biggest win is probably for system integrators that can use the same base model for Bristol Ridge and Ryzen 3 with an entry level GPU.Oxford Guy - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
JEDEC 2400 DDR4 to review an APU that doesn't have eDRAM.I suppose it's too much to ask to test with a better RAM speed, to see if BR can support it and what difference it makes.
hallstein - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
This is great to see. My light gaming machine, attached to the living room TV, runs an A10-7800 ( which AnandTech reviewed here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8291/amd-a10-7800-re... in a tiny mini-itx form factor. I would be really interested to see how the new A12-7800 compares, to see how much more perf they've squeezed out. I adore my 7800-based machine, it's snappy in general use and powerful enough to play HoTS on medium settings — to me for a 65W APU that still feels little short of miraculous.It may not be the sexiest part of the market, but I think it's really incredible the way AMD has squeezed every bit of performance & efficiency out of a somewhat challenged architecture & node size. Can't wait for Raven Ridge though!
hallstein - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
I meant A12-9800, sorry.barleyguy - Saturday, July 29, 2017 - link
I also have a light gaming machine, inside an arcade cabinet with Happ joysticks. I'm using a tiny mini-itx case (Morex 557) running an A8-7600. Since it runs MAME the vast majority of the time, that's a perfect APU for it. But I've been planning to upgrade it to Raven Ridge as soon as it's available.I might put a Bristol Ridge in there very soon, because that would make the upgrade to Raven Ridge really easy. I'm just hoping there's a 65 watt Raven Ridge with decent graphics performance, at least in the RX 460 neighborhood.
hallstein - Saturday, July 29, 2017 - link
That's cool to hear, I think a lot of people have found really nice uses for these chips, although I haven't heard too much about this in the press/blogs. I used a Powercool Q6 case, although I added a large hole + grille in the top for heat dissipation.Someone should start a blog documenting such hobbyist projects that these AMD APUs are so good for, could be quite inspiring.
Am thinking the same re AM4 & Raven.
Zigman85 - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
Wow... bulldozer really was a step backward. My 7 year old Phenom II @ 3.8 gets almost identical benchmarks in C15Single 97
Multi 376
TheJian - Friday, July 28, 2017 - link
28nm in 2017 for a new chip...ROFL. Whatever. Wasted opportunity here as it should be 16nm at worst which would add to margin no doubt as you would have been much faster and thus, been able to charge much more. AMD, always concentrating on the low end where there is no margin. The difference between 30% margins and 60% is low end vs. high end. If you're a struggling company (AMD for a decade or two), you have no business concentrating on anything OTHER than the high end where margins allow much more flexibility while still allowing for you to make money. AMD still seems to not know how to make PROFIT, even with a full quarter of sales with a new cpu release (you priced it wrong and killed your own margins). 80% of the money (PROFIT) is made on crap over $200 (cpu or gpu, just as Intel or Nvidia). When Intel is charging $1730 for 10 cores, you should have priced well above $1000 for the 16 core chips (think $1000-1200 for 12 core and $1500 for 16 core) until Intel forced you down. Sure I love that you knocked half the price off of Intel chips (and a great price for your own), but you're not in business to do US favors. You are (supposedly...LOL) in business to make MONEY.As long as they were running off the shelves, price it as high as possible. PERIOD. When they start getting stuck on shelves, lower the price. This making profit stuff isn't rocket science. ROFL. You probably could have done that for the next 6mo-1yr before sales might have slowed as the high end stuff is selling like hotcakes (see Intel/Nvidia Q reports - both just made records). There is a reason Intel stacked chips on TOP of HEDT chips. Intel gets it. I love a low price, but AMD shouldn't like it as much as me. :)
ColoradoClyde - Friday, July 28, 2017 - link
You don't seem to get it -- this is an old design being released to fill a gap in their line up. Porting Bulldozer to 16nm, or more likely 14nm, would have been an incredible waste of money and engineering time. But I am very disappointed that they did not release these when AM4 motherboards first showed with Ryzen about 5 months ago -- I probably would have bought one, then upgraded to Raven Ridge when it comes out. But now, meh.DanNeely - Sunday, July 30, 2017 - link
The timing probably is as much about limited manpower as anything else. Not just on AMDs part; but also on the board makers who need to create AM4 board variants with video out now.KAlmquist - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link
Most AM4 motherboards supported integrated graphics back when Ryzen was first released. The only boards I've seen that don't support integrated graphics are $200+ boards aimed at gamers.barleyguy - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
Agreed. I've built with 3 different AM4 motherboards, and all of them have video outputs. The official "supported CPU" lists have Bristol Ridge listed as well.gamertaboo - Monday, August 28, 2017 - link
That HP Pavilion doesn't come with an extra graphics card? The A12 has R7 graphics built in lol.