AMD Unveils New A-Series Processors

Chipmaker AMD has announced retail availability of its new A-Series APU. This is a second generation APU aimed at DIY computer builders constructing their own desktop, small form factor, or home theater computers. AMD says that the A-Series APU offers affordable performance, discrete-level graphics, multiple cores, and fast processing.

The A-Series APU is available in multiple configurations with pricing ranging from $53-$122 depending on clock speed. One of the good things about the A-Series line is that it uses a stable socket platform with the new AMD FM2 infrastructure. That means that people who build a computer using this APU have a direct upgrade path for more performance down the road.

The A-Series APU promises more than 700 GFLOPS of computer performance at up to 4.2 GHz maximum frequency. The CPU of the A-Series is unlocked and using AMD OverDrive software users can overclock the processor to operate at up to 6.5 GHz. The CPU and GPU also both feature AMD Turbo Core 3.0 technology allowing GPU and CPU frequencies to automatically increase.

The hallmark feature of AMD APUs is the integration of a graphics core along with the CPU core. The A-Series APU features an AMD Radeon HD 7000 series GPU providing discrete-class graphics integrated into the processor. The GPU supports AMD Eyefinity Technology for multiple monitors. The integrated graphics can be leveraged when a discrete graphics card is added for a performance boost of up to 75%.