AMD Unleashes Kabini APUs – Delivers Next Gen Performance With x86 Jaguar and HD 8000 Cores

AMD’s next generation Kabini APUs have been released powering next generation of notebooks with the high-performance x86 Jaguar architecture and Radeon HD 8000 cores.

AMD Kabini APUs – Powers Next Gen Mainstream Notebooks

The AMD Kabini APUs or SOC (System-on-chip) is designed specifically to deliver best in class efficiency to next generation mainstream notebooks while delivering faster performance with the first ever x86 Quad Core SOC codenamed “Kabini”. The Kabini APUs feature upto four of the latest x86 Jaguar cores that deliver faster performance over last generation processors while improving power efficiency by delivering muchbetter battery life and performance per watt.

The graphics side of the chip is powered by the latest HD 8000 cores which might not be based on a new architecture but deliver better performance through improved clock speeds. The Kabini APUs are split in two tiers, the Kabini A-Series APUs would directly compete against the Core i3 and Pentium series CPUs from Intel while the Kabini E-Series APUs would go against the Celeron lineup. AMD aims to deliver a new price per performance achievement with their latest Kabini APUs and will be drastically cheaper than what Intel offers.

Although performance on the GPU side is a definitive increase over last generation for AMD, Intel might just give them a hard time with their upcoming low power 4^thgeneration Haswell iGPs which would be aimed to deliver enhanced performance over Intel’s last generation graphics core. However that would be settled when the reviews for both products go live. Following are some of the highlights for AMD’s upcoming Kabini APUs after which we will head over to take a look at the performance:

Best-inClass graphics performance
More responsiveness, better experience with platform performance increase of upto 88% over previous generation.
The first and only quad core for essential/OPP segment
Game better with console-like graphics
Over 10 hours of resting battery life
Up to 9+ hours of web browsing, 6+ hours of 1080P playback

Compared to the Trinity based A4-4355M (22W), the Kabini A4-5000 (15) delivers upto 66% improvement in 3DMark 11 and 42% improvement in PCMark7. On the other hand, the Kabini E1-2100 (9W) is 215% faster in 3DMark 11 and 136% faster in PCMark 7 compared to the 22W Brazos based E1-1200. You can check out in the following slide that with Kabini SOCs, AMD aims to deliver upto 25% more power efficiency over Brazos.

The next chart compares Intel’s Pentium and Sandy Bridge “Core i3” processors with AMD Kabini A-Series APUs. The Core i3 generation CPU can’t run DirectX11 which is available on AMD’s and Pentium processors. AMD takes the lead by delivering 120-140% improvement in Batman Arkham City, faster DX10 performance flagship vs flagship (Core i3-2370M vs A6-5200) in 3DMark Cloud Gate and enhanced OpenCL performance in Basemark CL benchmark.

The product stack for AMD’s upcoming Kabini APUs lineup can be seen below. As mentioned on the top, the A-series would be placed against Core i3 and Pentium processors while the E-series would tackle the Celeron lineup.

Model	Radeon GPU	TDP	CPU Cores	CPU Clock	L2 Cache	GPU Cores	GPU Clock	DDR3 Speed
A6-5200	HD 8400	25W	4	2.0 GHz	2MB L2	128	600 MHz	1600 MHz
A4-5000	HD 8330	15W	4	1.5 GHz	2MB L2	128	500 MHz	1600 MHz
E2-3000	HD 8280	15W	2	1.6 GHz	1MB L2	128	450 MHz	1600 MHz
E1-2500	HD 8240	15W	2	1.4 GHz	1MB L2	128	400 MHz	1333 MHz
E1-2100	HD 8210	09W	2	1.0 GHz	1MB L2	128	300 MHz	1333 MHz