In addition to the new Polaris-based RX 480 graphics card and the teaser of the upcoming Zen-based CPU, AMD also announced its 7th generation APUs that will be available for mainstream and entry-level markets, known as Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge.

The new 7th generation APUs will be based on AMD's Excavator CPU architecture and GCN 1.2 GPU part, same GPU used in AMD's 6th generation Carrizo APUs. It will also support for DDR4-2666 memory and bring significant performance improvement of up to 56 percent, compared to Kaveri APUs and up to 10 percent compared to Carrizo APU, with graphics performance increase of up to 37 percent, mostly thanks to the faster DDR4 memory.

AMD was quite keen to note that there are plenty of efficiency improvements, mostly gained from process refinements to the 28nm manufacturing process as well as architectural improvements.

There are also plenty of other improvements including upgraded UVD and VCE video, HDMI, PCIe 3.0, H.265 and VP9 decode, higher clocks on both CPU and GPU parts and more.

AS noted, AMD's 7th generation APUs will be available in two versions, as a single module, dual-core version, known as Stoney Ridge and as a dual-module, quad-core version, known as Bristol Ridge.

The Stoney Ridge will be available in A9, A6 and E2-series SKUs and are aimed at entry-level market with TDP set at up to 15W, while the Bristol Ridge will be available as FX, A12 and A10-series SKUs, aimed at mainstream market with TDP of up to 35W.

The graphics part will be Branded as Radeon R7, R5, R4 and R2 series and the entire lineup will be differentiated by a new 7th gen badge.

Some of these will end up in tablets, small notebooks, ultra-thin notebooks and mainstream performance notebooks.

Hopefully AMD has managed to secure plenty of design wins and we will see some Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge devices on retail/e-tail shelves soon.









Source: AMD.com.