Jon Peddie offers a quick summary of why Bristol Ridge is worthy of your consideration.
AMD is rolling out its seventh-generation APU code-named Bristol Ridge. (APU means Accelerated Processing Unit; it’s AMD’s way to combine CPU and GPU in one chip.) It’s bigger, faster, uses less power, and has found homes in Acer, HP, Lenovo notebooks, and in Microsoft’s preferred PC campaign.
The new APUs will come in dual and quad-core x86 versions with up to 10 total computer units (there were eight in the last-gen part).
The new APU is chock full of features:
- Mantle and DirectX12 with explicit mGPU support
- Virtual super resolution
- AMD Eyefinity technology
- AMD Radeon graphics core Next
- AMD dual graphics
- AMD gaming evolved client with real-time record and play
- Frame rate target control
- VP9 streaming decode
- Native HEVC 4K decode
- AMD Perfect Picture (colors, smoother playback of Blu-ray and other HD content)
- AMD steady video
- Native 4K display support
- AMD Start Now technology
- AMD Turbo Core
The product scales up nicely from the entry-level chip. And performance-wise, it has a very competitive position.
