[AMD] Cavorting with Kaveri - 24/7 overclocks

MacClipper · Jan 10, 2014

On the 7th day of the new solar year, AMD officially introduced their 2014 APU range in the run up to CES Vegas featuring new capabilities with interesting acronyms like HSA, hUMA, GCN, Gen3, improved IPC and other stuff without acronyms like Mantle and True Audio etc...

So all you good people, kindly google, read up and memorise all those acronyms and other upcoming swear words as your homework for the new year as we totter right along with the new APUs. Embarrassingly, I tend to forget them myself... after repeated clearings of the CMOS.

Launch as reported by HWZ
AMD Kaveri APUs Launch Today! (Updated) - HardwareZone.com.sg

This is APU, from long ago

This is APU too, all brand new in 2014

Thanks to Ms AMD, I had the blessed fortune of approx. 1 week to juggle and tinkle with the 2 new APUs, both the flagship A10-7850K and the mildly neutered A10-7700K.

For the moment, the 2014 APU line is so new that as of today 10/01/04, it is not yet fuly recognised or supported by CPU-Z, GPU-Z or mobos with immature mobo BIOS. Do expect having lots of fun with little stumbles along the way if you are wont to be an early adopter of new toys. It's truly very early days yet being in the wild wild west...

An example, CPU-Z recognises the 7850K but labels the 7700K as an unknown A8/A10 chip. On both chips, the memory section is a total blank except for the total memory installed ie. no readout for the RAM or NB frequency etc.

GPU o'cing was a total no go with the then latest BIOS when I received the APU samples but the Extreme6+ got a quick turnaround bugfix BIOS from mothership Asrock upon my request and overclocking is now a gloriously zip, bang, zoom....

As with most things IT, the situation is expected to improve and get better quickly with time. Likewise for the hardware aspect of things, chip quality should also go up with newer revisions.

Still, AMD K APU tweaking is decidedly more interesting all round with fully adjustable voltages, CPU, GPU, IMC and RAM over/underclocking and in being not artificially limited by IHS trapped heat.

The NDA for Kaveri is officially 14/01/2014 which means that I have been hard at work posting something close to nothing but saying a little more than the day before (just to paraphrase Prince Rogers Nelson or whatever he is known as nowadays). So till the 14th, no benches, no comments, no screenshots, no nothing other than what's already known... it's still NDA nada nirvana.

This will likely serve as a platform placeholder to vent the curiosity and to gauge the interest and requests of all APU fans. Let's simply just discuss and degust...

Do also see my other APU threads meanwhile
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/h...i-mobos-testing-4469733.html?highlight=kaveri
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/h...bringing-kaveri-4375361.html?highlight=kaveri
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/h...-whodini-kabini-4451393.html?highlight=kabini
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/h...elcome-richland-4238203.html?highlight=kaveri
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/h...ard-owners-klub-3945654.html?highlight=kaveri
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/h...g-unlocked-3870k-3612373.html?highlight=llano

haylui · Jan 10, 2014

How is the ipc improvement? Rate from 1 to 10 in your opinion...hehe

MacClipper · Jan 10, 2014

For IPC improvement (vs which CPU you didn't quite say...), maybe take your own fave pick from the choicest rumours circulating around

Google IPC improvement

From AMD's choice of factory stock base/turbo clocks, one may hazard a guess that either current yields are possibly hitting lower clocks than its Richland predecssor or AMD's simply trying to keep the TDP lower or perhaps, even both.

Rock-kun · Jan 10, 2014

How much $? That's the question.

MacClipper · Jan 10, 2014

Retail pricing actually got leaked a while back by some retailers

Check out this Google cache too
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: AMD A10-7850K APU AD785KXBJABOX

SSDLover · Jan 10, 2014

Question:
is the stock amd fan noisy??

my 5800k stock fan is noisy as hell.
Amd needs to fix this issue. It's a nightmare for htpc.

contrarily, g3220 fan is like 10x quieter and more suitable for HTPC imo. cost a lot cheaper too.

MacClipper · Jan 10, 2014

You may have a faulty fan or suboptimal rig airflow there, my kid runs a 5800K mITX rig with the stock HSF in his bedroom and it's comfortably quiet enough for sleeping alongside with.

SSDLover · Jan 11, 2014

MacClipper said:
You may have a faulty fan or suboptimal rig airflow there, my kid runs a 5800K mITX rig with the stock HSF in his bedroom and it's comfortably quiet enough for sleeping alongside with.

It's running at 3500rpm at least during load. That's the reason it is noisy. Maybe your kid didn't stress the cpu that much? Why don't you give it some stress and report back. Thanks in advance.

Assault · Jan 11, 2014

The stock fan in my HTPC rig (with an A10-6800k) was indeed loud enough for me to buy an aftermarket cooler for it - it was a high-pitched whirring sound if I remember right.

SSDLover · Jan 11, 2014

Assault said:
The stock fan in my HTPC rig (with an A10-6800k) was indeed loud enough for me to buy an aftermarket cooler for it - it was a high-pitched whirring sound if I remember right.

I think the main culprit is the fan size is too small. It has to spin so fast to cool down the overwhelming heat due to its 100w tdp.

I have to reduce the fan speed thru bios in order to live with it on daily basis.

Assault · Jan 11, 2014

yea, I agree, the fan dimensions are really too small.

It's not a big deal to change an aftermarket cooler anyway, a good one is like $40-$50 tops? I've really enjoyed my 6800K, hope AMD continues the good work with Kaveri.

MacClipper · Jan 11, 2014

For most chips, you can also either underclock it or undervolt it by up to 0.1V if you are running at stock. This cuts both heat and hence noise.

Generally, both the AMD and Intel bundled HSF are simply unsuitable for the noise averse or the o'cing enthusiasts in terms of cooling capability (and hence noise).

I have often wished that both parties would just save everyone the trouble and forego the bundled HSF (and the need of keeping it around for RMA purposes, a practice which Intel has recently abandoned).

btw, most of my bundled HSF are totally brand new and left in the retail box cos I almost never use them at all. For me, that itself doesn't detract anything from enjoying the great chips both AMD and Intel produce.

Assault · Jan 11, 2014

I can't even find the AMD heatsink that came with my chip!

I don't really think it's a good idea to do away entirely with the bundled HSF, there are still lots of people who don't belong to the 'enthusiast' class who may be scared away by the non-inclusion of a cooling solution. Before I got into X79 I thought it was a little crazy that the CPU didn't come with a fan, too. Having to buy one more item (and an item that has probably the largest variety of choices to pick from) may intimidate the non-enthusiast crowd, I think.

MacClipper · Jan 11, 2014

Assault said:
I can't even find the AMD heatsink that came with my chip!

Precisely my point... and in the bad old days, you can't just grab any HSF cos the fan is batch serial coded in tandem with the CPU too.

Seems both AMD and Intel are more forgiving with missing HSF these days when doing chip RMAs though, fortunately.

I don't really think it's a good idea to do away entirely with the bundled HSF, there are still lots of people who don't belong to the 'enthusiast' class who may be scared away by the non-inclusion of a cooling solution.

For the usual non-K/locked CPUs meant for the masses, yes a bundled HSF may make sense.

But for the CPUs targeted at overclockers, it is a total waste of material, shipping load/cost, time and effort. Most K HSFs end up unused in the retail box and worst equipped with the uncanny ability of getting lost somewhere in the storeroom when it is actually needed. =:p

morgankell · Jan 11, 2014

well I agreed that the heatsinks can be useless at times but u can find uses for them

for amd I managed to hand me down the stock coolers... very useful as AMD uses the same heatsink attachment since am2 times...

I got 1 AMD FX and 3 APU setups

the overclocked (to A8-3870K level) and undervolted a6-3670K (100W rated) got the FX 8320 heatsink (125W rated; with the useless noisy stock fan removed and ghetto mod with a 92 mm fan instead) nice and quiet

the a6-3500 (65W rated and undervolted) uses the a6-3670k hs (? rated for 100W). the stock fan never runs fast cos the a6 uses barely any power

the a4-3400 (65W rated and undervolted) with stock hs / fan -> also quiet cos the fan doesnt need to rev up either...

if you cant recycle the heatsinks that way, u can always turn the cheap aluminium intel/ amd heatsinks to vrm heatsinks with a file...

MacClipper · Jan 11, 2014

@morgankell, you are definitely more macho/masochistic (?machochistic) than me cos I usually use a handsaw to cut them up but you actually use a file to wear it down to a mosfet sink... powa!

Meanwhile here're some benchmarks obtained on my Kaveri test rig today, these should be kosher enough to fly under the AMD NDA radar...

AMD A10-7700K Kaveri - Single module max rates R780 W587

sushibiscuit · Jan 11, 2014

MacClipper said:
You may have a faulty fan or suboptimal rig airflow there, my kid runs a 5800K mITX rig with the stock HSF in his bedroom and it's comfortably quiet enough for sleeping alongside with.

The stock AMD heatsinks/fans are terribad. Intel stock heatsinks run much quieter.

I disagree that stock heatsinks are useless. Aftermarket heatsinks are additional costs for those not looking to overclock.

IMO stock heatsinks should be good enough to keep heat to an acceptable state but the most important part is to be silent enough. AMD drops the ball here.

yusoffb01 · Jan 11, 2014

How do u request amd to send u chip

SSDLover · Jan 11, 2014

sushibiscuit said:
The stock AMD heatsinks/fans are terribad. Intel stock heatsinks run much quieter.

I disagree that stock heatsinks are useless. Aftermarket heatsinks are additional costs for those not looking to overclock.

IMO stock heatsinks should be good enough to keep heat to an acceptable state but the most important part is to be silent enough. AMD drops the ball here.

the stock heat sink fan is good enough if are not Overclocking anything.

Some said why don't change to 3rd party cpu cooler. well, with the cost of changing to a 3rd party cpu cooler, which normally cost around 50 bucks for a good one, eventually you are paying close to an intel i5 price. intel i5 and A10-6800k are totally different things altogether.

so changing to 3rd party cooler just don't sense IMHO.

P/S: gonna stay away from amd apu for the moment till they fix that uber rubbish stock heat sink fan.

MacClipper · Jan 11, 2014

With all the ongoing discussions about cooling... looks like a good time to slide this in, might as well go with the flow. Heheh...

Kaveri Test Rig Setup

Ambient non-aircon air

★ Asrock A88X Extreme6+ | Kaveri with R7 iGPU | KVR DDR3-1333@1866 | Hydro H105 CLC | Corsair CS650M Modular ★

Asrock A88X Extreme6+ - click!

Kaveri with R7 iGPU - presently under NDA, known models are A10-7850K and A10-7700K

Dell 2713HM 1440p display, supported by the R7 iGPU at full native res via dual link DVI

Corsair CS650M Modular, click!

So next up, introducing the...

Corsair Hydro H105 CLC

Official Corsair page
Hydro Series™ H105 240mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler