Ending not with a bang but with a whimper: AMD releases one final chip for the FM2+ socket

[Coaxialgamer]

As the article says, why go to 7nm when you can go back with 28nm?

For some reason AMD has decided to release one last chip for the long dead FM2+ platform. 

Everyone, feast your eyes upon the A8-7680!

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AMD is launching one last chip for the FM2+ platform

Who needs 7nm when you can just go back to 28nm?

By Isaiah Mayersen , Today 2:20 PM

WTF?! It sounds like a joke, but surprisingly, it’s true: meet the AMD A8-7680. Based on the now nearly five years old A8-7600 and launching on the nearly eight year old FM2+ socket, this will certainly be a chip that absolutely no one cares about.

The chip was first suspected to be coming when Asrock updated their BIOS to support it on their A68H motherboards – though admittedly most people thought it was an error at the time. Just recently, however, an official AMD document began listing the device, and several online retailers have put it up for sale. 

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According to its listings, the A8-7680 features four cores and four threads with a 3.5Ghz base clock and a whopping 3.8Ghz boost clock. It’s technically unlocked but there’s little hope of pushing it very far given its 28nm node, and notorious Excavator architecture.

I honestly have no idea why AMD even bothered. But hey, there's always a reason for a company's actions...right? Guys? Anyone? 

 

Source: https://www.techspot.com/amp/news/77136-amd-launching-one-last-chip-fm2-platform.html

[sof006]

I can't honestly see anyone buying this. Not when Ryzen APUs are highly more efficient and powerful (and not that expensive) are out. 

[Cereal5]

Using logic? That makes too much sense

[emosun]

I thought AMD and 5 year old platforms was commonplace 

[KarathKasun]

Clearing out old wafers from the 28nm production line.

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, KarathKasun said:

Clearing out old wafers from the 28nm production line.

You'd think that would be done more than a year and a half after discontinuing the product. 

[BuckGup]

Yeah definitely just trying to make any money on old stock. 

[BuckGup]

Just now, Coaxialgamer said:

You'd think that would be done more than a year and a half after discontinuing the product. 

Someone found a full box in the back?

[Belgarathian]

Just now, BuckGup said:

Someone found a full box in the back?

The annual stock take and realised they had a few containers of returns that hadn't been put back into stock.

[KarathKasun]

Just now, Coaxialgamer said:

You'd think that would be done more than a year and a half after discontinuing the product. 

GloFo likely provided a deep discount to keep the plant from idling, and the last of the chips to come off the line likely went into the process a year or more ago. 

[Ashleyyyy]

if AMD wanted to keep an old platform alive it would be better to release a new motherboard for it. cpu's are available on the used market very easily. motherboards are less easy to get, and will be available less in the future because i think motherboards break more often than cpu's. so it would be better for the used market in the future if AMD released a motherboard. 

[GOTSpectrum]

9 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

GloFo likely provided a deep discount to keep the plant from idling, and the last of the chips to come off the line likely went into the process a year or more ago. 

It's much better to just break even on a  run then to have the plant sit there idling and losing money. I think this is likely, but why FM2... Why not am3+ as that is more widespread. 

[ARikozuM]

I would have been genuinely amazed and wholeheartedly singing praises for AMD if they managed to make a Ryzen chip for FM2. 

 

Intel would have taken heed of the move if decade-old hardware suddenly matched their SKL and CFL entries. 

[GOTSpectrum]

6 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I would have been genuinely amazed and wholeheartedly singing praises for AMD if they managed to make a Ryzen chip for FM2. 

 

Intel would have taken heed of the move if decade-old hardware suddenly matched their SKL and CFL entries. 

That would have been awesome to see... I think the problem is that the memory controller on this platform is in the chipset and as such the IMC would have had to be redesigned.  Also the fact that IF ticks at the memory clock would kill performance.

[aezakmi]

31 minutes ago, sof006 said:

I can't honestly see anyone buying this. Not when Ryzen APUs are highly more efficient and powerful (and not that expensive) are out. 

FYI not everyone in the world can replace motherboard, CPU and memory every time a new processor comes out.

[TetraSky]

I'm guessing its their old stock they had laying around, that was binned to know if it could operate at higher clock speed with a new number strapped onto it?
Because really, it makes no sense otherwise.

[ARikozuM]

6 minutes ago, Ben Quigley said:

Also the fact that IF ticks at the memory clock would kill performance.

Agreed on all other counts, but latency is lower (or the same once the bandwidth is accounted for) compared to newer sets. 

[Arika]

what a useless product

[GOTSpectrum]

Just now, ARikozuM said:

Agreed on all other counts, but latency is lower (or the same once the bandwidth is accounted for) compared to newer sets. 

Despite the lower memory latency the increase latency/decreased clock speed in the infinity fabric itself would make inter core latency much worse overall. This would tank performance on most processes.

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, Ben Quigley said:

Despite the lower memory latency the increase latency/decreased clock speed in the infinity fabric itself would make inter core latency much worse overall. This would tank performance on most processes.

If I were an AMD engineer, I would have taken that hit and still knocked the ball out of the park. 

 

FM2 is only five years old at this point, but I still think AMD could have won a ton of the used market back over for value. 

[GOTSpectrum]

3 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

If I were an AMD engineer, I would have taken that hit and still knocked the ball out of the park. 

 

FM2 is only five years old at this point, but I still think AMD could have won a ton of the used market back over for value. 

I think fm2 motherboards are so hard to find currently that it just wouldn't make much sense full stop but, if they was to launch it on a AM3+ on the other hand it would actually make a little bit of sense imo.

[Taf the Ghost]

1 hour ago, Coaxialgamer said:

You'd think that would be done more than a year and a half after discontinuing the product. 

China, Africa (areas where DDR3 is still sold in high volume) and we think this was maybe the part used for the Atari project. Oddly enough, Intel is known for doing production runs of chips long after they're discontinued, when they sell in enough volume in certain segments of the world.

[Taf the Ghost]

Also, as a note, AMD is big in the embedded market, so this might just be the last part (it's likely a fully active version of an exiting part) within a specific line. AMD will be rolling out fresh runs of Polaris parts through 2024. This has no market in much of the world, but these companies do fill niches across a very large planet. And there's only 2 real x86 companies.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, Ben Quigley said:

I think the problem is that the memory controller on this platform is in the chipset and as such the IMC would have had to be redesigned.

You sure? AMD has had on die memory controllers since Athlon 64 (2003), not that I know if it is or isn't just sounds odd to me that something so much newer would go backwards like that.

[mariushm]

1 hour ago, sof006 said:

I can't honestly see anyone buying this. Not when Ryzen APUs are highly more efficient and powerful (and not that expensive) are out. 

DDR4 memory is expensive. Ryzen works better with Windows 10, while there are big markets (China, India, Brazil, Africa) where Windows 7 is still very popular and easily pirated and works better with older hardware.

They probably also still had a big stock of FM2 chipsets (like they have with 760G chipset for socket AM3) and maybe they're trying to get some chinese board makers to take them of their hands.

1 hour ago, Ben Quigley said:

It's much better to just break even on a  run then to have the plant sit there idling and losing money. I think this is likely, but why FM2... Why not am3+ as that is more widespread. 

My guess is FM2 is more attractive to low end / budget market like I said, China and some countries... FM2 boards have the video connectors for the integrated graphics, AM3 doesn't.

 

Yeah ... they probably still have the GlobalFoundries contract and commitment for minimum wafers so they have to make something, may as well make these.

I don't think it's the Atari console because the dev boards shown in pictures were for those more mobile-ish cpus (llano, jaguar, puma etc), this one's Carrizo.

 

There's also a rumor that these processors may have been made to be put on socket AM4 (like those AM4 processors that were sold only to OEM companies) in case the had problems making the Ryzen processors, but I doubt that's the case since I don't think these have DDR4 memory controller in them.