
Asus N551ZU Notebook Review
AMD FX-7600P | AMD Radeon R9 M280X | 15.60" | 2.7 kg
The quad-core AMD FX-7600P is a mid-range processor based on the Kaveri architecture. It was revealed in June 2014 for notebooks and is manufactured by GlobalFoundries using a 28 nm SHP process. In addition to having two CPU modules for a total of four integer cores clocked at 2.7 - 3.6 GHz, the AMD chip also integrates a Radeon R7 GPU clocked at up to 686 MHz with 512 GCN shaders and a dual-channel DDR3-2133 memory controller. The FX-7600P was the fastest mobile Kaveri APU in 2014.
In addition to the CPU and GPU cores, the APU also integrates a dual-channel DDR3-2133 memory controller, UVD 4.0 video decoder, VCE 2.0 video encoder and TrueAudio audio processor.
Architecture
Kaveri is the successor to the 2013 Richland architecture (e.g. A10-5750M). The revised CPU cores, codenamed Steamroller, represent the third generation of the module-based Bulldozer design. A number of major changes include modified decoders (now one per integer core), optimized branch prediction, and increased L1 I-cache from 64 KB to 96 KB per module. These revisions boost the performance per clock slightly over a similarly clocked Richland APU. For more details about the AMD Kaveri architecture, see our detailed analysis here:
Analysis of the AMD Kaveri Notebook Platform
Performance
In our benchmarks with a demo laptop from AMD the performance of the processor cores was comparable to a Haswell Core i5-4210U. The single thread performance is the bottleneck of the CPU and only on a level of the previous A10-5750M (Richland) or Haswell Core i3-4030U.
Overall, the FX-7600P will be sufficient for multitasking daily workloads (Office, Internet browsing, multimedia) as well as more demanding programs.
Graphics
The Radeon R7 (Kaveri) GPU of the FX-7600P features a core clock of up to 686 MHz and 512 shader units. Since the GPU is based on AMD's GCN 1.1 architecture, both DirectX 11.2 "Tier 2" and Mantle are supported. Furthermore, the GPU can be used for general purpose computing in various applications, such as Adobe Photoshop via the OpenCL API.
In terms of 3D performance, the GPU benefits from its high raw computational power and memory support up to DDR3-2133. Thus, the Radeon R7 is just slightly behind Intel's Iris Pro Graphics 5200 and roughly on par with a dedicated GeForce GT 730M. The integrated GPU in the Core i3 and i5 Haswell processors (like HD Graphics 4400) is left clearly behind.
As of Q2 2014, the Radeon R7 in the FX-7600P is one of the fastest integrated notebook graphics solutions that can handle many current games at low or medium settings at WXGA resolution.
Power Consumption
The power consumption of the entire APU is rated at 35 Watts, which is similar to other competing mid-range models. As a result, the FX-7600P is best suited for 14-inch notebooks or larger.
Codename | Kaveri | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series | AMD Kaveri | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series: Kaveri Kaveri
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Clock Rate | 2700 - 3600 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Front Side Bus | BGA (FP3) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Level 1 Cache | 256 KB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Level 2 Cache | 4 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of Cores / Threads | 4 / 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Power Consumption (TDP = Thermal Design Power) | 35 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistor Count | 2410 Million | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manufacturing Technology | 28 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Die Size | 245 mm2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Max. Temperature | 105 °C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | SSE (1, 2, 3, 3S, 4.1, 4.2, 4A), x86-64, AES, AVX, FMA, DDR3-2133 Controller | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GPU | AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri) (600 - 686 MHz) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
64 Bit | 64 Bit support | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | x86 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Announcement Date | 06/04/2014 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Link (external) | www.amd.com |
The integrated UVD 4.2 HD video decoder in the mobile Kaveri APUs is able to decode MPEG2, H.264, VC-1, MPEG 4, and WMV9 in resolutions up to Full HD without stressing the CPU cores. Decoding 4K videos however has to be done by the CPU as our DXVAChecker benchmarks shows. We played back a 100 Mbit MP4 4K video and it was rendered in stuttering 11 fps at 97 % CPU load.
Asus N551ZU-CN007H: AMD Radeon R9 M280X, 15.60", 2.7 kg
External Review » Asus N551ZU-CN007H
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