AMD Pro A12-8800B vs AMD A10-9600P vs AMD FX-9830P

AMD Pro A12-8800B

The AMD Pro A12-8800B is the top-tier Carrizo APU of 2015 for business laptops. It is a SoC containing two Excavator CPU modules (with 4 integer and 2 FP units counted as 4 compute cores), a Radeon R7 graphics card with 8 compute cores (512 shaders), a DDR3-2133 (35 Watt cTDP) memory controller and a video engine (including UVD 6 with hardware HEVC / H.265 decoding). It is similar to the consumer version, the FX-8800P, but offers business support and a ensure a long-tail support program. 

The performances of the CPU and GPU cores depend on the configurable TDP. This cTDP can range from 12 to 35 Watts depending on the cooling solution and size of the laptop. Thus, clock speeds of the compute cores will vary. E.g., the GPU can score between 1992 points (15 Watts) to 2753 points (+38% with 35 Watts cTDP) in 3DMark 11 (based on the similar FX-8800P).

According to AMD, the 35 Watt configuration scores 12% (Cinebench single-thread) and 15% (Cinebench Multi-threaded) higher compared to the previous Steamroller generation (most likely the AMD FX-7600P). If configured to 15 Watt instead, the gains are higher (40% to 55%) compared to the 19 Watt Kaveri FX-7500 APU. See more benchmarks on our FX-8800P page.

More technical details and features of the 6th generation of APUs (Carrizo) can be found in our launch article.

AMD A10-9600P

The AMD A10-9600P is a mid-range APU of the Bristol Ridge series (7th generation of APUs) with 4 CPU-cores (two Excavator modules) clocked at 2.4 - 3.3 GHz. It was announced in mid 2016 and is based on the same silicon as Carrizo but with more and refined features. It is a ULV-chip with a TDP of 15 Watt and integrates a Radeon R5 graphics card (384 shader cores / 6 compute cores) and a dual-channel DDR4-1866 memory controller. As Carrizo its a full featured SoC that offers all I/O ports on the chip.

The A10-9600P is slightly faster than the old 15-Watt top model of Carrizo, the FX-8800P. Therefore, the CPU performance is similar to a Broadwell 15 Watt Core i3 like The i3-5010U. See our Bristol Ridge article for more information on the architecture and improvements compared to Carrizo.

AMD FX-9830P

The AMD FX-9830P is a mobile mainstream SoC from the Bristol-Ridge APU series for notebooks (7th APU generation), which was announced mid 2016. The FX-9830P is the fastest Bristol Ridge APU with a 45-Watt TDP and the successor to the 15-35-Watt FX-8800P from the Carrizo generation. The chip has four CPU cores (two Excavator modules = 4 integer and 2 FP units), a Radeon R7 GPU as well as a dual-channel DDR4-1866 memory controller. Carrizo is a full-fledged SoC and is also equipped with an integrated chipset, which provides all I/0 ports.

Architecture

Bristol Ridge is the successor of the Carrizo architecture and the design is almost identical. Thanks to optimized manufacturing processes and more aggressive Boost behavior, however, the clocks are a bit higher at the same power consumption. The memory controller now also supports DDR4-RAM, in this case up to 2400 MHz. More technical details are available in the following articles:

• AMD's Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge Architecture
• AMD: Bristol Ridge APUs announced

Performance

Thanks to higher clocks, the FX9830P is slightly ahead of the old 35-Watt top model FX-8800P and competes with the entry-level dual-cores from Intel (Skylake and Kaby Lake). Compared to the Intel model, the AMD chip has a small advantage in multi-thread scenarios, but is beaten when you only stress one or two cores.

This means there is sufficient performance for typical office and web applications as well as light multitasking.

Graphics Card

The integrated Radeon R7 (Bristol Ridge) GPU has 512 active shader units (8 compute cores) clocked at up to 900 MHz (compared to 758 MHz for FX-9800P). Thanks to the better utilization of the clock range as well as faster DDR4-RAm, the GPU can slightly beat its predecessors Radeon R7 (Carrizo) and competes with a dedicated GeForce 920MX in the best-case scenario (dual-channel memory). Many games from 2015/2016 can be played smoothly at low settings. 

Power Consumption

AMD specifies the TDP of the FX-9830P with 25-45 Watts, which is comparable to Intel quad-core processors from the H-series. This means the APU is a good choice for big and heavy notebooks with at least 15 inches.