AMD goes after the Core i3 with its Godavari chip

AMD calls it ‘a cheap, effective choice for building PCs designed for online gaming’

What’s referred to as the ‘Godavari’ chip represents a slight bump in terms of the CPU and GPU clock speed compared to the existing A10-7850K, which uses AMD’s existing Kaveri architecture. PCs featuring this chip are available to buy now.

Like the A10-7850K, Godavari uses 12 computer cores (4 CPU, 8 GPU), but boosts the core CPU clock from 3.7- to 3.9GHz, and turbo speeds from 4- to 4.1GHz. AMD has also sped up the graphics chip from 720- to 866MHz. It uses AMD’s existing FM2+ motherboard socket ecosystem, however, which makes it a relatively inexpensive upgrade.

That’s a marginal speed increase, though, across the board, and AMD isn’t making any claims about attacking the high end of the APU market. Instead, the company is positioning the chip against a combination of an Intel Core i3 and an nVidia GeForce GT 740 discrete GPU. At 1080p ‘max’ settings, AMD is claiming frame rates of 35fps for StarCraft 2, 49fps for DOTA 2, and 89fps for a 5x5 League of Legends match.

AMD also says that the APU can power Dirt Rally at 1920x1080, medium settings, at about 40fps. Naturally, AMD still recommends a discrete graphics card; pairing it with a Radeon R7 250, for example, ekes out 45fps or so on High settings.

“AMD takes a major step forward today by unveiling the world’s most advanced eSports and online gaming processor technology in the A10-7870K APU,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager of the Computing and Graphics Business Unit at AMD, in a statement. He positioned the APU as the economy choice, “giving players the ability to game like a pro without spending like one.”

The chip supports AMD-specific technologies, including Virtual Screen Resolution for gaming at lower resolutions. Not surprisingly, the chip supports DirectX 12 (and Windows 10), Vulkan, and AMD’s own