AMD Bristol Ridge Platform: Processors and Motherboards

AMD A6-9500 is the cheapest model in the new Bristol Ridge processor family. Unlike Ryzen processors, also made for the AM4 socket, it has a built-in graphics accelerator, which allows you to do without a separate graphics card.

At its disposal, the A6-9500 received two paired cores of the Excavator architecture (the same was used in older Kaveri Refresh chips of the previous generation) with a shared cache and a floating-point computing module (FPU). In addition, the volume of cache memory of the second level was reduced from 2 to 1 MB — simplification is not critical, but still annoying, reducing the performance of the already not the fastest processor (one and a half times slower than Ryzen Zen).

But the integrated graphics of the A6-9500 is very good — Radeon R5 with 384 GCN microkernels. As a result, this chip allows you to play on FullHD resolution and low graphics settings or on HD and medium in Dota 2, CS:GO, WoT, Skyrim and other moderately demanding hits.

Taking into account the low cost (only $ 50), AMD A6-9500 is able to become a good basis for both an office PC and a home theater, simultaneously performing the role of an uncomplicated game console. Moreover, the chip received an updated VCE hardware video decoder with support for the latest x265 (HEVC) and VP9 codecs (the latter is used by default on YouTube). But we do not recommend buying an energy-efficient (35 instead of 65 watts) version of this processor (A6—9500E): you can forgive the frequency cut by half a gigahertz, but the graphics that have lost up to 256 microkernels are not.

At the moment, AMD Athlon X4 950 is the cheapest quad-core processor with support for modern DDR4 RAM on the market. Only his ancestors Athlon X4 840 and 845 are cheaper than him, but for them you will have to buy a motherboard with an FM2+ socket, devoid of even the slightest prospects for an upgrade.

De jure, the Athlon X4 950 has two modules, each of which consists of a pair of interconnected, relatively low-performance cores. But de facto, by analogy with dual-core, but four-threaded competing Intel Pentium and Core i3 chips, the operating system, applications and games define the Athlon X4 as a full-fledged quad-core. Athlon does not have an integrated graphics accelerator, but it is not required for its main field of application (low-cost gaming PCs).

After the cheap AM4 motherboards on the A320 chipset went on sale, which were significantly late compared to the B350 and X370, it became possible to build an inexpensive gaming PC based on the Athlon X4 950 and entry-level graphics cards: GeForce 1030, GTX 1050, Radeon RX 550 or 560 (see article"On bezrybye: TOP 5 low-cost video cards of 2017"). But you should not pair more powerful vidyukhs with Athlon, since it supports the PCI-E bus with only half the x8 bandwidth.

AMD A12-9800 is the most powerful hybrid processor on the market and will remain so until the release of Raven Ridge chips. Hybrid processors are called processors that rely not so much on computing cores as on powerful (and not any kind, if only there were) integrated graphics.

The A12-9800 processor cores resemble the Athlon X4 950: two dual-core modules with automatic Turbo Core overclocking from 3.8 to 4.3 GHz, provided that only one core is loaded. The built-in graphics accelerator, in addition to the video decoder with support for x264/265 and VP8/9 codecs, has not a lot, not a little, 512 GCN microkernels, which are used in games, as well as when editing videos in Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas (OpenCL technology).

The situation in which the buyer chooses AMD A12-9800 for his PC is quite clear. It is based on a modern AM4 motherboard and DDR4 RAM. The processor is taken temporary — A12-9800. You can comfortably work and play GTA V and Fallout 4 on it, not to mention simpler titles. And in the future, when more performance is needed, the percentage will be replaced by an eight- or sixteen-threaded Ryzen, which will be able to unlock the potential of any, even the most powerful discrete graphics card (see the article"How to choose a graphics card for a computer?").

ASRock A320M-DGS is the cheapest motherboard with an AM4 socket and concurrently one of the cheapest with an M.2 SSD connector in east european retail. Ideologically positioned as a partner for the existing Bristol Ridge hybrid processors and the upcoming Raven Ridge, but it is easily combined with more performant Ryzen chips. That's just the A320 chipset does not support manual overclocking of the processor (Turbo Core auto-overclocking works without problems).

Fortunately, although RAM overclocking is quite important for Ryzen processors, the A320M-DGS motherboard supports up to 3200 MHz. However, in the case of using two-way or two-channel memory, the maximum allowable frequency will be one or two positions lower (2934 or 2667 MHz). Bristol Ridge processors are not so picky about memory frequency, but they also get performance gains, especially integrated graphics, in the case of high-frequency memory.

Despite belonging to the slot M.2 to the Ultra standard, we do not recommend connecting high-speed NVMe drives to ASRock A320M-DGS, since as a result there may not be enough bandwidth for USB 3.1 ports. It is better to limit yourself to a moderately fast SSD M.2 SATA, for example WD Green or Patriot Ignite. And given the mATX form factor, it is more reasonable to assemble a computer based on the ASRock A320M-DGS in a medium-sized case, such asDeepcool Smarter LED. The only significant drawback of the motherboard — only one video output (DVI) — is easily solved with a penny adapter to HDMI, and then, if necessary, with another adapter to VGA.

MSI B350M Pro-VDH is perhaps the optimal motherboard for Ryzen processors, as well as for Bristol Ridge chips with a reserve for a future upgrade to Ryzen. Unlike the younger A320 chipset, the average B350 supports overclocking both RAM (up to 3200 MHz) and processor (the frequency depends on the success of a particular instance).

The B350M Pro-VDH has four RAM slots and three video outputs. The letters "VDH" in the model name mean VGA, DVI and HDMI. The PCI-E x16 slot for the graphics card is reinforced with metal so that it does not break during the installation of a long heavy graphics card. And the mosfets of the processor power circuit are covered with a radiator for better heat dissipation. However, the mosferes of the memory controller remained "bare" in order to save money.

Razem for the newfangled SSD M.2 is also available, and the bandwidth of the B350 chipset is more than enough even for NVMe models like Kingston KC1000 and Samsung 960 Pro. As a result, we recommend the MSI B350M Pro-VDH to all those who just need a functional motherboard, perhaps slightly overgrown, without overpaying for decorative ornaments like LED RGB backlight.