AMD processors SA pricing roundup

This roundup will look at prices for various AMD processors to see which SA store is offering the cheapest deal. We’ll be looking at a few retailers familiar to MyGaming readers, and in the end we’ll pick a value winner; the chip (or chips) that everyone should be aiming for.

Recently AMD has been in the limelight for their collaboration with Sony and Microsoft on the next-gen consoles, building each company a specialised APU to meet their demands. The fact that AMD has to arrange production and validate all of the chips has stirred some worry that they won’t be on time with shipping their Kaveri processors, along with a long silence on their plans for the AM3+ platform.

But that doesn’t change what the company is offering today – strong gaming performance at a reasonable price, with APUs that are good enough to power a gaming rig all on their own.

AMD ships two lineups for consumers to pick from: their budget APUs with the A-series, and the high-end FX processors.

The table below shows the prices of various AMD desktop processors available from local retailers. The lowest prices are highlighted in Bold. For the purposes of this roundup, products listed as “Sold Out”, “Contact for availability” or “Out of stock” will not included in the table. Prices are listed in South African Rands (R).

Please note that pricing on these products is tentative, and subject to change thanks to our fluctuating exchange rate.

“Scarce” is the word I’d use to describe the state of AMD’s offerings at the moment. No single retailer has stock of AMD’s entire lineup, prompting enthusiasts to shop around for a better deal (and in the end, possibly forced to pick from Intel’s stable). It appears that stocks of Trinity APUs and FX processors from the Bulldozer family are all but gone, with a few retailers able to source the older products.

The newly-released Richland processors are not price-competitive with their Trinity counterparts. The A10-6800K gets a higher-than-average price of R2,152 compared to the A10-5800K which currently sits at R1,602. The difference of around R550 is not inconsequential, and the A10-6800K is thus not recommended for budget builds.

On the processor side, the FX-6300 is becoming harder to find and is being replaced with the more expensive FX-6350, which only offers a 400MHz higher clock speed and a boost speed of 4.2GHz. Stock issues also plague the FX-8350, which is a bit odd considering that the FX-9370 is in stock (not that anyone’s buying them). The only FX processor widely available is the FX-4300 at an average price of R1,665.

And the winners are…

On the APU side, the A10-6400K provides exemplary value for cash-strapped gamers or first-time PC owners. Two speedy cores and above-average integrated graphics gives it a leg up on the Intel competition and offers an unlocked multiplier as a bonus.

Going up the ladder, the A1-5800K offers four cores and graphics comparable to the Radeon HD6670 for a very reasonable price. Games will be playable at 720p with medium to high settings and low AA levels, which offers a similar experience to a console.

The FX-4300 shares the value award for the FX lineup, offering four cores and an unlocked multiplier to gamers looking for an alternative to the Core i3 family. It is best paired with discrete graphics.

Sharing the FX lineup award, the FX-8320 is a good choice, being only slightly more expensive than the FX-6350 but priced much lower than the FX-8350. It too can be overclocked to overcome those speed deficits and can compete with Core i7 processors in multi-threaded benchmarks. At the very least, it’s about as fast as a Core i5-3330.

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