AMD Readies A8-3870 APU with Unlocked BClk Multiplier

After a modest launch of two Fusion A8 series desktop accelerated processing units (APUs) with A6-3650 and A8-3850, AMD is planning to launch a new APU that's better equipped for overclocking. The new A8-3870 APU will feature an unlocked base clock (BClk) multiplier that makes overclocking easier. Currently, a BIOS bug that is spread across motherboard manufacturers, lets users "set" a higher multiplier value for A8-3850 than it's advertised or capable of responding to, resulting in a false illusionary overclock that doesn't yield any performance improvements over the default 29x multiplier value. More on that here.

The A8-3870 APU, however, will have a genuinely unlocked multiplier, increasing the multiplier value will genuinely increase clock speeds and performance. The A8-3870 is expected to have a default clock speed of 3.10 GHz, four x86-64 cores, the GPU component with 600 MHz core clock, 400 stream processor, DirectX 11 compliant Radeon HD 6550D graphics, and dual-channel DDR3-1866 MHz integrated memory controller. Leaked product cycle slides indicate that AMD will release the A8-3870 Unlocked APU in Q4 2011.

Source: DonanimHaber