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AMD began shipping its 7th-gen A-series desktop processors last month. Now the company says its business-class 7th-gen AMD Pro chips are ready to go.
Aimed at business and enterprise customers, the AMD Pro chips include enhanced security features and a performance boost over their 6th-gen counterparts.
But there’s on very important difference between the new chips, formerly code-named “Bristol Ridge Pro,” and their predecessors: computers with the new chips will be easy to upgrade to AMD’s upcoming Zen processors, which should offer a big performance boost.
AMD hasn’t announced a launch date for its Zen chips, but when they do arrive, they could offer 40 percent better performance than Bristol Ridge processors.
For now, AMD says its 7th-gen Pro chips bring improved CPU and graphics performance and efficiency, support for HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.2 and support for Windows 10 Pro.
AMD is introducing 7 new chips at launch, including the 35 watt AMD Pro A6-9500E, AMD Pro A10-9700E, and AMD Pro A12-9800E chips for compact desktops, and more powerful (and power-hungry) 65 watt chips including the AMD Pro A6-9500, AMD Pro A8-9600, AMD Pro A10-9700, and AMD Pro A12-9800.
Lenovo and HP are expected to launch some of the first systems powered by the new chips, including the HP EliteDesk 705 G3 series desktops.