AMD A10-5800K for new upcoming GPUs

[cheesepolice]

Hey there, I bought a new computer a while back for some light gaming and the system I made was based around the AMD Trinity which gave satisfying performance for the games I was playing.

The thing I'm wondering about is if it will be usable with the new upcoming graphics card that's due later this year?

I keep hearing about bottlenecks, but how bad can it be? I don't really fancy throwing loads of money into a new platform if the A10 can handle the new cards without any major hazzle.

 

[inf64]

Here you go.

A CPU for Single GPU Gaming: A8-5600K + Core Parking updates
If I were gaming today on a single GPU, the A8-5600K (or non-K equivalent) would strike me as a price competitive choice for frame rates, as long as you are not a big Civilization V player and don’t mind the single threaded performance. The A8-5600K scores within a percentage point or two across the board in single GPU frame rates with both a HD7970 and a GTX580, as well as feels the same in the OS as an equivalent Intel CPU. The A8-5600K will also overclock a little, giving a boost, and comes in at a stout $110, meaning that some of those $$$ can go towards a beefier GPU or an SSD. The only downside is if you are planning some heavy OS work – if the software is Piledriver-aware all might be well, although most processing is not, and perhaps an i3-3225 or FX-8350 might be worth a look.

 

[cheesepolice]

So pretty much any CPU can be used for a single-GPU configuration.

Guess I'll get that new case and wait for the release of the new GPU's then. Thanks!

Any recommendations for a new CPU cooler? the stock cooler is utter crap.
My memory is not low profile, so will need something that doesn't interfere with them.
Been looking at the Cooler Master 212 Evo as it's fairly cheap.

 

[Enigmoid]

Anything over a 670/7950 will have bottlenecking. For example Crysis 3 with a 670 will be bottlenecked fairly bad, same with BF3/BF4 MP.

 

[Yuriman]

My wife has a Core2Quad Q6600 @ 3.2ghz which about on par with your A10 (at stock). I put an HD7850 in her machine identical to the one in my Ivy Bridge system.

There is a visible framerate difference between the two systems in most games, but overall her system provides an adequate experience in everything we've tried. The areas where her system struggles tends to be things like towns in MMOs - for instance, in Guild Wars 2, she may get ~25-30fps in Lion's Arch while my system is sitting comfortably in the upper 50's, but once we're out of town hers is quite playable.

Civ5 runs well enough on her C2Q late game with 7 AI, though processing turns takes considerably longer than on mine.

 

[frozentundra123456]

That test cited was a very limited test at 1440p, and only one highly CPU dependent game was tested. As another poster said you would see CPU limitation in some games if you got a really powerful gpu, but overall, if you get a mid/high range card, you should be fine. It will be miles ahead of gaming on the igp, that is for sure.

Even if you do run into CPU limitations, the game might still be playable.

Edit: I have an i5 2320 which is comparable, maybe a bit faster than your CPU. I have only run into a CPU limitation in SC II 10 player skirmish, and shogun 2. But I an only using a HD 7770, so a higher end card would stress the CPU more. I also don't play online.

 

[SiliconWars]

My wife has a Core2Quad Q6600 @ 3.2ghz which about on par with your A10 (at stock). I put an HD7850 in her machine identical to the one in my Ivy Bridge system.

There is a visible framerate difference between the two systems in most games, but overall her system provides an adequate experience in everything we've tried. The areas where her system struggles tends to be things like towns in MMOs - for instance, in Guild Wars 2, she may get ~25-30fps in Lion's Arch while my system is sitting comfortably in the upper 50's, but once we're out of town hers is quite playable.

Guild Wars 2 is a pretty extreme example, it runs horrifically on Bulldozer based chips and was the main reason why I upgraded to the 2500K.

 

[jacktesterson]

An A10-5800k will be fine for most single GPU configurations at 1080p.

I'd stick with what you got.

What do you have for a Power Supply?

 

[el etro]

Is better to you put a 660ti/760 here and no more. Will have bottleneck on CPU-bound games.

 

[cheesepolice]

What do you have for a Power Supply?

I believe it's a 500W modular power supply, should power any of the high-end GPU's in a single-GPU config

I'm just thinking that waiting for the new AMD GPU's that are due this year will be a better choice than picking one of the current ones since it's rumoured to be faster than the GTX Titan. Even if it'll bottleneck, it would allow an upgrade of CPU later on.

Any tips for cpu cooler? is the Hyper 212 Evo good enough?

 

[Yuriman]

Guild Wars 2 is a pretty extreme example, it runs horrifically on Bulldozer based chips and was the main reason why I upgraded to the 2500K.

To be fair, my reference system is a Core2Quad. I could run some comparisons if you'd like.

@OP, the Evo is a good cooler and a great value. I actually put one on my wife's C2Q.

 

[SPBHM]

I don't feel comfortable recommending anything faster than a 650 Ti boost and 7850 with that CPU (knowing that even these VGAs are going to be bottlenecked in many games with realistic settings)

but going for one of those cards would be a huge upgrade compared to the 5800K IGP.

 

[AtenRa]

I don't feel comfortable recommending anything faster than a 650 Ti boost and 7850 with that CPU (knowing that even these VGAs are going to be bottlenecked in many games with realistic settings)

but going for one of those cards would be a huge upgrade compared to the 5800K IGP.

Pair it with HD7950 1GHz and you can enable AA with almost every game in 1080p. Try that with 650 Ti Boost

 

[SPBHM]

Pair it with HD7950 1GHz and you can enable AA with almost every game in 1080p. Try that with 650 Ti Boost

sure, you can even justify a Titan sli for 4K with SSAA but that's missing the point of using a $100 CPU, and even lowering settings in many cases is going to fail to improve the framerate, because of the CPU, in many games bellow anything acceptable for a $200 card imo... from a point onwards the IQ improvement vs GPU power (and cost) needed goes badly, so I don't like to justify a VGA choice with a cheap CPU using this (ultra high quality with low framerate), I prefer something like "1080p high-medium" which the 650 TI boost/7850 does nicely for most games, and for a cards of that price/perf I can even see trinity/richland as good enough for most games....

but still, it's a $80-120 CPU at best, I would recommend a CPU upgrade for better cards.

 

[Yuriman]

sure, you can even justify a Titan sli for 4K with SSAA but that's missing the point of using a $100 CPU, and even lowering settings in many cases is going to fail to improve the framerate, because of the CPU, in many games bellow anything acceptable for a $200 card imo... from a point onwards the IQ improvement vs GPU power (and cost) needed goes badly, so I don't like to justify a VGA choice with a cheap CPU using this (ultra high quality with low framerate), I prefer something like "1080p high-medium" which the 650 TI boost/7850 does nicely for most games, and for a cards of that price/perf I can even see trinity/richland as good enough for most games....

but still, it's a $80-120 CPU at best, I would recommend a CPU upgrade for better cards.

Getting a fast card now and upgrading the CPU in the not-so-distant future doesn't sound like a bad plan to me.

 

[el etro]

If you can't spend money on a more powerful processor, don't fear to pair the 5800k with a strong graphics card. For 1080p a 7950B/760 will solve most of your needs(probably the only you will not play at max is Crysis 3).

 

[Enigmoid]

Getting a fast card now and upgrading the CPU in the not-so-distant future doesn't sound like a bad plan to me.

IMO, I'd be the opposite. Given the slow progress in CPUs it would seem smarter to buy something better than minimum range for current games. If you buy a CPU that is barely cutting it now (with your CPU) what happens in 2-3 years when you need to upgrade your graphics card and your CPU can't handle the load. Buying to upgrade the CPU isn't a smart idea IMO because you will also have to upgrade the GPU. CPUs also have the pesky problems of motherboard compatibility to deal with.

Those with a i7-920 can still play modern games just fine with an OC (and in many games approximately as well as with a 8350) but a GPU from that time will struggle with today's games.

 

[Nec_V20]

I bought an A8-5600k for my NAS about six months ago. I was not expecting much of it but I was pleasantly surprised.

Except for gaming (which I have not done any on the machine) it can easily act as a replacement for my main machine (Core i7-990x) if it were ever down for maintenance.

You don't have to go crackers on a graphics card. A "Sapphire Technology AMD Radeon 7770 HD 1100MHz 1GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI Vapor-X OC GHZ" would do you for all the gaming that your AMD CPU (APU) could handle for the foreseeable future of the FM2 socket.

I have the "Sapphire Technology AMD Radeon 7950 HD 850MHz 3GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI Vapox-X" and it is overkill for any game I want to play. I will be moving that to my new system (i7-4770k) and will be getting a 7770 for what is now my main machine, the i7-990x.

I don't yet know what I am going to do with the 4770k, I just built it on a whim, not because I needed it.

 

[cytg111]

Not paying close attention to the APU scene here, but would there be any market for crossfiring 2 apus as in consumer-dual socket boards?

 

[Sleepingforest]

Not paying close attention to the APU scene here, but would there be any market for crossfiring 2 apus as in consumer-dual socket boards?

I'd imagine it's more cost effective, generally speaking for gaming, to just get a dGPU and use hybrid Crossfire over getting 2 CPUs (which doesn't seem to be in the cards anyway). For that low level of graphics power, you don't need that much CPU power.

 

[AtenRa]

sure, you can even justify a Titan sli for 4K with SSAA but that's missing the point of using a $100 CPU, and even lowering settings in many cases is going to fail to improve the framerate, because of the CPU, in many games bellow anything acceptable for a $200 card imo... from a point onwards the IQ improvement vs GPU power (and cost) needed goes badly, so I don't like to justify a VGA choice with a cheap CPU using this (ultra high quality with low framerate), I prefer something like "1080p high-medium" which the 650 TI boost/7850 does nicely for most games, and for a cards of that price/perf I can even see trinity/richland as good enough for most games....

but still, it's a $80-120 CPU at best, I would recommend a CPU upgrade for better cards.

I dont understand what you are talking about,

If 650 Ti Boost/78750 does nicely at 1080p with that CPU, you will be even better with HD7950 raising the IQ settings without lowering the performance. If you have 60fps at medium IQ settings with 650 Ti Boost you will have 60fps at High + AA with HD7950.
It is the GPU you are stretching not the CPU, If the CPU can produce 60fps with the GTX650 Ti Boost it will be enough to drive an HD7950 at a higher IQ settings with the same fps count. The higher IQ + AA filters will make the game more GPU bound, not CPU.

It is another thing to compare the A10-5800K + GTX650 Ti Boost vs A10-5800K + HD7950 and another thing to compare A10-5800K + HD7950 vs Core i7 4770K + HD7950.

 

[Enigmoid]

Getting a fast card now and upgrading the CPU in the not-so-distant future doesn't sound like a bad plan to me.

I dont understand what you are talking about,

If 650 Ti Boost/78750 does nicely at 1080p with that CPU, you will be even better with HD7950 raising the IQ settings without lowering the performance. If you have 60fps at medium IQ settings with 650 Ti Boost you will have 60fps at High + AA with HD7950.
It is the GPU you are stretching not the CPU, If the CPU can produce 60fps with the GTX650 Ti Boost it will be enough to drive an HD7950 at a higher IQ settings with the same fps count. The higher IQ + AA filters will make the game more GPU bound, not CPU.

It is another thing to compare the A10-5800K + GTX650 Ti Boost vs A10-5800K + HD7950 and another thing to compare A10-5800K + HD7950 vs Core i7 4770K + HD7950.

Assuming two things.

1) That 60 fps is even possible with the A8 on medium settings (some games, ex BF3 you will not get 60 fps).

2) That medium and high have the same CPU load (often higher settings increase CPU load).

 

[Yuriman]

Assuming two things.

1) That 60 fps is even possible with the A8 on medium settings (some games, ex BF3 you will not get 60 fps).

2) That medium and high have the same CPU load (often higher settings increase CPU load).

You're right, of course. What I really meant was that it's probably better to get a good GPU and hold off on the CPU upgrade until he can really afford a platform upgrade, than to spend half as much on each. With a budget of <$350, OP is probably better off sticking with his A8 for now.

A10 + HD7950 > i5 2500 + HD7770 > 4670K + HD4600

 

[AtenRa]

Assuming two things.

1) That 60 fps is even possible with the A8 on medium settings (some games, ex BF3 you will not get 60 fps).

2) That medium and high have the same CPU load (often higher settings increase CPU load).

You can have 60FPS in BF3 with A10+HD7950, not always but in many maps. But, i was just used 60 fps as an example, i wasn't talking specifically.
Also, single player games doesnt always need to run at 60fps. You will get much better visuals and gaming experience with higher IQ at 40fps than lower IQ and 50/60fps.
Things change in MultiPlayer/Online games, there 60fps is a must.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Here you go.

I would be careful not to take that article out of context.

The correct take-away from that article is something closer to:
"At 2560x1440 or 2560x1600 or higher resolutions, most single-player games are GPU bound".