mustardmamba

Junior Member
Aug 16, 2016
2
0
1
Hi guys.
I am thinking of buying the AMD A10 7700K 3.40GHZ APU and the MSI A88XM-E35 V2 Motherboard. What i wanted to ask is that will the APU be able to run dual graphics with my already owned GPU Radeon 6670 HD. And up to how many RAM mhz will the Moba be able to support, thanks in advance
 

mustardmamba

Junior Member
Aug 16, 2016
2
0
1
Thank you. So I can like, buy this APU now and later on if I want an extra GPU buy the R7 240. Do you think it would be worth it?
 

f2bnp

Member
May 25, 2015
156
93
101
No, it'll be a total waste of money. Either buy an Athlon and save some money that'll go towards a much faster dedicated card (GTX 950 or RX 460)

or

spend a little more and go with an i3 6100 + dedicated GPU.

I don't think spending money on FM2+ is wise at this point. Zen is waiting just around the corner. The i3 6100 doesn't cost much more than the 7700k and motherboard costs are relatively the same. Granted, the iGPU of the 7700k is much much better than the i3's, however the i3 is a much better CPU choice. In all honesty, either go with an i3 6100 + dedicated GPU or wait out for Zen.
 

weeber

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
432
2
81
I bought a 7700k with an ASROCK A88X board just over a year ago as an HTPC. A looked a little into the dual graphics feature, and as I recall, it only works with the R7 240 or R7 250. In any case, dual graphics is really not cost effective. I've decided if I need more GPU, I'm better off just running a good discrete solution and bypassing the iGPU. Since the main purpose of my HTPC is video, I don't need more GPU, but I have run some TellTale games and other less-demanding games at 1080 OK, so that's kind of nice.

I think I agree with f2bnp, it's hard to to justify FM2+ right now. Heck, it was hard for me to justify a year ago, but I like supporting the underdog. If you can step up a little in cost, give the i3-6100 + dedicated GPU some consideration.
 

kawi6rr

Senior member
Oct 17, 2013
567
156
116
Well since you already have the board/chip for dual graphics the R7250's go pretty cheap. So it won't be to expensive to get more graphics power. There was a review on the Overclockers website where they did dual graphics and it didn't quite get double the power but it did get a nice boost from dual graphics.
 

f2bnp

Member
May 25, 2015
156
93
101
Yes and it also introduced a plethora of issues, such as frame pacing and the need for crossfire support. Let's not kid ourselves, the performance is really low and then you have crossfire issues on top of that. You see people debating whether or not getting two+ high end videocards is better than just getting a single enthusiast card and that's because the promise of multi-GPU has always been a tricky issue. It's arguably at worse state than it was just a few years ago, with new releases having completely broken support for SLI/CF. And the performance is already killer in these segments, so it's a whole different beast from entry level GPUs.
Just get a single card that doesn't cost much more and enjoy far far better perfomance without the headaches of AFR.
 

Blue_Max

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2011
4,227
153
106
The onboard Intel HD 530 gaming graphics approach that of the 7700k's thanks to much higher CPU performance... a far better use of your money, along with a better video card down the road.

The only way I'd suggest the A10 APU is if you already owned the R7 250 card... and even then, just barely. Even the 860k's gaming performance just stinks in most of the comparisons I've thrown at it... even the i3-2100 chip of old outperforms it a lot of the time.