AMD AM1 Sempron 2650 1.5GHz dual-core or 3850 1.3GHz quad-core for single-thread?

[waltchan]

Not even sure if you can overclock the A4-4000 at all, its not K.

Absolutely, not a joke at all. Some FM2 motherboards offer a multiplier option to overclock, which raises the CPU ratio and memory speed at the same time. Asus, Gigabyte, and (maybe) ASRock are the only ones that can do it. MSI, no, I wish.

I own both the A4-4000 (purchased 12 for only $10 each shipped on eBay when it was available) and A6-5400K, and I found the A6-5400K a big waste of money. I will be selling out all the A6-5400Ks that I have, listed at $35 each.

 

[waltchan]

Found this deal of the day, Celeron G465, LGA1155 socket.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221734198334

Submit your best offer today.

 

[cbn]

Agreed -- I'd rather buy a used A6 5600K for $30 on eBay -- and get the superior GPU and totally unlocked chip.

Another difference between A6-5400K and A4-4000 is the maximum bandwidth. A6-5400K can use dual channel DDR3 1866 while A4-4000 can only use dual channel DDR3 1333.

Still dual channel DDR3 1333 is better than what the best AM1s can use (which is single channel DDR3 1600). Although in situations where only a single stick of RAM is used being limited to DDR3 1333 is going to be a handicap.

P.S. Right now I have Windows 8.1 loaded up on the A6-5400K (with dual channel 1866 memory) and unlike the Sempron 2650 it can play Team Fortress 2. In fact, it appears to be a good deal faster than my Athlon 5350 in TF2.

 

[cbn]

EDIT: Will do further testing tonight with the A6-5400K and Team Fortress 2 using Linux Mint and the AMD proprietary driver.

 

[waltchan]

Sempron 2650 is 50% of A4-4000 (1.5 GHz vs. 3.0 GHz). Both are 1333 MHz RAM. In terms of price ratio, A4-4000 beats it in all area.

 

[cbn]

I retested the A6-5400K (still using dual channel DDR3 1866 RAM) in Team Fortress 2 using Linux Mint and the proprietary AMD graphics driver. Unfortunately, I could not get it playable even at 640 x 480 resolution lowest details.

In contrast to this, the Windows performance in TF2 with that same processor and RAM combo was a playable frame rate at 1080p with some details turned up.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I just locked my FX-8350 to 1.4Ghz and played a single round of CS:GO, on all low but at 1680x1050 and multi-core rendering enabled. 23fps min and an average of 37fps. CPU load by the CS process alone peaked at 38%, which is a smidge over 3 entire threads loaded. Core load looked very balanced, so I assume there's many light threads.

If you play games, especially source based, a quad core is preferable.

 

[escrow4]

Well, I understand your point. That's why the A4-4000 has no selling value. But it can be overclocked up to 4.15 GHz on selected motherboards, which makes it great, cheap buy than A6-5400K and A6-6400K.

Cheap but how low can you go? Might as well go H81 and i3 and it blow away any low-end APU.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Cheap but how low can you go? Might as well go H81 and i3 and it blow away any low-end APU.

What you just suggested is at the very cheapest "only" $163 for the CPU/Mobo.

 

[coercitiv]

Cheap but how low can you go? Might as well go H81 and i3 and it blow away any low-end APU.

The only way you can "blow" the APUs is by using Pentium + dGPU.

Keep in mind A8-7600 is still a bit cheaper than i3.

 

[cbn]

In Team Fortress 2 in Linux, dGPU is not needed by Intel to beat an AMD APU.

Currently I am testing my G3258 Pentium downclocked to 1.6 GHz on the cpu cores and 800 Mhz (from 1100 Mhz.) on the iGPU and it is much faster than my A6-5400K in TF2 (Linux). Basically a night and day difference as the downclocked G3258 can handle 1080p low, but the A6-6400K was unplayable even at 640 x 480 resolution (low setting).

 

[Shivansps]

Im starting to think that your problem on linux is gpu driver, if its unplayable at 640x480 low its likely to be using the software renderer.

 

[NTMBK]

In Team Fortress 2 in Linux, dGPU is not needed by Intel to beat an AMD APU.

I think I found your problem... go buy a Windows license! Anyone trying to game in Linux is just asking for pain.

 

[coercitiv]

Im starting to think that your problem on linux is gpu driver, if its unplayable at 640x480 low its likely to be using the software renderer.

Just a quick search on the internets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMIMUKjG8AY

A6 5400k, 1440x900, max settings, fluid gameplay.

 

[cbn]

Just a quick search on the internets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMIMUKjG8AY

A6 5400k, 1440x900, max settings, fluid gameplay.

Yes, A6-5400K and TF2 on Windows is not the problem as I was able to play the game at 1080p with some detail settings turned up ---> http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37305053&postcount=82

 

[coercitiv]

Yes, A6-5400K and TF2 on Windows is not the problem as I was able to play the game at 1080p with some detail settings turned up ---> http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37305053&postcount=82

The problem is you are implying Pentium iGPU beats the AMD APU in Linux, when in fact it's clear the Linux driver is broken.

 

[Enigmoid]

The problem is you are implying Pentium iGPU beats the AMD APU in Linux, when in fact it's clear the Linux driver is broken.

But if there is no proper linux driver and if there are no plans for one in the foreseeable future does that mattter?

I think that's exactly what he is saying. The pentium igp is doing better because AMD doesn't have a proper driver. Though the AMD igp may actually be faster in hardware the fact that there is no proper driver means that in effect it turns out slower. If he upgrades to a proper driver (assuming one exists) and this problem is fixed, then this statement is incorrect but at the present time the pentium igp is doing better (doing better does not imply that it may actually be better) because it has a proper driver.

 

[Shivansps]

its not the driver, if it cant run at 640x480 its running on the mesa rasteriser (CPU OPenGL render), petty much the equivalent of running on the windows 8 "Basic Adapter" that does a CPU DX rendering.

 

[cbn]

its not the driver, if it cant run at 640x480 its running on the mesa rasteriser (CPU OPenGL render), petty much the equivalent of running on the windows 8 "Basic Adapter" that does a CPU DX rendering.

I used the Linux Mint driver manager to load the AMD proprietary graphics driver (flgrx). I can try again using the Open Source drivers to see if that makes any difference.

P.S. I have used Linux Mint driver manager to load Nvidia proprietary drivers in the past and everything seemed to work fine. (With a Xeon X3323 and GT630 I was able to play all the Valve titles at 1080p low.)

 

[coercitiv]

But if there is no proper linux driver and if there are no plans for one in the foreseeable future does that mattter?

I think that's exactly what he is saying. The pentium igp is doing better because AMD doesn't have a proper driver. Though the AMD igp may actually be faster in hardware the fact that there is no proper driver means that in effect it turns out slower. If he upgrades to a proper driver (assuming one exists) and this problem is fixed, then this statement is incorrect but at the present time the pentium igp is doing better (doing better does not imply that it may actually be better) because it has a proper driver.

Then state AMD has poor driver support for Linux. This is not the same as saying Pentium IGP is doing better than AMD APUs under Linux, simply because Kaveri has been shown to offer similar performance under both Win 8.1 and Linux on properly configured systems.

 

[cbn]

Then state AMD has poor driver support for Linux. This is not the same as saying Pentium IGP is doing better than AMD APUs under Linux, simply because Kaveri has been shown to offer similar performance under both Win 8.1 and Linux on properly configured systems.

That benchmark you are pointing out and the statement you are making is much broader than my original statement:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37306641&postcount=87

In Team Fortress 2 in Linux, dGPU is not needed by Intel to beat an AMD APU.

Currently I am testing my G3258 Pentium downclocked to 1.6 GHz on the cpu cores and 800 Mhz (from 1100 Mhz.) on the iGPU and it is much faster than my A6-5400K in TF2 (Linux). Basically a night and day difference as the downclocked G3258 can handle 1080p low, but the A6-6400K was unplayable even at 640 x 480 resolution (low setting).

 

[coercitiv]

That benchmark you are pointing out and the statement you are making is much broader than my original statement

Are you suggesting the problem lies with Team Fortress 2 instead?

 

[cbn]

I was unable to get the open source driver working with the A6-5400K, Linux Mint 17.1 and Team Fortress 2 (re: I got the following error message "This application requires either the GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc, or the GL_EXT_texture_compression_dxt1 + GL_ANGLE_texture_compression_dxt3 + GL-ANGLE_texture_compression_dxt5 OPEN GL extensions. Please Install S3TC texture support."

I did however, get Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (with all the updates) to play Team Fortress 2 smoothly using the same processor at 1080p low with the open source driver. (I didn't test the proprietary driver as I do not know how to install it in Ubuntu. Unlike Mint, Ubuntu does not have a driver manager)

Additional notes: RAM used for testing was dual channel DDR3 1866.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

I think I found your problem... go buy a Windows license! Anyone trying to game in Linux is just asking for pain.

Gaming isn't that bad on Linux if you run an Nvidia card. Radeon owners will hate their life, probably.

 

[cbn]

Gaming isn't that bad on Linux if you run an Nvidia card. Radeon owners will hate their life, probably.

I actually got my A6-5400K to run Team Fortress 2 smoothly at 1080p low (I didn't test any higher detail settings). This using Ubuntu rather than Linux Mint.

P.S. Something I noticed when installing Steam on Ubuntu vs. Linux Mint is that Ubuntu asks for permission to download additional libraries. Maybe this is the cause of the performance differences I noticed on TF2 when using the A6-5400K. (Additional notes: As mentioned in a previous post I used the open source driver with Ubuntu and the proprietary driver with Mint)