AMD built-in GPU - does Win8 have native drivers?

[NickC_UK]

Anyone know if one of these AMD CPUs with built-in ATI graphics works out the box with Windows 8.1 native drivers?

Reason is I do not really want to have to install ATI proprietary drivers if I can help it, way too many problems with them in the past.

To be honest I have always previously used nVidea graphics but I wonder if now is the time to simplify the new built with on chip graphics.

Looking at putting together a few office workstations whose only job is to run Windows 8.1 and Office 2013.

Next question is which AMD CPU should I start looking at there seem to be a mass of different ones available at the moment, socket AM3+ or FM2?

 

[BrightCandle]

Microsoft has had AMD and Nvidia WHQL drivers available within the OS since Windows Vista, there will certainly be a driver for your iGPU in the OS itself. It will be a driver written by AMD however and be older than the current state of the art.

 

[monstercameron]

the drivers work fine for me!
also what kinda workloads are we looking at for the workstations?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Anyone know if one of these AMD CPUs with built-in ATI graphics works out the box with Windows 8.1 native drivers?

Reason is I do not really want to have to install ATI proprietary drivers if I can help it, way too many problems with them in the past.

To be honest I have always previously used nVidea graphics but I wonder if now is the time to simplify the new built with on chip graphics.

Looking at putting together a few office workstations whose only job is to run Windows 8.1 and Office 2013.

AMDs drivers have gotten a -lot- better in recent years. No reason not to install them, if you want you can just install the drivers and not all the additional software. I do recommend installing the AMD AHCI SATA driver while you're at it.

Oh, and there is no ATI today, the last cards to be branded ATI was the HD5000-series. None of the APUs carry any ATI branding.

Next question is which AMD CPU should I start looking at there seem to be a mass of different ones available at the moment, socket AM3+ or FM2?

AM3+ is out. Its a dead socket and doesn't have integrated graphics. Unless you count the 880G/890GX, both of which are extremely hard to find on AM3+ compatible boards. Or even worse the 2007'ish tech 760G. It will also use a lot more power for zero benefit.

If your only requirement is Win8.1 and Office 2013, you might be better off foregoing AMD entirely and use a Haswell Intel Pentium/Celeron. Every Pentium/Celeron provides more then enough grunt for basic Office use. You could also move slightly up to an i3, that'll keep you running for the foreseeable future for Office use.

 

[monstercameron]

AMDs drivers have gotten a -lot- better in recent years. No reason not to install them, if you want you can just install the drivers and not all the additional software. I do recommend installing the AMD AHCI SATA driver while you're at it.

Oh, and there is no ATI today, the last cards to be branded ATI was the HD5000-series. None of the APUs carry any ATI branding.



AM3+ is out. Its a dead socket and doesn't have integrated graphics. Unless you count the 880G/890GX, both of which are extremely hard to find on AM3+ compatible boards. Or even worse the 2007'ish tech 760G. It will also use a lot more power for zero benefit.

If your only requirement is Win8.1 and Office 2013, you might be better off foregoing AMD entirely and use a Haswell Intel Pentium/Celeron. Every Pentium/Celeron provides more then enough grunt for basic Office use. You could also move slightly up to an i3, that'll keep you running for the foreseeable future for Office use.

why go intel when amd can do the above just as well and maybe cheaper?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

why go intel when amd can do the above just as well and maybe cheaper?

Because a basic Celeron G1820 + H81 will cost about the same, or even be slightly cheaper, then a low-end AMD APU. That at this level of cost will be one of the single module/dual cores. Which have way inferior CPU performance to the Celeron. The APU will have a better IGP, but that is really not relevant for office work.

For ultimate cost-cutting, I suppose one could look at one of the socket AM1 Athlons, but I'm not sure how future-proof those are.

 

[NickC_UK]

Looking at say AMD A8 6600 - 4-core, 3.5Ghz, Richland core, Radeon 8570D @ 800Mhz, running at 65W. Anything wrong with that as a place to start.

 

[TeknoBug]

Yes, in the case of my laptop which has an A4 5000 (4 core 1.5GHz APU), Windows 8 installed the AMD drivers for me since the drivers at amd.com was unable to detect the iGPU.

I second going with a Celeron G1820 over any AMD APU.

 

[MeldarthX]

6600k is a great little apu - built it for kids; runs WoT with everything on high 30 frames; my I5 laptop can barely do 30 frames with everything on low.

runs everything at 1440 by 900 setting med to high fine. done most MMOs out there; lfd2, garry's mod etc.....browser games. this is without OC - grab the drivers off AMD's website as they will be far; better than anything windows will install.

I am seriously impressed in that little APU - time comes for a little more graphics upgrade I can dropped in a Kaveri and recycle the champ into another system...

 

[NickC_UK]

Any idea what the max graphics resolution is on the A8-6500, will it run 1920 x 1080?

 

[bonehead123]

Yes it will work with the default drivers, however, you should always try to run with the most recent version, and that means installing the ones from the amd site. With general office work it should be just fine.

But if you want to do anything beyond that, you really should consider a discrete GPU....

Like a mid-range Radeon (high 6x- low 7x series) which will give you a night & day increase in overall performance, assuming your mobo has a PCI-e 16 lane

And as someone else said, AMxx is dead...go for FM2 or 3 if you're gonna stay with AMD.....lots more APU choices available.....

 

[Meekers]

Because a basic Celeron G1820 + H81 will cost about the same, or even be slightly cheaper, then a low-end AMD APU. That at this level of cost will be one of the single module/dual cores. Which have way inferior CPU performance to the Celeron. The APU will have a better IGP, but that is really not relevant for office work.

For ultimate cost-cutting, I suppose one could look at one of the socket AM1 Athlons, but I'm not sure how future-proof those are.

The cheapest G1820 + h81 I can find on newegg is $50 for the cpu and $44 for an h81 motherboard. Total cost $94. Microcenter has a G1840 for $40 and their cheapest motherboard is $53, they do not bundle these.

However, Microcenter does bundle the lowend AMDs. You can get a a6400K +motherboard for $65. Or you can up it to a a8-6600K +motherboard for $99

 

[Insert_Nickname]

However, Microcenter does bundle the lowend AMDs. You can get a a6400K +motherboard for $65. Or you can up it to a a8-6600K +motherboard for $99

Sure, if you can get a good bundle an APU can be very worthwhile. That 6600K is going to squash the Celeron in multithreaded workloads.

Unfortunately I have a strong suspicion that the OP is from the UK, hence newegg bundles aren't relevant (yet, at least...).

 

[Madpacket]

For office use seriously grab a new new AM1 APU. The 5150+MSI ITX motherboard cost well under 100. These APU's are single channel so you can save a few bucks more buying only 1 stick of memory. You can also slap these in a tiny ITX case and attach them to the back of the monitors to free up additional desk space.

They are plenty fast for office and web browsing. They use very little energy and are barely audible from a few feet away. AMD is also continually working on adding in support for offloading certain CPU tasks to the GPU so typical office things like zipping / unzipping e-mail attachments or rendering JPEG images get a nice speed boost.

 

[xapo99]

My take on this is when the first APU's came out, when you came to put the AMD driver in, it sometimes offered the SMB bus and USB filters and sometimes it didn't. It always offered the display driver though. Things like USB3 wouldn't work etc.

In the past six months or so the AMD drivers for APU's are excellent, they offer all the USB filters, SMB bus...everything....so all you do is select your product from the drop down menu on the AMD site and it will know you have an AMD chipset board etc from your APU selection.

Relying on the Windows drivers on Win 8.1 is not a great idea...the AMD driver pack also includes some transcoding software and optimisations for flash viewing.

I would uncheck the gaming app it tries to install though. Not had any issues on Win 8 over the last six months with AMD driver pack...on about 7 machines i've built including 2 Kabini setups.

 

[xapo99]

6600k is a great little apu - built it for kids; runs WoT with everything on high 30 frames; my I5 laptop can barely do 30 frames with everything on low.

runs everything at 1440 by 900 setting med to high fine. done most MMOs out there; lfd2, garry's mod etc.....browser games. this is without OC - grab the drivers off AMD's website as they will be far; better than anything windows will install.

I am seriously impressed in that little APU - time comes for a little more graphics upgrade I can dropped in a Kaveri and recycle the champ into another system...

I would say the APU graphics performance is better than any reviews seem to demonstrate. Perhaps just maturity of drivers.

 

[Bateluer]

Grab the latest WHQL drivers from AMD's site. The Catalyst drivers have had high quality since reorganized under that name, and AMD continued it. I do miss the monthly releases though.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Any driver that is built in will have been written by AMD as well. I dont see any benefit by going built in driver

 

[MeldarthX]

I would say the APU graphics performance is better than any reviews seem to demonstrate. Perhaps just maturity of drivers.

This is very true - those that haven't used them really won't understand the difference these guys make. 900 - it runs everything well. if I want 1080p; I'd look at 7700K or above....though 6800k I think could do it....

they are a great little quad core - if you need a little more punch added a graphics card is always an option..