Core i3 4330 vs Kaveri in dGPU 1080p Gaming

[AtenRa]

Managed to find time to run some benchmarks using the Core i3 4330 Haswell and two Kaveri SKUs, the A8-7600 and A10-7850K.

I have included two Image Quality settings for every game except for Formula 1 2014. This game was only measured at a single image quality of Ultra with 8x MSAA since lower image quality was not that demanding for the dGPU and the CPUs.
Games supporting Mantle were run with Mantle enable for every platform.

System specs

AMD FM2+ Kaveri
Motherboard : ASUS A88XM-Plus
Memory : 2x 4GB 2133MHz Kingston Genesis 11-12-11 1.65V
HDD : Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB SATA-6
PSU : Be-Quiet 1000W 80plus

Intel Socket 1150 Haswell
ASUS B85E-M
Memory : 2x 4GB 2133MHz Kingston Genesis (1600MHz at 9-9-9 1.5V)
HDD : Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB SATA-6
PSU : Be-Quiet 1000W 80plus

Both systems

ASUS CU II HD7950 Overclocked to 1GHz and 1500MHz for the memory.

Windows 8.1 64bit
AMD Catalyst 15.5 Beta

 

[AtenRa]

Bioshock Infinity

Dragon Age : Inquisition

 

[AtenRa]

Civilization Beyond Earth

1080p High 4x MSAA

-----------------------------------------


1080p Ultra 8x MSAA

 

[AtenRa]

Formula 1 2014

--------------------------------

Sniper Elite III

 

[AtenRa]

Metro Last Light Redux

1080p High, AF 16x , Tessellation = Normal

---------------------

1080p Very High, AF 16x , Tessellation = High

 

[AtenRa]

Thief

----------------------------------

Total War - Rome II

 

[AtenRa]

Conclusions

Well thats all for now, i may include more games later on if ill get the time.

First impressions of the A8-7600,
Many believe its not meant to be paired with a high end dGPU, but its doing quite well with the HD7950 GHz even at 55W TDP. Especially in Mantle the low end APU is very close with the other two CPUs.
It may start to lag behind using a faster GPU like R9 390 or GTX970-980 and higher but i believe it is adequate for 1080p gaming.

A10-7850K is a little faster than A8-7600 but it lags a little behind the Core i3 4330. Since it has the same clocks as the Athlon 860K you can say that the Athlon can drive even a faster dGPU like R9 390 or GTX970/80 when OCed to 4.3GHz or above. For a budget gaming system the Athlon is a very nice CPU for 1080p Gaming.

Core i3 4330 is the faster of the three but it seams to me that DX-12 will change how we look at CPUs for 1080p gaming very soon.

I will like here to point out two-three thinks,

First, the Thief fps at High settings has tremendously reduced since my original Mantle evaluation last year (Thief Mantle link). At the same High settings with the same Hardware im getting way lower fps than last year. This must be due to the latest Thief Patches and not related to the Catalyst Drivers.

Second, Take a close look at the fps timeline in Civilization BE graphs, you will find that the AMD Quad cores, even the A8-7600 has smoother fps than the Core i3 4330 when the benchmark is stressing the CPU (from frame 1200 to 1800).

Third, Low fps in Metro Last Light Redux doesnt have a significant impact in actual gameplay as can be seen from the fps timeline. Even the A8-7600 can maintain above 30fps for the vast majority of the benchmark run and only deeps bellow 30fps for a few times.

Lastly, the Core i3 4330 has an advantage in lower power consumption especially against the OC A10/Athlon Kaveri. If you really gaming for more than a couple hours per day and you are in countries with high electrical billing then the Core i3 4330 is the better option. It also has a better upgradability path with the ability to install a Core i5 or i7 after a few years. Well after 2-3 years you may better get a new platform but that is a discussion for another time.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

In before results with the bold prediction that the A8-7600 is awesome for sub $100. If I wanted a tiny box with no dGPU this would be the chip I'd use.

 

[Shehriazad]

Well...with dGPU the 7850K is nothing more than an 860K. And that one is a way cheaper price class. (costs half of the i3).

Anyway...still half decent I guess. So if you are planning on going dGPU anyway...either spend the money and get that i3 or whatever...or be a cheapskate and get the 860K and have money left over for a stronger GPU, yay!

 

[Yuriman]

Looks to me like the Kaveri chips are overall decent competitors for an i3. However, when the i3 loses, it isn't by much, and it sometimes wins by a landslide while drawing a lot less power (e.g. Metro, Formula 1).

The 7850K has some added value in that you can overclock, but it's slightly more expensive and looks like you'd need to bump up your power supply by ~100 watts and probably also use a more expensive motherboard than what you could get away with when not overclocking (i3 or Kaveri).

 

[TheELF]

In before results with the bold prediction that the A8-7600 is awesome for sub $100. If I wanted a tiny box with no dGPU this would be the chip I'd use.

Don't get too excited,those are just in-game benchmarks ,their job is to tell you how different settings might impact your frame rate,they are basically just gpu benchmarks and don't tell you anything about the difference between two systems,look at this
http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-hd-7950-w-boost-versus-nvidia-geforce-gtx-760_2227/4

Even with an i7-3960X the 7950 reaches only 82fps in bioshock infinite,does that mean that the i3 is equal to the i7-3960X ?
If you test a vga at settings that are maxing it out you will get similar results for a very large number of processors weak and strong.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Interesting data. Pretty much a wash. For gaming with a dgpu, at least new egg prices, the i3 4160 is 20 dollars cheaper and slightly higher clocked (0.1ghz), or even 4170 is 0.2ghz higher clocked and still cheaper. (edit: than the 4330).

I am kind of surprised at the difference in power consumption, especially overclocked. Not sure it is really worth it to overclock Kaveri, at least based on these games. It is faster, but not really sure you could tell the difference in actual gameplay, and it uses quite a bit more power than stock. I did not see it, what is the overclock on your 7850?

 

[frozentundra123456]

Don't get too excited,those are just in-game benchmarks ,their job is to tell you how different settings might impact your frame rate,they are basically just gpu benchmarks and don't tell you anything about the difference between two systems,look at this
http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-hd-7950-w-boost-versus-nvidia-geforce-gtx-760_2227/4

Even with an i7-3960X the 7950 reaches only 82fps in bioshock infinite,does that mean that the i3 is equal to the i7-3960X ?
If you test a vga at settings that are maxing it out you will get similar results for a very large number of processors weak and strong.

Good point also. Most of the games do look fairly gpu limited, but it is hard to say without seeing results at different settings or with stronger gpus.

 

[BSim500]

For gaming with a dgpu, at least new egg prices, the i3 4160 is 20 dollars cheaper and slightly higher clocked (0.1ghz), or even 4170 is 0.2ghz higher clocked and still cheaper.

The i3-4370 (3.8GHz) is also clocked 8.5% higher than the i3-4330 for only 6.5% ($9) more.

 

[ShintaiDK]

When you GPU limit it makes the 55? W AMD looks so more badly vs the 54W i3. Using 20-25W more than the i3. And the 95W using 50-60W more.

The quite a nobrainer just to get the i3.

 

[gorion]

nice job.
For me it would be interesting to see temperatures as well and total power consumption over the benchmark period, just to evaluate the difference.

 

[AtenRa]

When you GPU limit it makes the 55? W AMD looks so more badly vs the 54W i3. Using 20-25W more than the i3. And the 95W using 50-60W more.

The quite a nobrainer just to get the i3.

If you are after the best perf/watt then the Core i3 4330 is the one to get. But if you are looking at the best perf/$ then the Athlon 860K is the one to get.

Also if you start a new system with the A8-7600 and later on you want to upgrade the GPU performance, you can install a high-end dGPU and you will not loose a lot of gaming performance, especially with Mantle/DX-12.

 

[ShintaiDK]

If you are after the best perf/watt then the Core i3 4330 is the one to get. But if you are looking at the best perf/$ then the Athlon 860K is the one to get.

So what you say is AMDs APUs isnt worth buying vs their CPUs.

Also if you start a new system with the A8-7600 and later on you want to upgrade the GPU performance, you can install a high-end dGPU and you will not loose a lot of gaming performance, especially with Mantle/DX-12.

So what, highend GPU and sub 20 FPS minimums? Not to mention what happens when an actual CPU loads hit? Rememer most benchmarks are prescripted and very CPU light. Do I need to remind you about the Tomb Raider experiment?

 

[frozentundra123456]

Depends on what you mean by high end dgpu, but i would not use any of these cpus with more than a 200 dollarish gpu.

 

[AtenRa]

So what you say is AMDs APUs isnt worth buying vs their CPUs.

What im saying is that if you want the best perf/$ you will go for the Athlon.

So what, highend GPU and sub 20 FPS minimums? Not to mention what happens when an actual CPU loads hit? Rememer most benchmarks are prescripted and very CPU light. Do I need to remind you about the Tomb Raider experiment?

Dragon Age Inquisition High settings, A10-7850K OC + HD7950 1GHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIvChznfuC0&index=10&list=PLPPlscE2CXdFD3sh6m6sNiPB9GdtPU0wU

 

[AtenRa]

Depends on what you mean by high end dgpu, but i would not use any of these cpus with more than a 200 dollarish gpu.

You can easily use a R9 390/X and/or GTX970/980, up the image Quality settings and enjoy better graphics at the same or higher fps.

 

[frozentundra123456]

You can easily use a R9 390/X and/or GTX970/980, up the image Quality settings and enjoy better graphics at the same or higher fps.

You could, but you could also buy a corvette and put 120 mph tires on it. I dont really want to get into this argument with you again, because we already went through it in the thread about 4k gaming. If someone is paying 300 dollars for a graphics card, they most likely have a thousand dollar plus system, and want to buy AAA games at full price, and so on. In a system like that, I dont want to be forced to up the graphics setting just to hide a weak cpu. It is just terribly unbalanced to spend 1000 plus on a system and skimp on the cpu.

 

[AtenRa]

I dont want to be forced to up the graphics setting just to hide a weak cpu.

That is the definition for getting a higher performance GPU in the first place, to raise the image quality settings. I dont understand why people have this mentality that in order to use a high end GPU you also have to pair it with high-end CPU.
You can use the Athlon 860K with a R9 390 and play every game at 1080p with Ultra settings. Whats wrong with that ???

 

[Yuriman]

If you're satisfied with the minimum and average frames a CPU can deliver, then it makes sense to divert more money to GPU, so you can have higher image quality with the same framerate. I'm just not sold that an Athlon or Pentium can deliver high enough framerates to justify not spending just a bit more on a CPU.

 

[TeknoBug]

I had an A8 7600 for a while, it was a tad underwhelming but yes a bit faster than the A10 78xx variant in some ways (especially when both the 7800 and 7600 were set to 45W TDP). Sold the system to a brother in law.