What's wrong with APU on Desktop?

[Dribble]

What do you mean by APU - if you mean a cpu with build in graphics then there are lots of desktops like that (mostly Intel) and they work great for non-gamers.

If you mean the AMD mythical thing that was meant to use the gpu to do lots of tasks previously done by the cpu then that has never really existed outside of powerpoint slides.

 

[nathanddrews]

As a consumer, my issue with APUs - specifically AMD - is that they don't offer as much graphics power as I want and then they are typically slower than Intel when using dGPU. The price always looks attractive, but then you don't really have much of an upgrade path either (aside from another APU). You kinda have to be willing to give up system longevity.

If everything in the real world worked as well as it does on paper and in tech demos with HSA, Vulkan/DX12, and multi-GPU configurations, then I think APUs would be much more worthwhile. However, currently the real world still works best when you have a CPU that's really good at CPU tasks and a separate dGPU that's really good at GPU tasks.

That said, I hope that Zen mixes it up a little.

 

[otinane]

However, currently the real world still works best when you have a CPU that's really good at CPU tasks and a separate dGPU that's really good at GPU tasks.

Maybe that's a self fulfilled expectation. It seems to me that in present times, the whole hardware/software architecture of computing systems, is designed to be efficient for a discrete and dedicated CPU/GPU.

So instead of developing APU under a new type of architecture with computing systems dedicated strictly to an APU, they just try to score it up by imitating the function of discrete CPU and GPU systems into a single chip, just for commercial reasons.

 

[nathanddrews]

Maybe that's a self fulfilled expectation.

Oh I totally believe that it is. The status quo is always easier/cheaper to sustain. I also believe that mainstream changes like Vulkan/DX12 will help make multithreading more commonplace, but I still think we're a ways off from the APU being at that place that AMD has been championing all this time.