Xbitlabs: Comparison of current APUs

[frozentundra123456]

Wow, the prime95 of gpu stress testers, totally synthetic and out of all real world usage scenarios, even if you hit an APU with Crysis 3 it wont stand nowhere near those levels of power consumption. And that makes me wonder, does the i3 with its igp even run Crysis 3?

You think an A10 will run it at any kind of decent settings? Maybe, maybe 720p at lowest settings. APUs for gaming are kind of like moving bricks with a bicycle, yes you can do it, and one may be faster than the other, but what you really need is a truck.

 

[Hubb1e]

Everyone seems to be missing the point of the A10. Have you been to Best Buy recently? Go check out their computers and 75% of them use integrated graphics. You can't find the HD4000 in any of the desktops you can find at retail. When you find a computer with a graphics card in it, it is some low end 620 or 6450 that isn't even as fast as an A10. If you find a computer with a real graphics card in it, you don't find our budget recomendation of an i3 with a 7770 ever. You'll find a quad core Intel or 6 or more core AMD with a midrange at best card. The A10 is better suited for a general use desktop than anything else out there in retail and enables gaming on an off the shelf system.

 

[grimpr]

You think an A10 will run it at any kind of decent settings? Maybe, maybe 720p at lowest settings. APUs for gaming are kind of like moving bricks with a bicycle, yes you can do it, and one may be faster than the other, but what you really need is a truck.

I guess you didnt even tried running Crysis 3 in 720p at Low, i think it puts to shame graphics wise any game out there, here's a screenshot at these lame settings, try running that on the Core i3 with the HD2500 and please post the gif animation that puts out.

 

[Phynaz]

You think an A10 will run it at any kind of decent settings? Maybe, maybe 720p at lowest settings. APUs for gaming are kind of like moving bricks with a bicycle, yes you can do it, and one may be faster than the other, but what you really need is a truck.

The argument:
"My integrated are less unplayable than yours!".

The people making the argument are missing the unplayable part.

 

[grimpr]

The argument:
"My integrated are less unplayable than yours!".

The people making the argument are missing the unplayable part.

Nope, the catch line is "I'm game, you can't".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF772bmtNk8

 

[SPBHM]

Nope, the catch line is "I'm game, you can't".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF772bmtNk8

considering how slow the 6670 DDR3 is in this game

I doubt you can play decently with Trinity, also your video is useless, footage from the beta without any indication of how it performs.

 

[Phynaz]

Yeah, a HD6670 gets 20fps and is more powerful than the graphics in the A10. So our new definition of playable is 15fps. :whiste:

Edit: Ninja'd Lol!

 

[Hubb1e]

You can't see the forest through the trees. Most people don't game with a high end card or are using older high end cards. Take a look at the steam survey.

 

[grimpr]

considering how slow the 6670 DDR3 is in this game
I doubt you can play decently with Trinity, also your video is useless, footage from the beta without any indication of how it performs.

Just replace those sticks used in the review with 1866 ones, overclock, its an unlocked K cpu dammit! and problem solved. Gameplay on the video looks smooth to me, and its on the beta which was highly borked and unoptimized, since then patches and drivers came out that pump the performance. The question remains, can you game like that in the Core i3 or its just used for gif animation collection?

Heres a new video with specs and with fraps recording in the background, guess those cores matter in the end, have a gif animation at it with HD 2500.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip1PhXiXflA

La Resolución Jugable es 1920*1080

Action! Modo Grabacion en 720p 30 FPS
FPS Action! on 19 - 31
FPS Action! off 27 - 40

Nota: Tiene bajadas de FPS por segundo pero no es contanste.

MainBoard: F2A85-M PRO BIOS 5109
CPU: AMD A10 X4 5800K Quad Core 3.8GHz
Memory: F3-17000CL11D-8GBXL 4GB x 2 DDR3 2133 MHz Dual Channel
Graphics Card: AMD RADEON HD 7660D 128Bit 1024MB Core Clock 800 MHz Overclock 1000 MHz

 

[Charles Kozierok]

As some have seen from my post in General Hardware, I'm right now shopping in this exact market. (Someone pointed me to this thread, which I appreciate.) The goal is an inexpensive machine for my 12-year-old, suitable for light to moderate gaming. That means, not the latest shooters running at the highest resolutions with all the bells and whistles -- just, decent performance.

And what I'm rapidly realizing is that my choice boils down to an Intel CPU + a discrete video card, or an AMD APU. The APU will be slower in straight x86 performance, but will cost a lot less, and the power use won't be nearly as bad as it appears in these graphs because I won't have a discrete GPU.

Would I do that for my own machine? No. But here, it makes a lot of sense, as Hubb1e suggested.

 

[SPBHM]

Just replace those sticks used in the review with 1866 ones, overclock, its an unlocked K cpu dammit! and problem solved. Gameplay on the video looks smooth to me, and its on the beta which was highly borked and unoptimized, since then patches and drivers came out that pump the performance. The question remains, can you game like that in the Core i3 or its just used for gif animation collection?

Heres a new video with specs and with fraps recording in the background, have a gif animation at it with HD 2500.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip1PhXiXflA

in my opinion buying 2133 DDR3 and overclocking something that already uses some decent power, and probably needs a decent MB and cooling for that, doesn't sound that great.. it's just not cheap enough for what you get... a 7750 or used 5770 will be much faster than the most oced trinity igp, even if you use cheap ddr3 1333 in single channel and some ugly $50 MB, you can also save money with a 750k/5600k for the same CPU performance...

and again, as far as I know the beta MP is less demanding than the final game SP.

 

[Phynaz]

its an unlocked K cpu dammit!

Wow, somebody needs to calm down.

 

[grimpr]

in my opinion buying 2133 DDR3 and overclocking something that already uses some decent power, and probably needs a decent MB and cooling for that, doesn't sound that great.. it's just not cheap enough for what you get... a 7750 or used 5770 will be much faster than the most oced trinity igp, even if you use cheap ddr3 1333 in single channel and some ugly $50 MB, you can also save money with a 750k/5600k for the same CPU performance...

and again, as far as I know the beta MP is less demanding than the final game SP.

Well that defines an APU enthusiast and not the average family or kid that wants to play a racing or shooter game on the APU, overclocking x86 cores and the Radeon IGP on the budget side something you cant do on the locked and gimped Core i3 and personally i dont see the problem with that, its a new class of hardcore overclocking in hwbot. Even hardcore overclockers with monster pcs have fun with AMDs APUs, ask around in hwbot and find out.

 

[grimpr]

Wow, somebody needs to calm down.

Just exaggerating a special characteristic, sorry for not being a cold mathematical logic a.i. :biggrin:

 

[SPBHM]

Well that defines an APU enthusiast and not the average family or kid that wants to play a racing or shooter game on the APU, overclocking x86 cores and the Radeon IGP on the budget side something you cant do on the locked and gimped Core i3 and personally i dont see the problem with that, its a new class of hardcore overclocking in hwbot. Even hardcore overclockers with monster pcs have fun with AMDs APUs, ask around in hwbot and find out.

you can find people having fun with anything on hwbot, but what's the point? this has nothing to do with trinity being capable of playing games like Crysis 3 (something which only people with limited resources would try to do I think, when even a 5770 can do so much better).

 

[Jovec]

Just replace those sticks used in the review with 1866 ones, overclock, its an unlocked K cpu dammit! and problem solved. Gameplay on the video looks smooth to me, and its on the beta which was highly borked and unoptimized, since then patches and drivers came out that pump the performance. The question remains, can you game like that in the Core i3 or its just used for gif animation collection?

Heres a new video with specs and with fraps recording in the background, guess those cores matter in the end, have a gif animation at it with HD 2500.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip1PhXiXflA

Current Newegg pricing has that youtube setup at $325 (minus any taxes or shipping) for the APU, motherboard, and Ram. The RAM premium for 2133 isn't too bad, but the motherboard premium is quite high. That Asus F2A85-M PRO is the only A85 that comes with VRM cooling.

An alternative is a $50 G1610, $63 8GB 1600 G.Skill, a $65 Asus H61 mobo (3 to choose from) which leaves $147 for a discrete card. Obviously a 2c/2t CPU versus a 2m/4T, but single core speed is approximately the same between these two CPUs (I own both). $147 left for a GPU is 7770 GE / 7790 territory (or even 7850 with a sale or rebate).

Which would you rather have?

Yes, you can overclock the 5800k, but if you are buying an aftermarket cooler (the 5800 doesn't come with the heat-pipe stock cooler) that is extra money towards the GPU on the Intel setup where the stock cooler is fine. Or put that money towards an i3.

 

[grimpr]

Current Newegg pricing has that youtube setup at $325 (minus any taxes or shipping) for the APU, motherboard, and Ram.

An alternative is a $50 G1610, $63 8GB 1600 G.Skill, a $65 Asus H61 mobo (3 to choose from) which leaves $147 for a discrete card. Obviously a 2c/2t CPU versus a 2m/4T, but single core speed is approximately the same between these two CPUs (I own both). $147 left for a GPU is 7770 GE / 7790 territory (or even 7850 with a sale or rebate).

Which would you rather have?

Yes, you can overclock the 5800k, but if you are buying an aftermarket cooler (the 5800 doesn't come with the heat-pipe stock cooler) that is extra money towards the GPU on the Intel setup where the stock cooler is fine. Or put that money towards an i3.

The setup is exaggerated and you can do much better cost wise leaving you with all options available.

If you dont like overclocking and having fun, sure go ahead and buy the locked i3 playing gif animations at games, simple as that, nothing more to say.

 

[USER8000]

Current Newegg pricing has that youtube setup at $325 (minus any taxes or shipping) for the APU, motherboard, and Ram. The RAM premium for 2133 isn't too bad, but the motherboard premium is quite high. That Asus F2A85-M PRO is the only A85 that comes with VRM cooling.

An alternative is a $50 G1610, $63 8GB 1600 G.Skill, a $65 Asus H61 mobo (3 to choose from) which leaves $147 for a discrete card. Obviously a 2c/2t CPU versus a 2m/4T, but single core speed is approximately the same between these two CPUs (I own both). $147 left for a GPU is 7770 GE / 7790 territory (or even 7850 with a sale or rebate).

Which would you rather have?

Yes, you can overclock the 5800k, but if you are buying an aftermarket cooler (the 5800 doesn't come with the heat-pipe stock cooler) that is extra money towards the GPU on the Intel setup where the stock cooler is fine. Or put that money towards an i3.

You do realise,you could use a cheaper motherboard for the FM2 setup,like loads of Trinity builds have?? There are chipsets like the A55 which are equivalent to the H61 which are far cheaper too. There is also the cheaper A75.

In reality the difference between CPUs is around $80. The HD7660D with 1600MHZ DDR3 is around HD6670 GDDR3 level anyway and is around HD6570 GDDR5 level with 1866MHZ DDR3 RAM.

However,with Crysis3,you really should not be specifying a dual core. It really does thread well at the most CPU intensive part of the game,which is the part in the picture posted earlier.

In fact for a modern game build from the get go,I would be looking at a low end Core i5 or maybe a FX6300 now as a minimum. I had a SB Core i3 and it started to show limitations in newer games,hence the Core i5 now.

The Trinity CPUs are more for general purpose family builds which need to do a bit of everything,and many of them are the prebuilt ones Hubb1e talked about.

 

[Torn Mind]

A75 is the "sweet spot" chipset since you actually get SATA III and USB 3.0. Unless you plan on Crossfiring two discrete, A85X is entirely unnecessary.

 

[grimpr]

Heres a vid running the bioshock infinite benchmark on the A10 5800K.

The game is according to the poster, perfectly playable at 30/40 fps at 1600 x 900 using medium/high graphics on a stock 5800k.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvEpfJv__Fo

 

[Torn Mind]

Current Newegg pricing has that youtube setup at $325 (minus any taxes or shipping) for the APU, motherboard, and Ram. The RAM premium for 2133 isn't too bad, but the motherboard premium is quite high. That Asus F2A85-M PRO is the only A85 that comes with VRM cooling.

An alternative is a $50 G1610, $63 8GB 1600 G.Skill, a $65 Asus H61 mobo (3 to choose from) which leaves $147 for a discrete card. Obviously a 2c/2t CPU versus a 2m/4T, but single core speed is approximately the same between these two CPUs (I own both). $147 left for a GPU is 7770 GE / 7790 territory (or even 7850 with a sale or rebate).

Which would you rather have?

Yes, you can overclock the 5800k, but if you are buying an aftermarket cooler (the 5800 doesn't come with the heat-pipe stock cooler) that is extra money towards the GPU on the Intel setup where the stock cooler is fine. Or put that money towards an i3.

H61 is hit or miss depending on what BIOS version the board has, and like A55, does not offer native SATA III or USB 3.0.

APUs are viable when you want to get a CPU+something slightly worse than 6670 performance in a about a $120 package rather than $170. However total system cost savings will usually amount to about maybe $20-30 less than the cost of a 6670 because of the need to get more expensive RAM.

But if you truly need more graphics power, then you'd better pony up the extra $100 or more for the HD 7770. This is not restricted to the i3 setups. One could very well get an A8 and HD 7770 as well if they so desire.

 

[svenge]

Forget H61, B75 is where it's at for inexpensive Intel motherboards. It actually has PCIe 3.0 and native USB 3.0 + SATA-III.

 

[Torn Mind]

Forget H61, B75 is where it's at for inexpensive Intel motherboards. It actually has PCIe 3.0 and native USB 3.0 + SATA-III.

PCIe 3.0 is tied to the chip. A B75 with a Sandy Bridge CPU installed will not have PCIe 3.0.

 

[frozentundra123456]

The setup is exaggerated and you can do much better cost wise leaving you with all options available.

If you dont like overclocking and having fun, sure go ahead and buy the locked i3 playing gif animations at games, simple as that, nothing more to say.

If you dont like playing current and even a few year old graphically intensive games at decent resolutions and image quality settings, go ahead and play on an APU.

 

[Mallibu]

APUs for gaming is a joke and for desperate amd fanboys. 15-20 fps at low settings can make a game not only unplayable but intolerable. They can enter any gaming discussion when they have at least 3x current performance. Right now it's pointless and there are far better solutions in discrete cpus/gpus.