4 or 8? Apu platform.

[Whitefang]

So my boyfriend is looking to upgrade his computer, and I suggested an apu platform with the a6-3650. He doesn't need great graphics just enough to play League of Legends at 60fps on lowest. I'm assuming that the 6530D will be enough, because it's fairly powerful for a budget build.

My question is whether he should get 4 or 8 gigs of RAM. He's on a fairly tight budget, and cutting out that $20 would be nice if possible.

 

[David]

My gaming machine is an A6-3650 (with a GTX260 though) and 4 GBs of RAM. I think most games are fine with 4 GB, especially as you're not aiming to play everything on full anyway.

 

[Whitefang]

I asked because I know he'd be using the onboard video, not a discrete GPU. I have a 1GB card and play the game at highest settings just fine. Streaming music with YouTube videos buffered I don't use more than 3GB myself, and I doubt he'll have the same stresses put on the RAM, despite the APU using system RAM, which is why I asked.

Also, he'll probably be running windows 7, so there's a gig.

 

[LiquidHard]

hi whitefang,

Personally running an A6 3500 apu with 4gb ram - overall experience is pretty positive for an integrated graphics platform.

Games tried on this platform:
Crysis - definitely playable comfortably at lower settings, do turn off AA / tesallation if you want better frame rates

Dota - no problems there.

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If you toy with it a little, some overclocking will improve overall performance.

Some quick share on this:
- I gave the integrated graphics 1GB-2GB UMA Buffer settings. Actual settings will depend on which motherboard you get.
- While gaming other ram intensive programs are off. I like to think the apu graphics will prefer the ram dedication, Kinda like a wife wanting her man's full attention when she's talking..lol..
- Try to get ram speeds above 1600. 1866 and above will be better.
- Keep the focus on better graphics instead of higher clocks - the strength of apus is on 3D

Hope this helps.

You can pm me if you like.