FRONTPAGE AMD Trinity A10-5800K APU Review

[Ruiner]

Thoughts regarding benches from different sites:

At xbit, they compared the APU with DDR 1866 to a DDR5 6570 dGPU and only gained about 10% in games. The 6570 is a notch above the 6550 in a top end Llano (which uses ddr3 system ram).
At the same site, they showed incremental APU gains from ddr1600 to 2300 totalling around 10-15%.

At Anand, the A10 apu benched </=10% better than the A8. I'd expect a much bigger spread from a gain of 50% more radeon cores (and a nominal 5% clock speed increase).
The A10 is ~10-20% behind the i3 with a relatively old discrete HD5830 (@Anand). Most of the other dGPU comparison tests seem to be using top end cards.

It seems that the Trinity APU is about as good as any low/mid range DDR3 dGPU and the APU is significantly memory bottlenecked. Since the DDR5 cards start at around 70 bucks, it could be argued that Trinity doesn't make any sense once you've got a card that good, and a dGPU isn't really worthwhile at all below that point.

It's too bad ddr2400 is so pricey. What are the best overclocking 1866 sticks? Also, the A10 doesn't seem to be worth the extra money over the A8. Perhaps DDR3 system ram can't take advantage of the extra Radeon cores.

 

[googalabosh]

Anybody know when the A10-5700 is supposed to come out? I'm not seeing the 5700 on newegg's website.

 

[mjw21a]

Makes the stand alone desktop parts look promising. Still waiting so I can replacement FX8120

Hey, DDR2133 isn't too badly priced....

 

[LiquidHard]

Thoughts regarding benches from different sites:

At xbit, they compared the APU with DDR 1866 to a DDR5 6570 dGPU and only gained about 10% in games. The 6570 is a notch above the 6550 in a top end Llano (which uses ddr3 system ram).
At the same site, they showed incremental APU gains from ddr1600 to 2300 totalling around 10-15%.

At Anand, the A10 apu benched </=10% better than the A8. I'd expect a much bigger spread from a gain of 50% more radeon cores (and a nominal 5% clock speed increase).
The A10 is ~10-20% behind the i3 with a relatively old discrete HD5830 (@Anand). Most of the other dGPU comparison tests seem to be using top end cards.

It seems that the Trinity APU is about as good as any low/mid range DDR3 dGPU and the APU is significantly memory bottlenecked. Since the DDR5 cards start at around 70 bucks, it could be argued that Trinity doesn't make any sense once you've got a card that good, and a dGPU isn't really worthwhile at all below that point.

It's too bad ddr2400 is so pricey. What are the best overclocking 1866 sticks? Also, the A10 doesn't seem to be worth the extra money over the A8. Perhaps DDR3 system ram can't take advantage of the extra Radeon cores.

But they are really fun to play with for that price

Im cautious about the increase in performance tho.
Generally for this proc we probably oc the cpu as well as the igp.
Voltage and heat are shared on that die, theres going to be a tradeoff of somewhere, as both are on die.

Memory oc is fun on the apus, you have to try it.

For the igp, if it means 0-5fps increase in real terms, and still sticking to the same settings, Im not sure if its worth upgrading to FM2 for those with FM1 doing well. Gota buy both proc and board.

Overalls, apus are value for $. and fun

 

[TeknoBug]

I wonder how my 560Ti will fare with the 5800K, I'm looking at a combo at my local store which is A10 5800K, Asus F2A85-M Pro and G.Skill 8GB 1866 or an i5 3570K Asus P8Z77-V LE Plus and the same G.Skill ram, about $100 difference.

 

[hokiealumnus]

If you're ussing a discrete GPU and can afford the extra hundred, go with the 3570K.

These AMD APUs are great at what they do - excellent integrated graphics on a budget. If you use a discrete GPU, there really isn't any reason to go this route.

 

[LiquidHard]

I wonder how my 560Ti will fare with the 5800K, I'm looking at a combo at my local store which is A10 5800K, Asus F2A85-M Pro and G.Skill 8GB 1866 or an i5 3570K Asus P8Z77-V LE Plus and the same G.Skill ram, about $100 difference.

I second what hokie said. APU fan here by the way, using the IGP.

Since you already have a 560ti, an i5k if ocing. or maybe i3.

Here's Anand's benchmark of Trinity with a discrete card:"total loss for Trinity" quote - they did Trinity paired with a discrete HD5870.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6347/amd-a10-5800k-a8-5600k-review-trinity-on-the-desktop-part-2/6

I wonder, is it bcos the cpu is bottlenecking the gpu in those benchmarks? Due to x86 performance or single-threaded performance?

 

[Ruiner]

I wonder, is it bcos the cpu is bottlenecking the gpu in those benchmarks? Due to x86 performance or single-threaded performance?

Yeah. The spread increases with a faster card. Check the Xbit review.

 

[TeknoBug]

I'm breaking down and getting the A10 5800K and Asus F2A85-V combo for $200, maybe next year I'll get a Haswell and set the A10 as an HTPC for my TV.

 

[LiquidHard]

I'm breaking down and getting the A10 5800K and Asus F2A85-V combo for $200, maybe next year I'll get a Haswell and set the A10 as an HTPC for my TV.

You got the Bug now u gota scratch the itch. Its a $200 itch.

 

[TeknoBug]

You got the Bug now u gota scratch the itch. Its a $200 itch.

LOL

scratch that (pun?), my father is sick so I had to buy a plane ticket to visit them next month, so I'm not upgrading for another while. I think family is more important than a new system atm.

 

[LiquidHard]

LOL

scratch that (pun?), my father is sick so I had to buy a plane ticket to visit them next month, so I'm not upgrading for another while. I think family is more important than a new system atm.

+1