AMD A10-5800K APU Review: Trinity Comes to the Desktop

Read the full article at:
http://www.techspot.com/review/580-amd-a10-5800k/

Please leave your feedback here.

One thing I don't quite understand is why are these chips being compared to older intel solutions. Why not something more current such as a processor with intel 4000 graphics?

They are not being compared to older Intel solutions, at least not exclusively. The latest Ivy Bridge Core i3 and Core i5 processors are included. I think where you are confused is that not all Ivy Bridge processors use the Intel HD 4000 graphics, in fact only the expensive models do, at least for the most part. The AMD A10-5800K matches the Intel Core i3-3220 (Ivy Bridge part) directly in price, this is its key competitor.

What a struggle! This must suck being destined to number 2.

AMD vs Intel today is like RIM vs Google. Good try, plenty of dust scrambled, but when it settles you see no substance left

The TDP on these APU isn't good either. Intel chips offer better power consumption.

I understand that a lot of the Ivy Bride solutions do not have Intel HD 4000 Graphics and the ones that do, are not competitors. However, my irk, is that you are comparing AMD's most powerful APU solution against weaker Intel ones.

A (pu) for effort, C+ for execution.
A little too niche imo. The boards are well featured ( but do budget/HPTC builders need or likely to use half a dozen SATA 6GB ports?), hybrid Crossfire is a nice option ( but only works with a previous generations HD 6450, 6570 and 6670), and nice clocks -but limited OC, climbing power usage and thermal throttling kicking in unless you use a more expensive cooling solution, makes it a bit of a head scratcher.
For a dedicated HPTC + light gaming on the same 1080 screen, I would think that AMD might face competition from further down Intel's product stack. A Sandy Bridge G850 (2 core/65w) + a passive HD 6770 is going to offer much the same general compute performance, and much better graphics performance for around $30 more. With a cheap A75/A85 board for $85-95 being a little more expensive than a reasonably well featured H77, it basically becomes a toss-up between a few more SATA 6GB ports vs better graphics.

Your irk is with Intel, the AMD A10-5800K costs $130, the Core i3-3220 costs $130 and the Intel Core i5-3570K with uses the HD 4000 graphics costs $230. There is the cheaper Core i3-3225 now but we have not been able to get our hands on it.

Anyway if you refer to our Ivy Bridge coverage you will see that the Intel HD 4000 graphics gets completely blown out of the water by the older A8-3850...

http://www.techspot.com/review/523-ivy-bridge-intel-core-i7-3770k/page8.html

So you aren't missing out on much.

I actually like what AMD is offering here, this could actually work well for them, rather than racing with Intel for the high-end market.

I do like AMD also, for their effort, not for their product.

I had AMD system twice. The first one was ok, but it was so long ago. And the second one died in a funny way - one sunny day the CPU makes a smashing sound out of the blue, then gives out a very stinky smoke and the system was dead.

This kind of experience happened again 3 years ago when my NVidia 760GTX gave out a stink and blew fuses in the house. Ni-I-ice!

I agree about invalid comparisons - Use the i3-3225 for a valid comparison as it uses the 4000 graphics. $144

http://ark.intel.com/products/65692/Intel-Core-i3-3225-Processor-3M-Cache-3_30-GHz

Valid point!!

Wonder how well XBMC will support this. Hmm the power consumption is a little on the high side.

XBMC already runs amazingly on the A6-3500 I have in my HTPC. Straight rips of Blurays run smooth as butter with only a slight raise in CPU usage. The power consumption is typical for a main computer. If you're going to throw this into a HTPC, that's overkill. Get yourself the A6-3500 and enjoy.

This review basically tells me to only build an AMD system if Im not ever going to use a discrete video card. Not that I would ever build a system without one, I probably would not build an AMD system anyway. Last AMD I had was the first X2 and it looks like it will be a while still before I build another.

Thanks for the review, it was nice to see.

I on the other hand am quite fond f the idea that it will only take one decent (= silent) cooler to keep entire system running with decent performance. The problem with discrete GPUs is that even the weakest of them are obnoxiously loud, unless you go for a passive card (which needs case fans to cool it anyway).

I'm currently using a Vapor-X edition of HD5770 which isn't that loud, but it's noticeably louder than the CPU fan so when AMD can produce an APU that matches HD5770 in performance (hopefully in next generation) while offering reasonable x86 performance I'll be replacing my old Core2 + HD5770 combination, slap on big heatsink onto it, undervolt the APU and finally enjoy the silence

"When gaming with a beefy discrete graphics card, the results were pretty close, but for CPU-dependent titles such as Civilization V, there's a clear case to be made for Intel's processors."

WOW as an editor you should NOT be biased! When it came to gaming FPS, there was a distinct winner according to anyone who can look at graphs and see the difference. Plain as day actually. This is much like those Apple iPad vs ASUS Tansformer reviews; iPad was defeated in every catagory except one, applications available; the 'clear winner' Apple! hooray!!!! you fan boys!

It is clear by your comment that you are confusing discrete graphics card performance with integrated graphics performance in our review. As we said when it comes to gaming with a high-end graphics card the Intel processors provide a real performance advantage, particularly in games that are CPU dependent.

As for any of my Asus Tansformer reviews I am not sure where you are coming from here. I would never ever buy an iPad over the Asus Tansformer. Although the applications available comment wasn’t mine, the editor did add that, we hardly said Apple wins buy the iPad instead. Somehow you made that conclusion all on your own.

IMO, AMD's APU could be ultrabook killer when consumer prefer with some graphic performance

Seeing as a 3770K with 4000 graphics got thumped by the low end A8-3850 of the previous generation I am curious what makes you think that a i3-3225 has a prayer against the A10's of this generation?

Dave