AMD A10-6800K and A4-4000 Richland APU Review

Jos

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Read the full article at:
[newwindow=https://www.techspot.com/review/681-amd-a10-6800k-a4-4000/]https://www.techspot.com/review/681-amd-a10-6800k-a4-4000/[/newwindow]

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Nice advertising on the Anandtech news item. Smooth move. :)

Richland looks more boring than desktop Haswell, if that's even possible.
 
At 65W TDP, A10-6700 (with the same HD8670D graphic, 3.7Ghz/4.3Ghz turbo, and same price), is a much more interesting APU than A10-6800K. It would have been interesting to see how its power consumption stacks up against comparable Intel products.
 
Yes, there is French Hardware review site that noted how the A10-6700 was very energy efficient while outperforming in graphics and games.

This this also the umpteenth review that has a distinct lack of OpenCL / BasemarkCL multiprocessing benchmarks. A number of popular apps like Adobe, Aviary and many other utilizing OpenCL acceleration.

Doesn't the reviewer want his audience to know the full breadth of the capabilities or perhaps it shows an indication of not wanting to embarrass Intel?
 
gamoniac said:
At 65W TDP, A10-6700 (with the same HD8670D graphic, 3.7Ghz/4.3Ghz turbo, and same price), is a much more interesting APU than A10-6800K. It would have been interesting to see how its power consumption stacks up against comparable Intel products.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that the A10-6800K can be easily underclocked to be as efficient as the A10-6700. I think it's a problem that reviews don't underclock and undervolt CPU's. AMD CPU's often work well while undervolted, and it would be interesting to see what kind of power consumption is possible to get with some power tweaks. I frankly find underclocking/undervolting more interesting than overclocking and would love if it was given more attention, especially in the case of processors that are likely to end up in HTPC's.
 
Guest said:
What memory speed did you use?
Click to expand...

All Systems were tested with DDR3-1866 memory if they supported it. The A4-4000 only supports 1333MHz memory and that’s all we could get it to boot with.

gamoniac said:
At 65W TDP, A10-6700 (with the same HD8670D graphic, 3.7Ghz/4.3Ghz turbo, and same price), is a much more interesting APU than A10-6800K. It would have been interesting to see how its power consumption stacks up against comparable Intel products.
Click to expand...

Expect bugger all difference really. I mean just look at the A10-5700 and A10-5800K in our power consumption graph :S

Guest said:
Yes, there is French Hardware review site that noted how the A10-6700 was very energy efficient while outperforming in graphics and games.
Click to expand...

It might outperform in games but it is not very energy efficient.

Guest said:
This this also the umpteenth review that has a distinct lack of OpenCL / BasemarkCL multiprocessing benchmarks. A number of popular apps like Adobe, Aviary and many other utilizing OpenCL acceleration.

Doesn't the reviewer want his audience to know the full breadth of the capabilities or perhaps it shows an indication of not wanting to embarrass Intel?
Click to expand...

I’m not sure who makes Photoshop CS6 then :S I’m also pretty sure I couldn’t embarrass Intel.
 
gamoniac & guest, we didn't test the A10-6700 deliberately but because AMD didn't sample us with one ahead of release, instead they opted to send us the AMD A10-6800K and A4-4000 which we have tested and showcased. If you believe the other is the more interesting processor that's perfectly fine, but we have reviewed actual products (including the series flagship) and thus are giving our opinion on the products we have, not the ones we don't.

As for benchmarks, again, it's easy to pick which test we didn't run (out of the 15 or so tests we did), yet you mention OpenCL and Adobe, when we have tested Photoshop CS6 among other multithread benchmarks.
 
Well I was wondering when I would get to see a review on this processor. Its an interesting APU for sure, its getting up in performance and they are now becoming much more viable for actual gaming performance. But they are still lacking in straight CPU performance and I was expecting/hoping to see much higher gains all around like what was being advertised.
 
[Sarcasm off during my whole comment] Can somebody explain me what is the actual target market of the A10-6800K? I mean, because of its specs it seems like a mid-high processor; so is it in the same price tag of the IB i5 there? I'm from Mexico and those Richland CPUs still don't have a price to be compared to Intel's same priced here.
I've read the past APU reviews when they were released, but I still don't have it clear what is the purpose of the APU. Are they competing with their own Bulldozers? Why develop both brands in parallel? Are they more graphics-focused than Bulldozer or in a more accessible price tag?

This is no critic, neither opinion. I'm just full of doubts about this AMD alternative; and they haven't been clarified for a while now. I originally thought they were targeting CPUs <= Core i3, and seeing comparisons with i5 and even i7 [graphics] just got me lost.
 
The point of an APU is pretty much to have a CPU and GPU on the same die that performs on par with having a separate GPU while keeping it clean and simple.

When Comparing the APU like the 6800k to the I5, the Graphics capabilities are higher on the APU by AMD, but the power of the CPU is behind the I5. In short, they are mid range Processors that are deigned for light-medium gamers who want value and a bit of performance. They are not exactly meant to be top of the line, they are a mid-range solution with a price tag cheaper than buying a separate processor and GPU gaming rig, but with similar results.
 
Better wait for Kaveri APUs that will feature a completely new CPU and GPU architecture. The Richland APUs were merely a minor update to the Trinity platform, offering nothing more than small performance improvements.
 
Kaveri is supposed to bring CPU performance improvements of ~30%. The GPU is supposed to be a LOT more powerful, too. It's going to be a 28nm processor vs. Richland 32nm.
 
PCMark 8 is already being released and AMD showed an Acer V5 laptop using Windows 8.1, so how hard would it be to update with something that shows CPU plus GPU compute performance?

We know from TechReport's review of the 1.5Ghz Kabini outperforming faster clocked Ivy Bridge CPUs in OpenCL acceleration, so I guess TechSpot is under the Intel-biased benchmarks mostly influence.
 
I don't think they are picking benchmarks and stuff that are directly intel biased or anything. Though a few more might be nice of the Opencl persuasion would be nice.
 
EEatGDL, these AMD APU's are aimed at PC's where due to price or space constraints adding a discrete graphics card is problematic, but GPU performance still matters. They're supposed to provide a good sweet spot between price, CPU performance and GPU performance. Whether they succeed depends on what's important to you and of course if your local price of AMD CPU's is higher, they'd naturally be less appealing.
 
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The main point being this, boys and...boys: When it comes to pricing the AMD A10-6700 and AMD A10-6800K both run $142. That is a very reasonable price for what you get. The AMD FM2 platform is also reasonably priced as you can pick up a quality brand name AMD A85X chipset powered ATX motherboard like the Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-D3H for $76.49 shipped. The last key ingredient is the 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 2133MHz 1.5V memory kit and that runs as low as $68.99 shipped. So, to build a system like this you are looking at $287.48 shipped without messing with any rebates. The Intel Core i7-4770K processor runs $349.99 shipped before motherboard and memory costs. AMD continues to excel at price versus performance! Here you have a processor that can run games faster than Intel and it costs far less.
 
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After 3 years on my old Asus gaming laptop I'm looking to upgrade to a 6800k system (I've decided I want a "budget" box for light gaming and day-to-day work, and then I'll get myself a new ultrabook for when I'm travelling around)

Is a 6800k + 2133mhz ram + ssd going to be quick enough for these games at 1080p with reasonably high settings?

Fallout 3/New Vegas
Skyrim
Arkham City & Arkham Asylum
Mass Effect 1,2,3

I'm not exactly a power user. The only upcoming game I've got any interest in is Rome 2 Total War. I'll also use the machine for a small bit of video editing (just vids I upload to YouTube) and university work.
 
If they combined the AMD's Radeon HD 8670D with Intel's I5 we could actually see some steps towards good framerates (at low res)
 
@the guest above

Yes and no.

Fallout, it will do a decent job
Skyrim: This game is heavily CPU dependant, it will be decent, but high might be pushing it
Arkham series: Not to bad, you could definitely get away with low-medium
Mass Effect: Yea should be enough for medium at least
 
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