AMD A8-7600 Review: 'Kaveri' APU Put to the Test

[WangDangDoodle]

Will TechSpot do a review on the A10-7850K and dual-graphics mode? I'm wondering which discrete cards are compatible with--and how fast it can get in--dual-graphics mode.

I'm planning to build myself a Mini-ITX steam machine. It doesn't need to be top shelf, but I want to be able to play games in 1080p with medium/high detail if possible. I'm not sure why you guys chose to review the lower end of the APU lineup, but I'm hoping there's a high end review in the making.

At the moment I have an A10-7850k M-ITX machine built for a friend (Waiting on a replacment PSU) and from what ive seen it does a decent job especially if you put DDR3 2400 with it and overclock the GPU/CPU. The Dual Graphics options from what ive heard are limited at the moment to the R7 240 and the R7 250 which are both sadly less powerful than the on board GPU but tend according to some leaked benchmarks and some posted by AMD the performance can double (Though alot of this is just a rumor and what AMD showcased so who knows).

In most tests/reviews I've read, there's almost no difference between using DDR3 2400 and DDR3 1600 for gaming. Does this APU benefit more than a regular CPU + discrete GPU combo from having a higher memory MHz? At first glance, it seems a bit overkill using DDR3 2400 on what I'd consider a budget-friendly system, but I have no hands-on experience with APUs yet. Thanks for the info on dual graphics compatibility, btw.

 

[Steve]

In most tests/reviews I've read, there's almost no difference between using DDR3 2400 and DDR3 1600 for gaming. Does this APU benefit more than a regular CPU + discrete GPU combo from having a higher memory MHz? At first glance, it seems a bit overkill using DDR3 2400 on what I'd consider a budget-friendly system, but I have no hands-on experience with APUs yet. Thanks for the info on dual graphics compatibility, btw.

Did you look at the A10-6800K results in this review, we tested it with both 1600MHz and 2400MHz memory.

 

[WangDangDoodle]

In most tests/reviews I've read, there's almost no difference between using DDR3 2400 and DDR3 1600 for gaming. Does this APU benefit more than a regular CPU + discrete GPU combo from having a higher memory MHz? At first glance, it seems a bit overkill using DDR3 2400 on what I'd consider a budget-friendly system, but I have no hands-on experience with APUs yet. Thanks for the info on dual graphics compatibility, btw.

Did you look at the A10-6800K results in this review, we tested it with both 1600MHz and 2400MHz memory.

I actually only checked the game-graphs on my first read and you didn't test 1600MHz memory with games, but now I checked some of the other graphs and it seems the 1600MHz memory beats 2133MHz in some of them. I'm still curious to see the impact on games.

 

[Steve]

I actually only checked the game-graphs on my first read and you didn't test 1600MHz memory with games, but now I checked some of the other graphs and it seems the 1600MHz memory beats 2133MHz in some of them. I'm still curious to see the impact on games.

The A10-6800K was indeed tested with 1600MHz and 2400MHz memory in the gaming benchmarks.

 

[WangDangDoodle]

The A10-6800K was indeed tested with 1600MHz and 2400MHz memory in the gaming benchmarks.

Ah, I see now, you were talking about the 6800K. My confusion is that I was just looking for the Kaveri results and ignoring the previous generation chips.

 

[GhostRyder]

Ah, I see now, you were talking about the 6800K. My confusion is that I was just looking for the Kaveri results and ignoring the previous generation chips.

It does make a difference to have that higher speed ram when equipped with an APU. One of my friends bought an A10 6800k with an gigabyte A88X Micro Board and for the first month till he got another paycheck had 8gb of DDR3 1333 in it (He had this memory sitting around from an old machine) and used it to play League with me and a few friends which it gave a decent amount of performance though he could only run it on high with shadows on low to keep around 60FPS. He recently grabbed some DDR3 2133 (8gb) and started league up and now he can play it on ultra 1080p with 60fps with shadows on medium (A few drops in big team fights into the 50s). There is some improvement to be had with higher ram when using the iGPU on an APU, it does make a difference at times (Albeit depends on what ram your comparing it to) especially once you start going from something like 1600x900p to 1920x1080p.

Without that dedicated 1gb of GDDR5 ram like on the HD 7750 (Which the 7850k is most closely resembled with in terms of performance) you would get a loss in performance. So the faster the memory it has access to, the closer the performance will be to that 7750 (If you compared clock to clock results). The DDR3 2400mhz is not the GDDR5 ram that the GPU would get, but its closer than DDR3 1600 which does make a noted difference in gaming tests. Its not like "ZOMG NIGHT AND DAY BABY" but if you want the best performance from it thats how your going to do it.

 

[WangDangDoodle]

It does make a difference to have that higher speed ram when equipped with an APU. One of my friends bought an A10 6800k with an gigabyte A88X Micro Board and for the first month till he got another paycheck had 8gb of DDR3 1333 in it (He had this memory sitting around from an old machine) and used it to play League with me and a few friends which it gave a decent amount of performance though he could only run it on high with shadows on low to keep around 60FPS. He recently grabbed some DDR3 2133 (8gb) and started league up and now he can play it on ultra 1080p with 60fps with shadows on medium (A few drops in big team fights into the 50s). There is some improvement to be had with higher ram when using the iGPU on an APU, it does make a difference at times (Albeit depends on what ram your comparing it to) especially once you start going from something like 1600x900p to 1920x1080p.

Without that dedicated 1gb of GDDR5 ram like on the HD 7750 (Which the 7850k is most closely resembled with in terms of performance) you would get a loss in performance. So the faster the memory it has access to, the closer the performance will be to that 7750 (If you compared clock to clock results). The DDR3 2400mhz is not the GDDR5 ram that the GPU would get, but its closer than DDR3 1600 which does make a noted difference in gaming tests. Its not like "ZOMG NIGHT AND DAY BABY" but if you want the best performance from it thats how your going to do it.

That's good info, thanks!

 

[Gadgety1]

You have the best memory bandwidth for the A8-7600 at 15.73GB/s when running 65W mode and DDR3-2133. This is far better than for example Legitreviews who, running Corsair 2133MHz 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 memory ki, only achieved 14.00GB/s in 65W mode, also on an ASRock FM2+ motherboard. Others have commented on the importance of running Dual Rank memories, yet you do not specify WHICH 8GB DDR3-2133 RAM you are running. This is seems to be a very important piece of your performance puzzle missing. Could you provide it?

From your system spec:

AMD APU System Specs

AMD A8-7600 (3.3GHz - 3.8GHz) 65w
AMD A8-7600 (3.3GHz - 3.8GHz) 45w
Asrock FM2A88X Extreme6+
...
8GB DDR3 RAM
OCZ Vector 256GB SSD
OCZ Mk III Silencer 750w
Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit

 

[Steve]

You have the best memory bandwidth for the A8-7600 at 15.73GB/s when running 65W mode and DDR3-2133. This is far better than for example Legitreviews who, running Corsair 2133MHz 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 memory ki, only achieved 14.00GB/s in 65W mode, also on an ASRock FM2+ motherboard. Others have commented on the importance of running Dual Rank memories, yet you do not specify WHICH 8GB DDR3-2133 RAM you are running. This is seems to be a very important piece of your performance puzzle missing. Could you provide it?

From your system spec:

AMD APU System Specs

AMD A8-7600 (3.3GHz - 3.8GHz) 65w
AMD A8-7600 (3.3GHz - 3.8GHz) 45w
Asrock FM2A88X Extreme6+
...
8GB DDR3 RAM
OCZ Vector 256GB SSD
OCZ Mk III Silencer 750w
Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit

We used AMD Radeon Memory.

 

[Del D Denney]

Thank you Steve! Was that 1x8GB unit.

 

[Steve]

Thank you Steve! Was that 1x8GB unit.

Dual-channel memory was enabled, so 4GB x 2.

 

[msroadkill612]

Some more recent synthesis on OCing the 7850k is, assuming ok cooling, the igp is is easy to OC about 30% in performance, but the cpu isnt worth the bother of OCing them both. the OCed cpu cant sync well w/ the igp or some such.

for my needs, they still make great cloud terminals - my mobo even has display port, and current ones, freesync.

a second gpu kinda defeats the point of an apu, which is, all your non gaming basic need on a efficient single processor and a single board. Amd are right mostly. Just plain folks can live w/ last years cpu, but crap graphics is a deal breaker.

Its possible well behaved programs profit from a gpu coprocessor under windows. it would sure help temps to unload work to even a less powerful discrete c/gpu like the r7 250.
but the public were persuaded otherwise.

a discrete gpu is a pain for those who dont HAVE to have one