Testing AMD Kaveri's Dual Graphics Performance

[Guest]

Hi Sir,

Can you repeat the benchmarks in your Kaveri review using Catalyst 14.2 ?

http://benchmarkreviews.com/13238/amd-a10-7850k-performance-optimized-catalyst-14-2-driver/

Based on the article from the link posted above, there is ~30% performance improvement when going from Catalyst 13.12 to Catalyst 14.2

Thanks

 

[Jeff Burns]

I agree on principle Steve, but since the RAM on the System is DDR3 it might be a good idea to confirm or disprove the hypothesis. Sometimes you can get some seriously unexpected results.

In your article you implied that you should chose the faster GDDR 5 memory over the slower DDR 3 memory. Did you do any performance comparisons between r7 250 DDR 3 and the GDDR 5 memory when in crossfire with the Kaveri?

Thanks

No need its way slower, for gaming AVOID DDR3 at all costs, end of story. There is less than half the available memory bandwidth which crushes performance.

@Steve I got an odd question for ya, when you were testing im curious about the core clocks on the R7 250 and A10's R7. Now in CFX and SLI normally it goes with the lower clock speed and hits the GPU's down to those levels. Just curious if you noticed anything like that as im curious if playing with the clock speeds in the Bios like I did (I bumped my friends one up to 960mhz) would make a difference in CFX (At least a noticeable one).

No that wasn't happening, both GPU's were running at full speed when Crossfire was working. I didn't try and match the clock speeds through overclocking though.

 

[Jeff Burns]

My large/overriding concern in the market for which these are designed for (low cost, high efficiency gaming), what is the power consumption for each config? If I only get an extra 5fps, but it costs me an extra 50W from the wall to do it, then that would also affect my purchasing decisions.

 

[Steve]

It’s more fact than principle. The R7 250 has 155% more memory bandwidth when paired with GDDR5 memory opposed to DDR3 memory.

As for your concerns about power GDDR5 is much more efficient than DDR3. That said overall it’s going to make very little difference, think a few watts not 50w.

The DDR3 cards perform so poorly manufacturers won’t even send us one. Normally we would buy one to show you guys but it has been seen so many times in the past with even slower GPUs that it is now fact.

Here is a more recent example of testing DDR3 vs. GDDR5…

http://www.goldfries.com/computing/...e-the-difference-with-the-amd-radeon-hd-7750/

Note that in many cases GDDR5 is over 50% faster and it’s the same GPU!

 

[Dale202]

Why did you test with 2133 not 2400?? And use a GPU that has DDR3 not GDDR5??

 

[Steve]

Why did you test with 2133 not 2400?? And use a GPU that has DDR3 not GDDR5??

Why did you test with 2133 not 2400?? - As explained in our Kaveri review these APUs wont work with 2400MHz memory, at least they didn't for us which is why we were limited to 2133MHz. Moreover the official memory spec calls for DDR3-2133 so it's hardly an injustice.

And use a GPU that has DDR3 not GDDR5?? - One question mark is plenty. We only used GPU's that use GDDR5 memory and this has been debated in the thread. So no DDR3 GPU's to see here.

 

[kscius]

Can I use a R7 250X for dual graphics instead of a R7 250?

 

[Steve]

Can I use a R7 250X for dual graphics instead of a R7 250?

Yes.

 

[Guest]

When accounting for the motherboard cost as well, you would achieve similar/better performance and about $100-150 lower pricetag going with an FX-6300+R7-260 over an i5*+R7-260.

APUs have a place, and I suppose the Crossfire does too for those who built their computer on a shoe-string and later had more cash to upgrade a little... but if you are building from scratch and have that extra $100 for a discrete graphics card, def don't go the APU+card route.

 

[mig47]

Too bad that you didn't test A10-7850K with 260X as you did with the i5-4430, just for performance comparison. It would be nice to have A8-7600 vs i3-4130 both tested with IGP and then with 260X, so we can see how big is a difference between CPU performance.

I think its not needed because a10 apu dont have too good cpu unit. had a10 6800k and I liked solution for value.

 

[Blackbeard1965]

I bought an A10-7850 system having been told I could add any radeon card later but now I have a new monitor that needs hdmi out and my motherboard only has dvi. So now I bought a r7 240 because it has hdmi out, now how do I go about installing it and enabling crossfire? And can I turn it on and off easily?
Yeah, it's an old pos, but don't want to spend another thousand bucks on a new desktop.