Gaming Performance
With the move to higher performance graphics cores on the A8-7600, I was eager to see how well this low cost APU performed compared to both the previous generation and to Intel's Haswell HD 4600 graphics.
3DMark Ice Storm
The Ice Storm test is really built for phone and tablets and as such, all of the desktop configurations have enough of GPU horsepower to push it. The CPU/physics portion of the test is much more prominent here and gives the Intel Core i3-4330 an edge in the overall score.
3DMark Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate is much more GPU-intensive and we can see right away that the Kaveri A8-7600 graphics, even at 45 watts, is 24% faster than the Core i3-4330.
Bioshock Infinite, Skyrim and Tomb Raider
Bioshock Infinite was totally playable with the A8-7600 at 1080p and Low image quality settings. It was only marginally faster at the 65 watt TDP setting than it was at the 45 watt option. At the same power consumption level, Kaveri is proving to be more than 20% more efficient in terms of graphics performance (for this game) than Richland and 40% more efficient than Intel's Core i3-4330.
The same is true with Skyrim; the Kaveri-based A8-7600 at 45 watts is 22% faster than the A10-6700T Richland APU and 32% faster than the HD 4600 found in the Core i3-4330.
Tomb Raider shows the same pattern again – the A8-7600 is a great integrated graphics part for mainstream gaming even though it has two fewer GPU compute cores than the flagship A10-7850K.
“Now that it is 2014, AMD has
“Now that it is 2014, AMD has marked off the PCI-E 3.0 checkbox for their OEM partners and have opened the door for future, higher performing FX processors utilizing the FM2+ socket infrastructure.”
Editor – should this be FM3+ ??
Not that we know of. FM2+ is
Not that we know of. FM2+ is what Kaveri is based on, and it supports PCI-E 3.0. That socket should be around a long time.
I think the issue was when
I think the issue was when reading “higher performing FX processors utilizing the FM2+ socket infrastructure.”
First thing comes to mind is the FX-xxxx series, not the Axx-xxxx series. hence the reference to AM3+. maybe change “FX” to “steamroller” or some other reference outside of “FX”?
well it seems the person was
well it seems the person was refering to FM3+ not AM3+ socket.. my bad. got confused 😛
Sources at AMD have stated
Sources at AMD have stated that FX branded processors will be back, but AM3 is a dead end. These things point to AMD eventually releasing a FX processor on FM2+. Now, this FX processor will be a APU and not the traditional FX products we have seen so far.
why are you the only reviewer
why are you the only reviewer who didnt get the a10? also what about comparisons with iris pro, is that still in the works?
TR doesn’t get A10 either
TR doesn’t get A10 either
We definitely were not the
We definitely were not the only ones to NOT get an A10 part, but we were short on time after CES to go out and source one from a different place, that's for sure.
CPU wise, not much of an
CPU wise, not much of an upgrade. Kaveri is sill relegated to low end PC’s and laptops.
Sadly, this seems true. I
Sadly, this seems true. I understand now why there won’t be an FX Steamroller CPU; it’s just nowhere near competitive to the Intel counterparts. As a longtime AMD enthusiast, I am saddened by this, but by the same token, if I were the CEO of AMD, it would be hard for me to make a business case to invest the engineering resources to catch up (strictly referring to integer performance). The future seems to be phablets, tablets, and convertibles.
but that is kinda the point
but that is kinda the point isnit? race to the bottom.
Most users but the cheapest option possible, that is why there are so many people with atom (pre silvermont) and low end celeron systems, constantly complaining how shity their laptop is.
A good enough cpu {and lets face it modern day low end cpu’s are more than powerful enough for 90% of home users} with a good entry level gpu for around $600 will be the biggest sellers. It’s just good business. AMD pushing the low end by making said low end systems good enough to play games at very decent quality will encourage the pc gaming ecosystem to once and for all dominate the console.
The money(Profits) have never
The money(Profits) have never been in High End gamimg, for Intel, at least, and have never been in high end gaming. Intel has always developed for the server, and mainstream market. Intel bases it chips for the enthusiast market arouund its server SKUs, with the server specific functionality removed, or fused off! Intel has always subsidized its gaming SKUs, with its profits from its server, and mainstream sales! AMD can not afford to do this subsidizing, and never really could, to the degree that Intel could! The whole profitable part of the market has shifted to the Moble Tablet/Phone, and low cost laptop/chromebook markets, that is where the money is, and AMD currently can only remain viable as a ongoing concern, by shifting its resources towards the GPU/APU market where it beats Intel, and competes with Nvidia! AMD does provide Intel with plenty of competition in the LOW cost, low to midrange(With Karvei) CPU/APU market! Intel is in deep trouble, in the low cost x86 market, and currently is not a factor in the Mobile CPU/APU market!
Loan AMD half a billion to restart its high end development, and you better have a few billion in reserve for a revolving line of funding, beacuse that is the level of subsidizing that gaming high end development costs!
Put your big money where your pouts are!
Edit: gaming high end
Edit: gaming high end development
TO: gaming high end CPU development
well this cements amd’s
well this cements amd’s mobile shift they probably have nothing to compete with intel’s performence on the desktop/server side till excavator or after… I will give them credit though they were handed a bunch of lemons and made the best lemonade they could.
Congrats to AMD! A $120
Congrats to AMD! A $120 Kaveri and siblings that beats higher priced Intel i3/i5 at PCMark8 and even the i7-4770k at games like Battlefield 4.
The last time AMD won in PCMark8 over equivalent Intel CPUs they took the majority of market share and with HSA acceleration, TrueAudio and Mantle, they are likely to do it again.
Erm….which graphs are you
Erm….which graphs are you looking at? Get off the weed
Probably referring to the
Probably referring to the 7850k APU
I’ve always wondered with AMD
I’ve always wondered with AMD how long it would be before they try and make a push to have a GDDR5 memory slot included on Fusion Motherboards. Presumably it would give the built in GCN cores quite a boost in performance and gaming.
Intel IPC has been at a
Intel IPC has been at a virtual standstill since Sandy Bridge (2009) with most of the improvements that do exist coming from tangental features such as dynamic turbo/power modes.
AMD, what the hell are you doing?? Five years. Intel has gifted you five_goddamn_years of making virtually zero IPC progress, and you still can’t catch them?
It’s like a modern version of the goddamn tortoise and the hare with the hare deliberately doing everything it can to stall on purpose, and yet is still unable to lose the race.
To be fair in the end, the
To be fair in the end, the tortoise won the race. Though your point still stands.
I also don’t think Intel is stalling for them to catch up (though that would be nice). Intel just plain doesn’t care, they consider ARM the threat now. They know AMD isn’t going to be catching up for quite a while. Given the way things are going, they can just sit on new stuff until someone actually comes to compete.
Intel is not in the
Intel is not in the technology improving business, they are in the technology Milking business, Milking those customers for Profit business!!
I’m sure AMD would be just
I’m sure AMD would be just fine if they had Intel’s budget.
Everyone is focusing on the
Everyone is focusing on the APU stuff.
I’m surprised that im about to update my 1st gen i7 940 to a haswell 4770k, and the actual performance gain is *only* 2x. For a 5-6 years update cycle, that is quite disappointing :/
quick question btw, is there a haswell cpu around that price range with no gpu but more power? i wish i could drop the GPU entirelly and spend the same or a tad more money on a faster cpu.
You can find some models that
You can find some models that don't have the GPU portion but they aren't going to run faster than the models WITH processor graphics. :/
Haswell-e is not due yet,
Haswell-e is not due yet, Sandy-e or the newer Ivy-bridge-e are the only options. Because Ivy-e uses the same platform as Sandy-e I decided to go with a 4770k for now and I’m saving for when Haswell-e is released. From what I’ve read that will have a fairly decent performance improvement. Ivy-e is not much better than Sandy-e just like the Sandy/Ivy-Haswell improvements are minimal.
Please do not forget to
Please do not forget to define AMD’s mobile tablet based APUs use of the Mobile/Full versions of openCL, openGL, etc, as Nivida’s Tegra K1, now supports the desktop/descrete GPU, full versions of openCL, etc., on Nvidia’s new mobile Tegra K1 based platforms! AMD needs to offer Full version support of OpenCL, etc. drivers on any SKUs that compete with the Nivida Tegra K1s! In the Future, with respect to any reviews of Mobile devices built around the AMD Kaveri mobile APUs in competition with the Nvidia Tegra K1 based mobile devices based “APU Type” CPU/GPU systems, please make sure to tell the reader if the mobile device will allow loading of a full Linux distro, and if that mobile divice’s CPU/GPU APU, or “APU” type(Nvidia k1, etc) system supports the full openCL, etc. versions of the drivers! I am seriously looking for the K1 based tablet devices, and their K1 based ability to run full desktop style applications via full version openCL, OpenGL driver support, to allow me to run Blender 3d(Light Mesh Modeling) and Gimp for graphics, on a mobile tablet, that can run a full Linux Distro. Full openCL, openGL driver support on a Tablet/Mobile processor(K1, YES), (Kaveri, ??), is big news, and I look forward to your device reviews.
here’s the problem, One chip,
here’s the problem, One chip, one price, just like how the Nvidia didn’t get the consoles.. all three.. they will not be able to beat the price/performance point. I own two NVidia cards. from a business stand point, this spells bad news for Nvidia and anyone else in the smaller factor market. lots of power, all in one, less Watts. this is not high end. I hope they release high end chips but.. I’m beginning to think its not going to happen in the economy
What did the post, that you
What did the post, that you replied to, have to say, about what you are talking about? the Poster needs full Linux capability, and full OpenCL, OpenGL from a Mobile “APU”/APU type device(tablet) Nvidia’s K1, can provide FULL openCL, openGL support, and the poster hopes AMD can provide an equivalent level of support, with its competiting SKUs!
The poster will buy any tablet, even it was made by marvin the martian, if it meets the posters needs, the poster wants a tablet that runs a full linux rooted distro, that can run Blender 3d, and gimp(both reguire Full OpenGL, and Maybe some Full OpenCL support, and run under windows[Hell no], or Linux)! the Poster would prefer a mobile x86 AMD platform(if it has full OpenGL, openCL, etc. support like The K1), but will use the K1 if there is A blender 3d, and Gimp, Arm based build available, to run on the linux distro based ARM platform! The K1 will compete very well in its intended form factor against the AMD kaveri tablet APUs! BUT no Blender 3d, no Gimp, and No full linux rooted distro, on the tablet, NO BUY!
The Poster’s statement was
The Poster’s statement was poorly written and incredibly verbose making it more difficult to distill relevant content.
Good upgrade when compared to
Good upgrade when compared to the previous generation… it is matching and at times even beat the A10 5800K despite being a lower end part. Yes, it doesn’t beat a core i3 in single threaded stuff but the multi-threaded performance is decent.
It seems AMD is still in the
It seems AMD is still in the business of shooting them self in the foot with an RPG.
After the Phenom II series of CPU, their new core module design has lead to around a 50% lower IPC on each core.
For example, compare the fx8350 to the X6 1100t it beats it in overall performance by a very small margin, and largely fails against it when it comes to single threaded performance, all while having a 700MHz across 8 cores, lead over the Phenom II.
AMD is still using that flawed design, and it can barely compete with a dual core, core i3. This is a low end part and thus it will not attract high end users, and it will not attract gamers.
It is very niche because it will struggle to even attract general computer users as the most common tasks done by general/ entry level users, rely more on single threaded performance *which the core i3 offers nearly twice the single threaded performance.
Furthermore, this CPU is unlikely to attract even casual gamers, as the games they commonly play, do not even need the GPU horsepower of the APU, and if they are into running demanding games, they will likely want to run them at high settings. But it will be too much to ask to have them give up nearly half of their single threaded performance for slightly better GPU performance (keep in mind that browsers and many other common applications are still single threaded.
AT implies AMD has one more
AT implies AMD has one more bulldozer-design before passing at a new architecture, the Excavator.
I think someone at AMD must have realized that speed demon CPU architectures aren’t appropriate for nowadays’ computing demands and will fall back to a wide and high IPC core. They may do as Intel with Conroe and fall back to their mobile architecture: a modified (wider and cache-beefed) Jaguar. That however takes time, so in 2016 maybe we’ll see a competitive AMD CPU.
Bone stock Phenom II on 32/28nm would be a better CPU than the FX line, but that train left the station years ago.
For me I am just annoyed, I
For me I am just annoyed, I currently have a Phenom II x6 1075t overclocked to 4GHz and, and to match its performance, an 8350 would have to be overclocked to nearly 5GHz
While there are some things that it does faster, overall the core module crap has lead to a slower CPU because the vast majority of the computing we do, still rely heavily on single threaded performance.
This is why intel has been dong so well. virtually every new generation increased IPC. after the pentium 4 and pentium D, they made sure to never sacrifice IPC for a higher core count.
AMD on the other hand slowly increased ICP until the Phenom II, and then took a massive dive in order to make an 8 “core” CPU.
AMD’s core module is the equivalent of going to the pizza shot and ordering 2 large pizzas, and the shop simply just putting an extra crust over the top of a single large pizza. sure it is more food but it is no longer as good and it is not 2 large pizzas.
I cannot see AMD as a valid choice now until they step away from this core module crap and go back to improving IPC
High core counts are of very little benefit. multiple CPU cores do not scale perfectly, 1 core at twice the ICP will perform better than 2 cores at half the IPC each.
AMD should have built upon the Phenom II and made it 28nm or smaller, and optimized it to improve IPC
Amen to that.
Amen to that.
According to HWbot a Phenom
According to HWbot a Phenom II x6 1075T @ 4.2Ghz gets close to stock FX8350 multi threaded performance whereas most FX 8 cores at over 4.5Ghz beat the the 1075T. FX IPC changes according to how many cores are loaded if you only use 1 core the stock FX 8350 gets around 1.23(A Phenom II x4 I had got 1.25 at 4Ghz) points in single threaded Cinebench test but once you use all 8 cores it will only just get over 7 points which points to the fact that once 2 cores in a module have to work at the same time they slow down due to the resource sharing. So no your 1075T is not better than an FX8350 it’s close but not better.
BTW with very repetitive parallel work loads like crunching prime numbers/video encoding an FX 8350 will catch up to and sometimes beat an i7 3930k/3960X/4930k/4960X.
@ Ryan and PCPer team.
Are
@ Ryan and PCPer team.
Are you planning to compare Kaveri vs Richland vs FX series at the same clock to see how the IPC truly compare?
It would be nice to see Steamroler B vs Piledriver B vs Piledriver A cores?
A-B refering to APU vs non APU which contains also L3 cache that is missing from Kaveri.
Heck, you can even through in the first Bulldozer to give us a view of how much improvement has the Bulldozer series brought over time.
Strange thing about those
Strange thing about those kaveri’s 8 compute “Cores” (on the GPU side a least) is that they(the ACEs) can actually do context switching, which no prior AMD GPUs could do, according to what Charlie the D., says “Once a GPU can context switch, it is essentially a very wide heterogeneous CPU, and that is exactly the point of Kaveri.” and “…just wait until the software catches up…”, so there is not a lot of software out there compiled to take advantage of AMD’s version of HSA, (hQ) and atomics, and such, but as soon as the SDKs, frameworks, APIs, begin to take advantage of AMD’s special brand of HSA, things should look different. The Benchmarking software will have to account for this in some way (when needed), and will have to be re-run to measure this New AMD HSA tuned hardware once the changes work their way into the software ecosystem!
I wonder how this will affect the Ray tracing benchmarks, in particular, being able to have 8 of the GPU Cores/ACEs that have the ability to context switch between their own ( hQ max depths of up to 8 threads per ACE), all doing ray tracing, in addition to the 4 ARM cores, and their SIMD instructions! Kaveri is still, pending the release of truely compatible, and optimized software, very much a wait and see siduation.
People may not like Charlie D., but his techinical hardware analysis skills are top notch!
I would say also add the
I would say also add the phenom II in there
Run them all at 3GHz, or match the clock speed of the slowest CPU, then benchmark the single threaded and multi core performance of each
comparing everything from the Phenom II, to the kaveri.
Im not a computer engineer
Im not a computer engineer (although sometimes i wish i was given the ODD decisions made by these companies…) but i have to agree that a Phenom II die shrink/tweak would have been best for AMD…at least for the FX line and left the “experimental” , module architecture for the APU line until HSA was fully implemented. A die shrunk Phenom II x4 and x6 with an updated memory controller would still have been able to compete at the time bulldozer was released if they kept the costs low enough…..it just boggles my mind that no one in-house wouldnt have seen this?? They could have even labeled it “Phenom III” instead of resurrecting the FX label. The only thing really keeping Phenoms back nowadays is a few instruction sets and the memory controller!! That architecture at 4ghz+ would have been a hell of a thing!
amen to that! PII is still
amen to that! PII is still there best architecture. They should have just improved it and their high end cpus would be a far different story.
Ryan, you are an expert on PC
Ryan, you are an expert on PC technology.
It would be great if you could provide your daily use impressions of the AMD A8-7600 65W/45W APU system vs Intel core i3-4330 system.
Newegg is selling the Intel Core i3-4330 for $140 dollars. The AMD A8-7600 APU is priced at $119.
The two systems are in the same price range.
No the posting system would
No the posting system would not confirm that the post was made, in fact it displayed an error message after each post attempt, and assuming the post itself was not properly posted, the poster continued to try to post!
And Now that the poster thinks about it, maybe the error message was actually concerning the Failure of the post affirmation message, and not the posting mechanism that did its job of posting after each cryptic error message!
So maybe the logic of the posting system needs to be changed to not fully complete the posting transaction, unless the affirmation message transaction completes without Throwing an error!
this post took more than one try also, this posting system breaks down after the post counts reaches past one page in length!
I’ll look into it!
I'll look into it!
Conversation at work as
Conversation at work as follows.
AMD is giving a copy of BF4 away with a purchase of the A10-7850. It has been posited that Kaveri will be “good enough” for a low cost system to play BF4 because it’s coming with the processor. I’ve tried to temper their enthusiasm with my own experience running a GTX660 with an i5-3570k.
What is game play going to be like with just the newest APU on a 1920×1080 display?
I assume hybrid CrossFire will also be possible, but what is the max card that could be used (Some thought as high as a Radeon 7850)? I was skeptical, I wasn’t sure you’d even be able to run a 77xx card and get any good out of the iGPU.
Good article and insights as always. Keep up the great work.
i don’t think this CPU should
i don’t think this CPU should be placed against a Intel’s GT2, price-wise and also platform-wise, yeah sure it makes sense… but generation-wise it definitely doesn’t.. instead i think it should be compared with Intel’s GT3 or even Intel’s GT3e
Well, I can’t say that I’m
Well, I can’t say that I’m not a little disappointed in amds latest desktop offering. That said, I’m now very excited to see how this new manufacturing process and low power tuning have worked for their new mobile kaveri. I don’t expect amd will ever conquer the high end cpu market again but I think they have all the tools to dominate in tablets and convertable notebooks. Its a matter of where Read leads the company. Either way, great review josh and ryan, I look forward to mobile reviews of kaveri (I hope) by second quarter.
Anyone else curious about the
Anyone else curious about the power consumption of the 45W setting during other benchmarks after seeing the gaming power consumption chart?
Cause that one looks peculiar.