Overclocking the memory and GPU clock speeds on an AMD APU can greatly improve gaming performance – it is known. With the new AMD A10-7850K in hand I decided to do a quick test and see how much we could improve average frame rates for mainstream gamers with only some minor tweaking of the motherboard BIOS.
Using some high-end G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-2400 memory, we were able to push memory speeds on the Kaveri APU up to 2400 MHz, a 50% increase over the stock 1600 MHz rate. We also increased the clock speed on the GPU portion of the A10-7850K from 720 MHz to 1028 MHz, a 42% boost. Interestingly, as you'll see in the video below, the memory speed had a MUCH more dramatic impact on our average frame rates in-game.
In the three games we tested for this video, GRID 2, Bioshock Infinite and Battlefield 4, total performance gain ranged from 26% to 38%. Clearly that can make the AMD Kaveri APU an even more potent gaming platform if you are willing to shell out for the high speed memory.
| Stock | GPU OC | Memory OC | Total OC | Avg FPS Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battlefield 4 1920x1080 Medium |
22.4 FPS | 23.7 FPS | 28.2 FPS | 29.1 FPS | +29% |
| GRID 2 1920x1080 High + 2xAA |
33.5 FPS | 36.3 FPS | 41.1 FPS | 42.3 FPS | +26% |
| Bioshock Infinite 1920x1080 Low |
30.1 FPS | 30.9 FPS | 40.2 FPS | 41.8 FPS | +38% |
You just called the Kaveri
You just called the Kaveri APU a potent gaming platform.
I’d still rather have a cheap
I’d still rather have a cheap FX-8320 and a dedicated video card like say a R7-250 if I were on a budget for a few reasons.
-Faster 8 core processor for use when you’re not gaming
-Ability to upgrade the video graphics with dedicated card
-Onboard gpu’s take away from your usable ram size almost necessitating having to buy 16gb versus 8gb of ram
-Price is only $35 more for an 8320 and an R7-250 than it is for the A10-7850 alone going by Micro Center prices.
-Not imperative to have to buy the fastest/more expensive ram to get the best performance with a graphics card
Honestly, I don’t know who the A10-7850k makes sense for with the possible exception of an HTPC gamer.
well bill, it’s not just 35$
well bill, it’s not just 35$ more but you also add the difference of the graphic card about 150$, unless you can run your games with fx 8320 alone…
if you dont, then dual graphic doubles the fps, bioshock at 80fps, and bf4 at 60 is pretty decent imo.
but you are still missing the point, apu is not just about the price saved on graphic cards, but also space, some ppl like to have a 20cm cube pc they can hold with 1 hand, apu+mb+ram+psu+ssd 500-600$, i think these kind of small cubes with these apu setups would be the best selling steam machine in the future.
i am not interested in apu either, but there is a market for it
Bill said it’s only $35 more
Bill said it’s only $35 more for both the CPU+Dedicated GPU, not just for the CPU vs CPU.
AMD should stop trying to
AMD should stop trying to promote 7850K though you guys, making you look like an AMD site when you are NOT :P, and bring A8-7600 faster to the market.
On the other hand I do understand that these videos are not for people who check regularly the hardware news, but for those who will choose their CPU/APU after 10 minutes googling.
Clearly AMD’s APU are memory
Clearly AMD’s APU are memory bandwidth starved. AMD needs to address this.
Only part of the APU that is,
Only part of the APU that is, is the GPU. Since it based off the Radeon gpu’s its no surprise.
I am still not all that
I am still not all that impressed with AMD’s desktop APUs. Maybe if there was a design with some SRAM on chip that would help offset the low bandwidth system memory and dramatically improve performance. As I understand DirectX 11.2 has some sort of clever texture tiling technology that could work wonders with a small amount of SRAM.
This is the approach Microsoft has taken with the Xbox One, I don’t think they were telling a lie when they said they made a “balanced system”. The intention is to combine Xbox One’s SRAM with DirectX 11.2 software to make up for the lesser amount of GPU cores and memory bandwidth. The PS4 is using GDDR5 for both CPU and GPU which is not ideal on the CPU side of things but good for bandwidth on the graphics side. The Xbox One however has lower latency DDR3 which is more suited to the CPU side, this goes along with the design ethos of a snappy/instant system with multi-tasking apps e.t.c. But still has great graphical performance due to the SRAM and texture tiling with DirectX 11.2.
Maybe a similar design of chip could work on a desktop platform and produce graphics more on par with a mid-range graphics card. And without the need for expensive DDR3 2400 memory which negates any savings made buying an APU in the first place.
But i remember reading dev’s
But i remember reading dev’s have had their issues coding for the SRAM in the xb1. Since PS4 doesn’t have it, more then likely most dev’s won’t even bother trying to code for it if the game is on both, also SRAM on xb1 is only 32mb which doesn’t really do much in less it was like cache for cpu, for gpu it doesn’t help much.
“It is known” – did you pull
“It is known” – did you pull that from Game of Thrones? 🙂
Hi Sir,
Can you repeat the
Hi Sir,
Can you repeat the benchmarks 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
which the motherboard name?
which the motherboard name? please (kelvinstang@hotmail.com)
I’d like to know why amd cant
I’d like to know why amd cant just make a mb with some gddr5 for the apu maybe like 4 gigs of 256 wouldn’t be too much to ask for and maybe a second lesser powerful cpu for running pci express slots so you could have maybe Three 3.0 16x’s for a great sli or crossfire or maybe just a little quad channel ram would greatly improve the apu.
and if you added a cpu for
and if you added a cpu for the pcie it would free up your main cpu and it could run a little cooler and faster
1 year later
1 year later