***AMD Kaveri APU quick look***

[oweneades]

Nice review Stulid.

Have to agree with Humbug and Martini, overall Kaveri is a little lackluster, but when it eventually replaces the 6800K price point, it still serves a purpose and is ok for what it is. At the current price point it's just to close to Intel i5 territory, or Haswell dual core + dedicated GPU territory. It's def price that is theh killjoy here, the actual CPU is ok.

To expand on this the current price point of the 7850K (£140 on OCUK) is only £10 less than a Athlon X4 760K* / HD7770 combination. This can use the same (cheap) A88x motherboard and will offer much better gaming performance and roughly similar Similar CPU performance with a mild OC (4.2Ghz across all four cores).

*Basically a 6800K minus the iGPU.

As another example I only paid £30 more than the 7850K RRP for my wifes 760K / HD7850 setup. As this was primarily built as a gaming system the extra outlay is easily justified.

Like you I think this needs to fall to around £100 (current 6800K pricepoint) to be relevant in the current market.

 

[malachi]

So no point not upgrading from my 6800k with 7770 to just a single 7850k with no 7770?

 

[Grimezy]

I don't know what to think of these, I waited for them as my girlfriend wants a cheap build that can do general tasks including some casual gaming (GW2 being the most intense on her list). I figured having a A10-7850k would be cheap and would be much nicer to look at inside the window compared to a big GPU blocking the view. I'm a little bit disappointed now though, the performance doesn't seem to be that brilliant and it's still really not that cheap for a very low budget build. My configurations are coming in at £500-£600 for what I want which when you remember it's an integrated GPU, that's not really that great.

Just wondered what peoples thoughts are. Would I be better with an equivalent intel cpu + something like a 7770? I've read that GW2 doesn't really utilise multiple cores so intel performs better but I don't want to be stumped when it comes to other games.

 

[oweneades]

So no point not upgrading from my 6800k with 7770 to just a single 7850k with no 7770?

The 6800K / HD7770 will be a faster combination for gaming and basically identical in general performance.

 

[pbrain]

Hmmm, i'm still confused about this APU, some reviews are saying it's not really an improvement over A10-6800k, yet my A10-6800k (with 2400mhz RAM, stock cpu/gpu clock) gives a Firestrike score of 1038, yet on this thread the 7850k scores 1556!

To me that sounds brilliant, i'm interested in a portable gaming rig (my A10-6800k is shoe-horned in a Silverstone Milo case and does a decent job...i can play Warframe OK)

 

[oweneades]

Hmmm, i'm still confused about this APU, some reviews are saying it's not really an improvement over A10-6800k, yet my A10-6800k (with 2400mhz RAM, stock cpu/gpu clock) gives a Firestrike score of 1038, yet on this thread the 7850k scores 1556!

To me that sounds brilliant, i'm interested in a portable gaming rig (my A10-6800k is shoe-horned in a Silverstone Milo case and does a decent job...i can play Warframe OK)

It might be faster in synthetics but it is only a few (often 2-5) FPS faster in actual games (asuming the fastest memory is used on both setups).

Whether this would make a difference in a game, I don't know. Looking at Stulids thorough "quick look" (great job BTW) it would appear that the 7850K doesn't really push the APU into playable territory where it matters (where the 6800K was unplayable the 7850K is also unplayable - at least not beyond what a 6800K could already do.

 

[Stas823]

I have team fortress 2, what settings?

1080p high with no shadows please and no aa

 

[atmax1]

Nice review, I'm tempted to replace the i3 in my media center for this.. hmmm

 

[stulid]

1080p high with no shadows please and no aa

2014-01-15 15:30:22 - hl2
Frames: 4740 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 79.000 - Min: 46 - Max: 284


2014-01-15 15:32:28 - hl2
Frames: 4742 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 79.033 - Min: 51 - Max: 113

 

[alex_123_fra]

The A10-7850K 3DMark 11 score is actually only slightly lower than my wife's 2.5 year-old Alienware M17x R3 with an i7 2670QM and a GTX560M (latter system scores around 3k).

Impressive for the A10. Stulid, what score is achieved on the overclocked 7850k on 3DMark11?

 

[Stas823]

Thanks! Can't wait to get my hands on one

 

[esoteric]

I'm quite impressed at the performance tbh. It won't do for an enthusiast but it's still quite good.

Those benchmarks on the games are par with my 2010 i7 930 GTX470 rig @ 1920x1080.

I'm wondering how well these chips can mine.

 

[Sidneylopsides]

I really want AMD to do something to get support for SteamOS. I can see A10-7700 builds in tiny cases, and at tiny prices. 720p on a TV is fine, as consoles prove.
There are even passive cooling cases that can handle that kind of chip, you could make an uSFF completely passive and silent gaming machine for the living room.
Heck, I think I'm going to have to try build one myself.

 

[pbrain]

I'm quite impressed at the performance tbh. It won't do for an enthusiast but it's still quite good.

Those benchmarks on the games are par with my 2010 i7 930 GTX470 rig @ 1920x1080.

I'm wondering how well these chips can mine.

My 7850k & gigabyte mobo came today, just waiting for SSD to arrive tomorrow, can't wait to see what it'll do.
With my 6800k I could play Crysis on high settings smoothly at 1366x768, it would play on high at 1080p but with occasional stutters. I would have said the 6800k's gpu was around gtx260 performance, this would be crazy if 7850k is around gtx470 spec!

 

[esoteric]

My 7850k & gigabyte mobo came today, just waiting for SSD to arrive tomorrow, can't wait to see what it'll do.
With my 6800k I could play Crysis on high settings smoothly at 1366x768, it would play on high at 1080p but with occasional stutters. I would have said the 6800k's gpu was around gtx260 performance, this would be crazy if 7850k is around gtx470 spec!

Would be cool if you could do some benchies at that screen res, same games as stulid if you have them.

[EDIT] Never mind, rechecked the thread and he did some 720p tests, you should expect around 40-45 fps.

 

[malachi]

My 7850k & gigabyte mobo came today, just waiting for SSD to arrive tomorrow, can't wait to see what it'll do.
With my 6800k I could play Crysis on high settings smoothly at 1366x768, it would play on high at 1080p but with occasional stutters. I would have said the 6800k's gpu was around gtx260 performance, this would be crazy if 7850k is around gtx470 spec!

Did your 7850k come with BF4?

 

[Ethermaster]

+1

As always another great review.

And Ethermaster deserves some praise for the simple & clear charts.

Thanks fella

 

[oweneades]

I'm quite impressed at the performance tbh. It won't do for an enthusiast but it's still quite good.

Those benchmarks on the games are par with my 2010 i7 930 GTX470 rig @ 1920x1080.

A GTX470 coupled with a i7 930 should be noticeably faster than the A10 7850K in, well, any game.

Considering the much quicker HD7770 is roughly on par with a GTX460 in modern titles, and the GTX470 is quicker than either, I am struggling to think of any scenario where a 470 could only offer up the same performance as the 7850K iGPU.


For example according to the Anandtech GPU bench a GTX460 1GB manages around 40FPS average in BF3 at 1080p Ultra settings with FXAA.

The iGPU is decent enough but it simply can't be quicker than a HD7750 GDDR3, let alone anything quicker.

 

[Martini1991]

I think there's some hyperbole in the air

 

[Gazb]

A GTX470 coupled with a i7 930 should be noticeably faster than the A10 7850K in, well, any game.

Considering the much quicker HD7770 is roughly on par with a GTX460 in modern titles, and the GTX470 is quicker than either, I am struggling to think of any scenario where a 470 could only offer up the same performance as the 7850K iGPU.


For example according to the Anandtech GPU bench a GTX460 1GB manages around 40FPS average in BF3 at 1080p Ultra settings with FXAA.

The iGPU is decent enough but it simply can't be quicker than a HD7750 GDDR3, let alone anything quicker.

It is possible the CPU could be holding back the GPU though in that setup.
I would have thought it would still be quicker than the A10-7850K though, especially as it appears to be bandwidth limited in a lot of benchmarks.