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Novice explanation of APU and GPU

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28 Jun 2014
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59
Ok so im currently in the process of building a PC the processor i have is a AMD A10 6800k which i won in a competition, no with my graphics card i have the Asus Radeon 280x, is there gonna be any problems between the 2?
 
The APU is a CPU with and AMD GPU built in. As long as your motherboard has a PCI express x16 slot, you can happily use both together.

The built in APU graphics can be disabled - this may happen automatically or you may need to set this in your bios, allowing you to use your much more powerful graphics card.

Apologies that I am sketchy on some details, but I don't have an AMD APU myself.
 
You could sell your APU for about £85 and get yourself an 8320 CPU + motherboard which will be better than that APU! :)
 
Since you already have a very good GPU (the 280) this isn't really the CPU for you, as it has a built in GPU that you won't ever use. You should start a thread in General Hardware with a budget and the parts you've got already and suggestions will come flying in.
 
The point of an APU is to make a system that doesn't need a graphics card. Discrete graphics cards such as yours are much more powerful so you'd use it for your graphics needs, which makes the APU a poor choice to only do the CPU tasks as there are much more powerful CPUs for similar money (such as the AMD 8320) as you're not paying for graphics stuff that'll never get used.

Have you already got a motherboard? If not we can switch to other options more cheaply.
 
Can't wait 'til Andy sees this.

+1, if you don't mind second hand 2500K or 2600K Intel CPUs are around £100 now.

Well I've seen it.

An APU is just that. Pairing one with a GPU is foolish because they're not designed for that. The whole point of an APU is that it has a reasonable GPU attached to it already and thus works in a low price PC.

There are plenty of standalone CPUs out there to choose from.

To answer the other question. Why wouldn't Sandy chips hold value? not exactly like they're useless is it?
 
My sons PC has a 6800k and now a R9 270 ad it works brilliantly...(60Hz monitor - all settings on Ultra or very high with no problems at all) **oh and it's not overclocked at all - gpu or cpu**
If you compare cpus you will find that the cpu side of the 6800k is pretty competent and should hold up ok with a 280.
Compare A10 6800k with a FX 6300 and there's not a lot of difference.
The FX is around 20% better for multithreaded tasks and memory intensive tasks...considering it has 50% more cores I don't think its too bad.
Sure there are better options but as you already have it why not use it.
 
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