Upgrading to AMD Kaveri A10-7870K

PonderingBear · 30 Jun 2015 at 20:12

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this forum and need some advice on upgrading my CPU please?

Currently running a Gigabyte F2A68HM-HD2 board with AMD A8-6600K chip.

Had crashing problems due to power issues running a GTX 750Ti in PCIe 2.0, down to the chip limiting to FM2 only.

I'm looking to upgrade to an AMD A10-7870K (i believe is the highest i can go to on this board) to utilise the FM2+ socket and get the full power i need from the PCIe 3.0 slot to stop the graphics card crashing through lack of wattage. (New 750W PSU is already on it's way as I'll be running extra cooling)

Any reason why this won't work out?
If there are i may just have to opt for a new i7 board for now but this will work out quite expensive.

Ideally I need to avoid the issue of the graphics card crashing randomly as it's unusable now, until i save up enough to upgrade to a full new i7/GTX 980Ti setup.

Thanks in advance

CPU
AMD A8-6600K 4.2Ghz
Richland 32nm Technology

RAM
Crucial Ballastix 8.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 1600MHz (9-9-10-24)

Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. F2A68HM-HD2 (P0)

Graphics
LG TV (1920x1080@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti Storm X Dual (Palit Microsystems)

PSU
ATX-500B

Scougar · 1 Jul 2015 at 02:12

Honestly... if you have a dedicated card, don't get an apu as you will be paying for the integrated graphics that you won't be using.

Even though I run an 7850k at 4.5ghz, I would recommend going the Intel route to get the best out of games. I5 (k version so you can overclock) is more than enough for gaming.

If you are already invested in your setup then go for it with the 7870k (or the almost identical 7850k), but I think it will be bad value for money in your circumstances.

Btw, Is the 860k fm2+ and pci-e 3.0 as that may be a cheaper option.

pandem0nium · 1 Jul 2015 at 11:43

The issues with the 750ti won't be because it's running in PCIe 2.0, it should be fine. You will probably find the issues will persist after upgrading the apu.

Cromulent · 1 Jul 2015 at 12:43

pandem0nium said:
The issues with the 750ti won't be because it's running in PCIe 2.0, it should be fine. You will probably find the issues will persist after upgrading the apu.

This.

The crashing issues are nothing to do with PCI-E 2.0 / 3.0. All PCI-E 3.0 cards are backwards compatible with PCI-E 2.0.

meldarthx · 2 Jul 2015 at 14:18

could be down to drivers why its unstable. pci 2.0 delivers the same amount of power has pci 3.0 slot does. Technically no difference between the slots themselves.

What drivers are you using; does the 750i need 6 pin? I know some do and some don't; could be not getting enough power from that.

varkanoid · 2 Jul 2015 at 15:18

I think this is your problem!
ATX-500B OEM 500W Power Supply £22.20
Get yourself a decent PSU and save yourself some money! Probably find when you get the new 750W the problem goes away.

pastymuncher · 2 Jul 2015 at 15:45

It also comes up as a pile of junk £13.50 psu. What make and model is this 750w unit you have on the way? Going by the one you have now I hope it's not another cheap one.

Emlyn_Dewar · 2 Jul 2015 at 16:35

Stick with the current CPU, it's decent enough alongside that GPU. Really not worth a full system update.
Decent PSU should sort you out.

joeyjojo · 2 Jul 2015 at 17:04

750 W?? That entire system will use at most 150 W. A 300 W PSU would be perfect.

Idling it probably uses about 50 W. It's incredibly inefficient to use a too-big power supply. I'd recommend a 300-500 W gold PSU (more will mean you can keep it for use with a beefier GPU).

It's not a bad match for light gaming, you could probably even get away with a GPU upgrade before the APU. As others have said the crashing is not because of the PCIe 2/3 difference.

PonderingBear · 2 Jul 2015 at 17:41

meldarthx said:
could be down to drivers why its unstable. pci 2.0 delivers the same amount of power has pci 3.0 slot does. Technically no difference between the slots themselves.

What drivers are you using; does the 750i need 6 pin? I know some do and some don't; could be not getting enough power from that.

Thanks for all your help guys, it's really appreciated.

I have the most current driver for the 750TI, also have DDU'd and re-installed most older versions including beta's, all with no noticeable improvements. 750Ti only uses the PCIe so no extra option for power. I had been told the FM2 socket limits PCIe 2 to 60-70W where as FM2+ PCIe 3 can go to 150W??

I never have liked the current PSU and have always thought itmay be an issue. Had been looking at Seasonic X and Corsair RM 750W until i found this...

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-008-GI

Any thought on a better setup vs price?

Might be able to get everything in one go and sell the AMD bits.

This would only leave a GTX 980Ti to find. Would the Intel bundle + GTX 980Ti be OK with the 750W and increased cooling?

joeyjojo · 2 Jul 2015 at 19:11

PonderingBear said:
750Ti only uses the PCIe so no extra option for power. I had been told the FM2 socket limits PCIe 2 to 60-70W where as FM2+ PCIe 3 can go to 150W??

That's not true. PCIe x16 graphics cards may use 75 W maximum, according to the standard. Nothing to do with the socket or chipset.

The 750 Ti uses 68 W flat out so should be within that. Unless your motherboard is faulty, which is definitely possible.

i7 isn't worth the extra money IMO. i5 is better value.

PonderingBear · 2 Jul 2015 at 19:34

joeyjojo said:
That's not true. PCIe x16 graphics cards may use 75 W maximum, according to the standard. Nothing to do with the socket or chipset.

The 750 Ti uses 68 W flat out so should be within that. Unless your motherboard is faulty, which is definitely possible.

i7 isn't worth the extra money IMO. i5 is better value.

Thanks for clearing the PCIe thing up as it's not something I've covered before..

Regarding i5/i7, I also use Cubase, Pro Tools, Adobe audition, Photoshop and Sony Vegas a lot. Currently on a studio MAC but i need to be able to work on bits at home too. Will the i5 be as capable as the i7 assuming I'll use a minimum of 16GB RAM?

joeyjojo · 2 Jul 2015 at 20:57

PonderingBear said:
Regarding i5/i7, I also use Cubase, Pro Tools, Adobe audition, Photoshop and Sony Vegas a lot. Currently on a studio MAC but i need to be able to work on bits at home too. Will the i5 be as capable as the i7 assuming I'll use a minimum of 16GB RAM?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1260?vs=1261

Best case scenario the i7 is about 15-25% faster thanks to the hyperthreading, assuming you overclock the i5 to match it. For nearly £100 more that's not worth it for most people but you might be able to get close to that with Vegas.

Cubase used to be worse with hyperthreading but it seems recent versions are OK with it as long as you're not doing tons of live tracks.

The others probably won't show much difference.

PonderingBear · 4 Jul 2015 at 17:36

joeyjojo said:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1260?vs=1261

Best case scenario the i7 is about 15-25% faster thanks to the hyperthreading, assuming you overclock the i5 to match it. For nearly £100 more that's not worth it for most people but you might be able to get close to that with Vegas.

Cubase used to be worse with hyperthreading but it seems recent versions are OK with it as long as you're not doing tons of live tracks.

The others probably won't show much difference.

Thanks for the input. Anyone have anything else in mind other than the possible PSU as the cause of the GTX 750Ti crashes running on the AMD?

meldarthx · 6 Jul 2015 at 11:44

Honestly I'd look at the PSU - sounds like not enough clean power going through

Scougar · 7 Jul 2015 at 02:12

I will completely admit that I just accepted the lack of power from the socket thing... silly me.

Anywho.. have you received the new PSU yet?

As for clues, look in the 'event viewer' to try and find out what's going on with your system. (it contains logs of crashes etc).

PonderingBear · 12 Jul 2015 at 10:55

Update - new PSU Seasonic 750W M12 mk2 bronze evo edition. Gigabyte Z97X-SLI board & i5-4690K.

PC runs fine on integrated graphics. As soon as I install the 750Ti and drivers of any kind (new or old) screen will randomly freeze solid. Left PC to see if it would reset itself. Hard reset button won't work, only option is to hold power off.

I'll run without the GTX and get the dump file to post here as I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

PonderingBear · 12 Jul 2015 at 14:10

Well after much hair pulling and downtime I managed to figure out the freezing issue. It's been my wifi card all along. TP link TL-WN851ND. What an utter pile of rubbish which now resides in the waste bin. I'll never use another TP link part ever again.

Went through the many fixes people have tried to get this to work on Win 8.1 but none were 100%. Suffice to say I'm looking for something to replace it (wired network not an option at the moment due to location). Any recommendations?

Scougar · 13 Jul 2015 at 04:05

Sounds like a malfunctioning part. I have never had an issue with a TP Link device.... I'm writing this on one now.

Glad you found the issue :-)

p.s. PSU should last you a good while.