Reviews - AMD's Kaveri APU examined

[HEXUS]

We take a peek at the under-the-hood improvements.

Read more.

[ColinP]

Argh. I was patiently clicking through the pages, refusing to go the the conclusion at the end as I usually do... and then there wasn't actually a review after all!

[cptwhite_uk]

TechReport have a review up Colin for one of the mid-range APU's I'm sure Hexus will have it up soon enough

[flufflogic]

AnandTech have a good in-depth review, and seem really impressed. Dabs also have prices listed, and as expected it's 7850k at £130 and 7700 at £115, each bundled with Battlefield 4.

Now just waiting on a review where they pair it with an R9 dedicated GPU (probably the 270x I'd think, as it's the more mid-range offering) to see what the performance boost is like...

[Scow Captain]

It's odd that the likes of PCPer and Techreport received a system with an A8-7600 from AMD (release date some time in Q1). However, they didn't receive either of the two higher-end A10 chips that do get released today.

Anandtech did receive all the parts though so it's a good place to go for a comparison.

The A8-7600 looks like it'll make a very sweet media PC.

[Roobubba]

"35% of steam gamers use slower graphics than A10-7850K"

AKA

"65% of steam gamers already have faster graphics than our new chip, whose USP is graphics"

I wish they'd stop trying to aim this at gamers. Gamers use graphics cards because games require far more graphics processing power than an 'APU' can provide. Just give us processors that can compete with Intel's high end, please.

Now, sure for media boxes these APUs certainly have a place, but they are putting their marketing in the wrong place, I think.

[Bakashinji]

"35% of steam gamers use slower graphics than A10-7850K"

AKA

"65% of steam gamers already have faster graphics than our new chip, whose USP is graphics"

I wish they'd stop trying to aim this at gamers. Gamers use graphics cards because games require far more graphics processing power than an 'APU' can provide. Just give us processors that can compete with Intel's high end, please.

Now, sure for media boxes these APUs certainly have a place, but they are putting their marketing in the wrong place, I think.

As far as i can tell, a load of steam users still play games on their Intel graphics laptops. So i can see why AMD have stated that fact, I agree that most hardcore gamers use dedicated cards that are higher spec for running for eg Battlefield 4, Crysis 3 to name a couple of serious games. But not everyone wants to play those sorts of games, there is a huge casual gaming market around on steam that people still are happy just playing a game for an hour here or there on a cheap budget laptop with low settings. APU's are perfect for those who dont want to play games with all the bells and whistles on ultra. It all comes down to budget and your own personal choice's.. if you want a budget steambox or a sff setup that you can hide in your livingroom somewhere. The new AMD apu range is a perfect choice, you can always add a dedicated gpu at a later stage if you need too.

[kalniel]

Problem is, the casual gaming market makes do fine with intels inbuilt GPUs as it's all 2D based stuff, while as you say, the enthusiast gamer could really do with a bit more umph. The APU hits a sort of no-mans land in the middle.

[Terbinator]

Problem is, the casual gaming market makes do fine with intels inbuilt GPUs as it's all 2D based stuff, while as you say, the enthusiast gamer could really do with a bit more umph. The APU hits a sort of no-mans land in the middle.

This no mans land exists but it also isn't investigated by sites either. None of the reviews cover Dota 2 or LoL yet they're arguably the biggest games at the minute, not to mention the former essentially being a tent pole of the Steam Machine. Torchlight is covered by Hardware Canucks but otherwise it's a mismatch of games and questionable settings across all outlets.

[Dooms]

They are looking good for media PC's but AMD need more mITX boards that are actually good.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The A8 7600 does look good at around £90.

This no mans land exists but it also isn't investigated by sites either. None of the reviews cover Dota 2 or LoL yet they're arguably the biggest games at the minute, not to mention the former essentially being a tent pole of the Steam Machine. Torchlight is covered by Hardware Canucks but otherwise it's a mismatch of games and questionable settings across all outlets.

http://www.hardware.fr/medias/photos...IMG0043838.png

Problem is, the casual gaming market makes do fine with intels inbuilt GPUs as it's all 2D based stuff, while as you say, the enthusiast gamer could really do with a bit more umph. The APU hits a sort of no-mans land in the middle.

An A8 5600K costs £64 though and that is Pentium dual core money. The Pentium dual cores have worse IGPs than the Core i3 CPUs too,and the A8 is probably faster than the Core i3 too.

Another factor is the Intel drivers. Both AMD and Nvidia have their own problems,so I could imagine Intel is somewhat worse off in this regard.

It will be interesting to see how the single module A4 and A6 Kaveri CPUs perform like though.

[scaryjim]

... The APU hits a sort of no-mans land in the middle.

Strikes me they're ideal for computers for children/teenagers. How many families get a "family" computer only for the kids to take it over wanting to play games? Or how many hardware enthusiasts have kids now? And can afford a high end gaming rig for their kids who want to join in with mum/dad's hobby? A 45W or 65W Kaveri would hit a real sweet spot for that, at very reasonable cost. I reckon there's probably a lot of multi-PC homes out there now, and Kaveri would slot in nicely as a second/third PC in the house.

And it looks like when the mobile parts come out you can now get a cheapish laptop with genuine gaming credentials (particular on those nasty 1366x768 panels they insist on using). Which, lets be honest, looks very much like the target market for Kaveri...

[MustardCutter]

Kaveri could be used to make some pretty tastey performing gaming laptops for reasonable money.

[DanceswithUnix]

Strikes me they're ideal for computers for children/teenagers. How many families get a "family" computer only for the kids to take it over wanting to play games? Or how many hardware enthusiasts have kids now? And can afford a high end gaming rig for their kids who want to join in with mum/dad's hobby? A 45W or 65W Kaveri would hit a real sweet spot for that, at very reasonable cost. I reckon there's probably a lot of multi-PC homes out there now, and Kaveri would slot in nicely as a second/third PC in the house.

And it looks like when the mobile parts come out you can now get a cheapish laptop with genuine gaming credentials (particular on those nasty 1366x768 panels they insist on using). Which, lets be honest, looks very much like the target market for Kaveri...

Well Trinity made an excellent machine for my 8 year old daughter using the built in graphics.

It needs to play Minecraft, WoW, some flash based web games and that abomination called Roblox at 1080p which it does with the built in graphics well enough for her.

[robkewley]

The large range of itx board available for Kaveri, compared to the AM3+ offerings is what really sells this to me for my next build. Just waiting to see how this crossfires, though small and silent is what I really want.

[kalniel]

An A8 5600K costs £64 though and that is Pentium dual core money. The Pentium dual cores have worse IGPs than the Core i3 CPUs too,and the A8 is probably faster than the Core i3 too.

Strikes me they're ideal for computers for children/teenagers. How many families get a "family" computer only for the kids to take it over wanting to play games? Or how many hardware enthusiasts have kids now? And can afford a high end gaming rig for their kids who want to join in with mum/dad's hobby? A 45W or 65W Kaveri would hit a real sweet spot for that, at very reasonable cost.

Both of these points are saying AMD wins the value argument - which I'd completely agree with. But that's not what AMD were trying to say when they say things like 'better at gaming than x % of steam computers'. From a gaming point of view you still either go discreet or could be fine with something from Intel. So while it's definitely laudable that they've got such good gaming performance, it's either not enough, or it's too much, at the moment.