Who would pair an A8 with a GT 460?

[migo]

I'm starting to go through reviews of various processors, GPUs and the like as I'm trying to decide what to do for my next computer, and I ran into something that completely stumped me.

In 2 seperate reviews of AMD A8 vs Intel Core i3 (A8-3850 vs i3-2100 and A8-3870K vs i3-2120), the reviewers did the benchmarks using GeForce GT 430 and 460 GPUs. Now to me that's completely illogical, at least on the AMD side. I figure if anyone is going to buy an A8 and drop in a discreet GPU, they'd get a Radeon HD 6670 or maye a 6570 to take advantage of CrossFire.

I'm not suggesting the reviewers are out to sabotage AMD, perhaps they only have a Radeon HD 5850 or 6850 kicking around that couldn't take advantage of CrossFire, or the GT 430 and 460 are really common cards that surveys have shown almost everyone has, but realistically you need to get a new motherboard to use the A8 anyway, and if you're building a system with an A8, your last one is probably so old that there aren't any parts worth taking over into it.

I'd like to be seeing reviews of the A8 with HD 6670 or 6570 up against the Core i3 either with the same Radeon cards, or if a Core i3 with GT 430/460 performs better than a Core i3 with a Radeon, then compare that way as well (the i3 seems to usually be about $10-$15 cheaper than the A8, so a $10-$15 more expensive discreet card paired with it would make sense too).

So with that minor rant aside, any reviews of the A8 vs i3 properly pairing the A8 with a 6670? So I can compare performance in a realistic fashion?

[Mr. Gibs]

I figure if anyone is going to buy an A8 and drop in a discreet GPU, they'd get a Radeon HD 6670 or maye a 6570 to take advantage of CrossFire.

You need an AMD processor to take advantage of crossfire? Since when?

[notuptome2004]

You need an AMD processor to take advantage of crossfire? Since when?

the Fact the A8 CPU is an APU and has Radeon graphics built in means you can do Crossfire i think

[Arceles]

Actually APUs are quite enjoyable, simply because of the ability to overclock very high. For example you can see my signature, at 3.0 Ghz I can use the pscx2 emulator for Devil may Cry 2 and 3, using my dGPU is very easy to add eye candy like higher resolution (I play on 1366x768) and better contrast and brightness using the shadder boost options.

In my current config I can beat i5s (mobiles) but not i7s, but for 600 euro way back then... it's just great.

[HawkMan]

You need an AMD processor to take advantage of crossfire? Since when?

The AMD APUs I believe allows you to link the built in gpu with an adding card that results in a total graphics package equal to a another step up compared to the addon card.

[Invizibleyez]

I know i saw this posted somewhere... I will keep my eyes open.

Yes, the AMD A8 APU has a built in graphics chip which can be used in hybrid crossfire (I think thats what it's called) with a discrete graphics card. I do not remember if it was limited to just AMD cards or not, being that it is Hybrid crossfire.

[migo]

Yeah, just AMD cards, Radeon HD 6450, 6570 and 6670 only (presumably because the 6650D in the A8 is a 128-bit memory interface GPU like the aforementioned models).

[123456789A]

That's a strange pair.

GT 460

A8

[Site Lab]

BF3 running with A8 and 6670

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAV4zxvDgvE GTA 4

Crysis

As you can see from these videos the gaming is really smooth for what is seen as quite a cheap gaming rig :)

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4476/amd-a83850-review/6 Benchmarks of the APU + Various GPU's in crossfire.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/21208/15 APU with 6670 in crossfire along with i3...

Acording to this A8-3850 with 6670 crossfire has 5fps lower than the same CPU with a 6990 in BC2..... (Even the intregated GPU is decent)

Civilization V - 43fps

Starcraft 2 - 52fps (i3 gets 10fps more...)

Portal 2 - 85fps (same as i3)

[Jose_49]

The advantage of the A8 over the i3 is the quad core CPU which will be taken advantage of in the time to come.

[migo]

I dunno, the HT in the i3 seems to be a big deal as well.

It also seems from the benchmarks that an i3 + 6670 is roughly the same performance as an A8 + 6670, so the Hybrid Crossfire is at best making up for the CPU deficiency of the A8 compared to the i3. Makes sense if you're getting an A8 now to be very cheap and then get a GPU later, but going for it from the start... no huge advantage.

[Arceles]

I dunno, the HT in the i3 seems to be a big deal as well.

It also seems from the benchmarks that an i3 + 6670 is roughly the same performance as an A8 + 6670, so the Hybrid Crossfire is at best making up for the CPU deficiency of the A8 compared to the i3. Makes sense if you're getting an A8 now to be very cheap and then get a GPU later, but going for it from the start... no huge advantage.

Price plus overclocking capabilities.

[migo]

The 3870k yeah has the overclocking potential, but it costs more than the 2120, and the higher power draw has a good chance, particularly if you're overclocking, of requiring a beefier PSU. At that point I'd start to wonder if it isn't just worth springing for an i5.

[Arceles]

The 3870k yeah has the overclocking potential, but it costs more than the 2120, and the higher power draw has a good chance, particularly if you're overclocking, of requiring a beefier PSU. At that point I'd start to wonder if it isn't just worth springing for an i5.

All APUs can be overclocked, those with K can overclock beyond any limit, while the others only overclock up to certain frequency, for example in my case I can overclock up to 4.0 Ghz... but that's simply too much for my laptop. (Voltage is also limited while in the K version is not)