So you've tested an overclockable chip focused on graphics in a non-overclocked state against an unoverclockable chip focused on CPU power?

The integrated graphics results are interesting, but the rest of the article doesn't seem to have been thought through very well.

For me the most interesting comparison would have been against the other GPU focused £90-100 options. i.e. a £30-40 Haswell/Skylake Celeron or Pentium and a £60 GT 730 GDDR5. How much CPU performance, if any, do you lose? How do the graphics compare?

EndlessWaves
So you've tested an overclockable chip focused on graphics in a non-overclocked state against an unoverclockable chip focused on CPU power?

They have compared chips from different companies that come in at a similar price point. Both chips have IGP and multiple cores.

You're over-thinking the purpose of the article.

The memory frequency is a weird one. My MSI mobo says it will only support 2133mhz, however the board and the 7870k actually support 2400mhz (which is currently running perfectly as I'm typing). The memory is limited via BIOS. I flashed my BIOS and could no longer run at 2400mhz so I quickly rolled back and re-gained performance.

Would have liked to have seen some overclocked figures especially with the new heat sink and fan. Every CPU I buy normally includes a £15-£20 cooler by default.

I could love to see some applications performance in those reviews, like how the CPU can handle photoshop and other pro apps.

who needs extra single core performance? AMD A10-7860 Rules, those extra FPS are what consumers on a budget need.

lumireleon
who needs extra single core performance? AMD A10-7860 Rules, those extra FPS are what consumers on a budget need.

By the looks of the few benchmarks that have turned up, the Athlon X4 845 has quite a bit of extra single core performance. I look forward to seeing what the socket AM4 version of Carrizo can do!

I feel like I'm missing out after buying the 7850k a couple weeks back :/

Testing games in 720p would be more revealing for integrated graphics.

the major problem with AMD is the confusing chipsets and sockets

Can we please have a review of the 845? A review comparing equivalent priced systems would be interesting as well - say £200 worth of motherboard, ram, cpu (and GPU if the budget can fit it) from intel and AMD, then see who comes out on top, since intel motherboards are frequently more expensive than AMD ones

ETA: A88 boards go for £40ish, while Z170 boards like the one used start at £80ish

darcotech
Testing games in 720p would be more revealing for integrated graphics.

I feel the same, not sure many people would play the latest games at 1080p on integrated graphics? Much more likely to have a cheaper monitor or adjust resolution down.

It would have been nice to see some info on temperatures as well, unless I'm being really stupid I couldn't see any mention of it.

Sprite
I feel the same, not sure many people would play the latest games at 1080p on integrated graphics? Much more likely to have a cheaper monitor or adjust resolution down.

I'm not so sure - I tend to think people gaming on intergrated graphics are ones just gaming on the PC out of the box with no fiddling with things, and as such, are probably quite high in number. So it'll be whatever resolution is native to their monitor. True, there are still some 720p displays out there, but I think most people buy 1080p now. (Steam hardware survey might be quite useful here).

It would have been nice to see some info on temperatures as well, unless I'm being really stupid I couldn't see any mention of it.

Good point, but you can see power usage, which equates to the same thing ultimately.

kalniel
Good point, but you can see power usage, which equates to the same thing ultimately.

Kind of, but as we have seen with recent Intel chips, poor quality TIM under the heatspreader can affect the transfer of heat to the cooler. Realistically this is only a significant issue if you are overclocking or constructing in an environment that can be starved of airflow (ITX cases for example) but the construction of the chip package can play a factor into the temperature as a separate variable to the power usage.

kalniel
I'm not so sure - I tend to think people gaming on intergrated graphics are ones just gaming on the PC out of the box with no fiddling with things, and as such, are probably quite high in number. So it'll be whatever resolution is native to their monitor. True, there are still some 720p displays out there, but I think most people buy 1080p now. (Steam hardware survey might be quite useful here).

Good point, but you can see power usage, which equates to the same thing ultimately.

I would argue that with many games also have an automatic “best settings” thing you can activate,which probably drop the resolution and settings. I think a lower resolution setting will be a useful data point./

CAT-THE-FIFTH
I would argue that with many games also have an automatic “best settings” thing you can activate,which probably drop the resolution and settings. I think a lower resolution setting will be a useful data point./

That's true actually - fair point. The plug it and play drivers from AMD and nVidia both contain ‘optimisation’ features these days - I presume activated by default/easily? I've not gone near them so don't know.

kalniel
That's true actually - fair point. The plug it and play drivers from AMD and nVidia both contain ‘optimisation’ features these days - I presume activated by default/easily? I've not gone near them so don't know.

That and games do have auto-detect settings too.

the quality of the bundled coolers will have a much bigger effect on temperatures, and the new AMD cooler looks a lot more promising than the extruded intel tat. Noise level measurements would be nice also, as you normally do for GPU tests

I have recently built a dual core AMD APU system for my missus…. and it's very good all round VFM build.

I think that these AMD cpu's are going to be a great upgrade route for people like myself who have already got one and now would like Quad and more GPU power :)

If however it's a new build then Intel pretty much stonk it unless you're playing older games with no discreet card…..
hey… that's my wife too.

The market for this with default cooler is, frankly, realistic. Yes I could spend £20 on a new cooler… or spend the £20 on a better cpu to start with.

Zak33
I have recently built a dual core AMD APU system for my missus…. and it's very good all round VFM build.

I think that these AMD cpu's are going to be a great upgrade route for people like myself who have already got one and now would like Quad and more GPU power :)

If however it's a new build then Intel pretty much stonk it unless you're playing older games with no discreet card…..
hey… that's my wife too.

The market for this with default cooler is, frankly, realistic. Yes I could spend £20 on a new cooler… or spend the £20 on a better cpu to start with.

But if the overall performance in the tasks relevant to the usage of the device is comparable, would the bundled cooler impact your decision? (for me it would)

Biscuit
But if the overall performance in the tasks relevant to the usage of the device is comparable, would the bundled cooler impact your decision? (for me it would)

it is was good enough it would be fine and it's part of the choice.

Example: this little A4 5300 Dual core at 3.4 on default cooler is near silent and therefore it's “cost” is real in the review sense.

but some of the AMD stuff is under heat-sinked (Octa springs to mind) and then the £20 upgrade required is paramount on a budget system which we are on this subject really I think