Review: AMD A10-5700

Thoughts and rating

AMD's second-generation APUs, codenamed Trinity, pack an awful lot of processing power into a single chip. The one clear downside of providing four CPU cores and class-leading integrated graphics in one package is undesirable under-load power-draw, especially when the APU is pushed to the limit. This is the main reason why we're not huge fans of the A10-5800K and A8-5600K; their 100W rating makes them unsuitable for small form factor, ultra-quiet builds that they're otherwise ideally suited for.

The A10-5700, meanwhile, fits between these two K-class chips with respect to CPU and GPU performance, which remains excellent, yet drops overall power consumption far closer to levels exhibited by price-comparable Intel chips. In fact, our test AMD platform is noticeably quieter when swapping out the 100W APUs for this 65W model.

Users wanting a solid foundation for a capable PC simply need to add a £50 motherboard and £40 quality DDR3-2,133 memory, bringing the backbone outlay to below £200, while still keeping an option open for Dual Graphics or a performance discrete GPU.

Perhaps labouring a point too far, AMD's latest APUs make a lot more sense when equipped with a 65W TDP; the lower noise, power, and heat makes a manifest difference in small chassis. The A10-5700 is the best of this energy-efficient brigade, clearly, and can be recommended as such.

The Good

The Bad

Being critical, FM2 architecture requires new motherboard

HEXUS Rating

AMD A10-5700

HEXUS Awards

AMD A10-5700

HEXUS Where2Buy

The AMD A10-5700 can be purchased from Scan Computers.*

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