AMD A10-7850K (sorry for brainfart, edited now)

[Orca Flotta]

Hey guys, I'm planning to build myself a smallish computer just for SL use. Also I don't wanna spend much on it, so I thought about using one of those newfangled AMD APUs and get rid of the dedicated Graphics card. Most reviewers found the gaming experience really satisfying, even with the newest games played on high  resolution. Now we all know that SL just ain't any game but is more demanding and particularly needs good Open GL power. And I have no clue if a APU like AMD A10-7850K will deliver what it needs to get a satisfying viewing in SL.

Anyone already using an APU to play in SL? What you think about it? Please lemme know. Thx ;)

 

[Jean Horten]

Planning to use windows and low grapics settings?

J.

[Orca Flotta]

LOL! Nooooo, Jeanie, you know I'd never go back to Windows. When I saw a 

about this APU, he sounded very pleasantly surprised. These things are quite capable performers. Now I know as well as anybody that SL isn't a »game« like all the others so I'm asking here. I know you don't like AMD graphics but as it so happens none of the normal AMD CPUs fits on a mini ITC board. And if the graphics aren't good enough I figure  I can always just add a good NVIDIA card. My question was only about what I can expect in terms of playability straight outta the box.

The other day we had a thread here about a resi playing SL on a chromebook! :smileysurprised: And the graphics actually looked quite tasty. So I figured again that maybe one doesn't need the super most high powered GPU to get satisfying results.

You know I fell in love with the CM Elite 130 case and desperately try to fit an AMD proci in. Also I must mention I'm almost always broke so I'm building my dream pc on a veeeeeeeeeeeeery tiiiiight budget.

 

[Jean Horten]

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Orca Flotta wrote:

LOL! Nooooo, Jeanie, you know I'd never go back to Windows. When I saw a 

about this APU, he sounded very pleasantly surprised. These things are quite capable performers. Now I know as well as anybody that SL isn't a »game« like all the others so I'm asking here. I know you don't like AMD graphics but as it so happens none of the normal AMD CPUs fits on a mini ITC board. And if the graphics aren't good enough I figure  I can always just add a good NVIDIA card. My question was only about what I can expect in terms of playability straight outta the box.

The other day we had a thread here about a resi playing SL on a chromebook! :smileysurprised: And the graphics actually looked quite tasty. So I figured again that maybe one doesn't need the super most high powered GPU to get satisfying results.

You know I fell in love with the CM Elite 130 case and desperately try to fit an AMD proci in. Also I must mention I'm almost always broke so I'm building my dream pc on a veeeeeeeeeeeeery tiiiiight budget.

 

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Well, the problem is actually AMD. Their proprietary linux drivers are so bad  that they are not even available anymore in Arch linux, the devs removed them due to being dysfunctional. The free drivers limit the gpu performace, so your apu will perform even worse and AMD usually lags  before they adopt to changes in Linux. After xorg 1.16 came out, it took them several months to deliver a working driver for it.

So prepare for fps <20 on low and around 10-15 on mid graphics settings on that apu with free drivers (if they work at all).

If you plan to add a nvidia gpu later, why go for an apu anyway? You spend a lot more for an apu than for a cpu plus: mitx cases require special gpus which limits the choice of available cards considerably plus: these small cases will heat up very fast when you run sl on teh GPU, so expect overheating issues or a noise simila to a starting jet airplane.

Regarding 'chromebooks', I wonder what that guy used to access sl, as ChromeOS is not supported by any viewer.

Maybe it was a 'rooted' Chromebook running android and the lumiya 'viewer' which is rather low on system performance or that person simply lied.

Regarding that video: Battlefield4 is 'mantle' enabled, meaning that it's specially hokked up with that APU. There is no mantle support for SecondLife and I doubt it will ever be available.

J.

Edit: I found a test of the A10 7850K at Phoronix. It performs almost as 'good' as a 4 year old low perf Nvidia GT 240.

[Genesis Montagne]

I know this is an older post but as someone who has used an A10-4600 APU powered laptop to play SL I felt I needed to pipe up. I was regularly able to get very playable framerates using my laptop in "High" and even occassionally higher settings with shadows enabled. Of course much of this has to do with how capable you are with tweaking your graphics settings. Remember that draw distance is ALWAYS a major killer of performance. I find that if I maintain my draw distance at 88 meters for general use you can use one of these A10's with shadows enabled quite comfortably.  There are other tweaks people should use to make their experience a better one. Here is a post by me outlining the settings I use to get nice stable performance in Ultra from one of my more powerful systems. The same principles can be applied to any system to help improve SL performance.

Of course you are always able to increase draw distance in calmer environments or when taking photographs and it will work reasonably well in those circumstances for short time periods.

Sadly, one area I can't give you advice on is the state of AMD drivers on Linux as the laptop I mention above came preinstalled with Windows 8 and was upgraded to 8.1 by myself. I know in the past AMD drivers were less than efficient for OpenGL based software like SL on the Windows platform but I would say if they are at least "decent" the power of these little chips are impressive and make for a very enjoyable SL experience.

Good luck to you on your purchase!