Do the new AMD APU's play well in SL?

[Michael Tempel]

Been brainstorming a new PC to build lately. So i wanted to take in consideration  of SL into the build and  the AMD A10-7850K  is really appealing as an all in one  cpu/gpu  processor,  as to compare me building a intel CPU / nvidia GPU counter build. Price on the APU adds up to be about 75$/75$ if i look at the split costs. i know this APU runs  1080p on some  latest game titles  BF4 stuff like that at 40FPS/high settings with 8 gb of DDR3 1866 Ram (deminishing returns for ram of higher clock speeds).

  last time i discussed an AMD Grpahics based PC was when a friend of mine with a Radeon 5870 was having shadow glitching  and mesh wasnt rezzing in right.  On the other hand i do know somone running a HD6450 that has no issues with SL, in fact theirs performs better than my nvidia GT610 rig(i get allot of crashing due to  memory  running out issues even though its a 1gb card) so I want to know if anyone is running a AMD apu, even the lower end ones  if it runs ok for you in SL.

[Drew Bhalti]

It's not hte hardware that is the issue,  they make good hardware.   it's the drivers, they for some reason have never had a good driver set that has worked awesome with SL.   will it work sure, but you might experience issues along the way.   SL is basically a Nvidia driven stepchild.  so with that. go ahead and see how the amd works for you,  just adjust adjust adjust until you can get the querks kicked out of it.

[Velveeta Zerbino]

Yes they do fine, but of course, this is a new generation of integrated graphics. I have an a10-6800k, it comes with an 8670d and is not really a slouch for an integrated solution. The one you mentioned comes with an R7 250(much better than the 8670d) I believe. They will perform fine at mid range and may even do shadows for you on non-crowded sims. Heat is really an issue with the APUs. They do come with cooling fans but they are marginal at best. If you get a better cooler you should be ok until you decide you want a dedicated graphics card. 

The benchmarks are for games in DirectX and I can tell you with crossifre enabled with a compatable card, the APU is an amazing creature for non-openGL games. I had mine crossfired with a dedicated R7 250 LP .

I didn't have disappointing results  with just an APU in SL,but I didn't push the hardware trying to make it do what I knew it probably couldn't. Eventually I got one of the new gtx 750 ti's by Nvidia, solid little low power card and no complaints. 

[Orca Flotta]

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Michael Tempel wrote:

performs better than my nvidia GT610 rig

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Of course it does! Everything runs better than a GT610! That's Nvidia's lowest of the low GPU. Heck, I guess even an Intel onboard chip is better.

The AMD A10-7850K is a marvellous chip but that's for games. Even the latest and hardest games are optimised and easier on your GPU than SL. I doubt you'll get much joy from that AMD chip in SL. But don't fret, even if you've wasted some money on that APU you can always add a decent Nvidia card later on shouldn't you be satisfied.

I'm playing with the thought of going the same route in my next build.

 

[SaraCarena]

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Velveeta Zerbino wrote:

 Heat is really an issue with the APUs.

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That doesnt seem to get mentioned in reviews I`ve read but imagine it would be.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

I have a new computer with an AMD Radeon R9 270X 2GB card and it runs SL graphics beautifully at the ultra high setting with all the bells and whistles enabled.  I didn't have to do a thing and had no driver issues.  This card supports both DirectX and Open GL.

I looked up AMD A10-7850K chips on the AMD website and it said it used AMD R7 brand graphics which also supports both DirectX and Open GL. 

[Orca Flotta]

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Amethyst Jetaime wrote:

I looked up AMD A10-7850K chips on the AMD website and it said it used AMD R7 brand graphics which also supports both DirectX and Open GL. 

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Ok, that sounds great. Guess I'm gonna switch from the Intel/Nvidia camp to AMD in my next build. Will save some serious dough and see how it goes. If it turns out sub-optimal I can always add a nice beefy Nvidia card. Or wait for the next gen of APUs with R9 graphics. 

[Velveeta Zerbino]

AMD chips run hot naturally, but pushing them with graphics combined can really heat them up, I will admit mine never wandered into the danger zone for heat, but I replaced the cooler to be on the safe side and it was a worthwhile upgrade.