What makes more sense? Since gaming was mentioned, a dedicated GPU always, even for light gaming and MMOs like you say. How many people upgraded their cards for the WoW update? A lot.
An APU based system is NOT much cheaper than a system based on an Athlon II and even many PhenomII are also substantially chepaer. Intel's cheap Pentium line from what I can see and something like G840 is still faster in most everyday tasks, except on number crunching things like video conversion and the like and it's $50 cheaper. With little more you can get a decent dedicated card that is much better than Llano iGPU, MUCH better, we are not talking about a few percents here we are talking about 3x faster. Something that can actually play games.
Again you are describing a very limited situation in which you pretend that X number of games can be played. But what about Conan MMO (don't remember the name) for example? You need a fast GPU and like that there's many many others. What about SWTOR? Llano just does not handle it period. It's a complete falacy to say that a Llano GPU will handle MMOs or games in general and SB can't do it. Old games both can handle them more or less right, in general (Llano is 1.5-2x faster not 10x faster). About newer games, neither handle most of games, and the fact that Llano can play some more games, does not make it any more suitable for gaming, unless you know exactly which games are going to be played and those are indeed handled. Like I said a very limited situation that affects a very very limited amount of people. In best case it's a complete gamble: knowing if a certain game will be handled by the 2-3 year old mid-range GPU (i.e. HD5770) of his son's PC is already difficult for most parents, it's a completely ridiculos task to know that with something like a Llano iGPU (actually no lol, you can assume that it won't and be right 95% of times). It is NOT a gaming solution, far from it, so any judgement based on that assumption is just flawed.
It's simple if you don't want to game, any iGPU will do it, choose the best CPU as CPU is what is going to give you the best results. You want to game with at least a little security of being able to play any game that you/your children will play in the next couple years? Dedicated GPU, always. Like I said any $80 dedicated GPU crushes LLano. I would agree to the general usefulness of APUs if they didn't cost on average $40 more than similar performing Pentium, Athlon II's and the like. But they do cost more so it's easy, gaming involved in any form, dedicated GPU, pay $40 more than you would with Llano, knowing you are getting 3x more GPU performance, 5x if you go for aftermarket cards like HD4870, GTS250 and the like which I've seen selling for $50.
EDIT: And about heterogeneous computing. When AMD trully integrates CPU and GPU, then let's talk about it. Until then it's more than proven that a dedicated GPU is much faster than integrated GPU, because Llano and Trinity (and SB) are nothing but separate entities slapped together. If heterogeneous computing takes off, once again dediceted GPU >>>>>>>> iGPU. And video conversion, by far the most common of heavy duty tasks performed by the average joe is much faster on dedicated hardware like Quicksyic or the thingy that GTX680 has anyway.
"llano can't handle swtor?" seriously? you're joking me. I have two coworkers with llano laptops who play swtor on them all the time and play on high settings at 720p. I beleive you aren't looking at things from the perspective of normal (i.e. not enthusiasts / eyecandy-obsessed / hardcore gamer) people, who have no issue whatsoever at playing at lowered settings.
My point is that an average person won't be just gaming, perhaps their kid will be playing games, and they will want to use the same computer for multitasking. Unless I'm incorrect, even though it's not going to be faster for each individual application, through multitasking, say running an antivirus, all the bloatware that comes with an average PC, a few browser tabs, and say a media player at the same time is what I know "normal" people to do. And if they play a game, they'll leave most of it running too. So real world experience isn't going to be that much difference.
And I am thinking more along what you'll find in an OEM route. They're unlikely to have in a retail model a discrete GPU in a sub $600 PC. They'll be running whatever integrated graphics come with it. Wherein an AMD APU has an advantage over an Intel processor in the same price range for an average user.
While it is true that say, a discrete radeon HD 6750m (6670)will be about 75% faster on the GPU end, you should also remember this is adding another 30-50w to the heat in the computer and power drain on a battery in a laptop. And if you want more performance, you have the dual graphics option, which pushes it again at a higher graphics level than say a dedicated CPU and discrete GPU of the same price bracket.
Honestly, go into say, bestbuy and see how many laptops in the sub-$600 bracket can actually run newer games. The only ones which can even play say, Crysis on lowered settings are the Llano-based laptops.
If you can find a new laptop in retail with a discrete GPU than is in Llano with 5-6 hours battery life, and is as fast or faster CPU-wise when all cores are in use, then let me know. Sure any $80 desktop GPU is going to be better in most cases in a desktop, in small form factor desktops and in laptops the AMD APU will generally be a better low budget solution.
Am I wrong?
here's the newegg list;
PCs & Laptops, Laptops / Notebooks, Intel Core Du...
and Bestbuy intel laptops at $500-600
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemp...id&list=y&iht=n&st=processingtime:>1900-01-01
and A8 powered in the same price range:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemp...id&list=y&iht=n&st=processingtime:>1900-01-01
Have fun trying to even run a game on those intel PC's.
Shall I list the retail desktops too?
newegg:
PCs & Laptops, Desktop PCs, Pentium D, Core 2 Duo...
So yeah. Have fun finding an OEM build one with such a setup.
Also, I'm just pointing out that is AMD's strategy, calling every bit of this a fail is certainly nothing but hate in my opinion. AMD showing an overall 15-30% increase in performance is getting called a complete failure, when that is a significant increase given that this is still on a 32nm node. And like before, I say take AMD's statements with salt, however I do expect it will increase performance to at least some extent.
Honestly, I know that Intel gives a better price / performance CPU-wise, especially on higher end builds. However, that doesn't mean that with the way that computing is going, especially in a budget-retail-light user end, where graphics acceleration is becoming more common, light gaming is becoming more common, and bloatware is becoming more and more rampant, AMD has if nothing else, a means to compete.
And I'm hoping, and I believe for the sake for competition, you should at least hope that AMD delivers on it's claimed performance gains. A leap of perfomance / watt of that high, if they keep their costs as they are right now, will be significant and give them an edge in lower end builds, and would be the first iGPU to give decent enough performance levels to consider for a budget gaming PC over say, that pentium + 6670, as the GPU performance would only be 10-20% lower, and CPU performance would not only be superior for multi-thread, but for real life use, and single thread wouldn't be nearly as horribly trounced by the pentium.
That is of course, if AMD delivers on their statements, which I do hope they do.
Oh, and Trinity is expected to incorperate a competitor for quicksync, I belive it's called VCE. Which is already in the discrete Radeon HD 7000 series GPUs.
but I would pay $700 for a laptop instead of $600 if that is going to offer me a real gaming experience. These people who want to buy cheap PCs with crappy graphics and expect to be able to play something, is the same people as always. Uneducated people who can't understand that on PC gaming a measly extra $50 is the difference between playable and blurslideshow. The answer for this people is to teach them, not APUs. APUs just make it worse.