AMD Elite A-Series A10-6800K APU (Socket FM2)

[tacosRcool]

Awesome!

 

[drdeathx]

No, it doesn't.

The 6800k is slightly faster (10-15%), and costs about equally more.

Well, all I know is that if I were building a system, it would have a 2500k, not a 6800k.. unless I needed something really small that could only house an APU.

Your wrong. I did a head to head 5800K vs 3220K and the 5800K beats the 3220, Seeing the 6800K is 10-15% faster than the 5800k, the 6800K will own the 3220.

 

[a_ump]

well done on the effort and all the info...but no comparison to intel? would've been much easier to see the info there than go back and forth between reviews

 

[TRWOV]

Which is the comparable discrete GPU ?

6570 DDR3 more or less

 

[Ravenas]

Great product from AMD for a sector of the market that desires performance on a budget (i.e.; the business sector).

Can you explain to me the justification for running the AIDA memory benchmarks?

 

[bear jesus]

I was hoping the A10-6700 would support 2133 MHz by default but now i am left wondering if the extra heat produced by an A10-6800 would be worth the faster memory as a major reason i bought a second APU is low heat summer gaming.

The overclocking results make me wonder if i would be better off with an A10-6800 and a set of 2400 MHz RAM, although an 1866 MHz or 2133 MHz set i would get are 1.5v and the 2400 MHz sets are 1.65v thus i assume higher heat output from the memory its self and possibly the memory controller but i have no clue if it would be anything more than a minor increase.


Am i over thinking the difference in heat output between an A10-6700 with 1.5v 1866 MHz RAM and an A10-6800 with 1.5v 2133 MHz or 1.65v 2400 MHz RAM?
Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[drdeathx]

well done on the effort and all the info...but no comparison to intel? would've been much easier to see the info there than go back and forth between reviews

This is the best TPU has 5800K vs 3220. 6800K is better so take it from there

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182099

I was hoping the A10-6700 would support 2133 MHz by default but now i am left wondering if the extra heat produced by an A10-6800 would be worth the faster memory as a major reason i bought a second APU is low heat summer gaming.

The overclocking results make me wonder if i would be better off with an A10-6800 and a set of 2400 MHz RAM, although an 1866 MHz or 2133 MHz set i would get are 1.5v and the 2400 MHz sets are 1.65v thus i assume higher heat output from the memory its self and possibly the memory controller but i have no clue if it would be anything more than a minor increase.


Am i over thinking the difference in heat output between an A10-6700 with 1.5v 1866 MHz RAM and an A10-6800 with 1.5v 2133 MHz or 1.65v 2400 MHz RAM?
Any advice would be much appreciated.

There will be no real world performance gains in 2400MHz vs 2133Mhz and very little at 1866 and 1600MHz

 

[bear jesus]

There will be no real world performance gains in 2400MHz vs 2133Mhz and very little at 1866 and 1600MHz

I know it's an AMD marketing slide but surely it suggests gaming wise that if it continued to scale then the more memory bandwidth the better?

It is on the features page of the review and Dave added underneath "AMD gave me some slides that depict the performance increase offered by using 2133 MHz memory. I've included these for you to take a look at, and general testing does show the increases to net a noticeably gain."



I am assuming this is all about the GPU as the bandwidth is so limited compared to dedicated cards.

 

[Recus]

Not a true new technology—just clock bumps

So now AMD rebrands APU. : D How about that?

 

[SIGSEGV]

nice review dave.
i would consider to wait the steamroller and gcn 2.0 in fusion.

 

[NeoXF]

Well, how about Cinebench 11.5?

i7-2600k @ 5.0Ghz scores 10 pts.

A10-6800k @ 5.0Ghz scores 4 pts.

Since Haswell is more powerful, it's around 1/3, not 2/3.

1. Cinebench is a well known Intel optimized/compiled piece of software, as a consequence, it's biased towards Intel hardware IDs to begin with, maybe even made to use Intel tech, while ignoring AMD ones.

2.
i7-2600K @ 5GHz scores ~9,5 points, not 10.
A10-6800K @ 5GHz scores at least 4,1 points, not 4 (A10-5800K @ 4,6-4,8GHz scores 4 points).
Don't rounds stuff up just for the sake of making an argument.

3. i7-2600K is 8 threads, A10-6800K is 4 threads(cores), i5-2500K would have been a much more fitting comparison, but seeing as how you're talking about pure x86 performance, I can't stress enough how wrong the place where you're looking for it is.

4. i7-2600K's can't do 5GHz all that easy, by a preliminary sight, the A10-6800K CAN do 5GHz a tad more often. Hell, I've seen benches on air/closed-loop @ 5,2 and boot to windows at 5,4GHz already.

5. Remind me again, what's the price gap between them again? 320$ (maybe less now, IF you can still find one that is, I can't where I live) vs 140$... or am I wrong?

Your whole reasoning is just broken. If this was a 200$+ APU, I might be inclined to abstract the price bit of the equation, but it's not. Not to mention they are made for different markets, sure AMD want's to mainstream-ise (or even ethusiast-ise, LOL) the APUs, but at the moment, they're still in a pretty different market segment than your average CPU.

nice review dave.
i would consider to wait the steamroller and gcn 2.0 in fusion.

If you're on Llano or thinking of building a compact system... or simply on a budget for an all-around system, it still a worthwhile buy. But yeah, Kaveri... GCN, Steamroller... HSA... sounds way better... especially if programmers will take HSA seriously (and they should). I'm eagerly waiting for a HSA version of a ray-tracing graphics engine, should be quite possible to see a 30fps 720p smart ray-tracing game...

 

[drdeathx]

I know it's an AMD marketing slide but surely it suggests gaming wise that if it continued to scale then the more memory bandwidth the better?

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/A10-6800K/images/mem_gains.jpg

It is on the features page of the review and Dave added underneath "AMD gave me some slides that depict the performance increase offered by using 2133 MHz memory. I've included these for you to take a look at, and general testing does show the increases to net a noticeably gain."



I am assuming this is all about the GPU as the bandwidth is so limited compared to dedicated cards.

I used to review memory on Intel platform and there were very little gains with higher frequencies. IMF, most benchmarks had a sweet spot with the Z77 platform at 2133MHz due to lower timings. 2133MHz at cas 8 did better than 2400MHz at cas 11 on most. This could be AMD's marketing. The only way to get a truthfull reading is have CalDave run some benchmarks with the 6800K. I only have a 5800K but will be happy to run a few benchies at different frequencies. problem is, 5800K has a lower memory spec than 6800K so I probably will not be able to pull 2400MHz.

 

[cadaveca]

This could be AMD's marketing.

It IS part of AMD's marketing, but it's one that actually relates truth. Memory speeds matter big-time on an APU's GPU portion. The lack of L3 compared to Intel's IVB/SNB/HWL is what makes it matter with AMD compared to Intel. Intel's L3 adds a buffer that negates the usefulness of high-speed ram, but there are still effects to be noticed with Intel chips, too.

 

[drdeathx]

It IS part of AMD's marketing, but it's one that actually relates truth. Memory speeds matter big-time on an APU's GPU portion. The lack of L3 compared to Intel's IVB/SNB/HWL is what makes it matter with AMD compared to Intel. Intel's L3 adds a buffer that negates the usefulness of high-speed ram, but there are still effects to be noticed with Intel chips, too.

Thanks Dave

 

[NeoXF]

I know it's an AMD marketing slide but surely it suggests gaming wise that if it continued to scale then the more memory bandwidth the better?

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/A10-6800K/images/mem_gains.jpg

It is on the features page of the review and Dave added underneath "AMD gave me some slides that depict the performance increase offered by using 2133 MHz memory. I've included these for you to take a look at, and general testing does show the increases to net a noticeably gain."



I am assuming this is all about the GPU as the bandwidth is so limited compared to dedicated cards.

Here's a better example of how much memory speed matters, especially if you increase the iGPU's core clock (as they're obviously dependent on eachother and you need to boost both if you want the most fruitful gains). The framerates are at 1920x1080 w/ max settings 0xAA for AvP, max settings for Deus Ex 3, "Ballanced" preset for TW: Shogun II, medium + FXAA for Skyrim, DIRT SD medium 2xAA and Sleeping Dogs medium.

 

[Dent1]

Well, how about Cinebench 11.5?

i7-2600k @ 5.0Ghz scores 10 pts.

A10-6800k @ 5.0Ghz scores 4 pts.

Since Haswell is more powerful, it's around 1/3, not 2/3.

Don't get me wrong.. I'm always rooting for AMD, but I consider Cinebench a much more reliable way of deriving performance differences.


EDIT: Guru3D did a Handbrake test with both 4770k and 6800k and they agree with me.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_a10_6800k_review_apu,14.html

4770k - 27 fps
6800k - 13 fps

That's 50%.

But, if you take into account that the 6800k is clocked 33% higher, it comes down to almost exactly 33% as fast at the same clock speed.

Lets be honest the people whom buy the 6800K are not looking heavy rendering and encoding. They are looking for good general multimedia performance and some light gaming, in this domain AMDs APU outperform Intel's at almost half the price.

The 4770K should really be pitted against the Piledriver FX 8350 if you're talking Cinebench and Handbrake.

 

[Asuka26x]

nice. amd really building some momentum.
fingers crossed with the vishera 2.0!!!

 

[Fourstaff]

nice. amd really building some momentum.
fingers crossed with the vishera 2.0!!!

This just an upclock rebrand, not sure what momentum you are talking about

 

[Asuka26x]

This just an upclock rebrand, not sure what momentum you are talking about

Well a10-6800k is not very good but i meant it has has good potential and it shows amds efforts& Momentum to bring up good cpu's. btw when is steamroller comin??? wai+ing for it with a jar of salt, not gonna buy it but i enjoy amd beat up intel

 

[NeoXF]

This just an upclock rebrand, not sure what momentum you are talking about

Oh, so in your vision, AMD should just keep sitting duck and stop being relevant to the PC market just because they don't have a real new product to sell.
And as far as I know, it's more than just a "overclock".

Keeping in topic, I'm realy curious what people will say about the 2014 Haswell refresh, since in case people don't know, Broadwell has been moved to 2015, would people put it down just for the sake of it or praise it just because it's Intel and they have a lot of momentum to levrege by default.


Also, anyone know of any news on Vishera FX refresh? FX-44xx/64xx/84xx I'm guessing..

 

[Fourstaff]

Oh, so in your vision, AMD should just keep sitting duck and stop being relevant to the PC market just because they don't have a real new product to sell.
And as far as I know, it's more than just a "overclock".

Keeping in topic, I'm realy curious what people will say about the 2014 Haswell refresh, since in case people don't know, Broadwell has been moved to 2015, would people put it down just for the sake of it or praise it just because it's Intel and they have a lot of momentum to levrege by default.

Also, anyone know of any news on Vishera FX refresh? FX-44xx/64xx/84xx I'm guessing..

GTX680 -> GTX770 = upclocked GTX680 = Nvidia rebrand
5800K -> 6800K = upclocked 5800K = AMD new product

I prefer to be consistent, either both GTX770 and 6800K are new products, or both of them are just rebrand upclocked old parts (albeit refined). At the moment my position is that both of them are optimised rebrands, therefore "no new tech", that is, no momentum to speak of.

 

[drdeathx]

Well a10-6800k is not very good but i meant it has has good potential and it shows amds efforts& Momentum to bring up good cpu's. btw when is steamroller comin??? wai+ing for it with a jar of salt, not gonna buy it but i enjoy amd beat up intel

No clue what your talking about not very good. It is NOT apples to apples with top end processors and not meant to be. It is one of the best mainstream APU's and beats Intel's core i3's. That is where it is positioned.

This just an upclock rebrand, not sure what momentum you are talking about

It is not a rebrand more of an evolution. 6800K moves to AMD's 8000 graphics from 7660D.

 

[NeoXF]

GTX680 -> GTX770 = upclocked GTX680 = Nvidia rebrand
5800K -> 6800K = upclocked 5800K = AMD new product

I prefer to be consistent, either both GTX770 and 6800K are new products, or both of them are just rebrand upclocked old parts (albeit refined). At the moment my position is that both of them are optimised rebrands, therefore "no new tech", that is, no momentum to speak of.

Well, I never said anything bad like that about GTX770 either, it's a great card for it's price, GK104 still has plenty of life in it and a revision was welcome, new GDDR chips as well. It might be a new card with old tech, but it does what it's supposed to very well and the pricing is good. GTX780 however is a bit overpriced tho, for what it can do (don't even get me started with TITAN), but I know why nVidia do it. Either way I suspect some price cuts not long after after E3, when AMD will unvail/launch the HD8000 series w/ those brand spanking new cooler they've been talking about.

Speaking which, Richlands will probably be getting price cuts themselves in about 3-4 months anyway, either when i3 Haswells launch/settles in the market (remember all of them will come with HD 4600 graphics) or when more conclusive info on Kaveri starts to appear.

 

[Fourstaff]

It is not a rebrand more of an evolution. 6800K moves to AMD's 8000 graphics from 7660D.

Well 6800K still uses the same VLIW configuration as the 5800K (no change other than clockspeed bump and name change), I saw the old gen 945->955BE->965BE as evolution as the manufacturing process matured, its the same here except that instead of naming it with the 5xxxK they chose to name it 6xxxK hence rebrand. If they have changed the graphics to GCN I would have labelled it as "a new product"

Well, I never said anything bad like that about GTX770 either, it's a great card for it's price, GK104 still has plenty of life in it and a revision was welcome, new GDDR chips as well. It might be a new card with old tech, but it does what it's supposed to very well and the pricing is good. GTX780 however is a bit overpriced tho, for what it can do (don't even get me started with TITAN), but I know why nVidia do it. Either way I suspect some price cuts not long after after E3, when AMD will unvail/launch the HD8000 series w/ those brand spanking new cooler they've been talking about.

No you didn't said anything bad about GTX770, I was just explaining my rationale behind my decisions to name 6800K a rebrand rather than a new product. People called for blood when Nvidia rebranded 8800->9800->GTS250, so I decided that unless they bring something significantly new (die shrink, increase in core count, massive power optimisation etc.) everything less than that will be labelled as rebrand if they "move on to the next numbering scheme usually reserved for new gen".

 

[cadaveca]

(no change other than clockspeed bump and name change),

AMD made a change to the memory controller and to the power delivery in the chip. AMD's Overdrive for APUs got updated so that the GPU and CPU each have different power supply, allowing AMD to clock one down and the other up, depending on load.

THAT change is part of what allows for the higher OCs we've been seeing with these chips. I've seen many @ over 5 GHz on air.


But yes, the CPU cores and GPU cores are the same. Everything else was changed.

I'm sorry I didn't cover this is the review, but that info was not provided to me by AMD. Through some research the past week, however, that was what I have found out.