Using the A10-7850K with R9 270X in Crossfire

ItWillDo

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Feb 3, 2014
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Hey all,

Since it's a known fact that for gaming your GPU is of far greater importance than the CPU, I was wondering what the performance difference would be in gaming between the 2 following set-ups:

1. FX6300 + R9 270X
2. A10-7850K + R9 270X (Crossfire enabled)

The first option would obviously have much better CPU processing capabilities, but won't the second option give far better FPS-benchmarks (unless the CPU-side of the A10-7850K bottlenecks the R9 270X of course).

Does anyone have any experience, or even better, some benchmarks of this setup? I'm asking because I want to build a budget mITX gaming-build and option 2 seems like a very interesting option considering AMD has good mITX mobo's for FM2+ but none for AM3+.

Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
The CPU is a massive part of gaming, and a 6300 would be much better than a 7850k. Also, mini ITX does not support crossfire, mini cases rarely even have two brackets. Basically if you have 4 780tis in SLI, you will still get low fps in some games if you have a weak CPU. That is called a bottleneck. You definitely want to spend more money on your GPU than your CPU, but never get a slow CPU because you have a good GPU. SLI and Crossfire are also not great options unless you already have a card. It is generally much better to get a more powerful card, there is less heat, less noise, and it's a better bang for your buck.
The CPU is a massive part of gaming, and a 6300 would be much better than a 7850k. Also, mini ITX does not support crossfire, mini cases rarely even have two brackets. Basically if you have 4 780tis in SLI, you will still get low fps in some games if you have a weak CPU. That is called a bottleneck. You definitely want to spend more money on your GPU than your CPU, but never get a slow CPU because you have a good GPU. SLI and Crossfire are also not great options unless you already have a card. It is generally much better to get a more powerful card, there is less heat, less noise, and it's a better bang for your buck.
 
Solution

Francisco Costa

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Nov 16, 2013
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+1
 

athlon7750

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You won't be needing the integrated GPU in the A10-7850K, since you're getting an R9 270X. The iGPU can be used in crossfire only with R7 series GPUs. So the better choice is the FX-6300, as it is cheaper and better on the CPU side.
 
APUs are wonderful for small devices like phones, laptops, and tablets. They're great for office computers that just need to run Word, Excel, and a browser. They are not made for gaming. They are not good for gaming, and should never be purchased as a gaming CPU unless you are on an extremely tight budget, and you shouldn't expect good performance out of it.
 

sapperastro

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Jan 28, 2014
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From the benchmarks I have read, they both have their pluses and minuses on the CPU side.

FX 6300 has better multi threaded performance, while the 7850 has slightly better single core ability. Either of them are good enough to fulfil the gaming equation of the CPU, unless you just want to reach 50,000 fps in benchmarks....neither of them will remotely bottleneck an R7 270x...

As others have said though, if you already have a decent gpu, there is no need for an APU. Save a large amount of dollars and get the FX 6300, unless you decide to rely on the APUs inbuilt gpu for a lengthy amount of time before getting a more powerful discrete gpu.

As for APU gaming ability, they are generally better than a lot of people here allow. It really depends on what kind of games you play, and more importantly, what resolution and amount of bells and whistles you desire. 720p, no problems for just about anything. 1080p, well, it depends on the game, but anything bar the newest AAA FPS games can be played reasonably at 1080p with medium to low details. I was surprised at how good my friends 6800k can play games when I first saw it. If anyone doesn't play Simulators or the latest FPS games, I wouldn't necessarily write them off.
 

BrianDean83

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Feb 23, 2014
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First off. You need to do some research before you spend a bunch of cash.
The 7850k will pair with G/DDR3 GPU's. So your looking at this in instead.
FX6300 + 270X
7850K + 240 2GB G/DDR3 or 250 1GB G/DDR3. It has to be G/DDR3 to pair it.
The 260 and 260X are out. They are G/DDR5. The R9 are G/DDR5.
This should help you in you decision. Either way you be happy but the 7850k pairing stuff limits you and you have to buy mid grade cards for more frames. Think about.
AMD does not explain this on their interweb. But they said this during an event.
 

Phreaky

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Apr 17, 2014
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Hey I have been looking at building a mITX for quite some time as it interests me but would like somewhere to start. I have a budget of $750 for this particular build, what do you recommend? Also I don't need OS, monitor or peripherals.
 

Kesef

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May 28, 2014
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Nice. I am just going to point out a couple of things for others who might be stumbling across this forum for questions...
So a few points to be made that not everyone answering may have understood:

* TheA10-7850K will only pair with the R7 240 and 250 (They CAN be GDDR5), but that is all. It cannot pair with anything better.

* The FX6300 really is not a great CPU overall, despite its base specs. Better to go with an i5, as you have.

* If you wanted to spend a little more on the CPU, which IS very important in gaming, I would go for the FX8320 or 8350. You can get the former for only 130-ish bucks and it works wonderfully, and gets up to matching an Intel i7, if not better than matching.

I can tell you from experience with experimenting with different rigs. The APU, according to pro-AMD fans, supposedly would match up to an Intel i7. Not even close. I got an HD R7 250 to hybrid with the APU, and the performance was atrocious. My i7 had MUCH better performance with the same card. The APU DID run very well with an HD 8750, which is what I normally run with my i7. Although it did run very well, the APU did not come close to my i7 benchmarks, but it was also 100 bucks cheaper.

I built a machine based off of the 6300, and even with my HD 8750, the performance was not acceptable for me.

SO, for those other to learn from this, go with something like an FX8320 with a nice graphics card. You do not have to spend $250 or more for good performance, unless you are an enthusiast. I spent $170 on my card (after rebates) and have flawless performance on max graphics settings. Note that those processors DO provide more heat and use more power. Get a good liquid cooling system.