AMD A8 Dual Graphics Compatibility

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Nikor_Productionz

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Okay, so I have an AMD A8-6600k apu processor and I want to use the integrated graphics along with a second or third graphics card. I know the A8-6600k is compatible with the HD 6570 and the HD 6670 graphics cards, but what graphics cards would still be compatible in a dual graphics setup and not totally bottleneck the system?
 
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cynicalimpulse
I personally do not like Dual graphic setups with APU's. X firing 2 identical cards are fine but when your 2 gpu's are SIMILAR but not identical i can cause some micro-stuttering issues and in some cases performance drops.

But if you are looking to upgrade for more graphics performance buying a discrete graphics card and disabling the iGPU on the APU is better (the APU's processor may bottleneck). It all comes down to budget, if youre willing to spend the money buy a more expensive gpu so if you decide to upgrade the cpu (or cpu and the motherboard) the GPU is still good for the future. If you get the HD 6570 or HD 6670 when you need to upgrade even the gfx card will be too slow and may require replacing.

So...

If you plan to upgrade...
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Nikor_Productionz

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Are there anymore other than those? I just don't want to bottle neck the system.
 
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cynicalimpulse

cynicalimpulse

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I personally do not like Dual graphic setups with APU's. X firing 2 identical cards are fine but when your 2 gpu's are SIMILAR but not identical i can cause some micro-stuttering issues and in some cases performance drops.

But if you are looking to upgrade for more graphics performance buying a discrete graphics card and disabling the iGPU on the APU is better (the APU's processor may bottleneck). It all comes down to budget, if youre willing to spend the money buy a more expensive gpu so if you decide to upgrade the cpu (or cpu and the motherboard) the GPU is still good for the future. If you get the HD 6570 or HD 6670 when you need to upgrade even the gfx card will be too slow and may require replacing.

So...

If you plan to upgrade in the future, dont spend money on a weak graphics card, buy a better one.
But this isnt a perfect world so if youre tight on money you may just have to consider using this dual graphic with the HD 6670 or 6570 setup as a temporary quick fix or wait till you are "rolling in the dough".

To answer your original question its better to stick with the cards AMD recommends to be paired with your APU since they are the MOST similar in terms of theoretical performance. Any other card would be incompatible or bottleneck as you are only as strong as your weakest link and if one gpu is marginally slower than the other no matter how fast the other gpu is it will still have to wait for the slower of the two; this is especially true since dual graphics (or asymmetric crossfire as it is also called) uses AFR (alternate frame rendering; which is sorta like i load one frame, you load one frame and etc).

Options for graphic cards:
just plain 1080p w/o the bells and whistles: Radeon R7 260x or 265x or GTX 750 Ti
1080p higher settings : 270x or 270 which is essentially an underclocked 270x (has same amount of texture units, shader units and compute units as the 270x) or GTX 760

2K res + futureproof: R9 280x or GTX 770

Hope this helps!
 
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Nikor_Productionz

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It helped a lot. Thank you. I had plans on upgrading the board in the future so I could run 3.0 cards on 3.0, not 2.0 and upgrading to a really good card. I was also planning on using the dual graphics as a fix for now so I could get better frames and all around better performance until I felt like an r9 270 or a gtx 770 was needed. I was also gonna get 4 more gb of RAM and eventually a liquid cooled system. Maybe liquid nitrogen if I'm willing to take the risk of freezing my pc lol. But in all seriousness, you helped me a lot. So, r9 260/270 or gtx 770?
 
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Nikor_Productionz

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I have a Biostar Hi-Fi A85W mobo. I wanted something a little better. And I would want to run a 3.0 card on 3.0 setting for the speed. I would be okay with running it on 2.0 settings, but that upgrade will probably be the last one on my list.
 
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cynicalimpulse

cynicalimpulse

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Most Cards do not even fully utilize a 2.0 so dont worry about that. GTX 770 and r9 270 are pretty difference in terms of price and performance. A price to value favourite is currently the GTX 760, but all 3 of these will be sufficient in gaming at 1080p. what more important is your budget and how much you are willing to spend.
Also how much ram do you have? if you are strictly gaming and doing regular stuff its hard to justify having more than 8gb of ram.
 
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Nikor_Productionz

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I have 4 gb, but I am getting more soon. Also, a I am somewhere in between budget and willing to spend, but leaning more to budget.
 
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cynicalimpulse

cynicalimpulse

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Make sure the Ram sticks are the same or it wont be optimal.
Aha well its hard to recommend when you yourself havent decided :9
but...
For budget upgrade go with r9 270
For spending go gtx 770 or r9 280x (which ever is cheaper)
For in between go with the GTX 760 or R9 280 (havent seen the benchmarks on the 280 yet)
 
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Nikor_Productionz

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So I'm trying to narrow the choices down with a brilliant website that allows me to compare the specs of all of the above gpu's, and I am wondering this. What is the most important thing that I should be looking at spec-wise; Core speed, memory bandwidth, or memory speed?
 
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cynicalimpulse

cynicalimpulse

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Honestly, neither. It gets too complicated when you go down to the pure hardware level. Its better if you look at individual benchmarks of each card and look at how it compares to other cards in the games that you play or plan to play. If a card beats another card 12 out of 20 games but all 12 games are not games you play, then you might as well go with the card that wins the other 8 games that you actually play, because its more relevant to you.

But i realize i may have read your question a bit wrong, if you are referring to cards of the same labeling, like comparing r9 270X's; then its usually a combination of the memory clock and the core clock. but i generally find the core clock speed as a better frame of reference unless the memory clock is significantly higher. that being said same card product from different manufacturers may not perform the same on a clock for clock basis.

I usually browse benchmarks, which can be time consuming :9
 
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swifty_morgan

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the motherboard doesn't have anything to do with it at this point.............. the PROCESSOR does NOT support pci-e 3.0.................. it never will. and if OP doesn't buy the right motherboard and the right processor it never will.

the difference between 2.0 and 3.0 with graphics cards is so negligible it doesn't matter. it's a selling point.

 
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Nikor_Productionz

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I was planning on keeping the cpu and upgrading the mobo to a different one, same socket.
 
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cynicalimpulse

cynicalimpulse

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Ummm... i really don't see the point in just upgrading the motherboard??? I would advise against it, save the money to get a different mobo and CPU in the future, and migrate out of APU territory (seeing as you are considering getting a good discrete graphics card). Upgrading the mobo will give no measurable performance increase whatsoever; there's really no point in doing it.
 
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Nikor_Productionz

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I was planning on it because of the reviews on it suggest that it could fry itself soon, so I wanted to avoid ruining my rig. Also, I wanted to keep the cpu because it can overclock well and I wanted to get the r9 270 or the r9 270x. Which one?
 
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cynicalimpulse

cynicalimpulse

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If you overclock, get the r9 270, since its the exact same card as the r9 270x (as i have stated above) with a slower core clock (by 125mhz i think); If you are not or would like to spend a bit to get a slightly faster card with a bit more OC potential the get the 270x.
 
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