AMD A6 APU with intigrated R5 gfx + R5 gfx card crossfire linked vs AMD A8 APU with intigrated R7 gfx

TheEvilR0b0T · Feb 19, 2015

Which will provide the best performance for the money, an AMD A6 APU with intigrated Radeon R5 graphics in conjunction with a Radeon R5 graphics card, crossfire linked or an AMD A8 APU with intigrated Radeon R7 graphics?

Either choice equate to approximately the same amount of money, so I was wondering which will be the best performer. I'll be installing 8GB DDR3 2133Hz RAM in the build.

Thanks for the help.

clutchc · Feb 19, 2015

It will depend on which R5 and R7 cards you are comparing if you mean discrete cards, and it will depend on which A6 and A8 APUs you mean.

TheEvilR0b0T · Feb 20, 2015

clutchc :

Thanks.

I was looking at AMD A6 7400K (Black Edition, Kaveri Core, Dual Core, 3.5GHz) with intigrated AMD Radeon R5 756MHz, I can't seem to find any R5 gfx that support crossfire. Would it work with an R7 graphics card that does support cross fire?

Alternatively I was just going to buy the AMD A8 7600 (Kaveri Core, Quad Core APU, 3.1GHz) with intigrated AMD Radeon R7 720MHz.

Do the APUs actually support crossfire so long as the right motherboard is purchased?

LucoTF · Feb 20, 2015

I would always go for a quad core solution over dual.

TheEvilR0b0T · Feb 20, 2015

Never mind. As it turns out when it comes to the APU's crossfire isn't applicable. Once a graphics card is installed it overrides the integrated graphics rendering them useless, or so I've been told.

edit: I was told wrong!

clutchc · Feb 20, 2015

TheEvilR0b0T :

AMD does have a system called Dual Graphics http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/dual-graphics#overview
...that allow a discrete card of the same GPU to be used in a sort of pseudo-crossfire with the on-die GPU of the APU. It improves on the graphics capability to an extent, but only in games that are Dual Graphics aware. If you plan on any gaming at 1080p resolution, you are better off looking at a different setup.

TheEvilR0b0T · Feb 21, 2015

clutchc :

Yeah you're right, the sales guy gave me the wrong information. I thought the A series APUs could support crossfire but wanted to be 100% before buying stuff.

I did a bit more research and it turns out that the new Kaveri APUs do support corssfire dual graphics, as has been pointed out but they can only be dueled with Radeon R7 240 or 250 gpus accordeing to overclock3d.net.

I was being excessivly cheap and decided to go for a better set up. At first I was going to go for the AMD A10 7850K or 7700K without an additional GPU. I have a Quad FX-7600P laptop which is essentialy the same thing just lower clock speeds and I can run games like BF4 and Titan Fall on medium settings smoothly on it.

A little more research and I decided to go for the new Athlon 860K cpu which is a kaveri cpu built using steamroller cores and apparently it is far superior in raw processing power. I read that coupled with an R7 250 it out powers the the new A10 7850k and equates to the same price (source: overclock3d.net , cpuboss.com, et al) . That aside I was able to buy a Radeon R9 285 gpu for £115 off ebay instead of the £180 retail price, an offer I couldn't refuse.

My build now will be:
AMD Athlon X4 860k 3.7 Ghz (£67.99)
2GB Gigabyte Radeon R9 285 WINDFORCE2 OC, 5500MHz GDDR5, GPU 973MHz, 1792 Streams (£115)
Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-DS2 AMD A88X mATX mobo (£41) considering a more expensive gaming mobo like the MSI A88X-G45 (£77)
8GB DDR3 RAM @ 2400MHz (£50)

plus all the other stuff, total build price £500. Only £100 over budget lol.

tl;dr: the new AMD Kaveri APUs dual with Radeon R7 240/250 GPU allow for crossfire dual graphics but I opted for the new Athlon X4 860K is a better performing cpu and I was able to buy a Radeon R9 285 GPU for an unrefuitable price which sealed the deal.

TheEvilR0b0T · Feb 21, 2015

LucoTF :

You're right, I was just being really cheap and on further reflection I decided I'd regret it in the long run.

LucoTF · Feb 21, 2015

I don't see a power supply mentioned. A good quality 550w would be enough but it might be cutting it a little close. This antec unit is great quality and going cheap here in the UK right now:

uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-hcg750

TheEvilR0b0T · Feb 21, 2015

LucoTF :

So the full build is:

CPU - AMD Athlon X4 860K Black Edition 3.70GHz £67.99
GPU - Gigabyte R9 285 WindForce OC £115.00
Mobo - MSI A88X-G45 GAMING £76.66
PSU - 500W Corsair CX500M, Hybrid Modular, 80 PLUS Bronze £35.00 (Refurbished)
Heatsink / Cooler - Phanteks PH-TC12LS 120mm CPU Cooler £29.99
RAM - TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2400MHz £49.99
HDD - Seagate SSHD 7200RPM 3.5" 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache SSHD Hybrid Drive £59.99
Optical Drive - LiteOn IHAS124-14 24x DVD±R £11.75
Case - Silverstone GD09B Grandia Black HTPC ATX Case £49.31 (want a HTPC case becuase it will be connected to my TV for widescreen gaming etc)
o/s - Windows 8 £76.57 (I resent paying this!)

Total £572.25 WELL THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY!!!!!!

Do I really need a 550W PSU? All the psu calculaters say I don't need anything over 450W even with the CPU overclocked to 4.5 GHz @ 1.5v . I mainly use http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine it served me well in the past.

FYI I am not going to overclock it anywhere near that high but wanted to see what it would look like on paper.

What do you think?

LucoTF · Feb 22, 2015

Actually a 550w would be fine. And that CX500 is more like a 450w when you look at the +12v rail. Not a great quality unit.

LucoTF · Feb 22, 2015

I see you've put a reasonable motherboard and cooler with that 860k which is fine if you're overclocking but it also defeats the purpose of it as a budget gaming cpu. I mean, for the same price you could get a 4th gen i3:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor (£89.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£49.36 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£52.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive (£58.95 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 285 2GB WINDFORCE 2X Video Card (Purchased For £115.00)
Case: Silverstone GD09B HTPC Case (£49.31 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£46.79 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.50 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.95 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £547.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-22 09:44 GMT+0000

Which has superior gaming performance and a much stronger upgrade path. My advice would be either look for cheaper mobo + cooler options for that 860k or just get an i3

(Also, the XFX 550w PSU listed here is a fine quality unit)

TheEvilR0b0T · Feb 22, 2015

LucoTF :

I'm such an idiot, why didn't I use pcpartpicker! Luckely I haven't bought most of the components just the RAM and GPU becuase they were on offer. With a little tweaking, I've got the build down to £512.25

I'd like/tend to avoid Intel products - support the underdog and all that. All my AMD products have served me well in the past.

I've taken your advice and did some jigging, cheaper HDD (don't need hybrid), cheaper motherboard, 550W psu (although cheaper than suggested) and cheaper cpu cooler.

Build:
CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz (£56.23 scan)
GPU: Gigabyte R9 285 WindForce OC (£115.00 ebay)
Motherboard: MSI A88X-G43 (£63.01 Amazon)
PSU: 550W Aerocool AP-Pro APS-DE550-BR1, 80 PLUS Bronze (£30.00 scan) (I don't need modular)
Heatsink: Zalman CPU Cooler CNPS8000B (£20.99 overclockers)
RAM: TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 2133MHz Dual (£49.99 overclockers)
HDD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 SATA 6Gb/s 7200rpm 64MB Cache (£41.44 scan)
Optical Drive: LiteOn DVD/CD RW (£11.75 scan) (will rarely ever use)
Case: Silverstone GD09B Grandia Black HTPC ATX Case with USB 3.0 & Black Interior (£49.31 scan)
o/s: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.43 Amazon)

Total: £512.25

I appreciate your suggested psu, I'll take your recommendation and go for a 550W one but I'll stick to a budget one. I also don't need a hybrid drive let's be honest, that's just glutony. Although I am tempted pay the extra £13/ish for the MSI A88X-G45. making the total £525.80

I could get the prices down a fraction more if I use some of the other suppliers but out of the ones I have used Scan and Overclockers rank top with me just becuase of their amazingly low fuss service. Soo easy to return stuff to them.

Thanks for the assist.

LucoTF · Feb 22, 2015

If your motivations for using AMD extend beyond price then disregard my advice on the i3

And that Aerocool PSU is, sorry, garbage. I would suggest you don't cheap out on the PSU, it is the beating heart of your build. If I were you I would spend the extra £12 on this

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w-xfx-pro-550s-p1-550s-gren-system-builder-single-rail-80-plus-bronze-haswell-ready-1x-135mm-fan-

That's a really good price for the XFX, they're usually closer to £50.

TheEvilR0b0T · Feb 22, 2015

LucoTF :

You don't work for xfx, do you? lol

I'll take your advice and spend a bit extra, I'm holding you to that

LucoTF · Feb 22, 2015

TheEvilR0b0T :

Dude I don't even get commission from XFX, lol

First indicator of quality is warranty. The XFX has 5 years, Aerocools typically have two years (although I can't even see any mention of warranty on this one...)

Second, this list: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

The XFX is tier two, class A 'excellent quality units' (it's actually a rebadged Seasonic unit). The Aerocool? Tier 5 'replace immediately'

TheEvilR0b0T · Feb 22, 2015

LucoTF :

Wow awesome list! Saving this.

Thank you for all the help, it's been a long time since I built a PC and am very behind on my spec.

Really appreciate the help, took the stress out.

I know technically intel it better at core performance but I am a big fan of AMD for various reasons.
My reseach into the new AMD 860k shows it's a pretty promessing cpu, coupled with the graphics Ccrd I think it will hold up pretty well.

LucoTF · Feb 22, 2015

Yeah the 860k is solid, it will even handle some basic 720p streaming which is impressive given the price.

That cpu & gpu combo should be able to handle anything, enjoy it

AMD A6 APU with intigrated R5 gfx + R5 gfx card crossfire linked vs AMD A8 APU with intigrated R7 gfx

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