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What's the point of an APU if you have a graphics card

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Will make a new gaming rig when I see PCIe3.0 videocards pop out on the market and will either end up with an AMD bulldozer or i7 (ivy bridge or whatever they have out at the time).

I already know the purpose of a GPU and it's importance (why my x2GPU HD5970 still gives better frames then a single HD6970 GPU would).

But what is the purpose of an APU when you have a high-end card like that? Can they work together or what?


Please educate me, thank you in advance.

More about : point apu graphics card

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CPUs Master
Graphics card Expert

There is no reason to have an APU if your using a high end graphics configuration. AMD's current APUs are nothing but over priced and slower Athlon II processors if you don't use the included GPU. Currently they're great for low power consumption and more budget oriented low end builds, but the APUs aren't for the high end.

You can pair the GPU that is built into the APU with a 6450, 6570, or 6670, but the crossfire performance between them is really bugged and you actually loose performance in some titles. Still won't compare to a decent discrete card anyways.

Basically APU = a great budget platform
CPUs Authority

+1 loneninja.

The APU is also good for HTPCs (although the 100W TDP is a bit high for my liking, the 65W TDP will be perfect when it's released.)

Re PCIe 3.0, the opinion is that it's not going to be used for graphics just yet. PCIe 2.0 is doing really well with graphics as it is, and not even the most powerful GPUs saturate the PCIe 2.0 bandwidth just yet. PCIe 3.0 might very well be used for SSDs that connect through PCIe before they're used for GPUs. Whilst PCIe 3.0 will in all likelihood be used for GPUs in the future, you might be waiting a while if your plan is to base a rig around one.
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loneninja said:
There is no reason to have an APU if your using a high end graphics configuration. AMD's current APUs are nothing but over priced and slower Athlon II processors if you don't use the included GPU. Currently they're great for low power consumption and more budget oriented low end builds, but the APUs aren't for the high end.

You can pair the GPU that is built into the APU with a 6450, 6570, or 6670, but the crossfire performance between them is really bugged and you actually loose performance in some titles. Still won't compare to a decent discrete card anyways.

Basically APU = a great budget platform


Overpriced? That's a lie. None of them are even $200 and the A$ dual cores are under $100.

To the question, the APU is still the CPU part so you need it.

Quote:
To the question, the APU is still the CPU part so you need it.


That wasn't the question AT ALL. Loneninja already answered it, thank you ninja.

Besides I already knew a APU is a combination of CPU and GPU. Just don't see the point of the 'bad' GPU for people with one or more high-end videocards in their rig.
Also know that intels sandybridge actually are APUs even tho they don't advertise it but some models come with better GPUs then others. Thankfully now I know that the spec of their GPUs, don't apply to me. So now I can focus on the CPU statistics only and get more value for my money.
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