AMD FX-4170 GPU Confusion

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jtsmith1287

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Alright, so I can't get a good Google search result for the life of me, and the more terrible results I get (and read) the more confused I'm becoming.

Here's the question:
Why on earth can I not do anything with this onboard GPU on my FX-4170? I keep hearing that there are GPUs on these new chips and that they can be crossfired. Am I just a complete dunce and terribly mistaken? I just purchased a FX-4100 and a FX-4170. Both are FX VISION. On the side of both boxes I see:

"Combine this processor AMD Radeon HD 6000 series graphics and AMD 9-series chipset to enjoy the ultimate HD experience with supercharged, responsive game play and mega multitasking performance powered by VISION FX technology from AMD."

What do they mean, combine? Just throw it in a motherboard with a 9series chipset and a 6000 series card and that's it? Magically it all works better than if it was, say... a 7000 series card, or a different chipset? I apologize for the sarcasm, but I have heard and read of people combining their graphics cards with the integrated chip, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it. I've scoured my BIOS and the intertubes, and I am now posting here in hopes that the mass of brilliance can shed some light on my dilemma.

Oh, my specs, right.

ASrock 970 Extreme3 motherboard
8GB DDR3 1600 (though it's 1333 right now and I can't figure out how to raise it)
Radeon HD 6770

Thanks in advance, Guys and Gals.
 
Solution
Amd fx processors are cpu only with no gpu inside. maybe you are missing commas:

"Combine this processor(not apu/accelerated processing unit)comma amd radeon
6000 series graphics card comma and amd 9-series chipset to enjoy the ultimate HD
experience". APUs like A4, A6, A8 and the new A10 are chips with both cpu cores and
a graphics core on the same die that can be crossfired with a similarly performing card.

Without a massive change to your overall setup, you can keep the fx4170 cpu, return
the fx4100 and depending on the gpu you have either keep it or exchange both it and
the fx4100 for a stronger card. You have a high performing feature rich mobo and decent
ram. Don't worry to much about the speed the memory is running at. It is...

goodguy713

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you have the right graphics card .. for hybrid crossfire ..

1 ... follow these steps .. restart your computer go into bios while plugged into the on board video port the port that connects directly to your mother board.. not your video card .. change vga out put to pci 1 or 2 it depends on the motherboard.. most manufacturers will have a something that says 16_1 or 16_2 or like 8_1 and then your likely to have a couple 4x slots on there too basically what you want to do is set the vga to what ever slot your video card is connected to and reboot your computer and then disconnect the monitor cables from the mother board and connect them to your video card .. make sure that you install the latest drivers from amd website i think currently its 12.8 .. start catalyst control pannel and under gaming performance you should see crossfire check the box restart the computer and then you should have crossfire enabled

there may be some complications along the way but that's that general approach
 

mafisometal

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little confusion, you're talking about the APU chips, not the CPU. The socket is FM1 for the APU, while AM3+ is just a CPU. the FX-4170 is a Quad Core processor with no onboard GPU. They suggest AMD HD6 series because the strings in the chip are most optimal with the newer graphic cards. Is that what you meant? or are you trying to crossfire two cards?
 

goodguy713

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actually thats the version of the processor that dose not have the gpu in it its the A8 3870 or 3850 that you wanted you can not do hybrid crossfire with that processor your bought the wrong one and yea im about to get bashed for not noticing the processor was the quad module version with out the intergrated graphics ..
 

goodguy713

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fyi amd is about to release a new apu the 5700 and it will be significantly better then the current gen apu .. they are due out some time this month or early next month or at least that is what the rumor mill is saying .. if you hold out a little longer you might get a much better performing machine .. but yea an A8 with that graphics card will work fine sorry if i caused you any confusion
 

jtenorj

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Amd fx processors are cpu only with no gpu inside. maybe you are missing commas:

"Combine this processor(not apu/accelerated processing unit)comma amd radeon
6000 series graphics card comma and amd 9-series chipset to enjoy the ultimate HD
experience". APUs like A4, A6, A8 and the new A10 are chips with both cpu cores and
a graphics core on the same die that can be crossfired with a similarly performing card.

Without a massive change to your overall setup, you can keep the fx4170 cpu, return
the fx4100 and depending on the gpu you have either keep it or exchange both it and
the fx4100 for a stronger card. You have a high performing feature rich mobo and decent
ram. Don't worry to much about the speed the memory is running at. It is only helpful
to a gpu inside an apu that shares memory bandwidth with the cpu cores in an apu.

I went to be first responder last night but dsl line went wonky. I got beat to it.

For a lower price than you probably paid for fx4170, you could first get a good air cooler
with that am3+ mobo, & you can also get a phenom II x4 965 black edition right now with
higher performance per clock than the bulldozer based FXs and overclock it past 4ghz
with a good air cooler. Piledriver (a refinement of bulldozer) based FX processors are
coming out soon for am3+. They may prove notably faster than Phenom II.

A series APUs are on totally different sockets. The older A8 3800 series on socket fm1
has the same architechture as Phenom II but no L3 cache, while the soon to be released
A10 is based on piledriver and moves to a newer fm2 socket.

Also, the suggestion of an FX cpu, 6000 series radeon and 970 chipset was an AMD
marketing thing to get your whole platform to be AMD and originated with/after the
launch of FX processors last year when the 6000 series were the best radeons you
could buy. Since the radeon 7000 series launched around Christmas and became
available in January, the recommendation from amd has likely changed.
 
Solution

jtsmith1287

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Mar 29, 2012
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So, I've seen the benchmarks, and I'm very pleased with the fx-4170. I feel no need to upgrade any time soon, as it has plenty of cache (L2 is a little lacking... but meh) and can get pretty fast.

That leaves me with a single question. Does Hybrid crossfire yield results worth upgrading to one of the cpus coming out soon, or should I just leave it be, and get a better GPU?
 

jtenorj

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To answer the question you just asked B4 picking my answer as best(thanks for that, btw),
you can use your am3+ mobo to upgrade to a piledriver based FX cpu if it proves to be a
decent jump over FX bulldozer and Phenom II. Getting a new piledriver based A10 apu
would require a socket fm2 mobo(I forget how many pins are on the am3 platform, but
CPUs 4 it & fm1/fm2 are not cross compatible/pin compatible). As for hybrid crossfire being
worth it, that's a topic for debate. It seems to me that the gpu section of an A10 with its
384 vliw4 grouped shaders at 800mhz on dual channel ddr3 at 1333 would be slower
than a gddr3 6670 with 480 vliw5 grouped shaders at 800mhz with 25.6GB/s bandwidth.

Those can be had for like 50 bucks on newegg, btw.

I say this cuz tho it may seem vliw 4 boosts performance by 25% per shader, it is closer
to 20% more efficient in actual tests. Also, the integrated gpu has to share a lower amount
of bandwidth with the cpu cores while the 6670 gets its bandwidth all to itself. A gddr3
version of 6670 is probably the closest in performance to the igp in the top A10 5800K apu
and so is the likeliest gpu to pair with it for crossfire. So far, Crossfire scaling between IGPs
and discrete cards seems to be not as good as the normal crossfiring of 2 of the same gpu.

You're probably better off keeping your current platform and upgrading the cpu and or gpu
as you see fit rather than scrapping your current platform(am3 and am3+ have had longer
lifetimes than socket fm1 had or fm2 likely will). While an fm2 supporting mobo should be
fairly feature rich for a decent price, your ASRock 970 extreme 3 mobo is already that and
able to have a piledriver FX thrown in with only a bios update. An unlocked A10 apu may
well cost more with its piledriver cores and enhanced igp combined compared to just using
your FX4170 on your current mobo and getting a better gpu. I am guessing perhaps the
discrete card you have is somewhat lower end to match an APU's igp for crossfire.

The graphics performance of something like an hd7770ghz ed. would be faster than the
A10 igp and a gddr3 hd6670 in hybrid crossfire. As for the pricing of both the unlocked
socket fm2 desktop A10 K processor and socket am3+ piledriver fx chips, I just found this
article on extreme tech:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/135388-amd-cpu-bonanza-trinity-desktop-prices-intels-counter-and-the-piledriver-fx-8350s-performance

The A10 5800k should be around 130 dollars, and the price of fx8350 is unknown

Edit: based on this info, the fx8350 looks decent but the price will determine whether
the boost is worth it or not. As for getting an A10 and crossfiring it with your gpu,
you can get an HD7770ghz ed. for cheaper and get better graphics performance.
 

jtsmith1287

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Mar 29, 2012
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Thanks for the info man. That all sounds great. While I love building computers, reconfiguring a working one is not my thing, if it's unnecessary. In my case, the 6770 works well, and sooner or later I'll OC it. So, based on the information you've all provided I'll hold tight till I can get my hands on a 78XX or something. Maybe a 6850. I hear those are really powerful for the $$$.

Thanks again for all the help guys!
 
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