'True' CPU cores vs HSA 'compute cores'

[jacob9hawkes]

Hi all,

Once games and other programs become HSA optimsed, and HSA itself is mainstream, do you think that having a 'true' CPU with say, 8 cores, would gain better performance than an APU with 4 CPU cores and 8 GPU cores (for a total of 12 'compute cores')?

For example, would the A10-7850K be better than an FX-9590 if a program were HSA optimised?

 

[vmN]

Simple answer is no.

 

[gamerk316]

Depends on workload. The more CPU bound you are, the more you rely on traditional CPU cores. GPU like architectures offer great performance for processing you can scale, but are very, very weak for tasks that do not scale particularly well.

 

[Lessthannil]

Depends on the workload. The GPU will be useful for very parallel tasks but the CPU is needed for less multithreaded, more serial tasks (like games).

 

[jacob9hawkes]

That's quite interesting. I don't really understand the core differences between the way a GPU and CPU process things, could someone enlighten me ?