We begin with 3DMark's synthetic graphics tests. More than likely, you already guessed that AMD's graphics engine would trump Intel's HD Graphics 4600 solution. But can the updated Steamroller architecture stand up to the efficient Haswell design?

Futuremark's Cloud Gate benchmark humbles this specific implementation of Kaveri, which features two Steamroller modules in what AMD likes to call a quad-core configuration. Because the Core i7 is a Hyper-Threaded quad-core solution, scheduling eight threads at a time, it has little trouble dominating. The Ice Storm Unlimited metric is a little more forgiving to AMD.

In both tests, AMD presents a compelling graphics story. However, Intel gets the aggregate advantage due to its superior execution cores.
AMD claims that Kaveri can hang with Haswell when it comes to PCMark's Home suite, though. How does that one pan out?

Indeed, the FX establishes a slight advantage. This is probably a fairly accurate reflection of the user experience in simpler tasks that don't come close to touching the APU's thermal ceiling.

Sandra's Arithmetic module helps quantify the theoretical superiority of Intel's x86 logic, which we already know to be quite fast in single-threaded and more parallelized workloads. But...

If we go the other way to show what AMD's OpenCL efforts enable, the combined potential of host processing and graphics together heavily favor the FX processor.
Granted, there still aren't many OpenCL-accelerated apps. However, the situation is changing slowly. Though it's safe to say that most software benefits more from Intel's efficient architecture, we've seen a number of tasks sped-up dramatically by optimizations for general-purpose computing on graphics hardware. AMD needs to continue beating that drum if it hopes to change the way software is programmed.
That's enough for their 8-core chips to catch up or surpass current i5s, right?
I sure hope not. North Bridges and HT Link are so 5 years ago.
That's enough for their 8-core chips to catch up or surpass current i5s, right?
I agree, though it still makes sense to keep one demanding game in the test suite to give perspective on where this hardware stands compared to dedicated graphics cards and high-end CPUs.
1080p and demanding games are not good benchmarks for this GPUs you must use less demanding games or test lower resolutions It is not the same benchmarking F1s than Nascars or electric cars
That's why we used Dota2, Grid2, and WoW... they have low system requirements, and ran fine.
Mantle only shows an advantage in Battlefield 4 in rare cases, regardless of the driver. The game also requires a ton of VRAM for Mantle to show a gain instead of a loss. I have an in-depth analysis coming soon.
Having said that, Thief shows impressive gains across the board in Mantle.
1080p and demanding games are not good benchmarks for this GPUs you must use less demanding games or test lower resolutions It is not the same benchmarking F1s than Nascars or electric cars
We *did* use 720p where the graphics processor couldn't handle it... in Battlefield 4
The FX-7600P worked fine at 1080p with Dota2, Grid2, and WoW, so why would we lower the resolution?
I take great pride in testing at real-world settings, and I often lower to 720p when 1080p is too demanding.
“That top-of-the-line FX-7600P is a completely functional Kaveri APU, with both of its Steamroller modules (four integer cores) and all 512 of its shaders enabled.”
“While AMD appears confident in the ULV Kaveri's ability to compete against Core i7-4500U, the higher TDP meant we needed to find an Intel-based platform with a comparable thermal ceiling. I tapped the 37 W Core i7-4702MQ within Acer's Aspire V3.”
37 W Core i7-4702MQ this a 380$ dollar part……….. way more than Kaveri
No Firestrike score.
I would prefer different benchmarks.
“AMD is trying to give the impression of fast, responsive performance, and our sample does seem to achieve that.”
“That top-of-the-line FX-7600P is a completely functional Kaveri APU, with both of its Steamroller modules (four integer cores) and all 512 of its shaders enabled.”
“While AMD appears confident in the ULV Kaveri's ability to compete against Core i7-4500U, the higher TDP meant we needed to find an Intel-based platform with a comparable thermal ceiling. I tapped the 37 W Core i7-4702MQ within Acer's Aspire V3.”
37 W Core i7-4702MQ this a 380$ dollar part……….. way more than Kaveri
No Firestrike score.
I would prefer different benchmarks
Hi h2323, great to see you again. I took the liberty of erasing your unproductive rhetoric to address your actual concerns:
1. You've listed the top three quotes with no comments beside them. Not sure what kind of point you're trying to make, there. Does that mean you like them?
2. AMD didn't provide pricing, so we compared a mobile Core i7 part with similar wattage AS PER AMD's DIRECTION. If you disagree with their decision, I encourage you to contact their PR team.
3. I can only assume you have no idea what Firestrike is for. As per Futuremark:
"Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today's high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today."
Mobile integrated GPUs are not "high performance gaming PCs". Would you find it valuable to see benchmark results of a slideshow? We wouldn't.
4. You indicated that you would prefer different benchmarks, but didn't mention which ones, or why?
Have a great day!
Granted most of the tests in that review focus on gaming but AMD's not half bad in everyday tasks. Considering the price of i7-4702MQ, I feel its too expensive to be compared.