AMD A10-6700 And A10-6800K Review: Richland Hits The Desktop

Test Setup And Benchmarks

We're testing the Richland-based A10-6700 and A10-6800K APUs against their predecessor, AMD's Trinity-based A10-5800K. We have an Ivy Bridge-based Core i3-3220 in our Canadian lab with HD Graphics 2500. Unfortunately, we didn't have an opportunity to snag a Core i3-3225 before leaving for Computex, so the comparison to HD Graphics 4000 will have to wait.

The good news is our testing facility in Hillsboro, Oregon already ran the numbers comparing both Core i3 chips and A10-5800K. The pertinent data can be found in Gaming At 1920x1080: AMD's Trinity Takes On Intel HD Graphics. For the time being, Core i3-3220 reflects the x86 performance of both Intel chips in today's tests, and in the same $130-150 price range these new Richland-based APUs are expected to sell for.

In order to maximize performance in our game tests, we used DDR3-1866 and -2133 data rates, which are the highest officially-supported settings on AMD's new APUs. In addition, we included results with a discrete Radeon HD 6670 DDR3, a baseline mainstream gaming card.

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Header Cell - Column 0 Socket FM2LGA 1155
CPUAMD A10-6800K (Richland) 4.1 GHz Base, 4.4 GHz Turbo Core w/ Radeon HD 8670D (844 MHz)AMD A10-6700 (Richland) 3.7 GHz Base, 4.3 GHz Turbo Core w/ Radeon HD 8670D (844 MHz)AMD A10-5800K (Trinity) 3.8 GHz Base, 4.2 GHz Turbo Core w/ Radeon HD 7660D (800 MHz)Intel Core i3-3220 (Ivy Bridge), 3.3 GHz, Hyper-Threading enabled w/ Intel HD 2500
MotherboardASRock FM2A85XSocket FM2, Chipset: AMD A85Asus P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155, Chipset: Intel Z77M
NetworkingOn-Board Gigabit LAN controller
MemoryAMD Gamer Series Memory, 2 x 4 GB, 1866 MT/s, CL 9-9-9-34-2TOverclocked: 2133 MT/s, CL 10-11-11-28
GraphicsAMD Radeon HD 6670 DDR3800 MHz GPU, 1 GB GDDR5 at 800 MHz (1600 MHz effective)
Hard DriveWestern Digital Caviar Black 750 GB 7,200 RPM, 32 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s
PowerePower EP-1200E10-T2 1,200 W ATX12V, EPS12V
Software and Drivers
Operating SystemMicrosoft Windows 8 Pro x64
DirectXDirectX 11
Graphics DriversAMD Catalyst 13.6 Beta; Intel HD Graphics Driver 15.31.3.64.3071

And here are the benchmark details:

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Benchmark Configuration
3D Games
Metro: Last LightVersion 1.0.0.0, DirectX 10, Built-in Benchmark
The Elder Scrolls V: SkyrimVersion 1.6.89.06, Version 1.5.26.05, 25-Sec. Fraps
Tomb RaiderVersion 1.04, Custom THG Benchmark, 60-Sec. Fraps
F1 2012Version 1.2, Direct X 11, Built-in Benchmark, 60-Sec. Fraps
Audio/Video Encoding
HandBrake CLIVersion: 0.98, Video: Video from Canon EOS 7D (1920x1080, 25 frames) 1 Minutes 22 Seconds, Audio: PCM-S16, 48,000 Hz, Two-Channel, to Video: AVC1 Audio: AAC (High Profile)
iTunesVersion 10.4.1.10 x64: Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 minutes, default AAC format
Lame MP3Version 3.98.3: Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s)
TotalCode Studio 2.5Version: 2.5.0.10677, MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio:MPEG2 (44.1 kHz, Two-Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s) Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV
Productivity
ABBYY FineReaderVersion 10.0.102.82: Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages
Adobe Photoshop CS6Version 13 x64: Filter 15.7 MB TIF Image: Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates
Autodesk 3ds Max 2013Version 14.0 x64: Space Flyby Mentalray, 248 Frames, 1440x1080
7-ZipVersion 9.28, LZMA2, Syntax "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5" Benchmark: THG-Workload-2012
WinRARVersion 4.2, RAR, Syntax "winrar a -r -m3" Benchmark: THG-Workload-2012
WinZipVersion 17.0 Pro, Best Method, ZIPX Benchmark: THG-Workload-2012
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
3DMark 11Version: 1.0.1, Entry, Performance, Extreme Suite
PCMark 7Version: 1.0.4, System, Productivity, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks
SiSoftware Sandra 2012Version: 2012 SP5c-1872, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / MultiMedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark
  • Novuake
    VLIW4... Are you kidding me??? WHen is that gonna be scrapped...
    Reply
  • esrever
    Numbering has never been for the architecture inside the chips. They have always been marketing for the current line of products. Normal people buy a laptop, they see the number, they get the performance associated with said number and they don't care about the inside of the chip. Richland is just a trinity refresh with better power management and higher clocks.
    Reply
  • griptwister
    AMD, Good show! Now, release Kaveri Already! I need a new SteamRoller CPU!
    Reply
  • tului
    They say it's VLIW4 then say it's GCN. They can't be both can they?
    Reply
  • songorocosongo
    The 6800k is good, but I expected it to be a little more powerful.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    No temps with power metrics page? 8(
    I guess Richland is still very hot going by the power figures alone. Still, it's a good step up (and stop gap) for AMD.
    Nice review still. Are you guys planning on a follow up for Dual Graphics? 8)
    Cheers!
    Reply
  • kfronda26
    This is dumb. Still 6670 max card for dual graphics. Disappointing.
    Reply
  • Wes Young
    10920935 said:
    This is dumb. Still 6670 max card for dual graphics. Disappointing.

    No, since driver 13.1 even the 5800k was able to run dual graphics with a HD 7750. I am typing on a system with that exact setup right now. I am not sure if the 6800k will allow anything above the 7750 though. When I tried a 7770 with the 5800k I wasn't given the option to enable dual graphics.
    Reply
  • unknown9122
    AMD swings and misses once again.
    Reply
  • unknown9122
    AMD swings and misses once again.
    Reply