AMD A10-7850K And A8-7600: Kaveri Gives Us A Taste Of HSA

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We've spent the days following CES benchmarking two of AMD's new Kaveri-based APUs. Do the Steamroller x86 architecture, GCN graphics design, and HSA-oriented features impress, or do they come up short against Intel's value-oriented Haswell-based parts?

Test Hardware And Software

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Test Hardware
ProcessorsAMD A10-7850K (Kaveri) 3.7 GHz, Four Cores, Socket FM2+, 4 MB Shared L2, 512 Shaders, 720 MHz GPU Clock Rate, Power-savings enabled
Row 1 - Cell 0 AMD A8-7600 (Kaveri) 3.3 GHz, Four Cores, Socket FM2+, 4 MB Shared L2, 384 Shaders, 720 MHz GPU Clock Rate, Power-savings enabled
Row 2 - Cell 0 AMD A10-6800K (Richland) 4.1 GHz, Four Cores, Socket FM2, 4 MB Shared L2, 384 Shaders, 844 MHz GPU Clock Rate, Power-savings enabled
Row 3 - Cell 0 AMD A8-6500T (Richland) 2.1 GHz, Four Cores, Socket FM2, 4 MB Shared L2, 256 Shaders, 720 MHz GPU Clock Rate, Power-savings enabled
Row 4 - Cell 0 Intel Core i5-4670K (Haswell) 3.4 GHz, Four Cores, LGA 1150, 6 MB Shared L3, HD Graphics 4600, 1.2 GHz Max. GPU Clock Rate, Power-savings enabled
Row 5 - Cell 0 Intel Core i3-4330 (Haswell) 3.5 GHz, Two Cores, LGA 1150, 4 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, HD Graphics 4600, 1.15 GHz Max. GPU Clock Rate, Power-savings enabled
MotherboardsASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ (Socket FM2+) AMD A88X Fusion Controller Hub, BIOS 1.90
Row 7 - Cell 0 MSI Z87I Gaming AC (LGA 1150) Intel Z87 Platform Controller Hub, BIOS 1.0
MemoryAMD Radeon Memory (2 x 8 GB) DDR3-2133 10-11-11-30, AG316G2130U2K
Row 9 - Cell 0 G.Skill Ripjaws X (2 x 8 GB) DDR3-2133 9-11-10-28, F3-17000CL9Q-16GBXM
Hard DriveSamsung 840 Pro 256 GB SATA 6 Gb/s
Power SupplyCorsair AX860i 80 PLUS Platinum-Rated
System Software And Drivers
Operating SystemWindows 8 Professional 64-bit
DirectXDirectX 11
Graphics DriverAMD Catalyst 13.30 RC2
Row 16 - Cell 0 Intel 15.33.8.64.3345
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Benchmark Configuration
Gaming
BioShock InfiniteMedium Quality Settings, 1920x1080, Built-in Benchmark Sequence, 75-Second playback, Fraps
Grid 2Medium Quality Preset, 2x MSAA, V-sync off, 1920x1080, Built-In Benchmark, Fraps
The Elder Scrolls V: SkyrimMedium Quality Preset, FXAA Disabled, 1920x1080, Custom Run-Through, 25-Second playback, Fraps
World of Warcraft: Mists of PandariaGood Quality Preset, DirectX 11, 1920x1080, Flight Point Recording, Fraps
Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe After Effects CCVersion 12.0.0.404 x64: Create Video which includes three Streams, 210 Frames, Render Multiple Frames Simultaneosly
Adobe Photoshop CCVersion 14.0 x64: Filter 15.7 MB TIF Image: Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates
Adobe Premeire Pro CCVersion 7.0.0, 6.61 GB MXF Project to H.264 to H.264 Blu-ray, Output 1920x1080, Maximum Quality
Audio/Video Encoding
iTunesVersion 11.0.4.4 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)
HandBrake CLIVersion: 0.9.9: Video from Canon EOS 7D (1920x1080, 25 FPS) 1 Minutes 22 Seconds Audio: PCM-S16, 48,000 Hz, Two-Channel, to Video: AVC1 Audio: AAC (High Profile)
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: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV
Productivity
ABBYY FineReaderVersion 11.0.102.583: Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages
Adobe Acrobat XIVersion 11.0.0: Print PDF from 115 Page PowerPoint, 128-bit RC4 Encryption
Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 and 2013Version 14.0 x64: Space Flyby Mentalray, 248 Frames, 1440x1080
BlenderVersion: 2.68a, Cycles Engine, Syntax blender -b thg.blend -f 1, 1920x1080, 8x Anti-Aliasing, Render THG.blend frame 1
Visual Studio 2010Version 10.0, Compile Google Chrome, Scripted
CinebenchCinebench R15.0 CPU Component
File Compression
WinZipVersion 18.0 Pro: THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to ZIP, command line switches "-a -ez -p -r"
WinRARVersion 5.0: THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to RAR, command line switches "winrar a -r -m3"
7-ZipVersion 9.30 Alpha: THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5"
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
3DMarkVersion: 1.2.250, Cloud Gate
PCMark 8Version: 2.0, Home (OpenCL-Accelerated), Creative (OpenCL-Accelerated), Work
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
172 Comments Comment from the forums
  • vipervoid1
    Somethings with Diagram u provided at page 9 ~ Core i5 4760k @@Please fix that ~
    Reply
  • Someone Somewhere
    Yeah, almost all the diagrams refer to the 4760K.

    Given that AM3+ looks like it's done, it would have been nice to see a 6-core chip. Still, one of these may end up in my next laptop.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    Will get the charts fixed shortly--thanks for the catch!
    Reply
  • spp85
    A10-7850k is slower than A10-6800K ?? WTF. Its all hype than actual performance to the table. Even on OpenCL GPU accelerated apps doesn't have any advantage with A10-7850k over i5 or sometimes i3 CPUs. Hopeless is what I feel about AMD CPUs.
    Reply
  • Someone Somewhere
    12454254 said:
    A10-7850k is slower than A10-6800K ?? WTF.

    I got the opposite impression. Which graph are you looking at?
    Reply
  • Jaroslav Jandek
    Thank you for the article (especially the power consumption measurements), Chris. It is definitely an improvement over Richland but kind of boring (disappointingly expectable).

    I really like where AMD is going (HSA, GCN and TrueAudio).Too bad the manufacturing process of GlobalFoundries just can't match Intel's.

    Also, it would be interesting to see the new Bay Trail Pentium or Celeron CPUs (whichever is closer in performance) in the Efficiency graphs.
    Reply
  • Someone Somewhere
    I'm fairly sure that this is on TSMC's 28nm node. GlobalFoundries can't do that yet; this is on the same process used for AMD GPUs currently.
    Reply
  • Jaroslav Jandek
    12454280 said:
    I'm fairly sure that this is on TSMC's 28nm node. GlobalFoundries can't do that yet; this is on the same process used for AMD GPUs currently.
    28nm SHP from GlobalFoundries. AMD bought over $1 billion worth of wafers from them in december...

    I guess you have been reading the articles from a year ago about AMD still using TSMC despite promises of GlobalFoundries' new 28nm SHP process.
    Reply
  • jacobian
    I don't really believe into the whole HSA smoke-screen. By the time HSA-enabled apps take off, you will be ready to upgrade from your CPU again. The one terrible truth that stands out right now is that at current prices, the flagship Kaveri A10 doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Kaveri A8? Maybe. Richland A10-6790K? Perhaps. But the Kaveri A10 at $180 is a just a joke, specially after all that hype.
    Reply
  • Someone Somewhere
    CPUs are usually released at ridiculous prices, and come down over a month or two.
    Reply