I have been seeing alot about AMD's APU chips. I was xurious about which is better the cpu or an apu. Also what exactly is the big deal about them.
Their APU's have very good iGPUs, but it's usually better to get a CPU + dGPU, such as the Athlon 860k and an R7 265 or R9 270. I think their CPUs are generally good for budget builds, but generally I would recommend Intel.
An APU is a CPU with integrated graphics. Which is "better" depends on what you're trying to do with it. The integrated graphics would be perfect for Minecraft or other such casual games. Most APUs come with a quad-core CPU, which is roughly equal to the FX-4300 CPU, maybe just a bit slower. If you're going to use dedicated graphics, and you probably will, there is no reason to spend the extra money on the APU. There are some way-specialized, power-user uses for the Kaveri APUs, even if you have a dedicated GPU, but none of those apply to gaming.
As for Intel vs AMD for CPUs, do not underestimate the speed of an AMD CPU, even on single-threaded workloads. An Athlon 860k costs 90usd, has a kickass selection of fully-featured motherboards, and will run most games excellently, even paired with a 280X or 770. If you're not buying an enthusiast-grade GPU, there is little reason to buy a more expensive CPU. If you are, you want an AMD FX-8xxx or i5. Only multiple top-end GPUs in SLi/xfire would be bottlenecked by an 8350, and even then, only by a bit. An i5 is faster, but is also way more CPU than is generally needed for gaming.
They each serve a different purpose.
APU is just a acronym for Accelerated Processing Unit. A few years ago AMD started making processors with better integrated graphics because processors before this time with intergrated graphics were only good for word documents, web browsing and watching movies. An APU is still just a processor but AMD calls there processors with integrated graphic an APU.
An APU is good for all the typical graphical tasks and entry level gaming and even some mid level gaming with the newer AMD 7850k APU.
If your looking to play video games at a mid level or higher you will need a CPU and Video Card like mentioned in the previous post.
APUs serve a nitch in the budget gaming PC and home theater PC market.
AMD has other plans for APUs as well such as HSA which will be a hybrid utilization of both the CPU and Integrated Graphics for processing power in serial and parallel processing tasks. But HSA is still a few years brown the road.
Basically good for budget media PCs and low end gamers or the perfect PC for Mom lol