I want high performance at a low cost

I suppose the next logical question.. is there any REAL reason to avoid AMD? Or is it Nvidia fanboys? I chose Nvidia because I wanted the "best", but now I'm looking for "best value" yet some people on GameFAQs are still trying to tell me even at the lower price range that I should go with Nvidia because AMD's drivers suck.

AMD drivers dont suck, they were worse than Nvidia like a year ago.. Sooner or later someone has a bit better drivers also from what I know Nvidia has less options in drivers than AMD and AMD ones are getting constant updates every week or two soo. Avoid those fanboys, get nvidia only if you want to do video editing with programs that support CUDA.

Dont use it on AMD APU platform. Its useless since you can crossfire it with AMD APU.

Only AMD APUs and GPUs can Crossfire together. You would get a boost, but the 6670 1GB is ancient. If you are going to add a discrete GPU to Crossfire, I would recommend the 7770. It is  very inexpensive and will perform much better than the 6670.

Not true.  Listen, APUs will go into dual graphics with similar GPU core designs.  You can't mix and match APUs with random AMD Radeon GPUs.  there are very specific cards that can go into dual graphics with an APU.

an A10-5800k can go into dual graphics with other "Turks" GPU processor cores... and since it's closest in design and performance to the HD 6670; you'll get the best "dual graphics" result from matching it with one.

 

Matching an A10 with any other type of gpu core from either amd or nvidia will result in nothing.  it simply won't go into dual graphics.  Just run off the discrete GPU.  An a10-5800k + HD 6670 = roughly the performance of a 650ti. (or somewhere between a 7770 and a 7850).  If you want a gpu stronger then a 650ti, then i suggest you get a different CPU (like a FX 6300) and match it with the stronger GPU.

"Dont use it on AMD APU platform. Its useless since you can crossfire it with AMD APU."

Don't use what on AMD APU? Do you mean Nvidia because you can't crossfire? That was a little unclear, but I think that's what you meant.

And how long would such a AMD APU Crossfire build last me? About 3 or 4 years? Is there any fear that APUs are a fad? I quite like the idea of doing a Crossfire setup for cheaper.

And someone else warned me about micro stuttering with Crossfire/SLI. Is that a huge deal? Would I be better off going with something like AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black and the HD 7770?

Don't use what on AMD APU? Do you mean Nvidia because you can't crossfire? That was a little unclear, but I think that's what you meant.

And how long would such a AMD APU Crossfire build last me? About 3 or 4 years? Is there any fear that APUs are a fad? I quite like the idea of doing a Crossfire setup for cheaper.

And someone else warned me about micro stuttering with Crossfire/SLI. Is that a huge deal? Would I be better off going with something like AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black and the HD 7770?

AMD seems to be going "all in" on the APU.  They're planning two more APU releases this year alone (to go with the 2 last year, making 4 generations in 24 months).  Considering it's their APU tech that landed them the P4 and Xbox 720, and the full court press they're putting on software devs to take advantage of the onboard GPU in general CPU calculation tasks, I'd say AMD is banking their future PC/Laptop market on this tech.  Heck they're even working on using this tech in smartphones and tablets... so i'd say they're all in.

AMD's future progression with the APU will be to more more and more of the motherboard functionality onto the CPU itself.

 

Now, as for future upgradability... AMD generally takes great pains to keep their sockets backward compatable.  for now (atleast the next 2 apu generations) the FM2 socket should be good to go.  There is talk of an FM3 socket when DDR4 comes out... and the APU will really benifit from DDR4... but even if FM3 comes out for DDR4 compatibility, it's highly likely an FM3 APU will be backward compatible with an FM2 motherboard.  Such as how you can plug an AM3 phenom II x4 765 into an AM3+ motherboard, or even AM2+ or AM2 motherboards (assuming the proper bios updates).

Of course with more and more MB functionality being planned for moving onto the CPU there will come a point where AMD will likely be forced to start a radical new socket design to allow for this type of chip.   Soemthing to keep in mind going forward... That said we should be seeing something silly like 40% better performance from the APUs by the end of the year.  That type of boost in performance should make them viable mid ranged gaming options.

 

Ah, a 40% boost is pretty badass. As for micro-stuttering in Crossfire/SLI, is that a huge problem? Is there an easy way to reduce it?

I don't think I'm gonna buy a new rig for the next couple years, so I'm gonna stop worrying about all these parts, but it's nice to know I can build a really good setup for like $500-600 instead of the ridiculous $1400 I spent on my current one.

Stuttering is not a problem if you have a good setup, some games dont support well Dual Graphics so you will need to turn it off and in some if you got enabled you get less FPS because its not compatible like Unreal engine that is more friendly with Nvidia's SLI, but overall AMD is better if you play really triple AAA games that are focused on both AMD and Nvidia GPU's. Dont worry about Antec powersupply, some people just underrate them.

microstuttering isn't a problem i've seen with the a10... 

 

That said dual graphics only really works with directx 11... so games based on the older directx structure won't get the benefit.

When the new APUs come out by the end of the year, are they gonna be more expensive? Or will the current line drop in price and the new line around the same price as current? I think Imma wait til the end of the year for the ones with the 40% increase in performance and that will be my little Christmas present to myself.

And can someone explain to me why I need 8 GB RAM instead of 4 RAM if I'm going only APU? What is the performance gain that the extra 4 GB will give me? Or is that too hard to explain in layman's terms? 

When the new APUs come out by the end of the year, are they gonna be more expensive? Or will the current line drop in price and the new line around the same price as current? I think Imma wait til the end of the year for the ones with the 40% increase in performance and that will be my little Christmas present to myself.

And can someone explain to me why I need 8 GB RAM instead of 4 RAM if I'm going only APU? What is the performance gain that the extra 4 GB will give me? Or is that too hard to explain in layman's terms? 

No idea on prices.  I expect with anything approaching a 40% boost in top end performance we will probably see some price increase; as AMD seems to be pricing thier chips "competitively" to some supposed intel equivalent or competition.  For example... the A10-5800k was priced to be "competitive" with an i3-3225, and at $15-$25 with about 20% less cpu strength and about 80% stronger GPU power then the i3-3225's HD4000 it is a pretty good bargain.

As to ram... remember the APU will run it's video ram off your system ram.  You can chose in the bios how much of your system ram you want to give it, so something like 1 or 2 gb on an a10-5800k would probably be all you'd need to share.  Ultimately, it will come down to how many monitors and their size/resolution which will determine how much ram you'll need.  I can't envision, even with the boost in performance they're promising that will come, you'll need more then 2gb of dedicated video ram.

 

After that it comes down to what you need for your system.  Generally speaking 6gb should futureproof you nicely... and with how dirt cheep ram is, it doesn't' hurt to buy 8gigs total ram.

I'll be gaming at something normal like 1080p max on one monitor. Nothing fancy. :)

Will more RAM increase my frame rate?

FRAME RATES OVER GRAPHICS DOES NOT EXIST IT IS THE SAME THING I AM SO TIRED OF SEEING THAT.

well... depending on the physical size of the screen and resolution... you could need anywhere from 1gb to 2gb.  If you're planning on using Vsync... or encoding... or... well any number of things can eat up your vram.  2gbs should future proof you.  if you're getting an hd 6670 for dual graphics then you could get away with 1gb of system ram being dedicated to your APU's graphics.