i been wondering for a while why there are those who turn away from the apu. i see intel and amd both putting gpu in to the cpu and not much of cpu. so what is going on?
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by your question, but APU's are designed to give you an entry-level gaming platform. Pair an APU with some fast memory, and you've got a decent little gaming machine. Obviously, you'll probably have to play most current games on medium or low, but you're still able to at least play games.
I think people tend to not go with APU systems is because they'd rather spend a little more money and get something a little more serious in terms of gaming power. Sure, you can always add a low-end graphics card to the APU system to run in dual graphics mode; that will actually give you some pretty decent gaming performance. For the same amount of money, however, I've found that you can usually build a more powerful system with at least an FX CPU and a dedicated graphics card. I think if they priced the platform with dual graphics in mind, so that it would still be significantly cheaper than running an FX CPU and something like a GTX 750 or an AMD R7 card, then you would probably see more people buying them.
The problem is that an APU on its own may be sufficient to play some games but won't necessarily be a satisfying experience, and if you're going to run it in dual graphics with some higher quality RAM, then you may as well just grab a better CPU and a dedicated graphics card.
People don't like APU's because they want better performance than an APU can deliver. An APU vs a similarly priced cpu+gpu system is usually a bad choice. The APU can usually pull medium settings on 720p in modern games. Where a well done cpu+gpu system can usually pull the same settings as the APU, but in 1080p. For comparison
Cpu+gpu: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3zdkM
That could pull low-medium settings in 99% of games in 1080p
Apu: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3zdpg
Medium-low settings in 720p modern games
$8 difference and a whole resolution jump up for the cpu+gpu system
Yup. That's why I can't really take APU systems too seriously right now. There's just too much incentive to get a better CPU and dedicated GPU for around the same amount of cash.
My only application would be extremely low budgets of a media pc
if you don't plan to get a dedicated gpu than an apu is a good way to go.
thank you for commeting
Exactly. I'm in the process of choosing my parts while I save money for a PC, but the only reason I'd choose an APU is to save money. Because an A8 or A10 w/o a graphics card is very cheap, compared to a 200+ GPU and a 70+ CPU combo. But, if I end up getting an APU, I'd replace it with an Athlon X4 750k because it uses the same socket, it's cheap and allows me to get an MSI R9 270 Gaming.
APUs IMO are a very good idea, however like every idea it has to start somewhere and as a result its usually not that good.
As the GPU is now on the same chip as the CPU, there are some advantages and disadvantages. The main reason there usually isn't something stupidly powerful (either GPU or CPU) on an APU is due to the power delivery. A GPU when beefier draws A LOT of power. Which maybe more than what Intel or AMD are willing to push through the CPU socket.
Give it time and the CPU and GPUs will become more powerful.
The main advantages are not just for gaming. As there is now a GPU on the CPU, it can do trivial tasks that can be offloaded to it. As Intel has demonstrated, with there iGPU you can offload media encoding to it whilst streaming. Effectivley leaving nearly all your CPU and GPU grunt to actually process what you are streaming.
There are architectural benefits as well, as the GPU is no longer on the PCI-e bus the latency to it is much lower and as AMD has shown with the Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) the GPU shares the same RAM the CPU is using. Time waiting for a resource to be passed from the CPU RAM to the GPUs RAM is now gone as the GPU can already access the CPU RAM (and visa versa).
If you are looking for an all out balls to the wall gaming experience, No APUs aren't there yet. But if your looking for a cheaper gaming rig or just a simple office machine then they are currently the best bang for the buck.
i was thinking this for a cheap mobile rig. something i can take on vacation instead of a laptop. play some mid level games.
Wow.Now my explanation.First see this video - [Video]. Now you see the difference between the two.Now understand this.These are the types of chips that go into Laptops,Tablets as well as Cellphones.These are the types of chips going into the PS4 and XBOX ONE.The issue i have with them is they use the same graphics chips.The 660 types.Now if you do not know ill explain that as well.
The 660 is based on the ATI 7660.Anyone known using this type of chip knows it sucks on 1080P screens.It just does not have the horsepower.But people who use Intel expect the same type of performance.But they are far from AMD's level.Yes you can go ahead an hate on me but the video shows what i am talking about.
So here is what the issue is.These new chips are very powerful for 1600 an 1300 screens.Giving 60 to 90fps.When Intel tried very hard to release theirs with the same level of power.I know this because i bough 2 laptops an did not see a performance boost until i got the AMD APU one.
The companies are competing.They know there is a Major market for Laptops so they are trying to push out the best laptops.The reason people are turning away from APUs is because of Fanboys and Hype.They have that much of an impact to people who know nothing about a product.So the end result is a product can be great.But hidden in a store.While another system that is not good can be flooded in a store.You can try this experiment yourself.Go to a Best Buy.An remember they are required to sell AMD systems.
Here is what you will see.ALL rows covered in Intel products.remember the video.Then look for AMD products.You will find them hidden.Or claimed to be in the Back room.Just because something is good does not necessarily mean it will be popular.So the competition will continue.An while this is happening.The companies will no stop putting out APUs.They are determined to get them out there.That is why there main focus is not on CPUs.
Last review I read about AMD's APUs (Kaveri) it said that a 7850k is about as expensive as a similar performing CPU + GPU, while the 7700k is cheaper than a CPU + GPU combination that would yield the same performance in games. This information might be outdated.
Basically, if you are very low on cash, the AMD APUs make sense, Intel's are a waste of money for gaming.
If you have more to spend than what the 7850k costs then you're better off with a CPU and a discrete GPU.
I'm not throwing HSA into the equation, mind you. With certain HSA optimized software (other than games) you would notice a drastic increase in speed over even an Intel i7, BUT, the big BUT, this kind of support is a long way from being available on Windows, and on linux the next version of Fedora, Fedora 21, will have a lot of HSA features enabled.