AMD A10-5800K & A8-5600K Review: Trinity on the Desktop, Part 2
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 2, 2012 1:45 AM ESTDiscrete GPU Gaming Performance
Although likely not the target market for someone buying a Trinity APU, we looked at performance of AMD's latest APU when paired with a high-end discrete GPU. The end result is a total loss for Trinity. If you're going to use processor graphics Trinity is a clear winner, but if you plan on pairing the APU with a high end discrete GPU you're much better off with the Core i3 3220.
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delirious7 - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
also forgot to mention that one ivy bridge pentium has been out for a while now. the G2120. it is retailing for $100 on newegg.bill4 - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
"Can easily upgrade down the line" pretty much misses the point imo.Theoretically, this thing might be for casuals who are never going to upgrade, or people who need to pinch every last penny, or people who want a general purpose machine that isn't a total dog when they wanna game now and again, etc.
LancerVI - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
THIS^^^I agree 100%. Trinity is perfect for a great kids/wife general use computer. Websurfing and minecraft or wizard 101.
As long as they stay off my machine, we're good!
Spunjji - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
Yes, but you shouldn't expect people who didn't even read the conclusion to the article to pay any attention to what you have to say here. :(parkerm35 - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
$70 will get you a nice GT630 which is slower than the 7660D! And then when it comes to threaded tasks, you will be left waiting an eternity. Nice plan....ac2 - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
Actually I said "That puts a $50 saving towards...", I certainly didn't say that would be the total price!Highly threaded integer tasks are a rarity for me so...
CaptainDoug - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
why'd you pick a GT630? there's a 6670 for $65 that's roughly twice as powerful as the GT630. It would end up being like 35% more powerful than a 7660D.Jamahl - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
Did you see how far the Pentium was behind in multi threading? It will not beat the A10 in gaming in most cases but feel free to waste money on a dual core if you want.mattlach - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
Multithreading is still mostly irrelevant in most Games.Yes, there are a couple of games that support it pretty well well (Battlefield 3, Civilization 5) but the vast majority of games out there are still of the "load one core 100% and load a second (and possibly third) core 15-20%" variety.
In these circumstances two fast cores are going to beat 4, 6 or 8 slow cores almost every time.
It's not about IPC, and its not about clock speed. It's about the combination of the two. Per core performance is still king, and I don't think this is going to change any time soon due to the difficulties involved in writing good multithreaded code, and Amdahls law.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahls_law )
bji - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
Yeah, but aren't *PC's* irrelevant in most Games?