[section_title title=”Conclusion”]Conclusion

Now that we have had a closer look and ran some benchmarks; are these APUs a worthy purchase? Do the specifications on paper live up to worthy real world standards? There is only one way to find out but first, let’s take a look at the difference between the AMD A10-7850K and A10-7700K APUs.

Comparing the APUs against one another there really is not too big of a difference in any aspect. The 7850K offers a 300MHz higher clock speed and 2 extra compute units. In terms of real world performance this equates to a very small gain. When running benchmarks such as AIDA 64, x264 and SiSoftware Sandra we see a very minimal gain on paper and the real world merits of this difference is most likely unnoticeable. When comparing 3D benchmarks the extra 2 GPU cores do show around a 10% gain on paper and would be more noticeable in some games than others. However, is the roughly 10% performance gain enough to justify the almost 20% price increase on the 7850K over the 7700K.

Looking at the APUs on an individual basis; they are both more than capable of playing most modern games on medium settings at 1080p without the need for a dedicated graphics card. One of the best features is the fact that both of these APUs Graphics Cores are based on the AMD Radeon R7 Graphics; more specifically the R7 250. What this means is that you can purchase a dedicated graphics card in the form of an AMD R7 240 or 250 and Crossfire it with the APU itself, thus allowing for better performance. While I did not run a direct comparison when using a dedicated graphics card in Crossfire, I can tell you that pairing a 2GB GDDR3 AMD R7 250 with either one of these APUs will yield you around a 50% gain in frames per second when gaming. If you ask me, that is not a bad result, considering the R7 250 GPUs can be had for around £70 new, or even better, around £40 2nd hand making a Kaveri based gaming computer a viable option if you are looking for a mid-range rig.

In terms of overall performance when compared to the likes of Intel and the AMD Piledriver FX CPUs is where we may get let down. This is definitely where things will get tricky and will come down to an individual user requirement basis to keep its viability or not. If you are looking to build a HTPC or just a general computer for basic use with the option of maybe playing the odd game or two, this is definitely a good choice as it will of course leave you room to upgrade in the future should the need arise. However let us not forget that when you Crossfire these APUs with the likes of a R7 250 you have a decent mid-range(ish) gaming PC.

If you are looking for a mid to high-range gaming PC is where you may want to look elsewhere. While these APUs would be compatible with top-end graphics cards; would it really be worth it? The answer in my opinion is no. If you are going to put a top-end GPU in your system this will render the APU’s R7 graphics cores pointless and unnecessary. Also in terms of price there may be more viable options if you do not need the on-package GPU. For instance, the AMD Piledriver FX-8320 is an Octa-core CPU and is around the same price as the 7700K and would most likely perform better with a dedicated GPU, especially if you wanted to use a NVIDIA GPU.

Overall the Kaveri A10-7850K and 7700K do what they say on the box and as mentioned, it will come down to each individual’s requirements as to whether they are a worthy buy or not. They offer good compute performance and their integration on discrete R7 graphics cores is definitely a plus if you are not sure whether or not you want to add a dedicated graphics card. All in all, I think AMD have brought a decent offering to the table in the way of their Kaveri APUs and they are definitely worth a look if you are contemplating a mid-range gaming computer.

With all that being said I would recommend either the 7850K or 7700K to those looking for a good all-around chip that offers a decent graphical experience and would like to give them our silver award. It will come down to the individual user if they feel the performance gain of the 7850K is justifiable in terms of the added on price.

I would like to thank ASRock and AMD for sending me these samples to test.

 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Previous articleGamersyde Launches 1080p60 Video Hosting
Next articleThermaltake – Tt eSPORTS and Luxa2 at COMPUTEX 2014

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

21 COMMENTS

  3. Thanks for this awesome review and the amazing game. From ……..[██████████=========~~~~~~D ..▂▄▅█████████▅▄▃▂ I███████████████████] & TOGOOTECH! .\_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_/ Blackheart909 Army!

  4. Thanks for this awesome review and the amazing game.
    From –
    ………[██████████=========~~~~~~D
    .▂▄▅█████████▅▄▃▂
    I███████████████████]
    ..\_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_/
    TOGOOTECH & Blackheart909 Army!

  5. Thanks for this awesome review and the amazing game. From ……..[██████████=========~~~~~~D ..▂▄▅█████████▅▄▃▂ I███████████████████] & TOGOOTECH! .\_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_/ Blackheart909 Army!”

  7. Thanks for this awesome review and the amazing game. From ……..[██████████=========~~~~~~D ..▂▄▅█████████▅▄▃▂ I███████████████████] & TOGOOTECH! ._@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_/ Blackheart909 Army!

  8. Thanks for this awesome review and the amazing game.
    From –
    ………[██████████=========~~~~~~D
    .▂▄▅█████████▅▄▃▂
    I███████████████████]
    ..\_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_/
    TOGOOTECH & Blackheart909 Army!

  10. Thanks for this awesome review and the amazing game. From
    ……..[██████████=========~~~~~~D
    ..▂▄▅█████████▅▄▃▂
    I███████████████████] & TOGOOTECH!
    .\_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_/ Blackheart909 Army!”

  11. Thanks for this awesome review and the amazing game. From ……..[██████████=========~~~~~~D ..▂▄▅█████████▅▄▃▂ I███████████████████] & TOGOOTECH! .\_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_/ Blackheart909 Army!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.