Thoughts on Kaveri

[zenix12]

Well today is launch day for AMD's Kaveri but from what I've seen from early reviews is that it's really not that impressive. I've been wanting to buy this APU but I've been waiting to see what Linus and Slick's thoughts and review of this is because I really don't want to spend close to $200 for a processor that isn't as great as a i5-3570k because it's around the same price point since I am building a rig that can hopefully last me a long time.

 

So my question to the forum is, is this APU even worth it and do you think it will get a whole lot better in the future?

 

[Bluejay0]

I saw it could support 12 compute cores, I screamed. WE NEED FX KAVERI OR SOMETHING LIKE IT!!!

[Priller]

I saw it could support 12 compute cores, I screamed. WE NEED FX KAVERI OR SOMETHING LIKE IT!!!

 

There was a server grade APU in the roadmap so I wonder if a 8+ core APU is possible. 

[Jack.EXE]

Kaveri FX is much needed.

[Vitalius]

There was a server grade APU in the roadmap so I wonder if a 8+ core APU is possible. 

This is something I personally find exciting.

AMD's motherboards tend to support ECC RAM (server stuff). That plus a low power but high performance APU would be awesome.

[Humbug]

disappointed

 

clockspeeds have been lowered, does this mean steamroller does not clock as well as piledriver?

[Guest GRRigger]

apu has bright future, and we will definitly see better gpu performance with die shrink and tweaks, and

kaveri is for budget gamers who cannot buy ded. gpu because high prices

[Jumper118]

boring, not much improvement. i think the gpu is getting to the point where it really needs the extra bandwidth of gddr5. the cpu bit is still slow and nowhere near intel. 

[zenix12]

So we can all conclude that Kaveri is a dissapointment so I need some advice on buying a CPU for at least $200 or less. I'm willing to go intel at this point because I was willing to buy kaveri at it's price. GIve me your recomendations please and I'm definately going to overclock sooooooooo is it wise shelling out $200+ on a i5-3570k since it came out a while ago?

[Josurr]

So we can all conclude that Kaveri is a dissapointment so I need some advice on buying a CPU for at least $200 or less. I'm willing to go intel at this point because I was willing to buy kaveri at it's price. GIve me your recomendations please and I'm definately going to overclock sooooooooo is it wise shelling out $200+ on a i5-3570k since it came out a while ago?

The 3570k is still a great CPU, or you

could just wait to see what Intel offers this year if you wait

[paulsterio]

AMD really looks like they're losing more and more to Intel every day on both their FX and their APU series.

 

Their FX series haven't really been able to match Intel for a while now, given that the 8350 still fails to match the 3570K in most tasks (apart from ones that use more than 4 threads, but let's face it, there aren't many), it just doesn't have the legs to compete with the 4670K, let alone the 4770K. On top of that, AMD doesn't really have anything higher-end than the 8350. 

 

Their APUs also make little sense when you can get a cheap Intel processor, such as a Haswell Pentium and a dedicated graphics card, such as a 7770 and you will blow all the APUs out of the water in both CPU and GPU performance. In reality though, it won't be long before Intel ups their game with their integrated graphics. If they can improve their Iris Pro graphics and then have that on die with their Broadwell i5's then I think that will really be the end of AMD's APUs. 

[TERAFLOP]

Not really sure what all the doom and gloom is about. Kaveri brings a solid 15% CPU performance/clock improvement over Richland and a 20% GPU improvement.

Kaveri at 95W is clocked lower purely because the new process node doesn't scale well at high TDPs exactly like Intel's 22nm process.
Globalfoundries has moved away from AMD's traditional SOI process which boasted very high clock speed to a new bulk process which reduces cost and power consumption.

A 45 Kaveri APU (A8 7600) runs at 3100mhz, 600mhz higher than an equivalent Richland APU A8 6500.

 

Their APUs also make little sense when you can get a cheap Intel processor, such as a Haswell Pentium and a dedicated graphics card, such as a 7770 and you will blow all the APUs out of the water in both CPU and GPU performance. In reality though, it won't be long before Intel ups their game with their integrated graphics. If they can improve their Iris Pro graphics and then have that on die with their Broadwell i5's then I think that will really be the end of AMD's APUs. 

That's simply not true, a quadcore APU is still going to handily beat any Pentium or Celeron Haswell.
You're also forgetting that you can add a 7750 or a 7770 to an APU to double the performance in hybrid crossfire

It takes Intel a 700$ Iris Pro i7 4950HQ with embedded dram to lose to a 150$  AMD APU.
I think it's safe to say that Intel will never catch to AMD's graphics lead.

 

As for CPU performance, AMD's dual module chips are still faster than Intel's dual core hyper-threaded i3s, the only area where Intel is leading involves power efficiency and AMD is closing in fast in that regard. The A8 7600 at 45W is already within spitting distance of the 54W i3s in terms of CPU performance and completely dominates it in terms of GPU performance.

[ZanCrow]

there should be a CPU version of the kaveris....

[paulsterio]

Not really sure what all the doom and gloom is about. Kaveri brings a solid 15% CPU performance/clock improvement over Richland and a 20% GPU improvement.

Kaveri at 95W is clocked lower purely because the new process node doesn't scale well at high TDPs exactly like Intel's 22nm process.

Globalfoundries has moved away from AMD's traditional SOI process which boasted very high clock speed to a new bulk process which reduces cost and power consumption.

A 45 Kaveri APU (A8 7600) runs at 3100mhz, 600mhz higher than an equivalent Richland APU A8 6500.

 

That's simply not true, a quadcore APU is still going to handily beat any Pentium or Celeron Haswell.

You're also forgetting that you can add a 7750 or a 7770 to an APU to double the performance in hybrid crossfire

It takes Intel a 700$ Iris Pro i7 4950HQ with embedded dram to lose to a 150$  AMD APU.

I think it's safe to say that Intel will never catch to AMD's graphics lead.

 

As for CPU performance, AMD's dual module chips are still faster than Intel's dual core hyper-threaded i3s, the only area where Intel is leading involves power efficiency and AMD is closing in fast in that regard. The A8 7600 at 45W is already within spitting distance of the 54W i3s in terms of CPU performance and completely dominates it in terms of GPU performance.

 

http://anandtech.com/show/7677/amd-kaveri-review-a8-7600-a10-7850k/10

 

In the CPU performance section we can see that the i3 4330 beats the A10-7850K in most tests, apart from a select few which benefit highly from more cores instead of higher IPC, and even then, they are small victories, whereas the i3 4330 just absolutely hammers the A10-7850K in most other tasks. On top of that you could argue that Intel will continue to pull away further and further from AMD. 

 

In the GPU performance section, look at how close HD 4600 graphics is to AMD already, Intel has been improving at a very remarkable rate in the iGPU department, it won't be long before they close the gap in that area there. 

 

To quote AnandTech, 

 

"With a substantial advantage in IPC and shipping at similar frequencies, a dual-core Core i3 Haswell will deliver much better CPU performance than even the fastest Kaveri at a lower price."

 

"The reality is quite clear by now: AMD isn't going to solve its CPU performance issues with anything from the Bulldozer family."

[TERAFLOP]

http://anandtech.com/show/7677/amd-kaveri-review-a8-7600-a10-7850k/10

 

In the CPU performance section we can see that the i3 4330 beats the A10-7850K in most tests, apart from a select few which benefit highly from more cores instead of higher IPC, and even then, they are small victories, whereas the i3 4330 just absolutely hammers the A10-7850K in most other tasks. On top of that you could argue that Intel will continue to pull away further and further from AMD. 

 

In the GPU performance section, look at how close HD 4600 graphics is to AMD already, Intel has been improving at a very remarkable rate in the iGPU department, it won't be long before they close the gap in that area there. 

 

To quote AnandTech, 

 

"With a substantial advantage in IPC and shipping at similar frequencies, a dual-core Core i3 Haswell will deliver much better CPU performance than even the fastest Kaveri at a lower price."

 

"The reality is quite clear by now: AMD isn't going to solve its CPU performance issues with anything from the Bulldozer family."

I have a major beef with that statement, out of 12 real-world CPU tests AMD was faster in 7, basic math tells me there is something clearly wrong with that statement.

This only covers Ian's testing of Anandtech's review, other review sites like hardwarecanucks PCPer and bit-tech showed a significant CPU performance advantage that the Kaveri APUs enjoy over the i3 haswell CPUs.

[S1lentThund3r]

The HSA improvements that Kaveri brings are not currently being used in tests. This APU is designed to run using stuff that doesn't exist yet. Keep that in mind while judging it.

[Humbug]

I think the below quote from techreport sums it up
 

 

We've seen this dynamic with previous APUs, and it's always made for a tough sell on the desktop. Gamers who actually care about graphics performance are better off with discrete video cards that deliver better visuals and smoother frame delivery, while those who don't care about gaming are better served by Intel chips with higher per-thread performance and lower power consumption (which typically leads to lower noise levels.) APUs occupy this awkward middle ground for so-called casual gamers who want something better than an Intel IGP but not as good as a halfway-decent graphics card. As Jerry Seinfeld would say, "who are these people?" Seriously, I've never met one.

 

http://techreport.com/review/25908/amd-a8-7600-kaveri-processor-reviewed/13