CPU vs APU

[108nokitsune]

Budget (including currency): $1500

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Nier, JRPGs, Davinci, Shotcut, Ableton, Reaper, Cubase, OBS, Twitch

Other details PSU EVGA G5 650, Motherboard Gigabyte B550 Gaming x

Ram Crucial Ballistix 8x2 3600MHz 16cl

SSD Crucial P5 1 TB  

 

I am still deciding on if i should go for a APU of a CPU. I am going team red; I have most of the parts ordered except the SSD, CPU, and possibly GPU. 

 

I want something that will be better suited then my current prebuilt. It has a single sitck 16GB or ram, I7 9th gen, and a GT 710.

 

Any advice is appreciated!

 

 

[Herman Mcpootis]

with a 9700 you might as well just stick to it and see what alder lake or zen 4 has to offer unless you need the editing performance that much. 

[Niqesse]

When buying an APU you are sacrificing a little bit of performance. So unless you can not afford or do not currently own any graphics card, I'd go with CPU.

[108nokitsune]

3 minutes ago, Niqi said:

When buying an APU you are sacrificing a little bit of performance. So unless you can not afford or do not currently own any graphics card, I'd go with CPU.

I am just thinking the APU might give better performance then my current graphics card (GT 710) with a CPU. It'll be a few months until I can upgrade the graphics card. Do you think the wait would be worth it?

[jwwagner25]

Just now, 108nokitsune said:

I am just thinking the APU might give better performance then my current graphics card (GT 710) with a CPU. It'll be a few months until I can upgrade the graphics card. Do you think the wait would be worth it?

the very best current apu on the market (5700g) has about half the performance of GT1030. not sure where your 710 ranks compared to that, for reference..personally i would wait for new intel CPU's to drop they are supposed to be good (not from graphical standpoint). then you can upgrade gfx card down the road. 

[Jurrunio]

Ryzen APU seem pointless, just because the iGPU is faster doesnt make changing the whole platform worthy. With that money you can get some older GPUs like the GTX 780 or GTX 960, these will beat the APU's iGPU.

 

I'm not sure how much moving your prebuilt to a custom build will cost tho, i.e. motherboard + PSU + case price.

[Dutch_Master]

Any recent AMD APU SKU will outperform your GT710 hands down, but in turn have their b*tts whipped by nVidia GPU's of similar (or even older!) vintage. That's to be expected: AMD uses VEGA graphics (which is nearly a decade old by now) as part of the CPU die, whereas nVidia just has an entire die for GPU power alone.

 

My suggestion: go for an 8-core chip (R7 series) APU for now, then add a GPU later when budget allows. Possible contenders: R7 4750G, R7 5700G for the APU, AMD 6600 series for GPU. Alternatively, add another 16GB RAM stick, keep the Intel 9700 CPU and get a 1060 GPU or even that AMD 6600 mentioned before. Both paths will improve your gaming experience. By how much remains to be seen though

[108nokitsune]

40 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Ryzen APU seem pointless, just because the iGPU is faster doesnt make changing the whole platform worthy. With that money you can get some older GPUs like the GTX 780 or GTX 960, these will beat the APU's iGPU.

 

I'm not sure how much moving your prebuilt to a custom build will cost tho, i.e. motherboard + PSU + case price.

Sorry, I made a newbie mistake... I meant IGPU I think... Something like Ryzen 5 5700g. Its a bit confusing for a first time builder.

[Jurrunio]

13 minutes ago, 108nokitsune said:

Sorry, I made a newbie mistake... I meant IGPU I think... Something like Ryzen 5 5700g. Its a bit confusing for a first time builder.

yeah that iGPU still isnt great comparing to cheaper graphics cards you can buy. It depends on how easy it is to fit that into your current build.

[108nokitsune]

22 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

yeah that iGPU still isnt great comparing to cheaper graphics cards you can buy. It depends on how easy it is to fit that into your current build.

When you say cheaper graphics cards what exactly do you mean? Whats a good example? Would it be better to go with a ryzen x CPU and use my 710 till I find a better card?

[Jurrunio]

1 hour ago, 108nokitsune said:

When you say cheaper graphics cards what exactly do you mean? Whats a good example?

Cards with 3GB or less memory and 200w or below power draw (you can check this in techpowerup GPU database) that have two or more fans. For example, GTX 1060 3GB, 960 2GB, R9 270(X) and HD7850/7870. 1060 is the fastest here, the other 3 are about the same (R9 270 series are refreshed HD 7800 series).

 

Crypto mining reqires at least 4GB memory from the beginning so choosing those with less dodges the bullet. Higher power draw cards tend to fail more so better stay away from those as well. Two fans minimum to make sure the card had okay cooling since heat also degrades stuff faster.

 

1 hour ago, 108nokitsune said:

Would it be better to go with a ryzen x CPU and use my 710 till I find a better card?

the CPU cores is not the focus when you have lower budget. The focus is the GPU (including iGPU). Whether you don't take apart the prebuilt and start fresh on Ryzen APU, or take it apart (I doubt the prebuilt has PSU and mobo that's good for much upgrading) and add a cheap graphics card. Graphics card beats APU in terms of GPU performance, but whether to rip the i7 out or not is up to you.