Athlon vs. an APU

[Technozo]

So I'm considering buying the Athlon X4 880k for my first build however that requires a dedicated GPU. For the FM2+ socket I could buy an APU. Which is better an Athlon X4 880k and a budget GPU(R7 250) or an APU?

[79wjd]

880k + 250

[tk421]

Generally speaking, most any dedicated GPU will out perform an APU's graphics. If it were me and I was on a very limited budget, I would look into getting a used GPU instead on a new R7 or similar. You can usually find great deals on used GPUs.

[Technozo]

Where exactly can I find a good deal for used GPUs?

[SLAYR]

4 minutes ago, Technozo said:

So I'm considering buying the Athlon X4 880k for my first build however that requires a dedicated GPU. For the FM2+ socket I could buy an APU. Which is better an Athlon X4 880k and a budget GPU(R7 250) or an APU?

The 880k and 250 would perform better, and will be able to overclock higher as adjusting the igpu and cpu at the same time on the a10 can cause stability issues.

[mrgooglegeek]

if you can find a 6300 in your budget it will perform better with the r7 250, but not by much

[tk421]

1 minute ago, Technozo said:

Where exactly can I find a good deal for used GPUs?

I find most of my deals through Craigslist. Depends on where you're located though. 

[Technozo]

I'm going with an Athlon 880k over an FX 6300 because it's cheaper and performs better and is newer!

[Prysin]

31 minutes ago, Technozo said:

So I'm considering buying the Athlon X4 880k for my first build however that requires a dedicated GPU. For the FM2+ socket I could buy an APU. Which is better an Athlon X4 880k and a budget GPU(R7 250) or an APU?

get a Athlon X4 845 (it will perform equal to a 880k, but be cooler and cheaper) + GTX 950

[Nena Trinity]

44 minutes ago, Prysin said:

get a Athlon X4 845 (it will perform equal to a 880k, but be cooler and cheaper) + GTX 950

If he plan to play games, it will not...  

[dragoon20005]

5 hours ago, Prysin said:

get a Athlon X4 845 (it will perform equal to a 880k, but be cooler and cheaper) + GTX 950

one issue mate

 

the 845 is a locked CPU

 

unlike the 860K which is unlocked

 

you are pretty much locked down to the turbo boost of the 845

[Apache Protocol]

6 hours ago, Technozo said:

So I'm considering buying the Athlon X4 880k for my first build however that requires a dedicated GPU. For the FM2+ socket I could buy an APU. Which is better an Athlon X4 880k and a budget GPU(R7 250) or an APU?

go with 880k + gpu i would highly recommend it we have tried a APU and compaired it with a Q8400+GTX710 guess who has better performance?

 

So i would only say go with the APU if your doing a HTPC but even so i would not do it if you could save more money.

[dragoon20005]

10 minutes ago, apacheprotocol said:

go with 880k + gpu i would highly recommend it we have tried a APU and compaired it with a Q8400+GTX710 guess who has better performance?

 

So i would only say go with the APU if your doing a HTPC but even so i would not do it if you could save more money.

the 880K is pretty costly when you look at it

 

it pretty much like the 860K but with a higher stock and boost clocks

 

the 860K will be the cheaper option and the money saved can be used for a better cooler

 

APU are great for strict budget builds but only applies to a small market segment

 

and many tests show that when the iGPU part of the APU is working

 

the CPU side will slow down to 3GHz to keep the TDP and temps in check

 

so in games which need more CPU horsepower will the APU suffer more as compared to the 860K + R7 250 combo

 

[SLAYR]

52 minutes ago, dragoon20005 said:

 

so in games which need more CPU horsepower will the APU suffer more as compared to the 860K + R7 250 combo

 

If they are clocked at the same speeds the 860k, 880k, and a10 7870k will perform the same for cpu tasks there is no loss of performance from the cpu due to the gpu also being on the same die.

 

[dragoon20005]

1 minute ago, SLAYR said:

If they are clocked at the same speeds the 860k, 880k, and a10 7870k will perform the same for cpu tasks there is no loss of performance from the cpu due to the gpu also being on the same die.

 

no mate

 

tests have shown the CPU getting downclock during high iGPU load

 

it because of the hard lock of the TDP thermal limit by AMD to prevent overheating

 

the iGPU part is 60% of the whole die

[Prysin]

2 hours ago, dragoon20005 said:

one issue mate

 

the 845 is a locked CPU

 

unlike the 860K which is unlocked

 

you are pretty much locked down to the turbo boost of the 845

you can OC it with baseclock. i got mine to 3777MHz "stock" and 4077MHz "turbo" with a 107 baseclock OC. At that speed it matches up to my A10 7870k at 4.5GHz

[SLAYR]

Just now, dragoon20005 said:

no mate

 

tests have shown the CPU getting downclock during high iGPU load

 

it because of the hard lock of the TDP thermal limit by AMD to prevent overheating

 

the iGPU part is 60% of the whole die

Source? 

 

It sounds like the cpu is thermal throttling due to the heat produced by the igpu as well as from the cpu, so the clockspeed decreases, and a 212x will solve that, I had an a10 7850k and never experienced this issue, granted I did use a 212evo with it.

[dragoon20005]

3 minutes ago, SLAYR said:

Source? 

 

It sounds like the cpu is thermal throttling due to the heat produced by the igpu as well as from the cpu, so the clockspeed decreases, and a 212x will solve that, I had an a10 7850k and never experienced this issue, granted I did use a 212evo with it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-a10-7890k-gaming-performance-benchmark,4491-2.html

 

here you go

 

it falling from 4GHz to 3GHz