A few questions about APUs

[Okjoek]

I've been curious about going into the realm of APUs to create a personal rig that's incredibly small...

 

1. Will there Be Zen APUs? If they do I'm curious what GPU architecture they will use because Their current ones use R7 graphics I think so if they upgraded to Polaris that would be really sweet, but IDK what implications there are to the industry for that to happen.

2. Does Intel or AMD have better integrated graphics? I know Skylake's graphics is waaaay better than my current i5's graphics, but IDK if Skylake or the upcoming Kaby Lake are better than AMD's current or future integrated graphics.

3. What kind of motherboard/PSU form factor can I use to create a very compact APU system? Is mini itx as small as I can go for custom building?

 

Ultimately I'd be happy if an APU could play my Planetside 2 at 1920x1080p resolution. IDK if it's possible yet, but some youtube clips show A10 APUs getting something like 30 FPS or something, but I forget what resolution/settings they had.

[Shadow_Storm56]

In my opinion aN apu IS terrible... had one once and it was so glichy that some games just dident function right. Intel has better onboard I think

[PigWithAMustache]

There will be zen apus, but zen is basically a big mystery at this point. you can crossfire the onboard graphics with an amd gpu ive heard

[SLAYR]

15 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

1. Will there Be Zen APUs? If they do I'm curious what GPU architecture they will use because Their current ones use R7 graphics I think so if they upgraded to Polaris that would be really sweet, but IDK what implications there are to the industry for that to happen.

2. Does Intel or AMD have better integrated graphics? I know Skylake's graphics is waaaay better than my current i5's graphics, but IDK if Skylake or the upcoming Kaby Lake are better than AMD's current or future integrated graphics.

3. What kind of motherboard/PSU form factor can I use to create a very compact APU system? Is mini itx as small as I can go for custom building?

There will be zen apus.

 

AMD has had better igpus then intel, outside of the ridiculously priced intel iris graphics. Put some fast ram in dual channel to get the best performance.

 

Currently there is only fm2+ for modern apus, but come in all form factors, itx, matx, atx, there are smaller options (nano/pico itx), but they are SoC hips.

[DocSwag]

There probably will be zen APUs, and most likely will have graphics based on Polaris or vega. The rumors say they'll be released around the summer of 2017, but those are just rumors.

 

Intel has made huge strides in iGPU performance, but AMD's 2-3 year old 28nm GPUs are still on par with if not outperforming Intel's 14nm less than a year old GPUs EVEN THOUGH Intel's top of the line iGPUs are being assisted by onboard dram. On the desktop AMD APUs are much more viable than an Intel graphics solution, and on mobile AMD iGPUs tend to give more for the dollar. Once the Zen+Polaris/Vega APUs come out potentially even with HBM integrated on the CPU... Intel is gonna get kicked in the arse in terms of graphics performance.

 

On the last question, I'm guessing mini itx is as small as it's gonna get  

 

 

[Okjoek]

1 minute ago, SLAYR said:

There will be zen apus.

 

AMD has had better igpus then intel, outside of the ridiculously priced intel iris graphics. Put some fast ram in dual channel to get the best performance.

 

Currently there is only fm2+ for modern apus, but come in all form factors, itx, matx, atx, there are smaller options (nano/pico itx), but they are SoC hips.

Oh cool you can get smaller form factors, but they come soldered onto the board?

[SLAYR]

19 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

Ultimately I'd be happy if an APU could play my Planetside 2 at 1920x1080p resolution. IDK if it's possible yet, but some youtube clips show A10 APUs getting something like 30 FPS or something, but I forget what resolution/settings they had.

That game is quite cpu intensive, I would suggest at least an i5 6500 for 60fps in the bigger fights at max settings, and turn down the shadows.

 

It is playable with an a10 7850k though, I had one for a while and it ran it with some settings turned down. The fps does drop a bit in larger fights though.

[Okjoek]

1 minute ago, SLAYR said:

That game is quite cpu intensive, I would suggest at least an i5 6500 for 60fps in the bigger fights at max settings, and turn down the shadows.

 

It is playable with an a10 7850k though, I had one for a while and it ran it with some settings turned down. The fps does drop a bit in larger fights though.

My current CPU plays the game beautifully to be honest. I mean sure a 96+ fight all packed in a single building is going to hurt performance, but any good player knows those kind of fights are cancer where there are too many grenades and C4 going off to the point where your FPS is the last of your worries.