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The xmas before last I had built for my son a "cheap" computer with an ASrock FM2 mobo, AMD A4 5300 CPU, 4gb Ram and my very old Radeon HD5950 GPU. When I bought an Nvidia GTX770 for my PC I gave my son my old AMD 7950 and retired the venerable 5950. This boosted his gaming considerably but I think he is very much CPU bound and his birthday is next month and he has asked my advice as to how he can make his PC faster, not just for games but overall.

His current cpu is dual core and TBH is quite slow in lots of areas. I've thought about getting extra ram but he has only 2 slots so I'd have to completly replace his existing ram which seems a waste. His GPU is still very capable so I'm looking at his CPU. The A10 6800K is unlocked and quad core so I'm thinking it would be less cpu bound in games and overall a better performer on the desktop. I can get one for circa £100 or just less so do you think that this would be £100 well spent or should I look elsewhere to spend the money to speed up his machine.

One alternative I've considered is that I've recently changed my mobo from a P67 to a Z77 and I could let him have that and possibly spend the £100 on buying a dual core i3 cpu. My only reservations are his case is only a small tower and the mobo and GPU might struggle to fit and of course, going from an AMD to intel CPU, I think it would be best to wipe his H/D and reinstall windows which would be a faff as he has about 150gb of Steam games installed.

So which do you think is the best strategy?

Cheers

Either option would be a huge step-up from an A4 5300 in CPU tasks. Dual core to quad, higher clocks and Richland's improvements to boot. I'd say for CPU tasks, the i3 runs cooler but performance is about equal. Hyper-threading vs. 2 AMD dual-core modules, it's hard to say. In super-threaded stuff the AMD might be a hair faster, I guess. I'd weigh my options based on the games he's playing. If they're games known for good threading, then the AMD might be a little better. If they're not, Intel might have an edge. Down the road (if he uses that CPU for a long time) I'd expect the AMD to look better than an i3. If you can swing an i5 somehow, then you have an undisputed champion.

Thanks derFunkenstein that looks like a big thumbs up for the A10.

Games wise he plays Rome 3, Civilisation and those types of games. Has a couple of FPS games but mainly RPG and Sims. He is really looking for a big improvement in his desktop performance TBH.

I think either way would be a huge step up in overall desktop performance.

Don't rule out an A8-6600K. That's a quad-core part too, but you're not paying for the improved graphics of the A10 (that won't be used anyway). Sure, the A10 is 200MHz faster at stock, but I'm sure you could OC the A8 to the same.

Also, if you don't want to pay for the IGP AT ALL, check out the quad core 760K. It's basically the A8-6600K without an IGP.

Didn't realize they had quads with fused-off IGPs. That might be the best bet if you don't want to have the IGP as a "free spare" if the video card dies. 6600K would be best of both worlds - an IGP if needed and save some money.

I'd probably go with that 760K myself. Assuming you have similar savings over the other options in the UK.

Sorry for being a little late

Agreed, going with either APU will be a major upgrade. The A10-6800K has had a great track record and continues to offer a good solution to most PC users (those that don't play lots of modern games). By the way, here is the link to the APU specs page: http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/proce ... eries-apu# hope it comes in handy.

Here in the US, some vendors offer the APUs bundled with hardware or games. I'm hoping retailers/etailers in the UK offer similar deals you can take advantage of, here is one : http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a10- ... 00w-retail (free game - Saints Row)

I think I'd choose the 760k just to save a few dollars since you know a discrete card is going to be used anyway. Even though the IGP backup is nice to have, it's not like you can come near the performance of a mid-range discrete card...and for less than the difference you could snag a super cheap old/used card for backup purposes if necessary.

Lordhawkwind wrote:

My only reservations are his case is only a small tower and the mobo and GPU might struggle to fit and of course, going from an AMD to intel CPU, I think it would be best to wipe his H/D and reinstall windows which would be a faff as he has about 150gb of Steam games installed.

If it's a small case, the A10/A8 would produce more heat than the i3, especially if you're using a sandy bridge (which is what the P67 would support). Performance would be very similar between the Richland quads and a sandy dual-core.

As for the steam games, you can back them up to and restore them from a HDD. Process isn't instantaneous, but still faster than redownloading everything.

Thanks Guys,

The A8 6600k looks a good call as I can get that from my local computer shop for around £80. Not being an AMD CPU devotee I'd never heard of the X4 760k but I'll ask to see if that is any cheaper but I had a quick google and the 6600k is slightly faster.

Although I'm not interested in the IGP I thought AMD were only now producing APU's and that an IGP was not optional. Very intertesting.

750K or 760K is definitely the way to go in this case. No reason to buy an APU when you already have a 7950 video card.

Lordhawkwind wrote:

I had a quick google and the 6600k is slightly faster [than the 760K].

That's because the A8-6600K has a 100MHz higher stock clocks. Remember, we're talking about unlocked (overclockable) CPUs here.

cjcerny wrote:

750K or 760K is definitely the way to go in this case. No reason to buy an APU when you already have a 7950 video card.

Well, some day AMD might make HSA fully enabled, so you might want those GPU CUs (AMD calls them "cores"). So stick with the A8 6600K, they might come in handy when AMD has fully featured HSA drivers (you know, the day after Jesus comes back).

Richland doesn't support HSA from anything I'm reading, though it looks like it had some of the tech.

I bought a 6400K (dual core 3.9 GHz) for a small home server and am very happy with it. It is faster than expected. As others said, the 760K is the best buy in your case and appears to be quite overclockable.

Savyg wrote:

Richland doesn't support HSA from anything I'm reading, though it looks like it had some of the tech.

Ah, my bad, I thought that was a Kaveri part.

Right I've now decided and ordered the A10 6800k for £90 fitted. Comes in just under his budget and looks to be a much better performer than his A4 5300.

Here's hpoing he likes it!

Thanks for all your responses.

He should like it for sure. I just got myself a new laptop with an A10 and everything is running fast and smooth, both desktop and games. Only downside is that it doesn't have a separate gpu...