AMD Kaveri Review: A8-7600 and A10-7850K Tested
by Ian Cutress & Rahul Garg on January 14, 2014 8:00 AM ESTKaveri: Aiming for 1080p30 and Compute
The numerical differences between Kaveri and Richland are easy enough to rattle off – later in the review we will be discussing these in depth – but at a high level AMD is aiming for a middle ground between the desktop model (CPU + discrete graphics) and Apple’s Mac Pro dream (offloading compute onto different discrete graphics cards) by doing the dream on a single processor. At AMD’s Kaveri tech day the following graph was thrown in front of journalists worldwide:
With Intel now on board, processor graphics is a big deal. You can argue whether or not AMD should continue to use the acronym APU instead of SoC, but the fact remains that it's tough to buy a CPU without an integrated GPU.
In the absence of vertical integration, software optimization always trails hardware availability. If you look at 2011 as the crossover year when APUs/SoCs took over the market, it's not much of a surprise that we haven't seen aggressive moves by software developers to truly leverage GPU compute. Part of the problem has been programming model, which AMD hopes to address with Kaveri and HSA. Kaveri enables a full heterogeneous unified memory architecture (hUMA), such that the integrated graphics topology can access the full breadth of memory that the CPU can, putting a 32GB enabled compute device into the hands of developers.
One of the complexities of compute is also time: getting the CPU and GPU to communicate to each other without HSA and hUMA requires an amount of overhead that is not trivial. For compute, this comes in the form of allowing the CPU and GPU to work on the same data set at the same time, effectively opening up all the compute to the same task without asynchronous calls to memory copies and expensive memory checks for coherency.
The issue AMD has with their HSA ecosystem is the need for developers to jump on board. The analogy oft cited is that on Day 1, iOS had very few apps, yet today has millions. Perhaps a small equivocation fallacy comes in here – Apple is able to manage their OS and system in its entirety, whereas AMD has to compete in the same space as non-HSA enabled products and lacks the control. Nevertheless, AMD is attempting to integrate programming tools for HSA (and OpenCL 2.0) as seamlessly as possible to all modern platforms via a HSA Instruction Layer (HSAIL). The goal is for programming languages like Java, C++ and C++ AMP, as well as common acceleration API libraries and toolkits to provide these features at little or no coding cost. This is something our resident compute guru Rahul will be looking at in further detail later on in the review.
On the gaming side, 30 FPS has been a goal for AMD’s integrated graphics solutions for a couple of generations now.
Arguably we could say that any game should be able to do 30 FPS if we turn down the settings far enough, but AMD has put at least one restriction on that: resolution. 1080p is a lofty goal to hold at 30 FPS with some of the more challenging titles of today. In our testing in this review, it was clear that users had a choice – start with a high resolution and turn the settings down, or keep the settings on medium-high and adjust the resolution. Games like BF4 and Crysis 3 are going to tax any graphics card, especially when additional DirectX 11 features come in to play (ambient occlusion, depth of field, global illumination, and bilateral filtering are some that AMD mention).
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srkelley - Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - link
Some of us don't have a lot of money. It may be only $100 but it could mean giving up on buying games just to get a more powerful rig that can't play... games (that you would be willing to buy anyway). I'd like to buy/build a system that's great all around, I'd love to have the very best. The very best is overkill and some systems while not the best are still a bit too pricey.This APU will meet nearly all of my needs and exceed quite a few of them. I'm fine with not being able to max out my settings in every game, I'll be able to max most of them out at 1920x1080 @60 fps (or higher) with this apu. If the improvements in hybrid crossfire pan out (due to decreased latency and improvement in implementation) - I may be able to buy a super cheap gpu at a much later date to cover the rest of what I would need it for. I'll also be able to cool my system for a lower price (or just use stock everything).
Even if cf is a bust, the core product let's me spend a bit more on memory, better storage, a better case and even pick up a few new games without breaking my budget (if I sell my current monitor for asking price, I may be able to use it subsidize a slightly better one at the same time!). Right now I use a netbook, a smart phone and a pc that would struggle to play the original Assassin's Creed at 30fps with a 640x480 screen resolution. The monitor, speakers and wireless keyboard set is the only nice thing about my set-up. Time to step into the future - it's more than good enough for me and people like me.
Dribble - Thursday, January 16, 2014 - link
You can buy a cheaper non-apu cpu and discrete radeon graphics card for about the same amount and that would play games better and do everything else just as well, and still give you all the AMD advantages (mantle, etc). Would also give a better upgrade path as when in the future you are better off you can more easily upgrade cpu or graphics to something faster.The APU only really wins when you need it in a very small box too (so no room for discrete graphics)
Nagorak - Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - link
Well, I will say that one place that this may actually be worthwhile is in an HTPC with a tiny case that can't even take a half height graphics card. With anything that can take a half height graphics card it's moot.mikato - Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - link
But why do you need a discrete card with an HTPC? You don't.rpsgc - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
No gaming benchmarks with dGPU? (I'm not talking about Dual Graphics.) Some people are interested on how this performs purely as a CPU, seeing as AM3 is apparently dead.YuLeven - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
Well, it costs US$173. You can buy a Pentium G + Radeon HD7770GE for US$175~ on Newegg today. One set gives you all-in-one subpar 720p gaming, the other goes as up as 1080p in many titles. In fact, it's nearly cruelty comparing a HD7700GE to Kaveri's GPU.Well, unless you desperately need a one-chip solution, I see Kaveri as being utterly pointless as far gaming is concerned.
Ian Cutress - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
It will be the focus of my next Gaming CPU article update; retesting over a dozen CPUs for this review, at 30 hours each, wasn't an easy task.YuLeven - Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - link
Super, Ian! I can't wait for it.srkelley - Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - link
Thanks for your hard work, you and Rahul did a great job! I always love reading the reviews at Anandtech. They're very informative, easy to read and leave me with a much, much better understanding of whatever they're covering when compared to how I went into it.Drumsticks - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
Any chance you can make a summary of the 65 and 45W APUs vs an i3-4330 at 54W? That would be a more apt comparison especially considering the price range.