The AMD A8-7670K APU Review: Aiming for Rocket League
by Ian Cutress on November 18, 2015 8:00 AM ESTProfessional Performance: Windows
Agisoft PhotoScan – 2D to 3D Image Manipulation: link
Agisoft PhotoScan creates 3D models from 2D images — a process that is very computationally expensive. The algorithm is split into four distinct phases, and different phases of the model reconstruction require either fast memory, fast IPC, more cores, or even OpenCL compute devices to achieve the best performance. Agisoft supplied us with a special version of the software to script the process, where we take 50 images of a stately home and convert it into a medium-quality model. This benchmark typically takes around 15 to 20 minutes on a high-end PC on the CPU alone, with GPUs reducing the time.
PhotoScan shows most APUs performing around 41 to 42 minutes, which suggests that there is a bottleneck in the core design.
Cinebench R15
Cinebench is a benchmark based around Cinema 4D, and is fairly well known among enthusiasts for stressing the CPU for a provided workload. Results are given as a score, where higher is better.
HandBrake v0.9.9: link
For HandBrake, we take a video (a 2h20 640x266 DVD rip) and convert it to x264 format in an MP4 container. Results are given in terms of the frames per second processed, and HandBrake uses as many threads as possible.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
154 Comments
View All Comments
AS118 - Wednesday, November 18, 2015 - link
Well to be fair, the FX chips are strong enough and cheap (especially the $100 FX-6300) and you can pair them with a discrete GPU with ease. If you're trying to get a 1080p gaming rig for absolute cheapest price, a double AMD FX / GPU build works pretty well.That said, next year with Zen on 14nm will probably give people a good reason to get AMD. I just support AMD whenever I can because I dislike monopolies, and don't want Nvidia and Intel to become ones.
Sure they give good price for performance NOW, but that's because they have AMD to compete with them. If they didn't, I doubt the price would be "only a little higher" than AMD.
Oxford Guy - Wednesday, November 18, 2015 - link
8320E at $110 at Microcenter with UD3P 2.0 board is the best deal.JoeMonco - Wednesday, November 18, 2015 - link
"That said, next year with Zen on 14nm will probably give people a good reason to get AMD."Yeah, yeah. We hear this ever time a new AMD microarchitecture comes out and yet not a single one has lived up to the hype in more than a decade.
medi03 - Thursday, November 19, 2015 - link
Do you get paid to spread FUD about AMD or is it for free?JoeMonco - Thursday, November 19, 2015 - link
How can facts be "FUD"? If I'm wrong, please do tell which AMD CPU has been able to beat Intel in anything performance or TDP-wise since the Core2 from 2006. I won't hold my breath, though, since you'll just sling ad homs with no real facts.Deshi - Friday, November 20, 2015 - link
Yes, and that would be because only one new architecture (buldozer and its many variants) has been released in that past Decade, and we all know how that played out. Before that Athlon actually beat Intel for a good amount of time, and the same guy that worked on that is working on Zen. I'm somewhat hopeful that it won't be a bad design decision this time. I'm just hopeing its not too late. back in Athlon days, Intel was too pridefull and choose to ignore AMD initially, which is why AMD was able to take so much market share from them. I don't expect Intel to make the same mistake again this time.alistair.brogan - Wednesday, November 18, 2015 - link
This review doesn't compare with the new Pentium G4500. Skylake Pentium CPU cores with i5 Skylake integrated graphics. Faster and 1/3 the electricity/heat compared with the AMD APU. Only advantage amd has left is how some newer games don't run right without quad core, as they are bad ports from consoles....alistair.brogan - Wednesday, November 18, 2015 - link
50 dollars cheaper too, in Canadaalistair.brogan - Wednesday, November 18, 2015 - link
40-50 fps borderlands 2 on minimum settings (30-40 ultra settings) with HD 530 and the G4500Ian Cutress - Thursday, November 19, 2015 - link
As posted above, we don't have any of the other Skylake processors in yet. Benchmarking is always an iterative task - with limited space and resources you can't all benchmark them on the same day.But sure, if I could get all the processors in on day one, I would totally try test them all for comparion points.
Come back when/if we test the G4500 and see the numbers then.
And no, it's not a simple case of going out and buying this one SKU just for the niche comparison that you're interested in - there have been requests in the comment sections of reviews for other SKUs as well, and I've had a couple of emails for more SKUs on top of that.
Some SKUs are region limited (or slow roll out), or others are OEM only, so it can be hard to source outside the usual channels. So let me try and talk to Intel so we can get them all in, and then go from there. It's never an issue of lack of interest or subversion, just procurement (and ensuring we can communicate with the manufacturer at the point of testing).
Of course, the more readers that register their interest, the more I can pass it on up the chain to get them in.