benchmarks and find reason
to be disappointed. Those
benchmarks can’t relate in
numbers how good this APU
is and more importantly the
value AMD is offering with
such a part.
As stated in the beginning,
we here like the APU,
especially the 5800K. The
graphics performance
is fantastic for an IGP,
its available virtually
everywhere and the price is
great. This is likely the first
worthwhile product from
AMD since the Phenom II
came out.
[ TheOverclocker ]
performance
in 3DMark Vantage for
example or trying to reach
the highest CPU speed. Quite
interesting that this boast of
high frequencies is one both
INTEL and AMD have made
at different times, but we’ll
leave you to figure out exactly
at which juncture such claims
were popular to each vendor.
Since the iGPU is where
the magic is, you should keep
in mind that memory clocks
will affect the performance
drastically. So consider
2133MHz and faster sets
instead of those 1,600MHz kits
you may have had lying around
from the Phenom II days. The
IMC has been improved on the
trinity CPUs and even though
it’s not officially supported, on
the board we tested, 2133MHz
worked just fine. Sadly we
couldn’t get 2,400MHz to
work as that would have
improved the
VGA performance
further, but we were more
than satisfied with 2133MHz.
Hopefully this is a BIOS issue
rather than a silicon limitation.
At $130 it’s hard not like the
5800K APU. There’s nothing
else you can buy that will offer
this kind of value. The APU
does also offer the possibility
of adding a second graphics
card to the system and have
the discreet and internal
GPU work in tandem. It may
sort off defeat the purpose
and pricing of this CPU, b