AMD A10 5700 and 5800K Review

👤by Tony Le Bourne Comments 📅29-01-13
Conclusion

A few years ago, integrated graphics were nothing short of abysmal and was relegated to the realm of word processing, cheap pre-builds and last resort backup when your graphics card broke. Today, we have seen integrated graphics and SoC solutions come leaps and bounds with the A10 APUs accompanied by the HD 7660D iGPU leading the pack. We have started to see mostly playable frame rates at high resolution and decent graphics settings in the right setup within an acceptable power usage too.



There are a few downsides still, CPU performance lacks a little, and even though performance per watt is up, many may see the hilarity in a CPU @ 4.6GHz barely beating or on par with a CPU clocked around 1GHz less. IPCC aside, the other argument is, for the price, you may get better gaming performance with a cheap Intel chip and a £50 graphics card such as the AMD HD 6670. It may be closer to the truth to say that the 2nd Gen APUs are closer to the Intel I3s in performance, but when looking to game, good graphics that are fed by a quick CPU is still going to have an advantage. Overclocked, the A10s were able to best the HD 6570 many occasions and likely are near on par with the HD 6670, however, when considering platform cost, you may need a more expensive A85X motherboard, a decent cooler and some high performance memory to maximise your performance. Still, rather than floating about in limbo this time round, the A10 APUs have a clear reason to choose them. Yes you may be able to get slightly better pure gaming performance for a little less, but as a complete all round quality platform, spending that little more can get you a little bit extra in the way of luxuries for everyday use and computing.



Something that is mentioned a lot in regards to AMDs APUs, is the 'mainstream' consumer to which they target, that is, the social networker, the student, the online shopper, the casual gamer, and those who like movies and music. This effectively covers everyone who has power flowing into their home. The A10 APUs have the technology and wizardry to provide a seamless experience for most users without having to worry about choosing the right CPU and GPU combo to get decent performance out of their system. The A10 APUs should also serve as a wake up call as to what to expect in future as it is because of this current progression, a larger chunk of low end discrete graphics cards may start finding their way to silicon heaven.

The A10-5800K can cater for many needs and is seriously worth considering in a sub £400 build and I have no hesitation giving it the Gold award. The A10-5700 is worthy of considering should you not wish to overclock but want to gain from the extra performance of the HD 7660D iGPU. Though it seems to be too close in price to the 5800K to really choose it instead of the black edition. If you do not need the extra graphics performance, one may be better off choosing the A8-5600K or an Intel alternative, for those reasons the A10-5700 receives our silver award.

Pros.
+ Leading discrete level performance in an integrated solution
+ Overclocking potential on CPU + GPU (5800K)
+ Increased performance per Watt compared to previous generation
+ Good all round platform

Cons.
- Requires high performance memory to make the most of the HD 7660D
- Price difference barely warrants consideration over the 5800K (5700)



Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net. Thanks to AMD for providing today’s review sample.


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