AMD A10-7800 Review: Testing the A10 65W Kaveri
by Ian Cutress on July 31, 2014 8:00 AM ESTCPU Benchmarks
The dynamics of CPU Turbo modes, both Intel and AMD, can cause concern during environments with a variable threaded workload. There is also an added issue of the motherboard remaining consistent, depending on how the motherboard manufacturer wants to add in their own boosting technologies over the ones that Intel would prefer they used. In order to remain consistent, we implement an OS-level unique high performance mode on all the CPUs we test which should override any motherboard manufacturer performance mode.
HandBrake v0.9.9: link
For HandBrake, we take two videos (a 2h20 640x266 DVD rip and a 10min double UHD 3840x4320 animation short) and convert them 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.
The latest Intel processors have the lead for low quality Handbrake conversion, and despite the generational gap between the FX-4350 and the A10-7800, the extra MHz is preferred here.
For large frame manipulation, the latest architectures mixed with the most threads perform best.
Agisoft Photoscan – 2D to 3D Image Manipulation: link
Agisoft Photoscan creates 3D models from 2D images, a process which 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 hand. 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 15-20 minutes on a high end PC on the CPU alone, with GPUs reducing the time.
Dolphin Benchmark: link
Many emulators are often bound by single thread CPU performance, and general reports tended to suggest that Haswell provided a significant boost to emulator performance. This benchmark runs a Wii program that raytraces a complex 3D scene inside the Dolphin Wii emulator. Performance on this benchmark is a good proxy of the speed of Dolphin CPU emulation, which is an intensive single core task using most aspects of a CPU. Results are given in minutes, where the Wii itself scores 17.53 minutes.
Dolphin seems to work best with high single core speed and Haswell.
WinRAR 5.0.1: link
PCMark8 v2 OpenCL on IGP
A new addition to our CPU testing suite is PCMark8 v2, where we test the Work 2.0 and Creative 3.0 suites in OpenCL mode. As this test is new, we have not run it on many AMD systems yet and will do so as soon as we can.
The combination of processor graphics and OpenCL support push the AMD APUs up to the top of our PCMark tests.
Hybrid x265
Hybrid is a new benchmark, where we take a 4K 1500 frame video and convert it into an x265 format without audio. Results are given in frames per second.
Cinebench R15
Cinebench is typically Intel territory for high IPC processors, but when it comes to multithreaded rendering, extra threads help.
3D Particle Movement
3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz and IPC wins in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores.
All the calculations in 3DPM deal with floating point numbers, a known sink for AMD compute.
FastStone Image Viewer 4.9
FastStone is the program I use to perform quick or bulk actions on images, such as resizing, adjusting for color and cropping. In our test we take a series of 170 images in various sizes and formats and convert them all into 640x480 .gif files, maintaining the aspect ratio. FastStone does not use multithreading for this test, and results are given in seconds.
Web Benchmarks
On the lower end processors, general usability is a big factor of experience, especially as we move into the HTML5 era of web browsing. For our web benchmarks, we take four well known tests with Chrome 35 as a consistent browser.
Sunspider 1.0.2
Mozilla Kraken 1.1
WebXPRT
Google Octane v2
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Morawka - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
but as you can see, if you have the Kavari GPU 512 config, it uses 65 watts minimum. That's waaaay to hot for a laptop. AMD makes great integrated gpu's but they produce comparible heat and power to a separate dedicated keplar or maxwell part.AMD is being held back by being reliant on external FAB's. Intel is shrinking every 2 years and has a huge advantage. 14nm baking now, vs 28nm everyone else is on.
Gigaplex - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
That's why you get the mobile variant, not the desktop variant.asimov1979 - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
Intel i5-4590S is $190 not $170 as you stated.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Core-i5-4590S-Processo...
nathanddrews - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
Why people still buy CPUs from Newegg is beyond me.http://www.microcenter.com/product/432162/Core_i5-...
I bought my 3570K from Microcenter for $159.
bebimbap - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
Shipping is beyond MicrocenterMorawka - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
and microcenter only has about 12 locations lol. basically you gotta live in a huge city, and the cost of living offsets any discounts you'd get from a cheap cpu.inighthawki - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
There's a Microcenter not too far from where I used to live in Ohio, and it wasn't really what I would consider a large city by any means. It was a pretty standard suburban area. It was about 40 minutes (give or take, I only went a couple times and I never had to drive) from my house, and we lived in pretty much the middle of nowhere.inighthawki - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
Actually I just mapped it, it was 30 minutes away.kmmatney - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
OK - if you are using Microcenter, you can buy an AMD A10 7850 + motehrboard for $129, which is no where near the price you above above. This is with a mediocre MB (good enough for most people), but even a better one would only drive the price to $160.HardwareDufus - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
I haven't purchased a discrete Graphics Card in over 6 years. I've gone with Intel HD in the original 655K I5 CPU .. and now have HD3000 in my i7-3770k.I will probably buy my very first high end laptop (I always go for middle of the road laptops) with a Broadwell I7 CPU with IGPHD5200 (with the 128MB L4 cache).. With a good fast SSD, I don't imagine I will feel at all comprimised... Day to day use it will feel as quick as all of the super rigs loaded with fans folks are still building.. I don't GAME... so what's the point in a dGPU?