Upgraded Kernel & Mesa Yield A Big Boost For Athlon R3 Graphics

[BSDude]

I was about to be a dick but then I realized what you meant.. And yeah for some reason I was suddenly feeling like I was in 2012 and not 2014 haha. Yes, I didn't go back and count articles but he probably gave 12.04 and 10.04 as much attention as he is giving 14.04 now.

Lol. Time flies when you're having fun.

[peppercats]

What's up with the unnecessary over-pimping of "Ubuntu" on Phoronix lately? Are they a sponsor now?

By far the most popular distro is probably the reason why.

I don't use ubuntu before someone accuses me of it.

[schmidtbag]

That results are much much better

Can't wait for the Catalyst tests

Michael, I also wonder what would be the results if you paired the Athlon 5350 with the...EVGA GTX750 using Nvidia Blob

There was a site that compared in Window$ a A6-5200 with a GTX680 vs a A10-7850K also with a GTX680 and let's just say that the results in games were VERY interesting , to say the least

Now , i don't care about the GTX680....the GTX750 (non-Ti) is another story...with it's low power drain, low price, relative small size and great performance (including and in special under Linux), i beleive that would be interesting if you made that test

Somehow "Cheap SteamBox" comes to my mind...

I don't expect catalyst results to be a whole lot better. Even on high-end GPUs the performance gap is closing up quickly.

I wouldn't say this would make an ideal Steambox. It would make a good HTPC, but I don't think this would even be able to play most indie games at full frame rate. Any of the A-series APUs would make a better Steambox.

@peppercats
I thought Mint was the most popular?

[AJSB]

Hey AJSB, very interesting that you are bringing this up as I am putting together a 7850K build right now relying only on the integrated graphics for light to medium gaming. While yes 5350 + GTX750 would probably beat performance the performance isnt the only measure. Other factors that may or may not come up include space available in the case, heat, noise, and features of the CPU. I'm going with a Micro-ATX build in a relatively small form factor. I went with the 7850K because of HSA and VCE, plus it allows me to support AMD's open source efforts. Also I wanted to keep heat, and noise at the lowest possible levels.

There's also a theoretical advantage in gaming due to similarities between Kaveri and the custom APU's in the Xbox One and PS4 which may allow performance bumps due to console optimizations. Again, theoretical, but possible.

Frankly another reason I decided to just go with the 7850K is I want to see what AMD does with GCN 1.3 / 2.0. I'd rather not drop $150 on a dedicated GCN Card if in the next few months AMD is going to be releasing brand new cards with much lower power usage or much higher performance. I'd rather wait and see and just stick to integrated in the meantime, upgrading if necessary.

Assuming that AMD does NOT release a radically new card in the coming months, my planned "upgrade" for the machine is Carrizo next year which keeps FM2+ socket compatibility and supports DDR3 thus allowing me to continue using the 2133mhz, CAS 9 RAM from this machine. Lower TDP, tweaks to Kaveri architecture and upgraded graphics all in one? As a pop-in replacement? Sounds good to me, thats a CPU, GPU, and cooling bump for what is probably going to be ~$150.

I realize not everyone has the money / situation to plan out a $150 recreational expense next year. I'm just saying that there are those of us who have, or will have, Kaveri that have our reasons.

As for space goes, there are several Cube-like cases for mITX that have dual slot expansion slots....that is not an issue.

Of course that if you go the uATX route , it's more economical go FM2+ than with combo i said (there are uATX FM2+ MoBos real cheap)....nevertheless, this could be a interesting experiment for Michael do in special because i'm not interested in the OSS drivers (they FAIL BIG TIME with ET:QW in my rig) and Catalyst performance in Source games...



I myself i done a mITX FM2+ build that is very small...check it out:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1440405/asrock-fm2a88x-itx-fm2-mitx-board-kaveri-ready-build

(You only need to read and see pics in 1st post because with any change/evolution to the build , i edit again 1st post)


....APU will be eventually upgraded with a A8-7600 set to 45W or with a Carrizo

[AJSB]

I don't expect catalyst results to be a whole lot better. Even on high-end GPUs the performance gap is closing up quickly.

I wouldn't say this would make an ideal Steambox. It would make a good HTPC, but I don't think this would even be able to play most indie games at full frame rate. Any of the A-series APUs would make a better Steambox.

I have a feeling that what you say is not correct if you pair a 5350 with a GTX750

...and price and power drain is about the same as compared with a A10-7850K using the iGPU (i'm talking about regular GTX750)...

[Dukenukemx]

Michael, my logic is the following...

Taking in account the price difference between a 5350 and a 7850K and taking in account the price difference between AM1 and FM2+ miniITX MoBos, the price savings should more or less pay a GTX750 (non-Ti)....and i almost bet that a 5350+GTX750 beats the c++p out of a standalone 7850K using only it's iGPU (both under Window$ and under LINUX, in special in Linux taking in account the Catalyat problems).

Also, i almost bet that the power drain will be much lower using a 5350+GTX750 combo vs a 7850K using iGPU....

Why such high emphasis on graphics performance, when the CPU performance is crap? Even in gaming the CPU performance is important. Everyday computing relies on CPU performance. In that regard I would just get a cheap i3 or even the older AMD Phenom II's. If graphics performance becomes an issue, then you could always add in a graphics card. You'd have to replace the whole motherboard to upgrade the CPU.

[GraysonPeddie]

I have a feeling that what you say is not correct if you pair a 5350 with a GTX750

...and price and power drain is about the same as compared with a A10-7850K using the iGPU (i'm talking about regular GTX750)...

Surely, a 7850K will do much better than 5350 and GTX750 for games that are CPU-bound, right?

[AJSB]

Surely, a 7850K will do much better than 5350 and GTX750 for games that are CPU-bound, right?

Of course, but not true for the ones that are GPU-bound.

[Ericg]

As for space goes, there are several Cube-like cases for mITX that have dual slot expansion slots....that is not an issue.

Of course that if you go the uATX route , it's more economical go FM2+ than with combo i said (there are uATX FM2+ MoBos real cheap)....nevertheless, this could be a interesting experiment for Michael do in special because i'm not interested in the OSS drivers (they FAIL BIG TIME with ET:QW in my rig) and Catalyst performance in Source games...



I myself i done a mITX FM2+ build that is very small...check it out:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1440405/asrock-fm2a88x-itx-fm2-mitx-board-kaveri-ready-build

(You only need to read and see pics in 1st post because with any change/evolution to the build , i edit again 1st post)


....APU will be eventually upgraded with a A8-7600 set to 45W or with a Carrizo

Is it just me, or do "Cube" cases ( Not little NUC's or NUC-likes. Those I like) rub other people the wrong way too? Whenever I see a rectangular prism / cube case I just think "NAS, not Desktop." But maybe thats just me. This is what I'm talking about: http://images.anandtech.com/doci/611...of%2010%29.jpg

Nice build by the way, AJSB. Perfect little mini desktop for tight areas or a mini-server, or someone who just likes a clean, minimal look.

The build I'm doing is.... http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Ericg92/saved/43TD

Cooler Master hyper 212 Evo for now. Its gonna be a TIGHT fight though. Like the maximum cooler height for the 350D case and the height of the Hyper 212 EVO is 1mm difference. Corsair H60 / H100i is the next 'upgrade' depending on how well the EVO cools the 7850k.

[Spittie]

Cooler Master hyper 212 Evo for now. Its gonna be a TIGHT fight though. Like the maximum cooler height for the 350D case and the height of the Hyper 212 EVO is 1mm difference. Corsair H60 / H100i is the next 'upgrade' depending on how well the EVO cools the 7850k.

This looks like the perfect place for a Noctua NH-C14 or similar, too bad that it's more than 3x the price of the EVO. For cheap I know the Gemin II S524. At least it wouldn't be a pain to install it