Amd A10-6800k & Asus F2A85-V Pro Review

[Singh]

AMD recently unveiled their new Richland desktop APUs as an upgraded version of Trinity and today we are reviewing one from this family i.e AMD A10 6800k. AMD A10 6800k is based on pile-driver cores and uses Socket FM2, and are compatible with existing motherboards A55, a75 and A85X chipsets. A10 6800k has built into RADEON HD8670D graphics processor .

Compared with previous Trinity based A10-5800K new Richland A10-6800k has the same TDP of 100W, same amount of level 2 cache memory and has a same 32nm process. However, the A10-6800K runs at a higher clock speed of 4.1GHz and has a higher boost speed of 4.4GHz. The graphics integrated into this APU is Radeon HD 8670D with an 844MHz core frequency. The A10-6800K supports up to DDR3-2133MHz memory.


Processor Specifications

• Part Code:- A10-6800K
• Review Date:- 17 Jun 2013
• Processor core:- Richland
• Processor clock speed:- 4.1GHz
• Processor socket:- FM2
• Processor process:- 32nm
• Processor number of cores:- 4
• Processor supported instructions:- MMX, SSE 1, 2, 3, 3S, 4.1, 4.2, 4A, X86-64, AMD-V, AES, AVX, XOP
• Processor multiplier:- x41
• Processor external bus:- 100MHz
• Level 1 cache:- 2x 64KB
• Level 2 cache:- 2x 2,048KB
• Processor level 3 cache:- N/A
• Supported memory type:- DDR3
• Processor power rating (TDP):- 100W

Closer Look

Motherboard


The new Richland APUs were built on an FM2 socket design that will require a motherboard to support it. This will be our first time looking at an ASUS offering. Today’s review will be on the F2A85-V Pro, which is a top-end offering from ASUS’ FM2 line of motherboards. So, let’s take an in-depth look and see how it performs.


Motherboard Specifications


CPU AMD Socket FM2 Athlon™/A- Series Processors
Supports CPU up to 4 cores
Supports AMD® Turbo Core 3.0 Technology

Chipset AMD A85X FCH(Hudson D4)

Memory x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR3 2400(O.C.)/2250(O.C.)/2200(O.C.)/2133(O.C.)/2000(O.C.)/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel Memory Architecture
Support AMD Memory Profile (AMP) memory
* The Max. 64GB memory capacity can be supported with DIMMs of 16GB (or above). ASUS will update QVL once the DIMMs are available on the market.
* Refer to ASUS or user manual for the Memory QVL (Qualified Vendors Lists).
* Due to OS limitation, when installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, Windows® 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Install a 64-bit Windows® OS when you want to install 4GB or more memory on the motherboard.

Graphic Integrated AMD Radeon™ HD 8000/7000 Series Graphics in A-series APU
Multi-VGA output support : HDMI/DVI/RGB/DisplayPort ports
- Supports HDMI with max. resolution 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
- Supports DVI with max. resolution 2560 x 1600 @ Hz
- Supports RGB with max. resolution 1920 x 1600 @ 60 Hz
- Supports DisplayPort with max. resolution 4096 x 2160 @ 60 Hz
Maximum shared memory of 2048 MB
AMD® Dual Graphics technology support *1
Supports DirectX 11

Multi-GPU Support Supports AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ Technology
Supports LucidLogix® Virtu™ MVP Technology *2

Expansion Slots 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode)
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
2 x PCI

Storage AMD A85X FCH(Hudson D4) chipset :
7 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray
1 x eSATA 6Gb/s port(s), red
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10, JBOD

LAN Realtek® 8111F, 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller(s)

Audio Realtek® ALC892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Supports : Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking
Audio Feature :
- Optical S/PDIF out port(s) at back panel

USB Ports ASMedia® USB 3.0 controller :
2 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, blue)
AMD A85X FCH(Hudson D4) chipset :
4 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, , 2 at mid-board)
AMD A85X FCH(Hudson D4) chipset :
10 x USB 2.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, , 8 at mid-board)

Overclocking Features Overclocking Protection :
- ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)

Special Features ASUS Dual Intelligent Processors 3 with New DIGI+ Power Control :
SMART DIGI+ :
- Smart DIGI+ Key- Quickly delivers optimized VRM frequency, voltage and current for superior APU/DRAM overclocking performance with one click.
ASUS TPU :
- Auto Tuning
- TurboV
- GPU Boost
- TPU switch
ASUS EPU :
- EPU
- EPU switch
ASUS Digital Power Design :
- Industry leading Digital 6 +2 Phase Power Design
- CPU Power Utility
- DRAM Power Utility
ASUS Exclusive Features :
- Remote GO!
- USB BIOS Flashback
- MemOK!
- AI Suite II
- AI Charger+
- USB Charger+
- Anti-Surge
- ASUS UEFI BIOS EZ Mode features a friendly graphic user interface
- Network icontrol
- USB 3.0 Boost
- Disk Unlocker
ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution :
- Stylish Fanless Design Heat-pipe solution
- ASUS Fan Xpert 2
ASUS EZ DIY :
- Direct Key
- Precision Tweaker 2
- ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
- ASUS EZ Flash 2
- ASUS MyLogo 2
ASUS Q-Design :
- ASUS Q-Shield
- ASUS Q-Slot
- ASUS Q-Connector
100% All High-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors

Back I/O Ports 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s)
1 x DVI
1 x D-Sub
1 x DisplayPort
1 x HDMI
1 x eSATA
1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s)
4 x USB 3.0 (blue)
2 x USB 2.0
1 x Optical S/PDIF out
6 x Audio jack(s)

Internal I/O Ports 1 x USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 2 USB 3.0 port(s) (19-pin)
4 x USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 8 USB 2.0 port(s)
1 x COM port(s) connector(s)
7 x SATA 6Gb/s connector(s)
1 x CPU Fan connector(s) (4 x -pin)
4 x Chassis Fan connector(s) (4 x -pin)
1 x S/PDIF out header(s)
1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector(s)
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s)
1 x Front panel audio connector(s) (AAFP)
1 x System panel(s)
1 x Direct Key Button(s)
1 x DRCT header(s)
1 x MemOK! Button(s)
1 x TPU switch (Es)
1 x EPU switch (Es)
1 x USB BIOS Flashback button(s)

Accessories User’s manual
I/O Shield
4 x SATA 6Gb/s cable(s)
1 x Q-connector(s) (2 in 1) *3

BIOS 64 Mb Flash ROM, UEFI AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.7, ACPI 2.0a, Multi-language BIOS, ASUS EZ Flash 2, ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3, F12 PrintScreen Function, F3 Shortcut Function and ASUS DRAM SPD (Serial Presence Detect) memory information

Support Disc Drivers, ASUS utilities, ASUS Update, Anti-virus software (OEM version)

Form Factor ATX Form Factor
12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )

Note *1 Refer to AMD website for the discrete GPUs which support Dual Graphics technology
*2 LucidLogix Virtu MVP supports Windows 7 operating systems.
*3 Retail version only


Closer Look

Test Setup

• AMD A10-6800K
• ASUS F2A85-V PRO
• KINGSTON HYPER X BEAST 16GB 2400MHz CL10
• COOLER MASTER TPC 812
• CORSAIR FORCE 3 60GB SSD
• SEASONIC PLATINUM 1000W

Performance

CPU

Starting up with Some 2D benchmarks Super pi, Wprime, Hyper pi.

Super pi, Wprime, Hyper Pi is used by many Overclockers to test the performance and stability of their computers. In the Overclocking community, these standard programs provide a benchmark for enthusiasts to compare pi calculation times and demonstrate their Overclocking abilities.

Pov-Ray Benchmark

POV-Ray for Unix has a built-in version of the standard benchmark scene. The built-in benchmark mode has been further modified to run without accessing any other distribution files.

Cinebench R v11. 05

CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer's performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON's animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.

This test scenario uses all of your system's processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene (from the viral 'No Keyframes' animation by AixSponza). This scene makes use of various different algorithms to stress all available processor cores

LuxMark

LuxMark is an OpenCL benchmark tool. The idea for the program was conceived in 2009 by Jromang. It was intended as a promotional tool for LuxRender. The idea was quite simple, wrap SLG inside an easy to use graphical user interface and use it as a benchmark for OpenCL.

X264 Benchmark

X264 FHD Benchmark is an application that allows you to encode video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format.In terms of quality for general-purpose encoding, x264 is the one of the best video encoder. x264 is commonly used by companies ranging from YouTube, Facebook to Hulu and Avail Media. With x264 FHD Benchmark, you will be able to test how fast your CPU can encode a sequence using x264 settings.

Aida64 CPU Suite

AIDA64 implements a set of 64-bit benchmarks to measure how fast the computer performs various data processing tasks and mathematical calculations. Processor benchmarks utilize MMX, 3DNow! And SSE instructions, and scale up to 32 processor cores. For legacy processors all benchmarks are available in the 32 - bit version as well.

SISOFTWARE SANDRA

We ran the overclocked system through a plethora of Sandra's tests ranging from the raw arithmetical performance of the CPUs to how it deals with media transcoding.
Throughout the tests we can see that the Overclock A10 takes the lead constantly.

3Dmark Vantage CPU Score

3Dmark11 CPU Score

Power Consumption

GPU

3dmark Vantage

3DMark Vantage is a full DirectX 10 compliant synthetic benchmark designed to test the DirectX 10 abilities of your video card and computing power of your PC. 3DMark Vantage focuses on the two areas most critical to gaming performance: the CPU and the GPU. With the emergence of multi-package and multi-core configurations on both the CPU and GPU side, the performance scale of these areas has widened, and the visual and game-play effects made possible by these configurations are accordingly wide-ranging.

3dmark 11

3DMark 11 is the very latest benchmark test from the house of Futuremark, which has brought out some of the most comprehensive benchmark applications for PC enthusiasts and gamers. 3DMark 11, as the name might probably suggest, makes use of the Microsoft DirectX 11 API and puts every feature on it at its disposal to use, creating astonishing realistic visuals. In the process, it evaluates DirectX 11-compliant GPUs and lets gamers know what to expect from upcoming games that make use of the API in terms of visual realism.

Catzilla

Catzilla is a cross-API (OpenGL 4.0 and DirectX 9/11) benchmark designed the Windows platform, and is also featuring a parallel graphics engine that can take advantage of multi-core CPUs.

The benchmark consists of the main demoscene-style Dubstep-heavy giant cat fight scene, which stresses both CPU and GPU, and a set of smaller benchmarks – CPU rigid body physics, GPU smoke simulation, fur rendering, etc.

As an interesting note, Catzilla uses PhysX SDK 3.2 as physics engine, however, it is running purely on the CPU.

Unique Heaven

Unique Heaven was one of the first demos that supported DirectX 11. Heaven is a technology demonstration of the Unigine engine which supports DirectX 9 through 11 and OpenGL. Version 2.0 adds more scenes and, optionally, more complex dissolution features. Although there is some controversy surrounding the benchmark and as to whether it is an accurate representation of what to expect from future games in regard to DirectX 11, we still decided to use this test to get an insight into the potential of future gaming.

Batman Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City, a sequel to Batman Arkham Asylum, by Rocksteady Games and WB. It was released on the PC platform in November. Batman is imprisoned in Arkham City, an infamous district of the DC Universe that contains the scum of Gotham, most of whom Batman helped put in there. In order to get out, he must go through scores of baddies and encounters many of the iconic supervillains along the way - he's not entirely alone.

The Batman Arkham City uses the same Unreal Engine by Epic as Batman Arkham Asylum and takes advantage of DirectX 11. Benching has done with DX11 Selected and at Medium settings @ 1920x1080p.

Crysis 3

Set decades after the events of Crysis 2, you wake up from a stasis pod to find long lost friend and squadmate "Psycho," who explains how C.E.L.L has virtually taken over the world by monopolizing energy production in Crysis 3. The game lets you take the Crysis trilogy to its logical conclusion by putting a stop to C.E.L.L and an alien armada in a final and epic battle.

Based on a refined CryEngine 3 that supports DirectX 11 out of the box, Crysis 3 is easily one of the most visually stunning games ever made. Benching has done with DX11 Selected and at Low settings @ 1920x1080p.

Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs is a 2012 open world action-adventure video game. The core gameplay of Sleeping Dogs consists of giving the player an open world environment in which to move around freely. Sleeping Dogs are played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game with role-playing elements. The player controls Wei Shen, a Chinese-American police officer, as he goes undercover to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organization.
Sleeping dogs game engine uses DirectX 11 with tessellation and very detailed textures. We tested the game with details set to the Normal Settings @ 1920x1080p.

Tomb Raider 2013

One of the oldest and most engaging game franchises, Tomb Raider deserves to be reimagined to fully make use of the current generation of gaming hardware. The newest Tomb Raider game takes us back to the beginnings of Lara Croft, the agile and resourceful explorer we've grown to adore and respect.

Based on a customized Crystal Engine by Crystal Dynamics, the new Tomb Raider takes advantage of DirectX 11 and DirectCompute to create not only stunning tropical environments, but also some character realism by using AMD TressFX technology. We tested the game with details set to the Highl Settings @ 1920x1080p.

Street Fighter X Tekken

Street Fighter X Tekken is a crossover fighting game developed by Capcom and released in March 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, in May for the PC. The game features characters from both the Street Fighter franchise and Namco's Tekken series. In the game, players select two characters and face other duos in tag team fighting matches, in which the objective is to knock out both members of the opposing team. Maximum Settings playable used for checking frame rate @ 1920x1080p .

Conclusion

Even while testing with stock settings I was massively impressed, these APU provides a very good option to an enthusiast that want to build a mid-end PC with a hybrid symbiosis of a CPU+GPU. On the motherboard front, the Asus F2A85-V Pro provided a stable and stress-free platform for my testing.It is one of the best FM2 motherboard to consider.

If you purchase an A10 APU with the combination of that ASUS 85X based motherboard, you'll have a processor, graphics subsystem, more than 6 SATA-6.0gbps ports, USB 3.0, heaps of USB 2.0 ports, HD audio and you simply get a very up-to-date PC.


APU

Pros

Great GPU Performance
Amazing Overclocking
Supports eyefinity
Good price performance ratio


Cons

Based on old pile-driver
Lack CPU performance


Motherboard

Pros

Looks
Good Overclocking potential
Supports multiple displays
Great software support

Cons

Runs too Hot
Pricing



A Special Thank to AMD & ASUS for providing the Review Sample.

[Singh]

PC MARK 8 Results Added

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[realandR3cys]

Most precise and brilliant review, as always!
These APUs are truly gathering some attention. I wouldn't be surprised if they can fit the performance of a HD7790, on the CPU die

[Timon]

Awesome awesome.....Good work @Singh...