what is an APU?!

[hector530]

so im alittle confused to what AMD's you product does. what the hell is an APU? its GPU and CPU in one? yet cheaper then the 1100T cpu?

 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=685803&Sku=A79-3850&cm_re=Homepage-_-Spot%2001b-_-CatId_22_A79-3850

[nosisab]

APU is used with many meanings, in that particular case it is indeed the CPU + GPU integration... just than instead meaning good news it is generally BAD news to gaming. Until now, no integrated solution is even near the demands of most nowadays 3D games.

 

PS: actually it means even the CPU being not good enough to demanding applications. Such solutions have their usefulness to those who wish to watch videos, navigate the Internet and so on... not for gaming.

Edited July 3, 2011 by nosisab

[hector530]

so its like nivida's Tegra. only this made for desktops and not mobile devises like Tegra. also

 

"When paired with select AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 series graphics cards, gain up to 75% additive performance,enabling greater playable resolutions."

 

that sounds to good to be true.

[Quetzlsacatanango]

Trust me, it is *not* anything like "integrated graphics" as you have thought of them in the past.

[nosisab]

"Trust me, it is *not* anything like "integrated graphics" as you have thought of them in the past. "

 

I have been advocating the CPU + GPU integration for long time now, possibly with some kind of physics processor in the while, two ways feedback... the GPU part actually being used to general computation, exploiting it's impressive parallel capacity... it is not this yet, but...

 

For now the answer is still the same, want general video processing, compact machines and stuff? go BobCat; want gaming performance? go Bulldozer + strong video card (or equivalent Intel solution).

 

PS: By no means I pretend the APU is bad concept, just that it has it's own niche and performance desktop has another niche, maybe this will change in more or less near future and I could not be more glad.

 

It is someway alike the "good" times the CPU and the "arithmetic co-processor" were separate chips, with the obvious bus problems associated with it, most of you probably can't even believe such thing existed :)

 

PS2: AMD lagged behind Intel since the i7 release and in the end got two generations behind, and still it's roadmap did not pointed clearly it was doing something drastic to revert this scenery, which leads me to think Nvidia is the real concern to AMD nowadays all the while keeping an eye on Intel.

Edited July 4, 2011 by nosisab

[Quetzlsacatanango]

The GPU can be and is used for general computation.

[nosisab]

I think we are not understanding one another... I have a Nvidia, so I have PhysX and CUDA... and generally OpenCL can be used for any brand, so there is no doubt the GPU can and sometimes IS used for general computation. Nvidia Tesla line meant to supercomputers on those areas where parallel processing is a must, like genetics, as one example.

 

Just this is yet a process being developed... CPU and GPU do not "communicate" directly on two ways feedback, the physical processor is yet far from standardized. What I mean is the game being able, lets say: the player shoot a missile at something and the shards trajectory are actually calculated and can hit the player and this will feedback the logic flow... not some previously scripted event, not just by standing in the blast range.

 

You see... there is a bilateral communication in that process, which is not a hardware reality yet, at least not on commercial hardware, still is something being developed long ago, from the time Agea created it's physical processor board and was later bought by Nvidia and is the root of that mentioned PhysX.

 

Although some games may actually use the GPU to do some processing beyond the image presentation, it is far from what it can be at not far someday; affordable simulation to the mass.

Edited July 4, 2011 by nosisab

[hector530]

it seems to do well but it doesnt do the 70% boost in power when pair with a HD 6000 card

 

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6322021/the-battle-for-budget-graphics-amd-lynx-vs-intel-sandy-bridge

[nosisab]

That's what I meant, although those HD65xx are exceptionally good for notebooks, the 6 in its model is not enough to put them in the gaming zone... the second and 3rth digits are meaningful and to serious gaming anything less than a 7 on the second digit there is on mainstream or entry level range.

 

Let alone they are capped too, to achieve those low power consumption.

Edited July 5, 2011 by nosisab