At the beginning, this review is written
for the main purpose of evaluating only Gigabyte GA-F2A85Z-UP4, but we have to
dedicate an additional part, which is also very crucial. That is the AMD
A10-5800K processor. What does it tell us? It shows that this mainboard is a
successful product. If this board has had any issue or caused any problem, we
would told you already. However, Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-UP4 has a wonderful
installation way, sufficient functionality, working excellently and does not
bring any inconvenience for the users, so we have no reason to complain about
it. We just would like to point out two improvable things – the fan speed
adjustment and the graphics core frequencies. The ability of the Gigabyte
mainboard which allows adjusting the rotation speed of the three – pin fans in
the processor is a huge advantage, because almost all of the mainboard of other
manufacturers are no long able to do this. Nevertheless, just some of the
system fan connectors can lower the speed of a three-pin fan, which in our
opinion is not enough. Just like the graphics core frequency, it would be more
convenient if the increase of the adjustment in BIOS is not minimal 1 MHz each
step but an actual workable increment. In other words, GA-F2A85X-UP4 is an
obvious success. It is the greatest module in the Socket FM2 series of Gigabyte
based on the AMD A85X chipset platform, introduced with an appropriate price
and therefore deserves your consideration.
Gigabyte
GA-F2A85X-UP4 has a wonderful installation way, sufficient functionality,
working excellently and does not bring any inconvenience for the users.
We just dedicate the first part in our
review about GA-F2A85X-UP4, but then we cannot find out any reason to complain,
so this board is really good. However, we talked a lot about the AMD A10-5800K
processor, and the question is, can we conclude that the CPU is not a great
success after all? Yes, that is exactly what we are thinking. We honestly
cannot understand the analysts overpraised the slow speed and power consumed of
the CPU in the latest news. Is it for the purpose of increasing the operating
performance of the integrated graphics core? Yes, it works fast indeed, but who
needs it? Let’s divide the users into two imaginary groups: the first group
includes users who almost dislike games, and the second one consists of users
who play games usually and passionately. The ideal products which are suitable
for the first group would be Intel’s processors, because they are fast, power
saving and its graphic features are strong enough to use usually. The second
user group needs to use the discrete graphics cards, which again can be grouped
with Intel’s processors. Therefore, who will be the targeted users of the
processors which have such strong integrated graphics like AMD A10-5800K? Its
graphics capabilities obviously exceed the entry level of the games, but still
not enough for the latest current products. For the A8, A6, A4 processors, the
situation might be different. Yes, their integrated graphics capabilities are
slower, but they are enough for many other “normal” games. Additionally, they
is not very power consuming and have more attractive price. The top processors
in Trinity series, however, lost their positions. They consume so much energy
for a complex and cheap system, but do not bring competitive operating
performance.
AMD
A10-5800K processor
It is sure that integrated graphics will be
faster at last. However, it seems not to catch up with the discrete graphics
accelerators in this aspect. The reason behind this issue is very easy and
recognizable in the same Socket FM2 processors. Because the space is too small,
they have to get rid of the cache L3 memory and a memory controller which
allows sharing memory between the processor and the graphics core starts to be
slower compared to the CPUs of Bulldozer. Therefore, the truth is that it is
not necessary to accelerate the integrated graphics component. It is fast
enough for every-day tasks but for gaming applications, it is not. An idea to
solve this problem is the technology which allows automatically turning on the
discrete and integrated graphics cards. In fact, this feature has been carried
out, but graphics accelerators are not fully connected. This does not save much
energy. However, if we were you, we would agree that it would be better to have
a 28W power consumed in idle mode, as we can see in the testing process of the
power consumption of Socket FM2, and the ability to startup the discrete
graphics cards when it is needed. No promises, no solutions and the sacrifice
of image quality – maximum speed and the latest game experience except the
power consumption level in idle mode. As well as the slow and not efficient
power saving processor core, a quite strong graphics core is not necessary in
AMD A10-5800K.
