HARDWARE

AMD A10-6800K Review – Richland-Based Desktop APU (Part 5)

8/25/2013 11:12:32 AM

Power consumption

The performance of the mixture Richland processor increases due to slightly higher clock frequency. However, there is no change in architecture or manufacturing process, making us a little worried that their power consumption can also be increased. So, Trinity can’t be proud of the good power consumption level, so it is not desirable.

To learn more about the power consumption of the AMD A10-6800K APU, we make a special test cycle. The new digital power supply unit from Corsair - AX760i - allows monitoring the consumption and production electrical power, which we use active in the process of checking our power consumption. The below graphs (unless otherwise stated) show the power consumption of the entire PC (no monitor) measured after the power supply. This is the total power consumption of all components of the system. The efficiency of the PSU is not taken into account. The CPU is loaded by running the 64-bit version of the Linx 0.6.4 utility. We use FurMark 1.10.6 utilities to load the graphics cores. Moreover, we enable Turbo mode and all of the power saving technology to precisely measure the power consumption of computers in idle mode: C1E, C6, Enhanced Intel SpeedStep and AMD Cool 'n'Quiet.

Power consumption in idle mode

Power consumption in idle mode

In idle mode the AMD platform A10-6800K system consumes a few watts more power than the same exact platform with A10-5800K inside. This can be explained by the fact that for some reasons the Richland minimum frequency in idle mode is set at 2.0 GHz, while Trinity processor downgrades to 1.4 GHz.

Power consumption, CPU Load

Power consumption, CPU Load

In the case of full load on a common goal on Piledriver cores, the power consumption indexes of the AMD A10-6800K and A10-5800K level out. That means the acceleration of Richland has not resulted in charges higher power consumption and higher heat dissipation, and TDP is declared for the different generations of Socket FM2 processors in fact reflected the reality of things. Note that AMD A10-6800K consumes much more power than Intel CPUs, this really is quite reasonable, because the calculated TDP of Core i3 and Core i5 from Ivy Bridge generation are set in at 55 W or 77 W instead of 100 W by A10-6800K.

Power consumption, GPU Load

Power consumption, GPU Load

Under heavy graphics load AMD A10-6800K and AMD A10-5800K consume about the same amount of power, with a slight advantage of the Trinity. Core i3 and Core i5 need less energy significantly in this case, but it is important to remember that they also have much lower 3D performance.

Power consumption, GPU+CPU Load

Power consumption, GPU+CPU Load

Use full all types of cores in the mixture processor reveal Richland that is still a little design consumes more power than the Trinity. In fact, everything is for a reason. The differences, we observe only 5 W. However, once again prove a little better power consumption than their socket FM2 competitors. However, we will not draw any preliminary conclusions at this time, until we get our hands a better Richland processor with 65 W TDP.

Overclocking

Trinity does not spend a lot about the overclocking. Of course, like new Richmond version, it includes the special K-indexed model with unlocked frequency multiplier, but the Piledriver cores do not have much untapped potentials because the Piledriver platform APU frequency has higher frequency speed than 4 GHz even at their default settings. And Richland APU is clocked higher without any change in the manufacturing process or semiconductor design. That is why A10-6800K overclocks not much. The peak frequency for our sample is 4.8 MHz, which is only higher Turbo frequency than 400 MHz. The voltage is increased to 1.5 volts and we cool with NZXT Havik 140 cooler.

Overclocking

Overclocking

Even so, the results should not be underestimated. In fact, the Richmond, as represented by A10-6800K, is more friendly form for people overclocking than its predecessor. We can’t achieve clock speed as in our experiments with A10-5800K in the same cooling equipment.

Besides, the screenshot shows the manufacturers, finally try to make the internal temperature sensor working more or less correctly. It now reflects the actual values ​​for the APU die temperature. In this way, the highest permissible temperature for A10-6800K is 120°C, due to our overclocking is limited by the efficiency of cooling equipment. But contrary to Haswell, A10-6800K temperature correlates directly with its heat-sink, so alternative cooling equipment with higher efficiency will help us to achieve higher clock speeds.

Remaining 42% of the APU can be overclocked. We wish to refer to the graphics cores. After setting the voltage at 1,425 volts, we integrate Radeon HD 8670D to work in 1,169 MHz, 325 MHz higher than the default clock speed. We reduce the frequency of x86 APU to 4.7 GHz in this case to ensure the under load stability in the mixture.

As the final step in our mixture platforms overclocking, we choose the highest system memory frequency. Richland controller supports DDR3-2400 and we do not have any problems when initializing this clock speed. As a result, we have a good overclocking platform with high graphics performance than the default settings.

3DMark result

3DMark result

Overall score of overclocked A10-6800K is nearly higher 25%, its x86 part is accelerated by 10% in the physics game test. The integrated Radeon HD 8670D is compared to Radeon HD 6670 graphics card when overclocking.

Conclusions

No resolution occurs. The new computer mixtures processor is formerly known as Richland and now belongs to the new 6000 version that brings only minor changes to the socket FM2 platform. AMD tries to turn Richland into a new hit, but if we put aside all the marketing promotion, then we will see the Trinity processors with the slightly clock speed and nothing else. However, even the few moments of joy that the new A10-6800K gives us today are quite adequate. It's great to have the computing and graphics performance at the same level of heat sink and power consumption as well as experience improved overclocking results.

Overall, socket FM2 platform always leaves a positive impression right from the start, especially when it comes to graphics or inconsistent performance of the top version in the product line. The AMD developers incorporate all their best efforts to give us and try to implement some very attractive solutions based on it later, especially for the price. Despite improvements in Richland are small, still undeniably and step forward, it will allow AMD to maintain interest in their socket FM2 platform least until their new heterogeneous Kaveri processors are ready to roll.

So, we will continue to introduce AMD A10 processor as great products for the office as well as inexpensive gaming or PC entertainment. Of course, it is important to mention that the graphics processors in the Trinity and Richland are integrated and do not support all online games in Full HD resolution even with minimal image quality settings. But many modern games will run on integrated AMD A10 graphics at a full frame rate, while Intel is unable to provide even that. At least, until Haswell microarchitecture is put into the sub $150 processor samples.

Specifications

·         Motherboard: Gigabyte F2-A85X-UP4

·         BIOS: F4

·         Chipset Driver: AMD Catalyst 13.6

·         DDR3 Memory: G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2 x 4GB)

·         Memory Timings: 11-11-11-30-2T @ 2,133MHz

·         Integrated Graphics: HD 8670D

·         Discrete Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 3GB (ForceWare 320.18)

·         Disk Drive: Samsung 840 Pro 250GB

·         Optical Drive: Sony AD-7263S

·         Chassis: Corsair Graphite 600T

·         Power Supply: Corsair AX750

·         Operating System: Windows 8 64-bit

 

 

Other  
 
Top 10
Extending LINQ to Objects : Writing a Single Element Operator (part 2) - Building the RandomElement Operator
Extending LINQ to Objects : Writing a Single Element Operator (part 1) - Building Our Own Last Operator
3 Tips for Maintaining Your Cell Phone Battery (part 2) - Discharge Smart, Use Smart
3 Tips for Maintaining Your Cell Phone Battery (part 1) - Charge Smart
OPEL MERIVA : Making a grand entrance
FORD MONDEO 2.0 ECOBOOST : Modern Mondeo
BMW 650i COUPE : Sexy retooling of BMW's 6-series
BMW 120d; M135i - Finely tuned
PHP Tutorials : Storing Images in MySQL with PHP (part 2) - Creating the HTML, Inserting the Image into MySQL
PHP Tutorials : Storing Images in MySQL with PHP (part 1) - Why store binary files in MySQL using PHP?
REVIEW
- First look: Apple Watch

- 3 Tips for Maintaining Your Cell Phone Battery (part 1)

- 3 Tips for Maintaining Your Cell Phone Battery (part 2)
VIDEO TUTORIAL
- How to create your first Swimlane Diagram or Cross-Functional Flowchart Diagram by using Microsoft Visio 2010 (Part 1)

- How to create your first Swimlane Diagram or Cross-Functional Flowchart Diagram by using Microsoft Visio 2010 (Part 2)

- How to create your first Swimlane Diagram or Cross-Functional Flowchart Diagram by using Microsoft Visio 2010 (Part 3)
Popular Tags
Microsoft Access Microsoft Excel Microsoft OneNote Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft Project Microsoft Visio Microsoft Word Active Directory Biztalk Exchange Server Microsoft LynC Server Microsoft Dynamic Sharepoint Sql Server Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2012 Windows 7 Windows 8 Adobe Indesign Adobe Flash Professional Dreamweaver Adobe Illustrator Adobe After Effects Adobe Photoshop Adobe Fireworks Adobe Flash Catalyst Corel Painter X CorelDRAW X5 CorelDraw 10 QuarkXPress 8 windows Phone 7 windows Phone 8 BlackBerry Android Ipad Iphone iOS