AMD FM1 CPU/APU's

[Jazzmarazz]

So what does everyone think about these? I am buying on and you can't stop me. I cannot justify the price of a top-of-the-line graphics card atm, but can in the future and I see these chips as being an incredible APU for temporary use as well as incredibly upgradeable considering the fact that they will communicate with a Radeon card if you install one for double processing!

Quad Core Unlocked 3.0GHz.

I don't need a PC thats gonna fly me to the moon, nor can I afford the Intel chips of the same caliber. I just want casual to mid range PC gaming with the option of upgrading.

[Wolfwood428]

i built a pc for a friend with an AMD sinilar to that one was pretty damn good. until he bought a frickin nVidia graphics card cause he didn't ask me what card to put in it XD. but that is a damn good Processor, and for a decent priced GPU i suggest the 6790 i beleive is the one i have in mine with a first gen i5.

[Inferno.]

My uncle has an AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition 3.4GHz quad core, it shits all over his older build which had a first gen i5 640.

[Jazzmarazz]

My uncle has an AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition 3.4GHz quad core, it shits all over his older build which had a first gen i5 640.

Those AM3 and AM3+ chips are pretty attractive, but I can't really afford to buy a graphics card on top of everything else. At least not right now. If I can wait a few more weeks and see if I am gong to be paid for this new job, I just might go all the way to the top. Eight Cores.

[Mr. Nemo]

Always depend on the APU you are selecting. An A4-3400 is nice at $60-70, but a g620+6670 at $120-140 will trump most A6s-A8s when it comes to single/dual core gaming. I've been spouting how good they are since I bought mine last Christmas, but I still say it like when I got it then. Don't expect a lot from it, and it'll heat up last crazy if you get an A6-A8. The watt usage on those bad boys are 120-150 and the heat sink is designed for 95. Disaster waiting to happen if you try to overclock.

I would personally get those unlocked A8s for underclocking while keeping the IGU enabled. Maybe consider CrossFire, but only a select few titles can use it right, so don't count on it.

Right now if you plan on using a discrete GPU, go for the FM1 that have a disabled IGU like the X4 631. They run for 65 shipped on SuperBiiz and it'll save you $30-40 for a graphics card like a 6670 or whatever to do what you need. Be warned though, FM1 are not continuing, so take advantage of the savings while you can and make sure you have no intentions on upgrading that CPU.

[Jazzmarazz]

I am leaning toward the A8 still, but not entirely excluding the Phenom II x4. I will be overclocking regardless of which CPU I end up going with and have chosen the Thermaltake Water2.0 performer becuase its on deal at the moment costing as much as an after market air cooler.

Just now I looked at some DDR3 discrete graphics cards which is why I cannot exclude the Phenom. I know for a fact that the Phenom can be successfully overclocked but the A8 APU is the same price as the Phenom II x4. That means if I were to purchase the Phenom, anything I spend on the discrete video card, even one matching the A8's video, would be more than the A8.

i have already increased my limit by 100 bucks so that I can get the SSD and cooler I want on top of everything else, so more on top of that is nearly too much more.

[Mr. Nemo]

Since you are going for overclock performance, go with the Phenom II. I bought the A6-3670k last week and it made me all kinds of happy when I underclock+undervolt it. It's originally was a quad core 2.7ghz at 1.41 volts. I underclocked it to 2.4ghz and 1.1 volts. The wattage used decreased by 30%, making the average full load go from 48 degrees Celsius to 28. My PSU also doesn't blow hot air out anymore, so that's great.

It's not amazing though since it doesn't have L3 cache, but will get the job done for things that don't require it. It can overclock, but it doesn't increase performance by much due to lack of L3. The GPU however, benefits from overclocking. It won't do better than 6670 or higher, but you'll see a performance increase and for me, it plays Hellgate London at med-high but plays League of Legends at low settings still. LoL uses flash though, so it's a nightmare for any processor+GPU. This is low settings for 60 frames a second and more. I used to have it at medium settings with 45 frames on average, but wanted smoother gameplay.


For what you want, here is some parts I saw in case you didn't see them:

CPU: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...7&Sku=A79-9866
Phenom II X4 955 BE OEM $85 free shipping

A8s are typically 110 for the black edition of them.

Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148560

8Gb dual channel $58
4Gb Dual Channel is $25

After that, the GPU will be hard to suggest since I'm not aware of what is your favorite and how much oomph you want.

[Jazzmarazz]

I took the leap last night and bought almost everything else I needed and you may be surprised by my decisions. Paypal was buggering with me on my shipping address, so I had to order everything except the RAM and CPU for the time being on my credit card instead of paypal balance. Sadly, I have to put off buying an SSD for ahile becuase of the extra cash I put toward the GPU, but I think I will be satisfied in the long run:

Spoiler warning:

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Rosewill RNX-N150PCe (RNWD-11011) IEEE 802.11b/g/n PCIe 2.0 Wireless Adapter Up to 150Mbps Wireless Data Rates WPA/WPA2 (AES, ...
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Thermaltake WATER2.0 Performer Closed-Loop All In One Liquid CPU Cooler Dual 120mm PWM Fans 120x25mm CLW0215
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Im sure you can guess which CPU I am going with by looking at my socket type. I will actually be buying the Phenom II 965 from newegg even though it is a little more becuase they are offering a free 1 yr warranty and it has the heatsink/fan. I will be using the heatsink in another build.
As for that RAM, those are some pleasing reviews! I will look into those sticks a little more before making a decision.

[Mr. Nemo]

Motherboard: 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (blue) GPU: 3.0 That's the only mistake you made since it'll really hamper it's performance. It'll effectively be cut by 40% since it can't use the extra memory bandwidth. The difference between 2.0 and 3.0 is twice the memory bandwidth.


I bought the 4Gb set for my 32 bit system and there isn't much to say besides they work. I need to do a memory test to see for errors, but it certainly has less errors than my 8gb dual kit.

[Jazzmarazz]

Can you link me to an AM3+ mobo that has a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot?

EDIT:
Shit, I just figured it out...Why you behind AMD!?

Question for you: Is this going to be worse than the same card if it were a PCIe 2.0 card or will it perform better if I had it in a PCIe 3.0 slot? Get what I mean?
There is no chance I am getting an intel board, so I just need to know if it going to be considered a 512MB, 64-bit, DDR3 card?

[Mr. Nemo]

I made you freak out for no reason. There isn't a processor out there that can utilized 3.0 slots, but it is there for future CPU models. You'll still get that performance hit, just not with that processor. Sorry for the sudden panic, but it was worth noting if you planned on doing anything else with that card.

[Jazzmarazz]

I made you freak out for no reason. There isn't a processor out there that can utilized 3.0 slots, but it is there for future CPU models. You'll still get that performance hit, just not with that processor. Sorry for the sudden panic, but it was worth noting if you planned on doing anything else with that card.

Not so much a "panic" as a "derp".
I DID realize that my mobo had no 3.0 slot, but I assumed it would be taken care of in drivers becuase I had looked for AMD mobo's with these slots and found none.
It was nto a good idea to assume, but I did read that they would work.
My questino is as above, will it be throttled, or will it simply perform as well as a 2.0 card of the same caliber?
The reason I jumped on this card was becuase I have been watching the "open-box" section like a hawk becuase all of my mobos were taken the very next day.

[Mr. Nemo]

It'll perform at the 2.0 level. Technically it will be throttled, but not of the memory clock, just the memory bandwidth. It'll still go at 1ghz memory clock (or whatever the frack it is), but it won't be able to use the maximum cap of data flow. That just means programs and such that will use beyond the current memory use won't get access to that sweet 3.0 bandwidth, so in other words, nothing but Video editors and designing your own game engine will suffer. It's very similar to the APUs in the sense that the GPU in the APU is better that current RAM available for it to use, so it'll suffer in it's 'potential' due to memory bandwidth caps.

I have read great things about that GPU and how much overkill it can accomplish with games from 2010 and before. It'll run newer games like a boss, but it'll be more in the 40-50 range instead of that mega awesome 60 people love to play. That is with 1920x1080 resolution mind you, so anything lower and you'll be more than fine.