AMD A10 6700 review

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Finals Words and conclusion

Final words and conclusion

Much like our AMD A10 6800K review we have similar things to say about the AMD A10 6700, as it is merely fractions slower. Richland is interesting, however coming from Trinity really it's the same APU yet tweaked on the clocks, turbo's and memory controller. That's it. However it's the first series APUs that delivers 'up-to' mainstream processor performance and that I find to be interesting.

For the 6700 AMD locked in a 4200 MHz turbo clock frequency for an A10 APU, and that remains impressive to see. We feel that the the A10 6700 as tested today is a product for entry-level towards mainstream PCs and just an excellent solution for HTPCs. GPU wise you'll see roughly similar performance compared to the A10 5800 and A10 6800K though. The base-clock of 3900 MHz is nice, but AMD can keep the voltage for this APU a tiny bit lower, and that gives it a far better TDP of 65 Watt. 

Performance

Overall though our conclusion remains similar to other A10 reviews we have written, the big caveat for this product series will remain processor power. If only these puppies could have processor performance like Intel offers then they would dominate and rule everywhere, that's just not the case. Sure OpenCL and anything compute related is more getting more hip &  trendy these days, but we are still far away from massive mainstream compute enhancements in software so the actually processor power remains the biggest X-factor. That said, if you are after pure processor performance then we can only conclude that it is mainstream at best. Realistically if you build a PC for everyday usage like browsing, a little work like perhaps Photoshop then it's all good really. But sure, processor wise, it's a relatively small speed-bump. The APU GPU performance however is very good, rock solid even. With the IGP you can even play game at 720P and some even at 1080P considering you flick down image quality settings, and that's progress alright. Combined with a great video de and encode and all the multi-monitor output lovin this APU offers, AMD simply wins hands down opposed to anything Intel has to offer. Intel is is gaining IGP performance fast though, if anything the latest generation Haswell processors have shown that.

Power Consumption

We already mentioned the topic, but TDP wise AMD has set this A10 6700 APU at 65 Watt, and that in this day and age is reasonable for  what the product really is and offers. In IDLE (no dedicated graphics card installed) you'd sit at roughly 43 Watts, however when we start to stress the CPU cores then power consumption boosts upwards to roughly 120 Watt (for the entire PC).
 

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The platform overall

Any APU based platform will offer value for money though. A very strong selling point obviously is the embedded GPU. And combined with the A85X chipset, features like a native six fold of SATA-600 and USB 3.0 support is being offered. Also a very powerful Catalyst based software suite surrounding AMDs APUs definitely brings heaps of advantages to them opposed to the competition. So if you purchase an A75 or A85X motherboard, PSU, HDD/SSD, memory and the APU -- and you are good to go really -- a fully functional PC is what you get, for relatively little money. The A10 6800K APU offers decent enough CPU performance, excellent multi-media options, the Full HD experience and sure, even gaming albeit very low level will work. 

 

Guru3d-recommended

 

Conclusing

The A10 6700 SKU is really not that different from the A10 5700 when it comes to graphics and logical CPU performance. But if you like the hybrid symbiosis of a CPU+GPU then AMD remains to have a very competitive offering, though Intel is closing in on the iGPU side real fast.  

The AMD A10 6700  processor as tested today again offers what AMD always offers, an interesting alternative with every gadget available on-board. If you purchase an A10 APU with the combination of that 85X based motherboard, you'll have a processor, graphics subsystem, up-to eight SATA-600 ports, USB 3.0, heaps of USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, HD audio and you simply get a very up-to-date PC. So for 125 EUR the A10 6700 can make a lot of sense. The APU remains hard to beat in terms of features performance and well all the goodness you can expect from a great processing unit. And let me just state that this is an excellent APU for a HTPC.

So yeah, for 125 EUR the A10 6700 will make a lot of sense if your needs  fall in a certain segment. This processor slash graphics hybrid symbiosis called APU remains hard to beat in terms of features and offers all the goodness you can expect from a great APU. Value and fun is what the platform offers. Our conclusion stands, a A10 6700 with an A75 or A85X based motherboard for normal daily usage is just fine, it's great for HTPCs, a home server and even a game or two albeit in lower resolutions. 

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