AMD A10 6800K review

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Finals Words and conclusion

Final words and conclusion

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. Next to that the up-to 4400 MHz turbo clock frequency for an A10 APU,  is just impressive to see. We feel that the the A10 6800K as tested today is a product for entry-level towards mainstream PCs. GPU wise you'll see roughly similar performance compared to the A10 5800 though. The base-clock of 4100 MHz is high, that also means a higher voltage is applied and that does result into a fairly high power consumption though, that makes the TDP 100 Watt for this APU.

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 6800K APU at 100 Watt, and that in this day and age is fairly high for what the product really is and offers. In IDLE (no dedicated graphics card installed) you'd sit at roughly 45 Watts, however when we start to stress the CPU cores then power consumption boosts upwards to roughly 130~140 Watt (for the entire PC). That's quite a bit considering the performance level of the APU.

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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. 

Overclocking & Tweaking

We tried and in combo with our ASUS motherboard overclocking we have been successful to increase the multiplier stable to 4600 MHz, that was roughly the limit. Considering this APU is already running at 4400 MHz on the turbo clocks, we say .. let it be. The extra 200 MHz is not going to make a substantial enough difference. Then again, you might get it higher as this is not the most sweet overclocking motherboard we wanted it to be.  

 

Guru3d-recommended

 

Conclusing

Admittedly I'm a bit of a fan of AMDs APUs, it's hard to not like them. These little critters build excellent low-key to mainstream PCs, they have everything you need built in and as such offer a tremendous feature set. That said, if you require more processor power, Intel is the more logical choice. But if you like the hybrid symbiosis of a CPU+GPU then AMD simply wins hands down. The AMD A10 6800K  processor as tested today 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 145 EUR the A10 6800K 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. 

Value and features is what the this little APU infrastructure offers and as such a A10 6800K with an A75 or A85X based motherboard for normal daily usage is excellent. Obviously it's also great for HTPCs and even a game or two albeit in lower resolutions. But for the thirsty gamer that requires performance there's plenty of other hardware to lookout for, but for anything that does not require hardcore computing and gaming, that's where these APUs make a lot of sense.

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