AMD A10 and A8 Trinity APU: Virgo Desktop Experience

Name: AMD A10-5800 APU
Brand: AMD

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, September 27, 2012, 12:01 AM EDT

For this next set of tests, we pit the integrated processor graphics incorporated into AMD's Trinity-based APUs against Intel's HD 2500 and HD 4000 series engines and a few of the least expensive, discrete GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD, the GeForce GT 430, Radeon HD 6450 and Radeon HD 5550, respectively. We tested the games at high-quality settings, at a resolution of 19200x1200 with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering to put a significant strain on the various GPUs.

Hi-Res Gaming Tests: ET:QW and L4D2

Gaming Benchmarks

In both cases, the Radeon HD 7660D and HD 7560D graphics cores built into the new AMD A10-5800K and A8-5600K APUs offered roughly double (or more) the performance of Intel's integrated graphics solutions.

Hi-Res Gaming Tests: Metro 2033 and Just Cause 2

Gaming Benchmarks

These Metro 2033 and Just Cause 2 tests are somewhat more demanding than the others posted above, and as such, we had to crank down the image quality in both titles. These tests were run at a lower-resolution (1680x1050) with in-game graphics options set to their medium values, with only 2XAA (JC2) and 4X anisotropic filtering.

While the framerates are lower, the AMD APUs are still able to hold onto huge leads over the Intel integrated graphics solutions. JC2 is perfectly playable on both the A10 and A6, while Metro 2033 would be better served by lowering the resolution to boost framerates a bit.

Tags: AMD, graphics, processor, A-8, Fusion, APU, A10, Trinity, FM2, VIrgo

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com