AMD Richland Review; A10-6800K & A10-6700 Benchmarked

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Productivity Benchmarks: TrueCrypt 7.1 / x264HD

Productivity Benchmarks (pg. 3)

TrueCrypt 7.1

Truecrypt is another freeware gem which allows for on-the-fly disk encryption. More importantly, it fully supports AES-256 encryption methods and multi core processors. For this test, we used the built-in benchmark tool are logged the data throughput for TrueCrypt’s AES-256 encryption method.

RESULTS: With support for AES-256, Richland is able to pull ahead of certain Intel processors and legacy AMD SKUs but it seems that once again its overall IPC performance is somewhat hampered but the architecture itself.

x264HD Benchmark

x264 is quickly becoming the new codec of choice for encoding a growing number of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC videos. Think of it as the new Divx of HD and you can understand why we felt it critical to include. Tech Arp's recent development of the x264 HD Benchmark takes a 30 second HD video clip and encodes it into the x264 codec with the intention of little to no quality loss. The test is measured using the average frames per second achieved during encoding, which scales with processor speed and efficiency. The benchmark also allows the use of multi-core processors so it gives a very accurate depiction of what to expect when using encoding application on a typical full length video. We use the second pass of the first test for this benchmark as it fully loads all multi core processors.

RESULTS: Since the newer version of x264 uses an updated compiler, we can see Richland's performance climb above the results posted by the i3 Intel processors.

 

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Synthetic Gaming Benchmarks

Synthetic Gaming Benchmarks

3DMark11

3DMark 11 is the latest in a long line of synthetic benchmarking programs from the Futuremark Corporation. This is their first foray into the DX11 rendering field and the result is a program that incorporates all of the latest techniques into a stunning display of imagery. Tessellation, depth of field, HDR, OpenCL physics and many others are on display here. While the GPU plays a primary role here, 3DMark 11 takes full advantage of multiple CPU threads so any bottlenecks caused by the CPU will also be evident. In the benchmarks below we have included the results (at default settings) for both the Entry and Performance presets.

3DMark06

While its DX9 tests may not seem to be completely relevant in a DX11 era, 3DMark06 still provides an excellent measuring device for both multi core CPU and GPU performance. For this benchmark we are using the standard preset.

RESULTS: In the first 3D gaming tests with a discrete GPU, the two Richland APUs post respectable results, slightly trailing comparably priced i3 processors from Intel. Due to optimizations, 3DMark06 displays a slightly larger gap.

 

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720P Gaming: Deus Ex: HR / Dirt 3 / Skyrim

720P Gaming: Deus Ex: HR / Dirt 3 / Skyrim

720P Gaming Benchmarks

Processors play a huge roll in gameplay performance since they have to process copious amounts of information for the GPU. In the following tests, we use a simple 720P resolution and the lowest possible detail settings in an effort to remove the graphics processor from the equation and place additional pressure on the CPU. 720P was used since it is a resolution that is extensively used by gamers sporting lower end HDTVs and it doesn’t put as much stress upon the GPU as 1080P.

For every one of the following titles, a simple 1 minute gameplay walkthrough was used and the average frames per second was logged via FRAPS.

RESULTS: The first gaming tests see Richland's performance plummet against Intel's processors, though it does post very good gains when compared against Trinity.

 

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720P Gaming: Super Street Fighter IV / Torchlight

720P Gaming: Super Street Fighter IV / Torchlight

720P Gaming Benchmarks (pg.2)

Processors play a huge roll in gameplay performance since they have to process copious amounts of information for the GPU. In the following tests, we use a simple 720P resolution and the lowest possible detail settings in an effort to remove the graphics processor from the equation and place additional pressure on the CPU. 720P was used since it is a resolution that is extensively used by gamers sporting lower end HDTVs and it doesn’t put as much stress upon the GPU as 1080P.

For every one of the following titles, a simple 1 minute gameplay walkthrough was used and the average frames per second was logged via FRAPS.

RESULTS: What we see here are two very different benchmark results. Street Fighter is obviously capped by the graphics card but Torchlight shows the A10 APUs running slightly behind the i3 Intel processors by about 10%.

 

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1080P Gaming: Deus Ex: HR / Dirt 3 / Skyrim

1080P Gaming: Deus Ex: HR / Dirt 3 / Skyrim

1080P Gaming Benchmarks

While lower resolution gaming highlights processor bottlenecks, most people use slightly higher resolution monitors and want to play with increased detail settings. In these situations, the CPU tends to take a back seat to the graphics processor but even at 1080P (ie: 1920x1080) a slower CPU can still have a drastic impact upon in-game performance. In order to illustrate this, we have carried over the games from our previous tests, pumped detail levels to their max and used the increasingly popular 1080P resolution standard.

RESULTS: Ironically, as resolution increases, the AMD APUs fall further behind. This doesn't bode well for this as a gaming-centric platform.

 

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1080P Gaming: Super Street Fighter IV / Torchlight

1080P Gaming Benchmarks (pg.2)

While lower resolution gaming highlights processor bottlenecks, most people use slightly higher resolution monitors and want to play with increased detail settings. In these situations, the CPU tends to take a back seat to the graphics processor but even at 1080P (ie: 1920x1080) a slower CPU can still have a drastic impact upon in-game performance. In order to illustrate this, we have carried over the games from our previous tests, pumped detail levels to their max and used the increasingly popular 1080P resolution standard.

RESULTS: Torchlight emerges as a game that seems to be multi-core aware and as a result, the Richland APUs perform quite well in it. The same can't be said about Street Fighter though which shows those same processors trailing by a significant amount.

 

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GPGPU Performance (Civ V / MediaEspresso)

GPGPU Performance (Civ V / MediaEspresso)

With many CPUs using integrated graphics processors, parallel co-processing has become a hot topic of conversation. More and more applications now include support for OpenCL, DirectCompute and other features which help speed up performance in order to quickly finish certain tasks.

In this section, we will be benchmarking a number of applications which support (or claim to support) GPU compute in an effort to highlight the performance benefits which come with this technology. All of these tests are conducted on a system WITHOUT a discrete GPU installed.

Civilization V: Gods & Kings Leader Benchmark

Once again we are using Civ V in an odd way but its included Leader Benchmark includes a feature which uses the compute shader features on the GPU to rapidly compress large texture files. This puts a large amount of stress upon the graphics subsystem and should illustrate how well various manufacturers have implemented GPGPU features onto their cores.

MediaEspresso

Much like MediaCoder, MediaEspresso is a program used for video transcoding from one source to another. In this case, we take a high resolution 600MB 1080P video and convert it to a different MPEG-4 format suitable for mobile devices.

RESULTS: GPU Compute is one area in which AMD's APUs typically shine and Richland is certainly proof of that. It can perform neck and neck with Intel's Haswell chips in Civilization V's compute benchmark which is something of an achievement since CPU cores are used in it. Unfortunately, since MediaEspresso is optimized for Intel's QuickSync video, the A10s fall dramatically behind.

 

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GPGPU Performance (MuseMage / Photoshop CS6)

GPGPU Performance (MuseMage / Photoshop CS6)

MuseMage

MuseMage is a fully featured image editing program that uses GPU acceleration for its enhanced suite of color effects, filters, adjustment tools and other features. In order to achieve our results, we used MuseMage’s handy Batch script to apply 15 separate and consecutive image modifications to a 50MB JPG file. The results below represent the amount of time it took to complete this task.

Photoshop CS6

In our previous Photoshop CS6 benchmark, we deliberately disabled the GPU acceleration features so we could get an apples to apples CPU comparison. However, in this test, we are enabling that acceleration to see what affect it has upon the benchmark numbers. Please remember: Photoshop’s GPU features only improve performance on SOME (rather than all) editing tools so performance will not scale in a linear fashion due to the CPU still playing a role.

RESULTS: In OpenCL accelerated applications like PhotoShop and MuseMage, Richland is really able to flex its muscles. Both programs show how AMD has effectively leveraged their architecture to provide impressive computational benefits.

 

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IGP Gaming Benchmarks (3DMark06 / 3DMark11)

IGP Gaming Benchmarks (3DMark06 / 3DMark11)

Integrated graphics processors have never been thought of as legitimate gaming devices but that stigma has begun to change. In this section, we test 3DMark06 and 3DMark11 to see how modern IGP systems reach to DX9 and DX11 environments.

RESULTS: Even though Intel's superiority in x86 processing tends to take over somewhat in these tests, both A10 APUs are actually able to run neck and neck against a $350 Haswell processor. Performance increases against the previous generation Trinity APU aren't all that impressive but 3DMark does tend to put a rather large emphasis on CPU horsepower.

 

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IGP Gaming Results (Deus Ex: HR / Dirt 3 / Skyrim)

IGP Gaming Results (Deus Ex: HR / Dirt 3 / Skyrim)

As with previous in-game tests, we have selected a number of games for our IGP-only testing suite. As you may expect, these benchmarks are run without a discrete card installed. All applications are tested at moderate detail settings (remember, these aren’t fully fledged discrete cards so we can’t expect miracles) in both DX11 and DX9 environments at a resolution of 1080P.

RESULTS: AMD's strengths are really starting to show through in the IGP-focused gaming benchmarks. Here, we see the A10-6800K and A10-6700 running away from the pack, even managing to pull well ahead of AMD's own A10-5800K. For casual gamers, these are certainly promising results.