DCS AMD A10 series APU

[humptydumpty]

Hi,

 

Is anyone using DCS 1.5 or 2.0 on an AMD A10-7850k series APU ? Asking because this is the only one which I can afford. I did have a FX 6300 8 GB with a 2 GB HD 7750 around 6 months back such an idiot ,I sold it to buy a laptop a Lenovo Flex 2 which is lousy so I use DCS 1.5 on my Toshiba laptop.

 

Would appreciate anyone having experience regarding this APU.

 

Thanks.

[Metal Hawk]

Well, in PassMark benchmarks HD 7750 has a score of 1647. A10-7850k has a score of 1008. But both are at the low end side. If you lower some settings that have big impact on graphics calculations, my guess is that you will have similar experience with the HD 7750.

[Marcus7715]

Well I am using DCS 1.5 on an AMD A8-6600 series APU with a Nvidea GTX750Ti Graphics card, it runs smoothly on medium detail, but that doesn't mean I'm not saving for a better rig.....Many new game titles are becoming very demanding so the AMD A10-7850 will become obsolete very soon IMHO....Hope this helps

[humptydumpty]

Well, in PassMark benchmarks HD 7750 has a score of 1647. A10-7850k has a score of 1008. But both are at the low end side. If you lower some settings that have big impact on graphics calculations, my guess is that you will have similar experience with the HD 7750.

 

 

Hi,

 

I do not have the FX system anymore , nor I did I run DCS on my FX system, the only Simulator I ran on that was Xplane 10 and it perform very well with high settings.

[humptydumpty]

Well I am using DCS 1.5 on an AMD A8-6600 series APU with a Nvidea GTX750Ti Graphics card, it runs smoothly on medium detail, but that doesn't mean I'm not saving for a better rig.....Many new game titles are becoming very demanding so the AMD A10-7850 will become obsolete very soon IMHO....Hope this helps

 

 

Marcus , not looking at using any other games except flight simulation.

[Abburo]

APUs are not meant for gaming but more for multimedia. Keep this in mind when you choose.

[humptydumpty]

APUs are not meant for gaming but more for multimedia. Keep this in mind when you choose.

 

 

Yep I know but I cannot afford more than this :).

[Abburo]

Save your money then. Wait some more time to add some more extra amount. Otherwise is like your just trashing your current savings. At lest this is my point of view! Until then you can start reading the manuals for aircrafts.

[humptydumpty]

APUs are not meant for gaming but more for multimedia. Keep this in mind when you choose.

 

 

 

That was my thought and was planning on a minimum i5 skylake with a gtx960 4gb :( .

[Swordfish]

Perhaps consider a new Skylake Pentium or i3. DCS uses no more than two cores and the Pentiums overclock well. Then when funds allow you could swap to an i5/i7.

[Spectrum Legacy]

Hey! I do have originally a htpc system with A10 7850k since it was released almost 2 years ago, coupled with ssd, ddr3 2666mhz ram, which I had to downclock to 2400mhz, as the MB couldn't take without a lot of overvolting, which I wanted to avoid. Apu performs better with faster ram, however ddr3 is a huge bottleneck in current generation, but that was the only option for me back then. The issue is, that whenever you exceed the TDP of your apu, normally it will throttle down the cpu cores, usually to 3ghz - which might be an issue with cpu-heavy apps. Also it will cause a stutter, more or less depending on the game. You can bypass this throttling by tampering with power-states, if you have good cooling for your MB's vrm and apu itself naturally - I have it watercooled at constant 4ghz cpu cores (with hard limit around 4.36ghz) and up to 900mhz igpu cores.

 

I've played 1.2 DCS on it quite a lot to my own surprise, but it was on old 720p screen though and no AA. High textures, high distance, medium water, low shadows and I usually got ~35fps with mig21 from cockpit, in SP missions/training etc. 1.5 DCS introduced smoother frames in some cases (like shooting salvo of S5 rockets, or bursts from huey's minigun, or shooting all mgs at once from dora), but more stutter when I flew close to the ground above the city and forested scenery. However when you are up high, frames are much better in 1.5 than in 1.2.

 

I wouldn't buy A10 7850k apu now, because it is old for 2016 on the igpu side (think stock r7 250). There will be a new lineup in 2016 on the same shared socket (if we are talking AMD both apus and dedicated cpus), that means new chipsets, ddr4, etc and new gpu lineup. I still believe that fast cpu + dedicated gpu is the way to go for DCS at least, since it utilizes 2 cores at most, while more and more mainstream games will be fully playable on APUs very shortly, even on higher graphic settings. But we are still not there quite yet...

 

Also note that benchmarks can be skewed a lot, depending on clocks and especially the ram performance. Plus you will need more of it, since igpu reserves up to 2gb of your ram - you can set the value in your bios. Hope it helps!

[humptydumpty]

Perhaps consider a new Skylake Pentium or i3. DCS uses no more than two cores and the Pentiums overclock well. Then when funds allow you could swap to an i5/i7.

 

 

The idea is good but then I will have to do with the Intel iGPU and the AMD APU has a better iGPU that's the difference.

 

BTW "Swordfish" is my nickname on DCS world :)

[humptydumpty]

Hey! I do have originally a htpc system with A10 7850k since it was released almost 2 years ago, coupled with ssd, ddr3 2666mhz ram, which I had to downclock to 2400mhz, as the MB couldn't take without a lot of overvolting, which I wanted to avoid. Apu performs better with faster ram, however ddr3 is a huge bottleneck in current generation, but that was the only option for me back then. The issue is, that whenever you exceed the TDP of your apu, normally it will throttle down the cpu cores, usually to 3ghz - which might be an issue with cpu-heavy apps. Also it will cause a stutter, more or less depending on the game. You can bypass this throttling by tampering with power-states, if you have good cooling for your MB's vrm and apu itself naturally - I have it watercooled at constant 4ghz cpu cores (with hard limit around 4.36ghz) and up to 900mhz igpu cores.

 

I've played 1.2 DCS on it quite a lot to my own surprise, but it was on old 720p screen though and no AA. High textures, high distance, medium water, low shadows and I usually got ~35fps with mig21 from cockpit, in SP missions/training etc. 1.5 DCS introduced smoother frames in some cases (like shooting salvo of S5 rockets, or bursts from huey's minigun, or shooting all mgs at once from dora), but more stutter when I flew close to the ground above the city and forested scenery. However when you are up high, frames are much better in 1.5 than in 1.2.

 

I wouldn't buy A10 7850k apu now, because it is old for 2016 on the igpu side (think stock r7 250). There will be a new lineup in 2016 on the same shared socket (if we are talking AMD both apus and dedicated cpus), that means new chipsets, ddr4, etc and new gpu lineup. I still believe that fast cpu + dedicated gpu is the way to go for DCS at least, since it utilizes 2 cores at most, while more and more mainstream games will be fully playable on APUs very shortly, even on higher graphic settings. But we are still not there quite yet...

 

Also note that benchmarks can be skewed a lot, depending on clocks and especially the ram performance. Plus you will need more of it, since igpu reserves up to 2gb of your ram - you can set the value in your bios. Hope it helps!

 

Thanks for the info. AMD does not have anything lined for 2016 except the Zen CPU and that would end of 2016.

 

But I am keeping my options open right now and let's see how it goes.

 

I do get decent frames on my Toshiba laptop but with a few settings reduced or Off still it feels nice to fly in the Mig 21.

[Marcus7715]

I still think it's worth saving a wee while longer, I don't suppose the Flight Sim devs are going to stop striving for a better, more immersive gaming experience with stunning visuals etc....

 

So 18 months down the line you could find the AMD A10 just can't provide the minimum hardware specs to keep up with the increasingly fast paced software changes..I'm looking to build my own PC, cheaper and more tailored to my needs...Good Hunting, whichever path you choose :)