Kaveri/Huma and Light Gaming

[Shakabutt]

Do you guys think that Kaveri will be a good alternative to a low end discrete GPU for light gaming (aka Mobas, Counter Strike, Starcraft 2 etc) ?

I have a FX 6100 and i sold my 7850..due to reasons (lol).

Anyway now im wondering what im gonna do in the future since im stuck on a Radeon 3000 igp and it doesnt really cut it anymore.(nothing works on it lol)

So should i buy a new GPU similar to my ex-7850 (once i find some cash) or should i wait for Kaveri ?

Switching to 1150 i think will require a discrete GPU and i really dont have the money for that.

PS : i used to a be a heavy gamer, but in recent years i found myself less and less interested in new games/or eye candy filled games, im more casual now and its one of the reason i sold my 7850....outside of Dota 2 and CS Go and i didnt play much.
So im really curios if Kaveri would be a sweet spot for me, especially its IGP with Huma and stuff.

 

[SPBHM]

you should just buy another card...
even some old 5770 is faster than Kaveri probably, and you can get one of these used for almost nothing.

 

[NostaSeronx]

If you get GDDR5M on DDR3 240-pin packages, yes you can do light gaming. You probably want to aim for ITX because GDDR5M will definitely be on 204-pin SO-DIMMs.

With this setup though you will be limited to 4 GB and 8 GB for your memory choices.

 

[Shakabutt]

you should just buy another card...
even some old 5770 is faster than Kaveri probably, and you can get one of these used for almost nothing.

Yeah, i know the easiest way out is to just get a cheapo dedicated unit, but im thinking that the CPU side of Kaveri will be a big upgrade from my fx 6100 and the things im reading about Huma sounds exciting.

Im thinking the IGP in it will hold me over untill i get the itch to get a beefy gpu.

 

[FwFred]

Spend what you were going to spend on Kaveri + new MB and just buy a decent GFX card. You'll get more for your $$$, and you don't need to wait 6 months.

 

[frozentundra123456]

If you get GDDR5M on DDR3 240-pin packages, yes you can do light gaming. You probably want to aim for ITX because GDDR5M will definitely be on 204-pin SO-DIMMs.

With this setup though you will be limited to 4 GB and 8 GB for your memory choices.

Wasnt DDR5 cancelled for Kaveri in everything but the consoles? I have seen no recent statements that it will be supported.

To the OP--- Kaveri at best will equal a HD7750, and probably be slower due to memory bandwidth limitations. Nobody knows what the clocks will be, and I would not count on HUMA magic either, at least for sometime, if ever. Lastly, do you want to wait 6 more months for a product which you dont know what the price or performance will be?

99% chance a hundred dollar discrete card now along with the FX that you already have will give better performance than Kaveri, so my advice is just to buy something like a HD7790 or GTX 650Ti and get better performance now.

Edit: good point as FwFred brought up as well--you will also need a new motherboard. So all told, it will cost close to 200.00 or more to upgrade to Kaveri. As has been said, just get a decent discrete card now.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Wasnt DDR5 cancelled for Kaveri in everything but the consoles? I have seen no recent statements that it will be supported.

To the OP--- Kaveri at best will equal a HD7750, and probably be slower due to memory bandwidth limitations. Nobody knows what the clocks will be, and I would not count on HUMA magic either, at least for sometime, if ever. Lastly, do you want to wait 6 more months for a product which you dont know what the price or performance will be?

99% chance a hundred dollar discrete card now along with the FX that you already have will give better performance than Kaveri, so my advice is just to buy something like a HD7790 or GTX 650Ti and get better performance now.

Edit: good point as FwFred brought up as well--you will also need a new motherboard. So all told, it will cost close to 200.00 or more to upgrade to Kaveri. As has been said, just get a decent discrete card now.

There has been no news saying it was canceled. I want one with GDDR5 just to play around with.

 

[laputan machine]

Get a cheap, decent cooler like hyper 212 evo, and overclock your cpu to 4+ ghz, and get a 650(ti) or a 7750(or a 7770). It will get you better graphics(should handle any game at 1080p with at least low settings) and your current cpu might be fast enough for you then.

 

[insertcarehere]

If you get GDDR5M on DDR3 240-pin packages, yes you can do light gaming. You probably want to aim for ITX because GDDR5M will definitely be on 204-pin SO-DIMMs.

With this setup though you will be limited to 4 GB and 8 GB for your memory choices.

GDDR5M, if even offered, will be pretty expensive at the beginning, probably more than enough to make up for any price advantage that APUs will have over any comparable CPU/dGPU solution.

 

[unon]

There is already a fm2+ motherboard with so-dimm from ecs. Plus kaveri is incompatible with fm2. So if the bandwidth problem is solved it should perform better than 7750. Next apu gen is compatible with fm2+ too.

The rest depends on your needs. If you want it now, get the gpu.

 

[unon]

GDDR5M, if even offered, will be pretty expensive at the beginning, probably more than enough to make up for any price advantage that APUs will have over any comparable CPU/dGPU solution.

I doubt it. DDR 3 is pretty expensive now, Sony is using GDDR 5 and the price of GDDR 5 was not much even last year iirc. I don't think there'd be a difference greater than $10 -$15/ 4 GB.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Kaveri is DDR3 only. No GDDR5 and no DDR4.

And its maybe a tad early to talk about a product thats 6 months+ away and no performance metric.

To the OP, keep what you have a get a dGPU. Kaveri will not be much better than Richland. Without a L4 like GT3e/Xbox or GDDR5 like the PS4. Then you are not getting much out of any IGP.

 

[Gikaseixas]

And its maybe a tad early to talk about a product thats 6 months+ away and no performance metric.
.

Kaveri will not be much better than Richland. Without a L4 like GT3e/Xbox or GDDR5 like the PS4. Then you are not getting much out of any IGP.

Contradicting yourself there. I agree it's a bit early to pin point performance figures as you put it, so why then say it won't be much better than Richland?

 

[Lonbjerg]

So now people are starting to realize that IGP's are for light gaming?

When will they stop declaring the GPU dead then?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Contradicting yourself there. I agree it's a bit early to pin point performance figures as you put it, so why then say it won't be much better than Richland?

Not at all. Its a known fact that Kaveri will only have DDR3. And if you cant fix the memory bandwidth limit you cant fix graphics performance.

Performance metric was in regard to the CPU part.

It makes absolutely zero sense for him to go the Kaveri route.

 

[ShintaiDK]

So now people are starting to realize that IGP's are for light gaming?

When will they stop declaring the GPU dead then?

The dGPU is dead, its only a matter of time. I think you confuse 2 different terms. IGPs that are bandwidth starved and those that are not.

 

[frozentundra123456]

There has been no news saying it was canceled. I want one with GDDR5 just to play around with.

Has there been a recent statement other than hopeful speculation that it will be supported?

 

[ShintaiDK]

There has been no news saying it was canceled. I want one with GDDR5 just to play around with.

There has been no statement that it would ever come.

 

[frozentundra123456]

The dGPU is dead, its only a matter of time. I think you confuse 2 different terms. IGPs that are bandwidth starved and those that are not.

I don't understand what you are trying to say here. What igp isnt bandwidth limited? For mid to high end gaming or other graphic intensive tasks, I can't ever see an igp having the bandwidth and thermal budget to overcome a discrete card, in the forseable future.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I don't understand what you are trying to say here. What igp isnt bandwidth limited? For mid to high end gaming or other graphic intensive tasks, I can't ever see an igp having the bandwidth and thermal budget to overcome a discrete card, in the forseable future.

GT3e and consoles is an example.

I didnt say dGPUs was dead now. But they will be. Its simple economics.

 

[frozentundra123456]

GT3e and consoles is an example.

I didnt say dGPUs was dead now. But they will be. Its simple economics.

Consoles are a special built part. GT3e may not be bandwidth limited but that is because it still does not have graphics even equal to a gt650m.

 

[NTMBK]

I don't understand what you are trying to say here. What igp isnt bandwidth limited? For mid to high end gaming or other graphic intensive tasks, I can't ever see an igp having the bandwidth and thermal budget to overcome a discrete card, in the forseable future.

Higher bandwidth main memory (GDDR5, DDR4 quad channel) plus massive L4 caches would do the trick nicely.

 

[Gikaseixas]

Not at all. Its a known fact that Kaveri will only have DDR3. And if you cant fix the memory bandwidth limit you cant fix graphics performance.

Performance metric was in regard to the CPU part.

It makes absolutely zero sense for him to go the Kaveri route.

Even the GPU part is still an unkown quantity. All you read about it are rumors at best so again, let's not lay what we think might happen as facts.

One of the benefits of HUMA is aliviate the limitations DDR3 pose when it comes to bandwidth, as you know

Since he has a decent cpu now i would advise him to just get a GTX650 or HD7770 and enjoy some gaming now but Kaveri could reach those card's performance if the HUMA concept is well implemented.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Consoles are a special built part. GT3e may not be bandwidth limited but that is because it still does not have graphics even equal to a gt650m.

It doesnt matter. Its eroding the dGPU segment very fast. Sooner or later there is no ROI to make any new dGPUs.

And nVidia for example cant live on by selling GTX760 and up.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Even the GPU part is still an unkown quantity. All you read about it are rumors at best so again, let's not lay what we think might happen as facts.

One of the benefits of HUMA is aliviate the limitations DDR3 pose when, as you know

hUMA means nothing graphics wise. Its computational only.

Same reason why graphics and hUMA is non related on all AMD slides.