When are we likely looking at Intel/AMD APUs pushing games like L4D2/LoL @1920x1200?

[Obsoleet]

Curious on this one, because I play lighter and lighter games as the years go on. Started gaming on Kings Quest 3, went into the more time involved games for a decade+ and now am only really playing arcade style games.. TF2 (without the hats) and stuff like that.

I'm hoping that in the relatively near future, Haswell or later for Intel, or AMD Trinity or later.. I can stop buying video cards. I'd like to build my next rig and not put a video card in it, I realize this is a pipedream.. but when do you guys think games like L4D2 will be playable at mid settings with no AA/AF@1920 on APUs? I have zero interest in most of the photorealistic games or Crysis crap.

Haswell? Trinity? Later?

As an aside, and this is more absurd, but when will be looking at 5870-level performance out an APU? Never?

 

[andg]

5 years?

 

[RavenSEAL]

Whatever comes after trinity should be equal of an HD 5870 or so. But by then, the gaming industry would have started pushing hardware harder, therefore become irrelevant that the APU reached that level of performance.

 

[Stuka87]

Won't an A8 play LFD2 now? LFD is hardly what I would call a demanding game. Although not sure if it would run it at that resolution very well.

As for AMD matching a 5870, like the others said, 1-2 generations away. But it will still be far behind discrete GPU's of the time.

I think it will be quite a bit longer before Intel is able to match it.

 

[Mopetar]

The easiest way to estimate would be to determine what level of performance you need, look up the number of transistors in that card, and then use current data to extrapolate when APUs will have that many transistors dedicated to the GPU. This will probably give you a rough estimate, but even then just because it's technically feasible doesn't necessarily mean that either company will build such a chip.

Edit: Another alternative would be to count the number of stream processors and determine when the APU will have a similar number to a GPU that is capable of running the game. The only remaining issue is accounting for clock speed as well as architecture improvements.

 

[gmaster456]

I can max L4D2 on my 4650 at 1680x1050 with 40+ fps most of the time with very infrequent dips.

 

[Smartazz]

The problem I see with running games at high resolutions on an APU is the lack of memory bandwidth. Maybe when we have DDR4 memory it'll be a different story.

 

[Obsoleet]

DDR4 is probably only going to get started (maybe) in 2013? That's around the time when I'm going to start thinking about replacing my rig.
If AMD can get the GPU side of the APU to 5870 speeds, even in the future I think I'd be happy. The types of games I like are more cartoonish and cell shaded. Think Street Fighter 4 or League of Legends. Hated by many graphically but I prefer that style.

All I'm going to do if the APU isn't as fast as my 5870, is to put the 5870 in a new rig anyway. My reasons for a new rig are so few and far between, that I don't even need/want to upgrade until my existing rig breaks in a meaningful (expensive) way.

I'm a fan of integration, and happily forgot soundcards long before everyone else decided that Soundblasters were pointless as well.. integrated NICs, integrated WiFi (which I don't have).. are all good things. I don't miss the 'good old days' and would like to see the GPU reduced.

Especially since PC gaming is more an imitation of console gaming, it's not like I need cutting edge hardware any longer. That said, I don't own a console and I'll never own a console unless it has insanely entertaining exclusives (Nintendo).

I don't really give a crap about the failure of Bulldozer unlike most (it's fast in my book), I'm far more interested in APU power on the desktop and laptop side.

If AMD can deliver a nice post-Trinity chip with native SATA6gb/USB3.0/5870speeds/DDR4 (I realize most of these things are available now, I just don't have them) on Windows 8- I'd put something like a Samsung 830 in it and be a happy man.