Topic Title: dual graphics (A10) with DDR5 or DDR3? Topic Summary: Does dual graphics profit from DDR5? Created On: 03/10/2013 04:35 AM Status:
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I heared a lot about dual Graphics and non of it was conclusive, so I guess I'd ask here.
I am Running an A10-5700 with DDR3-1866 RAM on Ubuntu (and Win7 if I want to play certain games). I'd like to improve performance at 1280x800 (my wall projectors resolution) in games with huge textures and thought about adding a graphics card for dual-graphics.
The 6670 seems to be the highest powered one that will fit, it also is available in passive cooling which will benefit my setup. The question is: Does the DDR5 provide any substantial benefit? As a standalone card, that's out of the question, but I heard people say, that it is harder to sync with the A10, causes more microstutters in Games like Skyrim and for a dual-graphics is not worth the money and I could stick with DDR3.
Any Expert suggestion on that?
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black_zion Heavy Wizardry
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With a card as relatively weak as the HD 6670 and the drawbacks of any dual GPU setup, you won't have any real gain with using a GDDR5 vs GDDR3. That being said, you aren't going to have a HUGE gain with Dual Graphics, and if you are going to do heavy gaming you will be much better off getting a single high powered GPU such as the 7770 or 7850.
Thanks for the reply. Guess I will go with a passive 6670 DDR3 then. The main focus of this machine is on watching bluray, dvd, dvb-T TV. I want good gaming performance, but on 1280x800 resolution I guess I'd never need the power of a dedicated upper class card.
Originally I was going for the A10 alone, otherwise I would have bought a "real" CPU with dedicated GPU. Buying a dedicated GPU for the A10 feels like crippling the System.
If you do not see the DDR5 causing any trouble with sync, I will go with the 6670 DDR5. It's 72€ for the passive sapphire model and should give some extra FPS in games like Skyrim?
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Wood is a renewable ressource, in peoples mind's too.
For the sake of argument buy a 7770 instead. It'll be faster then both the Dedicated + Intergrated GPU... And isn't that much more expensive. You won't be crippling anything. Not only that but you won't have to worry about the plaguing micro studdering that happens in low FPS situations. (sub 30).
But if you just have to get a 6670.... Get the DDR 5 version.
Mime Forum Moderator
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Joined: 08/28/2012
Originally posted by: theork Hi AMD Team,
I heard people say, that it is harder to sync with the A10, causes more microstutters in Games like Skyrim and for a dual-graphics is not worth the money and I could stick with DDR3.
Can't say I've heard that before... Honestly I can't think of any good reason to buy a card with DDR3 in general. I guess maybe if it was getting crammed in into some super-tiny enclosure where heat is a major concern, then it might be worth it, but in that case there probably wouldn't be space for a discrete GPU anyway.
For a resolution of 1280x800 I'd skip the dedicated GPU altogether, actually. At that resolution the graphics in the A10 should be able to handles things without any trouble.
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Do not meddle in the affairs of archers, for they are subtle and quick to anger. Post Count: +8510 Troll Hunter
The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.
The argument was that microstutters are cause because one card is faster than the other and the more different they get, the harder they are to sync and since the DDR5 card would deliver the next frame faster than the one running on onbard memory..... guess that was kind of *****?
The Sapphire Vapor-X Version (i know those are as good as silent if you don't overclock too much) 7770 will ship for 130 euros, the 6670 passive cooling i borrowed from a friend to test is 72 euro new. I did see a difference in 3D Mark 6 (onboard: 11000; dual graphics: 14000; 5% overclocking: 14500) and in Oblivion, too. Oblivion was running smoothly on max settings HDR mode on the A10-5700 alone, but once I installed a "huge textures, looks almost like skyrim" pack, I had some scenes (difficult light, trees and other complex stuff and fast jumping movement, where the game actually froze for an amount of time I could clearly feel and see. This is all gone with the 6670 DDR5.
I guess you're right that the performance gain of the 7770 over 6670 + onchip is well worth 60 euro (it's 2-3 time the performance, no crossfire issues when it's not supported). I just feel stupid now, since I found out that the A10 alone is - even at this resolution - a few fps short of what I need and all the graphics performance I paid for will be wasted now and in some games most likely the CPU will be the bottleneck :-(
I got a be quiet! STRAIGHT POWER BQT E9-400W 80+Gold PSU. The 7770 specifications say: 450W but the PSU has 1x 6/8 pin PCIe and 1x 6pin PCIe, so it should have no trouble supporting the 7770?
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Wood is a renewable ressource, in peoples mind's too.
Mime Forum Moderator
Posts: 492
Joined: 08/28/2012
Meh... don't worry about it. Learning through overbuying is a much more enjoyable experience than learning through dead hardware. You get more toys that way without the smell of cooked electronics filling the room.
It's true that microstuttering is caused by GPUs being out of sync, but both DDR3 and DDR5 are faster than main memory, and having more speed is usually better than having less. Microsuttering is just as possible with 3 or 4 GPUs as it is 2, but it's virtually unheard there since there's so many more resources in the mix.
Did the texture pack actually make a difference? Usually those are intended for multi-monitor setups with really high resolutions, but since there's a projector in the mix here I can see how that might change things.
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Do not meddle in the affairs of archers, for they are subtle and quick to anger. Post Count: +8510 Troll Hunter
The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.
I changed the sky, weather, atmospheric lighting (so the inside light matches the weather outside), and textures are 4x the size now, both on monsters as well as landscape and the way water looks and behaves. And it runs in HDR Mode. It does look quite beautiful now and the DLP projector has beautiful colors
Textures alone look like this if you compare them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL1soAW8qJo
The porjector has a maximum framerate of 120Hz at 1280x800, I don't know if the A10 has trouble trying to match up to those? All I can say it was running smoothly before all the graphics tweaks and has a hickup now and than with the maxed graphics. So I qould just need slightly more performance for this resolution, and it would not hurt for skyrim either I guess.
Any Idea about the PSU?
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Wood is a renewable ressource, in peoples mind's too.
Mime Forum Moderator
Posts: 492
Joined: 08/28/2012
Having the A10 instead of a more power hungry chip should help with the PSU. From the looks of it, your PSU has three 12v rails each of which can supply 18 amps, or 30 amps total. That should be enough to power the video card, so long as you don't start loading it up with a bunch of other stuff as well.
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Do not meddle in the affairs of archers, for they are subtle and quick to anger. Post Count: +8510 Troll Hunter
The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.
There is the A10, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD and a BluRay (RW) drive and a TV Card (USB). May have to support a small USB HDD, but that's it. USB3 Hub is powered, so that should not drain any extra power.
Updated the link above so you can directly compare the textures
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Wood is a renewable ressource, in peoples mind's too.
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03/10/2013 04:35 AM
