AMD A10 vs. FX 8350 Gaming+Workstation Performance

[ZenShredder]

Hello there, so I'm getting ready to build a desktop for my girlfriend, she's primarily looking for something that will run workstation applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Maya like I do, however I do still want it to be able to game well since she does intend to start playing games with me. Originally I was all in for the FX 8350 since mine runs very well for what I use it for, however with the advances in AMDs APU technology, I am curious to see what people think about its application performance when coupled with a GPU.

Here's the specs of the hypothetical build for her computer(she's getting a lot of left over components from me, so lets focus mostly on the APU/CPU and GPU please =P)

CPU: AMD FX 8350 OR AMD A10 7850K
GPU: Asus Radeon HD 7770 Ghz Edition
RAM: 2X8GB Corsair Vengeance 1866Mhz
PSU: Corsair CX600M
MOBO: Asus M5A78L-M/USB3
Case: Rosewill Thor V2 Full ATX Case
Drives: Samsung EVO 250GB SSD + 750GB 5400RPM Samsung HDD

Thanks for your help in advance!

 

[Memhorder]

I'd still go with your original plan. Especially since your getting a discrete card. That just renders the APU a quad core mediocre cpu. Those APU's are fine and dandy for smaller compact units such as laptops.

 

[ZenShredder]

See that's what I thought at first, however with AMDs Dual Graphics technology, you can effectively combine the APU graphics with the GPU graphics, I'm not sure if my graphics card is compatible with that, however I know that it does help with application performance. My laptop is an Asus R510DP and it has the same configuration except it's an AMD A10 5750M with a dedicated 2GB Radeon HD 8650M card. While the two are both pretty mediocre separately, combined they make a fairly powerful unit for a laptop.

I guess I should rephrase my question: Will I get better application performance for both gaming and workstations with just the FX and my dedicated GPU? Or would it serve me better to grab the APU and use the dual graphics(if possible) to enhance graphic performance? Does the APU graphics card merit the drop of 4 cores, higher processing speed and better L2 Cache?

 

[Memhorder]

The FX-8350 and discrete card still. Check this page out. Give you an idear.

http://www.techspot.com/review/781-amd-a10-7850k-graphics-performance/page5.html

Seems cross firing actually hinders performance by this

 

[TheMagicalWallaby]

The 8350 is a much better choice.

 

[slyu9213]

Maybe in the far future AMD will make APUs that can compete on the same level as the 8350, but currently it hasn't happened. A 7850K will not be better than the 8350 or 8320, etc. There is not a lot of software that will use both IGP and Discrete at the same time. I mean compatible IGP and Discrete for Hybrid Graphics but they don't scale well.