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Budget upgrade GPU for A10

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rhoades902

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Jan 28, 2013
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Looking for some advice on my current (2-year old) rig, which was a first attempt at a budget build. I slapped it together to play minimal specs at the time on Rift and WoW. Now, I am wondering if it is worth sticking a cheap (sub-100ish) graphics card into?

My end goal is to play with some level (mid to higher) settings on World of Warships and potentially WoW. Secondary would be to have a somewhat feasible support for games released over the next few years.

A10-5800k
FM2 A75 Pro M4
8G of Skill 2133 Ram

I've overclocked the processor and run at 4.2 and typically share 2G of ram with the APU. I added an aftermarket cooler as the a10 ran extremely hot, no temp issues now.

That said, as a stand-a-lone processor, is it worth trying to snag something along the lines of a GT730, or even R7360? I know that I handcuffed myself on the mobo for upgrades, so I was hesitant to put any more money into the build.

Thanks all.
 
Solution
SkyMembrane
The R7 360 would be a viable option for you, and AMD makes both your CPU and the R7, so I can assure you that they are compatible, without even a second thought about it.
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The first thing to verify is your PSU, because it is the main reason why people can't upgrade usually. If your PSU is powerful enough, then the only way you would see a big improvement is with a graphic card packing GDDR5 with a relatively wide memory bus, so the R7360 would be the logical option between both. However, the TDP of the r7360 is 100W, while the TDP of the gt730 is like 40.
 
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Thanks Sky - sorry for the missing info, I had been meaning to post for a while and finally did it away from the pc. Here's some more info:

PSU - Corsair CX 600

On a side note, If anyone might be able to point me in the direction of properly setting my RAM - I'll love you forever. I learned after the fact, that I have no idea how the 98% of pc building works... For reference, here's my CPU-Z dump of RAM info...

Memory SPD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIMM # 1
SMBus address 0x50
Memory type DDR3
Module format UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID) G.Skill (7F7F7F7FCD0000000000)
Size 4096 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
Part number F3-17000CL11-4GBSR
Number of banks 8
Nominal Voltage 1.50 Volts
EPP no
XMP yes
XMP revision 1.3
AMP no
JEDEC timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC @ frequency
JEDEC #1 6.0-6-6-16-22 @ 457 MHz
JEDEC #2 7.0-7-7-19-26 @ 533 MHz
JEDEC #3 8.0-8-8-22-30 @ 609 MHz
JEDEC #4 9.0-9-9-24-33 @ 685 MHz
JEDEC #5 10.0-10-10-27-37 @ 761 MHz
JEDEC #6 11.0-11-11-28-39 @ 800 MHz
XMP profile XMP-2134
Specification PC3-17100
Voltage level 1.600 Volts
Min Cycle time 0.937 ns (1067 MHz)
Max CL 11.0
Min tRP 9.82 ns
Min tRCD 9.82 ns
Min tWR 15.00 ns
Min tRAS 27.63 ns
Min tRC 37.96 ns
Min tRFC 160.00 ns
Min tRTP 7.50 ns
Min tRRD 6.00 ns
Command Rate 2T
XMP timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC-CR @ frequency (voltage)
XMP #1 11.0-11-11-30-41-2T @ 1067 MHz (1.600 Volts)
XMP profile XMP-2132
Specification PC3-17100
Voltage level 1.600 Volts
Min Cycle time 0.938 ns (1066 MHz)
Max CL 11.0
Min tRP 10.00 ns
Min tRCD 10.00 ns
Min tWR 15.00 ns
Min tRAS 27.81 ns
Min tRC 38.13 ns
Min tRFC 160.21 ns
Min tRTP 7.50 ns
Min tRRD 5.94 ns
Command Rate 1T
XMP timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC-CR @ frequency (voltage)
XMP #1 11.0-11-11-30-41-1T @ 1066 MHz (1.600 Volts)

DIMM # 2
SMBus address 0x51
Memory type DDR3
Module format UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID) G.Skill (7F7F7F7FCD0000000000)
Size 4096 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
Part number F3-17000CL11-4GBSR
Number of banks 8
Nominal Voltage 1.50 Volts
EPP no
XMP yes
XMP revision 1.3
AMP no
JEDEC timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC @ frequency
JEDEC #1 6.0-6-6-16-22 @ 457 MHz
JEDEC #2 7.0-7-7-19-26 @ 533 MHz
JEDEC #3 8.0-8-8-22-30 @ 609 MHz
JEDEC #4 9.0-9-9-24-33 @ 685 MHz
JEDEC #5 10.0-10-10-27-37 @ 761 MHz
JEDEC #6 11.0-11-11-28-39 @ 800 MHz
XMP profile XMP-2134
Specification PC3-17100
Voltage level 1.600 Volts
Min Cycle time 0.937 ns (1067 MHz)
Max CL 11.0
Min tRP 9.82 ns
Min tRCD 9.82 ns
Min tWR 15.00 ns
Min tRAS 27.63 ns
Min tRC 37.96 ns
Min tRFC 160.00 ns
Min tRTP 7.50 ns
Min tRRD 6.00 ns
Command Rate 2T
XMP timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC-CR @ frequency (voltage)
XMP #1 11.0-11-11-30-41-2T @ 1067 MHz (1.600 Volts)
XMP profile XMP-2132
Specification PC3-17100
Voltage level 1.600 Volts
Min Cycle time 0.938 ns (1066 MHz)
Max CL 11.0
Min tRP 10.00 ns
Min tRCD 10.00 ns
Min tWR 15.00 ns
Min tRAS 27.81 ns
Min tRC 38.13 ns
Min tRFC 160.21 ns
Min tRTP 7.50 ns
Min tRRD 5.94 ns
Command Rate 1T
XMP timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC-CR @ frequency (voltage)
XMP #1 11.0-11-11-30-41-1T @ 1066 MHz (1.600 Volts)

DIMM # 1
SPD registers
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
00 92 11 0B 02 03 19 00 09 03 11 01 08 0A 00 FC 00
10 69 78 69 30 69 11 18 81 00 05 3C 3C 00 F0 83 05
20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0F 11 01 01
40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
50 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
60 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
70 00 00 00 00 00 04 CD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 4F 6C
80 46 33 2D 31 37 30 30 30 43 4C 31 31 2D 34 47 42
90 53 52 00 00 04 CD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
B0 0C 4A 3F 13 01 08 0A 60 11 2C 08 4F 80 00 34 4F
C0 4F 78 10 DD 30 3F 00 00 05 3C 30 00 C8 3C 00 00
D0 10 00 21 C1 C6 C6 C6 D5 00 00 00 00 2C 09 60 80
E0 00 3F 60 60 90 11 0B 6E 4B 00 02 06 48 39 00 F0
F0 48 00 00 10 00 21 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

DIMM # 2
SPD registers
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
00 92 11 0B 02 03 19 00 09 03 11 01 08 0A 00 FC 00
10 69 78 69 30 69 11 18 81 00 05 3C 3C 00 F0 83 05
20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0F 11 01 01
40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
50 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
60 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
70 00 00 00 00 00 04 CD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 4F 6C
80 46 33 2D 31 37 30 30 30 43 4C 31 31 2D 34 47 42
90 53 52 00 00 04 CD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
B0 0C 4A 3F 13 01 08 0A 60 11 2C 08 4F 80 00 34 4F
C0 4F 78 10 DD 30 3F 00 00 05 3C 30 00 C8 3C 00 00
D0 10 00 21 C1 C6 C6 C6 D5 00 00 00 00 2C 09 60 80
E0 00 3F 60 60 90 11 0B 6E 4B 00 02 06 48 39 00 F0
F0 48 00 00 10 00 21 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00


 
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Thanks Giant - I watched and learned a bit more about the newer AMD APUs. Unfortunately, mine predates even this (2014/5?) sample set. I'm running the 5800k, on an FM2 mobo. My understanding was that the FM2 was short-lived and might not support even the newer A10 chips? Last I looked at the figures for the 5800k and dual GPU, the $/value was better in running with a true GPU?

That said, I tend to err - and thus my call for help.

My main concern was, if I can't update the CPU without a new Mobo - would adding a GPU even be worth it? Or, am I better served shooting for a second standalone pc.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The A10-5800k is by no mean a bad CPU. While it is an APU, having a dedicated GPU with it is totally possible. If you choose an AMD, thanks to Crossfire not requiring both GPUs to be the same, your system will use the integrated GPU for backup. If you chose a Nvidia card, since SLI requires all CPU to be the same model, it would probably automatically disable the integrated GPU.
 
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