How much performance is gained from disabling iGPU on an APU?

[bromtown]

Not really an issue, as this has already occurred but I'd like to understand why.

I have been upgrading my little brother's prebuilt PC so that it'll play modern games, he has an AMD A8-5600k and I think it was Radeon 7650D (or 7560D) integrated graphics on an MSI FM2-A55M-E35.

I chose a 4GB 1050Ti for a relatively small CPU bottleneck and some potential to carry it over to another build later on and since installing it the CPU seems to be far less of a hindrance than I could have reasonably hoped for.

Even managed to get roughly 30fps out of Forza Horizon 3 at 4k medium. And the Steam VR test which is the only pseudo benchmark I had access to is a gnats chuff away from being "Ready", it's top capable.

Still going to get a new mobo and cpu for him in the medium term, for actually using VR and better framerates, but I was pretty amazed at the ability of the 1050ti/A8 combo after expecting to struggle a lot.

 

[Ecky]

30fps takes the same amount of CPU power regardless of what resolution you're running - e.g. 720P 30fps would need the same. Most consider 30fps borderline unplayable, so that's a pretty low bar to be aiming for.

Disabling the onboard graphics should not provide any performance improvement if you're not using it.