Quad Core APU Core Question.

[JustAwesome]

So does having a quad core APU (AMD A10-7850k) mean that as well as the CPU having 4 cores that the GPU technically have 4 cores also.

 

[Ecky]

No, and it's also likely that you're better off with a different CPU. AMD's current lineup has very few competitive CPUs, except for in very specialized niches.

The 7850K is a 2-module CPU, with each module having two incomplete cores that share resources, and thus are not quite as fast as two full cores. A single Intel core with hyperthreading is generally faster than two AMD cores.

The GPU included on the 7850K has 512 shader units, which is roughly half of AMD's lowest entry level gaming GPU, and it is severely starved for memory bandwidth due to having to share slow system memory with the CPU. It's a little bit faster than Intel's integrated GPU but is attached to a greatly inferior CPU.

 

[JustAwesome]

No, and it's also likely that you're better off with a different CPU. AMD's current lineup has very few competitive CPUs, except for in very specialized niches.

The 7850K is a 2-module CPU, with each module having two incomplete cores that share resources, and thus are not quite as fast as two full cores. A single Intel core with hyperthreading is generally faster than two AMD cores.

The GPU included on the 7850K has 512 shader units, which is roughly half of AMD's lowest entry level gaming GPU, and it is severely starved for memory bandwidth due to having to share slow system memory with the CPU. It's a little bit faster than Intel's integrated GPU but is attached to a greatly inferior CPU.

But then why does MIS Afterburner show that I have 3 GPUs?

 

[Ecky]

My guess? Probably because it has 3 display outputs.