Tom's should avoid talking about this subject, because every article completely misses the point, and shows a complete lack of understanding of the market.
These sites often make the same mistake, I think intentionally in some cases (not in Tom's, I think it's just not understanding), of taking products out of their context market. They might put a line up here or there reminding people of the market, but then test it in ways it was never intended to be used. The overall effect is misleading and inappropriate, but under the guise of being accurate since somewhere on some page they mention it's a lower end unit.
Probably they don't know how to test appropriately. In any case, there aren't the right benchmarks for this type of unit, and so the confused author complains about the CPU on the last page with one last misplaced remark.
But, for the more informed people, this is a very effective and efficient architecture. It performs as much work per clock cycle as their larger cores, despite being less than 1/3 the size. It's the same size as Bay Trail, despite being on 28nm as compared to 22nm, but has roughly 20% higher IPC, as well as much greater GPU performance. It's a great design.
Tom's just doesn't know better. They should. They don't. In their blundering and dull-witted way, they think it should be used for gaming, because everyone wanting a gaming processor is going to want one. Kids will be kids.
Minimally, put a discrete GPU in each, something cheap, if you want to test with games, although it's very difficult to see people buying this platform for gaming in any context. PS4 has that covered with a derivation of this successful architecture.
To complete the lack of understanding of this baffled author, we have the uninformed remark about the processor costing twice as much as the motherboard. Sadly, this author's lack of understanding precludes him from realizing this is the point. More was put on the APU so it wouldn't have to be put on the motherboard.
Just a bad article, with no understanding of the segment or product.
Also, these motherboards and products are more geared for countries that have less disposable income. You can get a 5150 and MB for less than $90, or a 5350 and MB for around $100, and both offer good enough performance to make these attractive products for people needing a computer, but with a limited budget. And no, that market doesn't buy these things for games.
In any case, the most interesting motherboard for the U.S. market was left out ASRock AM1H-ITX. If you want DisplayPort, it's the only game in town, as well.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram