Wondering what are the limitations of my computer..

[Houvercraft666]

i got a quad core, 4 gigs of ram, wanting to get 8 and AMD Radeon HD 6520G with 512MB dedicated.. i know it's OK but i want to hear from other perspectives..

[_I_]

thats one of 4 notebook apus

AMD A6-3400M APU with Radeon™ HD 6520G 1.4ghz
AMD A6-3410MX APU with Radeon™ HD 6520G 1.6ghz
AMD A6-3430MX APU with AMD Radeon™ HD 6520G 1.7ghz
AMD A8-3420M APU with AMD Radeon™ HD 6520G 1.5ghz

amd apus have no dedicated ram, they use system ram

cpu lmits would depend on which one it is
for the gpu, the xx20g apu is pretty low on the gpu scale

[Houvercraft666]

hmm i see.. i think i got the worse out of them.. the A6-3400M with im guesing the 6520G 1.4ghz

[[☥] - CJ -]

Originalmente postado por vadim:

8GB RAM completely useless with such weak CPU.

False

[Rove]

Your PC is significantly more powerful than a Play Station 3 (IBM Cell processor 64bit Power Architecture 1 core with 8 synergistic graphics core units @ 153 GFLOPS total?) or Xbox 360 and even more significantly less powerful than a Play Station 4 or Xbox One.

Read about your GPU performance here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_HD_6000_Series#IGP_.28HD_6xxxG.29

If you scroll up you can see that the top desktop cards from this generation (now 2 generations behind current) were over 10 times more powerful (in terms of GFLOPS of processing power) than your notebook and more powerful than the new consoles which had not even been released then.

The Play Station 4 in comparison does like 1840 GFLOPS as it says on the official Sony tech specs sheet on their website.

[Houvercraft666]

not to bad if it's only 10 haha, i got it a couple years back.. if i could uprgade it i'd totally would, but i was told you can't on Laptops..

[Houvercraft666]

hmmm, i'll get on that.. cuz i've been meaning for the longest to get more RAM haha
do you guys know anything about gaming computers that you put togther yourself?
but what about graphics cards?

[Rove]

Yes I made my own gaming computer. Would you like some build advice for a desktop?

[Houvercraft666]

that would be much apreciated :)
i have these 2 or 3 desktops in the garage, but i don't know what's wrong with them, and i've been thinking of combining them to make one that does, but i don't think i have the right tools for them either.. i might, just not sure

[Houvercraft666]

oh, and i was looking at ram, and i found a 4gb ddr3 ram 1600Mhz from Kingston.. they also have the 1333Mhz one.. this is a silly question, but what will the extra 4gb of RAM improve.. besides opening things up faster.

[Rove]

Here are my saved builds: They start out pretty cheap at like $340 for a really great home computer. The first one I'd call a "gaming" computer (cause it's at least competition for the new consoles) is the second one for $430~.
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Rove/saved/

It's pretty easy to build one. You don't need any tools except a screw driver or two. You could probably get by using a Dime or a Butter Knife instead of a screw driver if you really had to.

Advantages of having more RAM:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_advantage_of_more_RAM?#slide=1

You may find you are able to run some thing syou had problems with before or run them better. Multitasking should be improved. You will be ready for the future if it's more than enough for the present. Since you have a APU the integrated graphics alone will use up to 4GB of RAM which means you should have a extra 4GB to leave the rest for your CPU.

[upcoast]

Tools are 1 good Philips magnetic screw driver, pliers and 1 nut driver for motherboard stand offs, you should have some artic silver 5 to swap cpus around.

A dime or butter knife is useless on Philips head screws accounting for the majority of the time %100 are Philips .

[Houvercraft666]

Brilliant!!
im gonna check those comps, i know they're super dated,(my phone has a better processor then them) but it'll be a decent starting point with at least the towers..

[Houvercraft666]

Originalmente postado por Rove:

Here are my saved builds: They start out pretty cheap at like $340 for a really great home computer. The first one I'd call a "gaming" computer (cause it's at least competition for the new consoles) is the second one for $430~.
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Rove/saved/

It's pretty easy to build one. You don't need any tools except a screw driver or two. You could probably get by using a Dime or a Butter Knife instead of a screw driver if you really had to.

Advantages of having more RAM:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_advantage_of_more_RAM?#slide=1

You may find you are able to run some thing syou had problems with before or run them better. Multitasking should be improved. You will be ready for the future if it's more than enough for the present. Since you have a APU the integrated graphics alone will use up to 4GB of RAM which means you should have a extra 4GB to leave the rest for your CPU.

Oh and that Dream build of yours is insane... can i ask what's your current setup?

[Rove]

I currently have a few different computers (after building a bitcoin mining rig and then converting it to gaming when no longer profitable and building ANOTHER gaming rig after that with some new parts and the spare bitcoin mining GPUs) so the specs may change based on how they are currently arranged. I've been using one of my secondary machines recently while doing some work on my primary (I'm lazy and was waiting for screws until recently so it goes slow) and have been in no great rush since the secondary machine is enough to play DoTA 2 at full settings and FPS and that's what I've been playing.

My best currently has:
AMD FX 8350
ASUS M5A99X EVO R1 990X chipset socket AM3+ motherboard
32GB (4*8GB) DDR3-1600 SPD RAM with 9-9-9-24 timings @ 1.5V
HD 6950 2GB
240GB SSD & 2*3TB HDD
2*Blu-Ray writers
58-in-1 micro flash memory card reader
1250w 80 Plus Gold PSU, fully modular
Zalman CNPS 9900-DF (dual fan, model above the MAX single fan version of this same cooler) pure copper CPU cooler coated in nickel
ASUS M5A99X EVO R1 motherboard

I originally built that over 2 years ago and it started with a AMD FX 8150 CPU, stock CPU cooler and only 1*3TB HDD but has otherwise remained the same. I replaced the CPU when I thought I had broken it after dropping my AMD FX 8150 and bending the pins when I was trying to install my new CPU cooler. I did fix the pins but could not get it to work but I found out that the problem was actually the motherboard because the new CPU wouldn't work either. The board had given me trouble since I first got it, sometimes failing to boot & stuff for random reasons and then fixing itself again for random reasons.

Anyways, since I had 2 CPU's I decided to buy a second motherboard to verify that it was the motherboard that was the problem and so I had something to use while waiting for the RMA exchange and also something to use with the second CPU which I assumed was still good.

I had already previously built a bitcoin mining rig with a AMD A4-5300 APU, ASRock Extreme 6 A85X socket FM2 motherboard and 4*HD 7790 with 3 installed in the mining rig and one hosted in my main gaming rig as a secondary GPU. At that time I had stopped mining since it didn't make profit anymore so the GPUs and other parts were spare.

So I made a secondary rig with:
AMD FX 8150
ECS 970 Deluxe V1 970 chipset socket AM3+ motherboard
4GB 92*2GB) DDR3-1333 RAM
HD 7790 1GB (there is only 1*PCIe 2.0 x16 slot in x16 mode the other is x4 mode so while I could crossfire as I have a spare, 4 total, I decided not to and to leave it spare)
500GB HDD
DVD writer
750w 80 Plus Platinum PSU, non-modular
Zalman CNPS 9900MAX-B pure copper CPU cooler coated in nickel

Other than being too low on RAM this rig can run everything I currently have really well. Skyrim crashed on maximum settings with high-res textures official mod/DLC installed due (I believe) to having too little RAM to run it properly and maintain system overhead. Adding at least another 4GB or more of RAM would fix all it's problems I think and it could run any new games on good settings and FPS. I say it's the RAM since my other builds with 16GB or 32GB (when running single HD 7790) can max out Skyrim and all my other games with no issues. The HD 7790 performs very well. Not as good as my HD 6950 (which I've never hit any upper limit to except in theoretical benchmarks or bitcoin mining) but it's at least relatively close, a lot cheaper and a lot more power efficient.

I also went and turned the rest of my bitcoin mining rig into yet another gaming computer, without HDD since I can just put one from another build into it when needed. To do so I replaced the APU with a A10, added many new parts & a new case.

The third rig is currently like so:
A10 6800K APU
ASRock A85X Extreme 6 A85X chipset socket FM2 motherboard
16GB (2*8GB) DDR3-2400 (underclocked to run DDR3-2133 currently) RAM
2*HD 7790 crossfire (since the motherboard supports 2*PCIe 2.0 x16 in x16 mode)
no HDD, can just plug and play a OS drive from another machine
no DVD, since there is no HDD I don't need a DVD for OS installation
650w 80 Plus Gold PSU, fully modular
stock cooler but I do have a Zalman CNPS 9900MAX-R to install ( I bought 3 for pretty cheap, $20-$40 each I think, after rebates) if you ever get one beware the screws cause they strip really easy and I had to wait for months to get Zalman to replace them which is part of why my main rig was in pieces for so long & why I have not installed the cooler here.

I've tested the APU both alone and with single HD 7790. I'm pretty impressed with the performance. The CPU performance on the APU is enough for any current games at your choice of settings. The integrated GPU (HD 8670D) on the APU is enough to at least play any current games BUT the settings may need to be compromised depending on the game. Using a single HD 7790 1GB dedicated GPU + the A10-6800K & 16GB RAM I've been able to play all my games that I tested at the highest settings at 1920*1080 resolution with good FPS. It's about as powerful as the PS4 GPU according to GFLOPS values while my HD 6950 is just plain better.

Given my experience with the HD 7790 and the CPU of the A10 6800K (which is very similar to the slightly slower Athlon II x4 750K which is a A10 Trinity APU CPU portion with the GPU cut off or disabled, the 760K is the "Richland" version of this for $10 more. The A10 6800K is "Richland" while the A10 5800K would be "Trinity") I believe my recommendation of a Athlon II x4 750K, HD 7790 & 8GB of RAM is a very good starter build for a gamer. It's technically competative to the new consoles, my experince of a similar system's performance has been very good & it's very cheap and affordable for a gaming PC.

In terms of performance it should knock the socks off for example the $700~ Alienware X51 which only uses a i3 CPU and GT 645 GPU (about 1/2 a HD 7790 in performance) and is not nearly as upgradeable due to it's size, PSU & case.

Of course that more you spend the longer it will last at the best settings without needing upgrades to stay on top. If you are flexible on graphics settings in the future this build could last you as long as a console, until the next generation. Upgrades are also easy and there is lots of space & flexibility for them, more so than a regular prebuilt computer.

As a side note even the A4-5300 (Which I tried gaming on alone without using the HD 7790's while they were busy mining bitcions and the A4-5300 was the primary GPU) can run many last generation PS3 or Xbox 360 games at lower settings & or or resolutions. Some are too buggy or do not support APUs properly but I was for example able to run Unreal 3: Black Edition at low settings, 1920*1080 resolution at 40+ FPS in multiplayer & Dead Island I could also play. However some of this stuff does make it work hard and I would not recommend this for gaming because it does not have enough spare power for future games. Always build a system with spare power or the day after you get it it becomes obsolete and you regret it. The A4-5300 is targeted to a entry level browsing, word processing and movie computer anyways, not for gaming. It certainly has enough spare ppower to be good for that basic use for many years. I will mention though that it could play DoTA2 very well.