AMD A8-3870K - How does the best FM1 APU hold up today?

[@doyouthinkhesawus]

I was using an A6 3670K with a 1050 until a few months ago! Still absolutely fine as a daily computer when paired with an SSD! I upgraded to the older i5 2500. Hell of a difference!

[@xXRenaxChanXx]

Nice! I made a similar upgrade (minus an SSD) myself from an Athlon II X4 631 (Which is basically the A6-3650 with the GPU portion disabled) to an i5 3570 and holy crap. Even when the cores enter their power saving state (don't detect a need to boost higher) they blow my old Athlon away which would have to stay at it's max of 2.6ghz to stay smooth or try to anyway.

[@Likithrocks]

Hey man! Its late but i have a question. I have a a4 3300 so in looking to buy a 4gb ran stick, an ssd and the 1650Gpu or ahoyld I completely discard this cpu and buy a whole bew processor and mother board,

[@karl9460]

@@Likithrocks Also late, but if you are on a budget seriously consider getting an RX 570 and a new 500W+ psu. PSU first, then RX 570 the CPU will cause a bottle neck but you can cure that later and should still see a massive improvement. In order to cure the bottle neck consider eventually getting a Ryzen 3 2200g with 16gb when you have the finds, and selling your old mobo, gpu memory and psu as a bundle. SSD is really only of use if you need things to load fast, I do as I play poker and a slow reboot can cost me money, but honestly it is not needed for general gaming. In saying that SSD are very cheap, but if funds are tight... I would take the path of psu, gfx card and worry about the other stuff later.

[@Likithrocks]

@@karl9460 hey buddy thanks for the reply although it was late. So I actually went ahead and bought a 1050ti used for ~80USD two months ago given the bottleneck and also ordered a8 3850 for ~15USD and a 4gb 1600mhz stick.and this cpu was heating up super fast so also added in a cooler master hyper t20 to keep the temps down at 55 max under load(72 before ) Performance is decent and in some games the cpu and gou are perfectly balanced. Few places surely the bottleneck is seen but it was expected but I am happy for what I get for 1080p 30fps gameplay in major titles I actually didn't upgrade the PSU but I think I am planning for a build similar to your idea and I would only take a small SSD for OS given that's all I need for. I can wait for things to load in games. And your idea about the upgrade perfectly suits my plan but that's for another year easily. But hey thanks a lot for replying and explaining. Helps the community and surely helped me to have more insight.

[@H31MU7]

Oh man, I just got an old FM1 system for free and would love to see how an HD6670 or 7670 goes in dual graphics mode.

[@kirbyswarp]

Also interested

[@youtuberobbedmeofmyname]

Dual graphics mode was already debunked? It doesn't give the performance increase you would expect. It was mainly used for laptops with integrated and dedicated graphics and it used a shit-ton of power.

[@H31MU7]

@@youtuberobbedmeofmyname I don't think anyone is under the impression that it'll be a huge performance gain. I'm just interested in a PCL video on it.

[@Bassjunkie_1]

I had the a6 3500 crossfired with a HD 6670

[@Bassjunkie_1]

@@youtuberobbedmeofmyname I had it and it most defo performed better. I don't recall this debunk

[@LayneRuley]

This is nutz, I am watching this on a A8-3870k. Was a computer I built for my folks back in 2012

[@tektel]

My dougter has the same, I'm makin a clean install on it right now to sell it next week

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@tektel I honestly would suggest Manjaro Deepin Linux on a system like this, as it's very lightweight, and the latest AMD drivers are built right into the latest kernel updates, and they run much better than on Windows 10 with at least 8GB of DDR3 RAM.

[@tektel]

@@CommodoreFan64 No one will buy me a linux... thing. Linux people just don't get it, after almost three decades of linux you keep not getting it. Look at tesla, they got it right. They went for a car that's better than a conventional one in EVERY SINGLE WAY. Not "good enogh" or "technicaly superior". NO. Linux has to be able to be installed on a system by a user without any knoledge, without lossing any user data and every single program that works in windows has to work in linux flawlessly, same with every windows driver, all this without any knowledge or settings or consideration of any kind from the user and it has to be absolutely flawless, has to be more intuitive, use less resources, be faster and reliable out of the box. It has to be better than windows, it has to work even where windows stops working. It can be better because windows is up to the eyebrows with shit. The door (window?) is open but the linux ecosystem is not interested in going for the final user. Don't tell me anything about phones, android (fucsia will kill it) or consoles, I'm talking about regular PCs used by average users. Linux has been never really interested in it, so, why use Linux? only old people whould use it.

[@armorgeddon]

What a whole load of BS, starting with Tesla and then the anti Linux-rant LOL. I get what you're trying to say about Linux's end user friendlyness, but you do it in a way like ex-Microsoft man Steve Balmer used to do it.

[@tektel]

@@armorgeddon So, why linux still 1% in desktop and people accepts changes like going from w7 to w10 but rejects w7 to linux? Also, idk what balmer said but he was ms ceo, don't expect honesty. I'm not siding with a monopolistic mega-corporation with the sense of ethics of a stick. I'm just being honest. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe not. I think I'm not.

[@shizzig1781]

In 2012ish we bought a new mobo (low end fm1) and cpu (3670k) for $50 each. It got well used, but I think that you got played, because we paid that as a brand new price. The parts were end of life and being sold off cheaply. Admittedly, the gpu we used was a slightly older Radeon HD4850 and the cpu was overclocked to 3.3Ghz. It made for quite a nice little box. Took care of vrm and cpu cooling using a noctua downwards 140mm blower heatsink. Ran for 2 years, gave it to a relative for office type work and It's still going strong.

[@TheBigupz]

i used to sell a load of APU computers for entry level gamers, specially ones that just wanted to game at lower prices 300- sub 300 systems running an A10-7800 or A8 7600 were sold all the time, since most of them gamed at 720p, it even had the power to plat GTA V!!

[@televisionandcheese]

My old CPU ! Only this year I have upgraded to a Xeon, but since 2012, the A8 3870K had served very well! I originally got a great deal on one which had artifacting GPU portion, which wasn't a problem as I used it with an external GPU, the R7 250 768mb. With this setup, it was a very competent rig, often I see these APUs rated poorly for their low graphic performance, while their CPU portion goes somewhat ignored and is still very capable. Especially coming from a 2007 Pentium Dual Core, the CPU performance was incredible! Even new in 2012 compared to other CPUs on the market without more powerful integrated graphics, this was still a good choice at a budget price range

[@dannycoy5775]

This is the cpu i use for my sons pc. It runs very nice with a gtx 960. He plays fornite and csgo. Interesting how far ryzen has come with apu's. This is a very intresting video. Good Job Phil!!

[@morantaylor]

My son'r PC also has this processor in it. Plays fortnite on GTX 560 ok :)

[@louistournas120]

@@morantaylor : Please remove the GTX 560. You have a APU, my friend!

[@youtuberobbedmeofmyname]

He plays Fortnite with it? Dear lord bless his frames.

[@youtuberobbedmeofmyname]

@@morantaylor NO. The GTX 560 is WAY better than the APU don't remove the card, that guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

[@televisionandcheese]

louis tournas A GTX 560 is very powerful card, much better than the graphics card of the APU

[@Shinya_]

I still have my a8-3800 I used it in my main computer from about 2011 to the begining of 2018 but now I use it to host the discord bot me and my friends use and game servers. I remember using it in my main computer for me any game that was cpu dependent would have problem if paired with dedicated graphics card I had a R9 270(about a gtx 1050 in performance) the best example is overwatch the game would not go above 30 fps, high ping not my internet causing it, and would crash if to much happened at once, I think some of the issues were caused by windows 10 because the cpu does much better on other OS like windows 7 and linux

[@dtemple87]

Phil, I really like this video. Do you think you will make a follow-up showing performance increase when utilising a Radeon HD6570 in Hybrid Crossfire with this APU?

[@philscomputerlab]

Hmm I doubt it. Although I've never tried Hybrid CrossFire, I don't think it's worth the effort to be honest. Just get a fast graphics card and you're set.

[@dtemple87]

I was interested to know, back in the day, if it would have made sense to add a 6570 to a setup like this, or if you were better off buying a single high-midrange card like a 6770 and running it alone.

[@warmage247]

PhilsComputerLab you sir are correct, I have personally been there and done that and roughly translate to 10-20% improvement IF .. the game supports xfire

[@coryandrum]

I remember having a A8 in a laptop i picked pretty cheap. I recently opened it and replaced the thermal paste thinking it would help cool it. Its still as hot as i remember, for some reason it boosts to extreme clocks all the time.

[@xponen]

I did same thing with an older AMD Turion X2 laptop. I check & found nothing wrong with the thermal paste nor ts fan config. It just run at a Boosted clock, of (merely) 2Ghz, but at 80 C!. That's not what I can accept, so all I do is 'break'' the boost by limiting CPU usage at 99%, although I think should be smarter than this .

[@coryandrum]

​@@itstheweirdguy But my mom still checks email and type a presentation on Windows 10 with it... It still works 5+ years after i bought it, 325 bucks with over 5 years value, mac is what 1500 with 3.5 year value till os is obsolete and you couldn't even play games. From 2005-2015 processor growth has been ridiculous anything bought before or during will be alot slower then now. does not mean it was bad value unless you bought a Pentium 4 black edition for 420 the year before dual core.Intel swindled us and backstabbed amd while they held them in court. E corp.....

[@nicacioedu]

Few days ago I found a pretty good deal with this APU + a MSI FM1 motherboard, both in mint condition, for just $40.00 plus shipping. Of course I've taken them... Thanks for this video, Phil!

[@omegarugal9283]

get the fastest DDR3 RAM you can get, 1866 Mhz, overclock the GPU to 900 Mhz and prepare to be dissapointed

[@nicacioedu]

@@omegarugal9283, not at all. This little APU is still capable of handling my HD videos and e-sport titles at 720p. Some older titles lite Civ IV and NFSU2 are even playable at 1080p with max settings... I also use this machine to play GameCube and Wii games through Dolphin Emulator (at 1080p and 720p, respectively), and my kids just love them :-)

[@annoyingisheep574]

@@omegarugal9283 So why bother through all of that and anticipating failure. are you a toddler?

[@omegarugal9283]

@@annoyingisheep574 it was meant to be a joke smartass

[@VicoSurge]

I am using an A8-3820 with a GT710 and 12GB of RAM, the SSD are an obvious requirement to have this working in 2020 but not going to lie it works quite decent when it's all about older games, even newer ones work decently when lowering most of the settings of the game. Can't complain when the whole thing cost me about 50 USD (CPU was 2USD about three years ago) and does quite well for its age, I even code and do some light video rendering from time to time! Also lucky you, I could not find this particular CPU for less than 100 USD two years ago when upgrading the components old MOBO I had (RIP old buddy). If you anyone is wondering why I would be so insistent on upgrading this rig it's because it belonged to my father, he gave it to me because he grew tired of long loading times and not doing what it wanted it to do (he was stubborn about investing on it, he would rather buy a new laptop with a Celeron than fix this one, *sigh*). When I got the computer I began fixing it, was going to secretly give it back to my dad for him to have something to do, unfortunately he passed away a month later and aside from the memories and some poems this is one of the last things I have from him.

[@mohdfaizal6773]

Cool look back in Times. At 4:30 My older mobo has on board USB dies too over time. This is still useful as a back bencher Computer. In my opinion. But I think it draws more power Watts over time.

[@alexn6950]

The core is based on K10 architecture IIRC (so it lacks for AVX support) Still a good performer for its time.

[@kevinroberts781]

I still use this apu. Works fine for 1080p gaming if you have a dedicated GPU.

[@SmellsLikeEMinor]

I still have an A8 running in a system, but it's an FM2 Richland architecture A8-6600K.

[@jcfb1470]

Nice. I love these videos with early 2010s cpus and apus. You could also try the 200ge some day.

[@Passenger-nj7in]

Pretty solid performance, wow

[@PcistaDark]

Hello PhilsComputerLab, the AMD A8 3870K has 512MB video memory but why is there a 1GB option on the motherboards socket FM1? And I loved the tests done on this video.

[@philscomputerlab]

The A8 APU has zero video memory. It uses the DDR3 main memory. Watch the video, it shows you how I configured the shared memory.

[@SagoFanHD]

If the cpu supports, you can make it 1866 at those timinng probably.

[@jorge69696]

I also picked up the Tomb Raider games during the last steam sale!

[@ivanromashkin9569]

I just remember the day when I had read about this APU. My question was funny - can APU 3870k perform in games as Radeon HD 3870? Of course, it did not, but I wanted to dream about it. Now, my 2200g can run many games. So, what is your opinion about Athlon 200ge for retro gaming? Thanks for your videos, the perfect work as always!

[@philscomputerlab]

Well they can't run Windows XP right? But yea for older game a 2200g is awesome. I'd skip the 200 chips though...

[@ivanromashkin9569]

​@@philscomputerlab , when Ryzen becomes retro, we will wait your videos about those CPUs. A joke? I do not think so. Have a luck to make the same great content through years!!!

[@KevinMurray242]

Two things with the APUs, faster RAM is always better, especially for the GPU, and perhaps provide a look at CrossfireX. Pair a 6570/6670 with the 3870K. A look at overclocking is also interesting, although from what I've seen most would only do 3.3-3.5 on the CPU, and/or +2-300Mhz on the GPU.

[@CommodoreFan64]

I know on my AMD A-10 5800K the max GPU you can pair it with for cross fire is an AMD R7 250 2GB with DDR3 RAM, and it will run alright as I've done it in the past, but you have OC your system memory, and give up 2GB to the APU's GPU for it work, so I'm curious what the gains would be on this older FM1 chip with it only allowing 1GB of system RAM to be used.

[@coryschneider4271]

One note on using APU's, as far as memory allocation is concerned, you always want to give it the least amount of memory possible for "dedicated memory". This is because whenever the "dedicated memory" runs out, Windows will start allocating system memory, which in the case of APU's is the same pool. So its better to leave it as low as possible and let Windows balance it out, also this way you leave more open for OS and application use.

[@JasperTedVidalTale]

Wow I didn't know that I thought the higher the dedicated memory the better thanks

[@thetrigger173]

This video makes me miss my A4-3300 😂 finished up BF3 with 800x600, lowest setting and 15fps

[@xavird4309]

i still have that processor xD

[@JohnLee-ov5pe]

@@xavird4309 same. im still using the a4 3300 rn. with a gtx 750 ti

[@nicecoolvibes]

I still use a4 3300 now HAHAHA 7yrs old pc is still running and cant game league

[@nicecoolvibes]

@@JohnLee-ov5pe heyy is it good? Im planning to buy a 750ti for this 3300

[@levichua6607]

i have the a4 3400 paired with gt 730 lmao, I'm planning to buy Athlon II X4 651 and a rx 560 2gb

[@TheGoodOldGamer]

I only wish AMDs ITX FM1/2 boards weren’t so expensive. They do make for great retro builds, but I’d love to have a thin client sizes machine for XP

[@coenraadloubser5768]

You can get them

[@soccerzockt1518]

You might have been able to get a few more Mhz out of the igpu, as it was only running on stock speeds with very low temperatures.

[@CommodoreFan64]

Yes but more important is getting the fastest RAM you can, as AMD APU's have always benefited from that. I have an A10 - 5800K in my system turbo boosted to 4.4Ghz with an AMD RX 560 4GB GPU but have the 16GB of 1866Mhz DDR3 RAM OC to 2133Mhz, and even with the deicated GPU it still helps overall system performance.

[@annoyingisheep574]

@@CommodoreFan64 rip thermal throttling

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@annoyingisheep574 If you have good cooling then that's not really a problem, the biggest problem with the A series chips is IPC. However like with any CPU/APU stable OC is luck of the draw on the silicon lottery.

[@dwarf365]

I gave my A8-3870k to my best friend several years ago when I upgraded to an i5-4430( place holder for the 4790k that came later) I built the a8 to run gta4 as cheap as possible. I over clocked it +200 mhz as was just able to get playable fps. When gta5 came out I stuck a 270x into it and again just barely playable fps. (Huge bottleneck though)

[@AmirZaimMohdZaini]

Just obtained this kind of mobo with AMD FM1 CPU and installed Windows 10 on it. It's still working although having a rocky startup. GPU cards are still working with the cpu but depends on the mobo itself whether the PCIe port still functioning or else.

[@blooder81]

And get am1 system on chip to test also. I have athlon 5350.

[@tektel]

Me too, waching on it right now @2.7GHz

[@randyladwig6281]

Was given a system with an A4 3300 in it. Guess it would be worth putting $25 into the top APU for it. Most of my games are older anyway and with 6 SATA ports, it might just make for handy storage as a NAS for the family. Each of us can have a dedicated drive!

[@tobyhines7587]

Built an HTPC with A8-3850 in 2012, two tuner cards Blu-ray burner plus 4 4Tb hhd. Upgraded to 1700x last Black Friday.

[@Chaotic_cookie89]

Now I love fridays even more

[@scratchy2005]

Still use in my main PC. Works with cheap memory for AMD. That APU very sensitive to northbridge frequency, especially if using RAM 1866MHz or higher. For example with 1866MHz RAM northbridge need to setup on 900MHz. If set higher than RAM speed, PC just wont start. Performance increase much more on frequency scaling, rather than shorter timings. For gaming i mean.

[@feeterican]

Holly crap. I just got this chip last week. I'm running mine at 3.4GHz. I would be able to go higher if I had a better MoBo. I'm running into a CPU Voltage limit on my MSI A75A-G35. It doesn't have a Voltage control, it only allows the NB DRAM and SB voltage and when I set it to 3.5GHz it BSODs. I can't really complain though since I got the MoBo brand new for $5 here at work with the CPU for an additional $10.

[@СтрочковА.В]

I'm not sure, but it seems Llano CPU's really cannot get past over 3.4 GHz... I have Athlon II 651 K and the highest clocks I can get are the same 3.4 GHz. I can boot at higher frequences, but the system would not complete the Cinebench bechmark. Sure, my mobo is also far from best (AsRock A75M-HVS) but considering Phil in his video about this Athlon chip also got to 3.4 GHz, I'd say it is not a coincidence.

[@beakermann]

Great video... now off to those local garage sales. : )

[@atendimentoconecta9419]

HI I'M FROM Brazil. I still use AMD A8-3870K with HD 65550D+HD 6670 (DUAL GRAPHIC). I am falling in love for my PC

[@philscomputerlab]

Nice. Is dual graphics working for you? I heard that it doesn't work that well?

[@atendimentoconecta9419]

@@philscomputerlab to me work. You just need put DDR Vengaence Corsair 2400 MHZ to increase the memorie speed and video graphic clock to 933 mhz both.

[@atendimentoconecta9419]

@@philscomputerlab oNE MORE THING, you just need disable dual graphic on the catalyst to game or progrma where not working.

[@atendimentoconecta9419]

@@philscomputerlab one question dude, an AMD RX 580 work with this motherboard and cpu? I want to buy one of this

[@philscomputerlab]

@@atendimentoconecta9419 That's what I used, a 570.

[@madmax2069]

What's up with the horrible stuttering in the captures.

[@joselemusjr6451]

Didnt they have hybrid crossfire with these apu's along with a compatible descrite gpu?. Might be something worth showing on the next one.

[@SSC3034]

Yeah, you could use a 6670 with these and unofficially a 7750 on Trinity and Richland APUs

[@maximilianoreyes1351]

Bro, 3870K, 16GB Ram anda RX550 4GB is good in 2020 for low money?

[@xBruceLee88x]

Should try overclocking the gpu cores

[@Checker201lol]

Had this chip from 2011 to 2013. Was pretty much too weak when I bought it, paired with a GTX 650. So glad I was upgrading to a Xeon 1231v3 & GTX 970. But after I ripped out the Palit GTX 650 it was dead silent with a huge Cooler like a 135mm Bequiet cooler. Ssd only, FSP group PSU, so silent one could not hear it if on or not in idle. And load temps under 40°C :D

[@devl547]

These APUs are pretty sensitive to IGP/RAM overclocking. Sometimes even up to twice the performance.

[@brouwerk1]

Nice a retro review of a APU that I still use for my all my gaming ;) Be it with a slighly better dedicated GPU.

[@philscomputerlab]

Well, a dedicated video card changes everything :)

[@brouwerk1]

@@philscomputerlab Correct, it's no Ryzen by a long shot, but decent gaming on a 720P television or 1080p monitor is possible with some tweaking, (Yes I know 4k is great, just not willing to spend the euro's on it).

[@rogernevez5187]

3:57 *Phenom II 965: 178W @ Load* This CPU has a TDP of 125. How could it be consuming more power than that ????

[@exaltedb]

I have an A8-3820 (which is supposed to be a locked chip) that with the board I’m using, the GA-A55M-DS2, it is strangely unlocked at least with that particular motherboard. I can get it to 3.2 ghz no problem at stock voltage while staying under 60C

[@philscomputerlab]

Nice.

[@aceticacid3007]

i'm still stuck at my a4-3400 apu :) still going for 9 years

[@nednelp9051]

I’ve got the same one but it’s not my daily driver.

[@boomwithpeter623]

I know a channel called Explaining Comluters, dude from there uses this cpu with gt 1030 as test rig, basicly every video that he records screen all the action happens on that cpu, there is also a original build guide where he put it together and compered it to first dual core celeeon from intel - video is like from 2011

[@elemkay5104]

You should've included one or two benchmarks with a GPU, as these old APUs still hold up with a half-decent graphics card in all recent games. They're still a good option if you're looking to spend say, under $100 putting together a second hand build, since a motherboards plus the APU can go for as little as £20-£30 here in the UK on ebay, sometimes even with some RAM included.

[@philscomputerlab]

If you're using a dedicated GPU, just get the Athlon versions without integrated APU. They are much cheaper actuall!

[@Agent-ie3uv]

He was referring to make a test with dedicated GPU on it not asking for recommendations lol 🤣🙄

[@fauzitechno]

O still use this apu till today. I pair it with rx 460. Well it still strong enough to play dmc 5 in medium

[@Coffee_Haze]

I'm still crawling along with an old A6 3500. My only concession to it's age was to add an nvidia card a few years ago. It's time has long since come and gone, now I'm a bit behind the curve for building my next pc. Hurrah for research overkill agony!

[@greggregson9687]

Interesting video Phil. I had a quick look, and it seems there are XP drivers for FM2 and FM2+ boards. Have you tried Trinity and Richland on Windows XP? If so, how did it go for speed and compatibility?

[@ambigousBarrel]

I remember having a a-8 5600k on a Asrock motherboard where the HDMI went on it :) I loved that machine though, chucked a cheap water cooler on it and overclocked it to 4.4ghz, chucked in some 1866mhz ram and a HD 6570 and it was really good for what I was playing back then :) As much as I hated the microstuttering in some games like Skyrim, I really enjoyed messing around with that setup, it was easy to work with because all the parts in the case where small and wire management was a breeze since the GPU didn't need a 6/8 pin connection :) Good times, great little machine :)

[@superangrybrit]

I wonder how much did WoW's DX12 addition help perform better on a Llano CPU.

[@Thelango99]

Well you cannot run DX12 on that igpu since it is the old terascale.

[@renefras2874]

Dude, that purple line @ 7:12 almost gave me a hart attack when I though my oled is gone😂

[@edplat2367]

I would love to know how it compares to the fx line of CPUs.

[@randyladwig6281]

My personal system is an FX 8300 with an R7 240.. So far it totally smokes the APU systems I have seen even with the cheesy graphics card. Looking to update said card, and would like to try dual mode with the 240 and the APU together.

[@stefanogrillo6040]

the ipc of this llano(this apu) is much higher than fx.

[@ching-chenhuang8119]

I thought the motherboard was a bargain until you said the USB 2.0 ports in the back didn't work........

[@mohdfaizal6773]

Still a bargain, depending on whereas you're. And how accessible stuff is.

[@theonetruelenny9883]

4:13 The fact that the integrated GPU can get 5-6 frames per second at 1080p medium settings on The Witcher 3 is actually quite impressive. I would have expected it to not run at all.

[@GameplayandTalk]

This definitely seems like a decent option for early '00s games.

[@alvaroacwellan9051]

Hm, I've run into the same issue with Shadow of the Tomb Raider trying a Radeon HD5870. It's basically the same generation as the A8's IGP so I guess that's where the problem lies. It runs with a HD7750, though. Not great, as it frequently halts to swap (low detail!) textures in its 1GB VRAM in many areas, especially outdoors (and a LOT of SOTR is outdoors). So I still wouldn't call it playable and would say it needs more VRAM - even though the 7750's performance would suffice otherwise (at least in 720p/low). All in all, I won't try it on my A8-3850. But you got me thinking about making it an XP retro config as it has the same Radeon as the 3870 and it seems quite fine for just about anything from the XP era. But what will I do with those 2 long PCIE slots on the board then? :D

[@rebeccaschade3987]

I just got the ridiculous idea that perhaps the boxed cooler for my AM5 Ryzen would fit on my old FM1 A8-3870k... As it turns out, it actually fits. Sure, you can flip the tightening lever, but since the mounts seems to be slightly lower on the FM1 than on AM5, it's a really tight fit anyway. Idle temps were just 2 degrees above ambient :D I guess a CPU cooler intended for a 12-core 2023 CPU is a bit overkill for a 4-core 2011 CPU. I'm not sure what to do with this A8-system... It's running Ubuntu Studio at the moment, which is actually fairly quick on this APU. I'm considering getting a second hand RX480 and some more RAM and turn it into a nice little system for indie games :)

[@LUNATIC75]

I had one of these powering my main PC for at least a couple of years. It was a mITX system in a lovely PC-Q11 case. My 3870K was paired with various mid range AMD graphics cards and did a good job of running my dangerously over-modded Skyrim sessions during 2012-2014. I always liked the APU idea, but the graphics component was always lacking. :( Eventually I 'upgraded' to FM2+ and then finally on to my Ryzen 1800X.

[@SubieandFriends]

My main gaming PC still rocks an AMD A6 3620 quad core @ 2.2ghz (OC to 2.5GHZ) paired with Discrete GPU AMD Radeon RX460 4GB GDDR5 video ram and 14GB system ram.......It still plays all modern PC games that are graphic heavy and demand a powerful computer to run at 60FPS at 1080p..... example: Forzamotorsport 7, Hoizon 3 and 4.....Resident evil 7 and the new resident evil 2 remake....just to name a few.......not bad for an APU that came out in the year 2011.....

[@philscomputerlab]

Yea there are a lot of well optimised games out there. Paired with a half-decent GPU like you have, and you're good to go.

[@SubieandFriends]

@@philscomputerlab I agree with that statement..... after watching this video it got me thinking, how much better would my PC run if I uograded to the fastest FM1 socket processor like the Athlon X4? For how cheap they are to buy I imagine it would be worth it, but would the difference in performance be really noticeable? Or would it be just a few FPS better?

[@philscomputerlab]

@@SubieandFriends That's basically the CPU I used, but it's the APU version of the Athlon X4. It will have higher clocks, so that helps a little bit. Buying 1866 RAM can also help a bit. It's not going to be massive, but a small boost.

[@tileeq]

Im still using the A8-3870 paired with gtx 550 Ti, and i have a question for you. What would be the best upgrade for gpu on it, im using it with older 1300 mhz ram and thinking of upgrading to 1600 mhz too.

[@Babbages]

i just gave my friend a pc with a a8 5500 8gb ddr3 and a hd 7770 it actually plays games pretty good the built in video was ok but man that 24 dollar video card made a hell of a diffrence but shoot im rockin a fx 8320 12gb ddr3 and a 8gb rx 480 i love older parts that still have mustle lol

[@sburton015]

I was able to fix up an ultra cheap gaming PC ideal for older games which has an AMD Phenom x4 9650 quad core cpu with an Nvidia gtx 285 graphics card and I actually have 3 versions of windows installed on it, Windows 10, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.

[@nicklassenftleben3154]

Now i´m building an entry level PC which can run Minecraft, GTA V and older games like Mass Effect and I don´t know which GPU I should use. Maybe a 1030/50 or an AMD model. I hope someone will be watching this video in 2021 and could give me a little help with my graphic card problem.

[@nednelp9051]

Umm yeah I think you should go with a GT 1030 because it should be able to handle what you plan on doing. Sorry if I’m a bit late?

[@MusicHavenSG]

Don't forget to Overclock the A8 3870K!

[@CaptainKenway]

Honestly, I'm quite impressed with what the GPU side of things can do, taking into account that it's an APU from eight years ago.

[@Agent-ie3uv]

One of intels legacy is to always under estimate the integrated graphics, their igpu are always 💩, it doesn't mean AMD's igpu are 💩 too.

[@YaksAttack]

Still rocking an a6 3650 overclocked to 3.5ghz in my main rig! It's not fast by today's standards, but it's good enough for the chicks I go out with

[@rhaul666]

Regarding the Athlon II X4 651K processor with dedicated graphics which is the most potent for games?.

[@420psilo]

absolutely nothing. They are identical. Other than the on board graphics on the A8 there is not 1 different spec between the 2. www.cpu-world.com/Compare/276/AMD_A8-Series_A8-3870K_vs_AMD_Athlon_II_X4_651K.html

[@martijn208]

i was just thinking, maybe you could look into using graphite pads for CPU's saves in cleaning thermal paste

[@lilkuz2005]

i have one of these amd apu's in a compaq OEM machine that i use as a linux box media center, never really tried to game on it, but i thought that apu's seen major gains with faster memory, i remember reading something about that. also they can crossfire with some older budget cards to get a bit of a performance boost

[@retropcscotland4645]

Why doesn't the USB ports work? Is it a dodgy board? Usually Gigabyte is a decent go-to brand. Great video mate.

[@philscomputerlab]

Why did the button fall off? Who knows, things break?

[@retropcscotland4645]

@@philscomputerlab I usually look for a swollen cap or something. I bought an Asrock 478 socket mobo and nothing would install after I put windows xp on it. Looked at the board and those nasty cheap caps had all bulged. I kept the board but I don't have a clue how to replace them.

[@Plyushch22]

Hello there Phil, i got some good, yet somewhat old hardware. Are you interested in doing videos on lga1156 and lga775 stuff?

[@philscomputerlab]

Hello there, I've covered the 775 and 1156 already quite well. You can look at my previous videos if you're interested. Feel free to contact me at philscomputerlab at gmail dot com with what you have! Thanks!

[@PierreVonStaines]

An interesting look at perhaps a forgotten AMD prospect for XP gaming. I certainly forgot about them to be honest! Thanks for video Phil! :)

[@nikitazaycev8636]

Well what this apu has got inside is basically an HD 5570 from 2009 and a 4-pseudo core thing running in 2 modules. That was only 1.8 - 2x faster on average than an HD 3000 (SandyBridge GT2) iGPU from than era. Btw... Why are u using Win 10? That thing only works good on tablets (sort of) lol

[@glenwaldrop8166]

The 2200G and 2400G struggle with Witcher 3 at 1080P. It would have made more sense to actually try Witcher 3 at a lower resolution and settings.

[@Bagoesbudianto]

OC that iGPU with Overdrive to 720Mhz or higher and lock CPU clock with AMD PState to 3Ghz or higher clock. See the different

[@janwitkowsky8787]

I'm in the middle of planning a Win XP retro machine with an APU as well. And this will be with new parts. (Store bought, not-used).

[@philscomputerlab]

What APU are you going with?

[@janwitkowsky8787]

@@philscomputerlab The cheapest I could find. FM2+ based. AMD A6-7400K on an ASRock FM2A68M-HD+ mobo with 4 GB of RAM. (1600 MHz) All new parts. And I splurge a bit on the case, but that is because I am gonna make the case into a generic test-bench, mfrom which I will compare other cases in the future. (A Natec Genesis Titan 550 Plus - Acryllic side window, 2 slots for 5-25" drive bays - one for eventual Bllu-Ray drive and the other for a touch-screen fan-controller; in addition to 4 fans included) With an Inter-Tech Combat power Semi modular 550 Watt PSU and an A-Data SSD, I'm golden. Total price: 243-ish Euro. (1.810 Danish Kroners)

[@philscomputerlab]

@@janwitkowsky8787 Ok the board is very nice, it's even FM2+. The CPU is average, it's a 1 module, 2 core CPU with 256 shader graphics. Looking forward to hearing how you go with that build!

[@janwitkowsky8787]

​@@philscomputerlab Thank you. I could have splurged on a bigger A8, with R7 Radeon and 4 cores, but they have just gone out of sale. (And they costs 2.5 times more). So I am on the verge to buy the kit right away. xD The build is one of my first two PC-builds that I am gonna make a couple of videos of, because, I finally have the extra time and money for this, which I have really wanted to do. Specifically, make in English, Danish and Greenlandic. (The 3 languages I speak). With your permission, I would like to refer to your channel from time to time, when it comes to deeper looks into retro-PC gaming and the like. Sincerely Jan W

[@philscomputerlab]

@@janwitkowsky8787 Of course :)

[@Griftercash]

Can you play HD movies with this? what about 4k movies?

[@pablonaranjo]

I had this APU. It came with DIRT for free but I had to run it at 800x600 lol It was decent back in the day, CPU side the GPU was always weak. Ended up as an HTPC . Perfect for Kodi since it had dedicated GPU. It was purchased as a torrent machine

[@TypeGraffi]

How to show frametime line on screen? I can enable fps, CPU, gpu usage, etc... But I don't know where can I enable it. Same place in MSI?

[@nednelp9051]

I found an fm1 computer on the side of the road a year back and I got it working about a week ago and it works great it had a A4 3400 in it but I’m planning to put a A8 3870k in it so I can play games like Half Life 2 and Portal at a better FPS.

[@HellTantrumbull]

Do you know if this chip is fully compatible with the Pegatron AAHD2-HY (Holly) motherboard? I want to upgrade from the A6 3650 Processor but need to make sure the A8-3870K works with the board first before buying one.

[@kildozer2012]

Why are you locking the resolution to 1080p? You would get way better performance using 800x600 on a crt, maybe even 1280x1024.

[@philscomputerlab]

I didn't, in some games I used 720p.

[@kildozer2012]

I wound up eating my words 3/4 through the video when I realized that you had one running at 720p it just bugs me that everyone makes 1080p a standard, if you're testing low end hardware you should go with a lower resolution which you did in certain cases

[@MJ-uk6lu]

I wonder how would older ATi card stack up against this APU. It would be nice to see Radeon 3870 or something like that against APU.

[@af235]

love the review, just dont think amd apus should be ran passed 720. the new ones can handle 1080p.

[@muhammadnurazlansaadon1504]

The ultimate 3.0 ghz quad-core apu strikes back

[@bernrudolph2422]

I bet Motocross Madness 2 would run fine.

[@katana_official_]

Bro to put this in comparison. You tested a ten year old apu. One of the first ever, against a modern beast of a card.

[@CoolTI-Daniel]

My friend had this, with a 5400rpm drive and the 2.4Ghz version of the A8... his OS crashed so I gave him a Core2 Q6700 + SSD + Radeon 5770. I ebayed a 30$ A8-3870K and will simply rebuild it with SSD for the next guy that needs a spare older PC

[@ozzyviking7663]

shouldn't you use the same or similar GPU to the APU's 6550D, like the HD 6450 or the 6570?

[@GamingPCBuildercom]

please test esports games on these types of hardware

[@guily6669]

I guess this is the father, didnt the grandfather be Xbox360 APU which was supposed to be the first to join CPU+GPU or am I wrong here?

[@thechosenone8808]

APU is more AMD marketing for their own series of cpus with integrated graphics. The first cpu with integrated graphics was the Intel 810 (E). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_810

[@armorgeddon]

Intel 810 isn't a CPU at all & I think it wasn't even the first chipset with integrated graphics. Xbox 360 APU was based on a later architecture, the APU in this video is still based on AMD K10. Xbox 360 maybe was the first console to feature an APU but it wasn't the first APU in general. By the way the GPU part of the APUs in the consoles are much faster because they have dedicated VRAM so the integrated GPU is not bottlenecked like it is on AMD APU based PCs.

[@guily6669]

@@armorgeddon , yeah but of its kind I think Xbox 360 was the first on the Xbox slim, even remember when AMD was talking about how much crazy difficult it would be to make it back then and shit like that... They are quite different from that Intel 810... Just like nowadays the CPU is getting more and more almost like a SOC all-in-one, the motherboard now barely does much since almost all controllers are getting inside the CPU as a all-in-one, no southbridge, almost no nothing.

[@AJ12Gamer]

Please do a video about emulators using this apu. PS2, Gamecube, Dreamcast, etc.

[@zenom5385]

I've got an AMD-A6 3620 APU with a 1050 3GB and I'm thinking about upgrading the CPU but also thinking about buying a new PC. Should I just buy the CPU for now then keep that system for a backup? I'd upgrade the CPU for the extra power for future references.

[@philscomputerlab]

What is the best CPU your motherboard supports? You can look this up through the model number and going to the support page of the motherboard company. Personally I don't think it's worth it, the platform is just really old.

[@zenom5385]

@@philscomputerlab I've got an FM1 socket and they really only support up to an AMD-A8 CPU

[@philscomputerlab]

@@zenom5385 Ok, so this 3870K would be the top model then. It is clocked quite a bit higher and has stronger graphics, so you will see a boost, but it won't be anything drastic. Because you have a 1050, maybe it's time to upgrade the motherboard and CPU? Good value is a H61 motherboard and an i5-2400 for example. Or one of the cheap 6 Core Xeon builds that I've been working with in my most recent video.

[@baltaza]

Actually very interesting

[@YoloHunky]

Will it be possible to play Apex legends with this APU combined with a dedicated graph card?

[@amatetsu10]

Hi I have this cpu when I turn my screen resolution up there are static on screen

[@philscomputerlab]

Hmm check your monitor cable, it could be poor quality and causing this.

[@Bewefau]

I would like to see the AMD kaveri A10 7870k FM2 vr the Ryzen 3 2200g APU to see how much of a jump it is. And I think the Kaveri is for 720p gaming so testing it at 1080p is unfair. Also you need the faster memory 1800mhz some where around there for APU's for the 2200g you want 3200 speed or faster for your ram. On a side note i'd be up for trade my 2200g for kaveri i can't install windows 7 on ryzen sadly.