Done your research on AMD’s highest end of Kaveri APUs?
The highest end of AMD’s offering, the A10-7850K, comes packed with an integrated AMD Radeon R7 GPU. Now, despite the negative connotation of using an integrated GPU from the days of electronic yore, the integrated Radeon R7 can pull some impressive numbers on games like Sleeping Dogs and Tomb Raider:
Benchmarks courtesy of Anandtech.
Now the real question is, how does this affect the CyberPower Steam Machine?
Pre-Kaveri, the bare minimum AMD-powered CyberPower Steam Machine will be back with the following:
- Processor: AMD A6-6400K 3.90 GHz ($60 via PCPartPicker)
- Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 270 2GB GDDR5 ($200 via PCPartPicker)
On the other hand, by abandoning the discrete GPU and upgrading to a Kaveri:
- Processor: AMD A10-7850K 3.70 GHz ($190 via Newegg.com)
That is a difference of roughly $70 in price. Still, this is just factoring the change from CPU/GPU to the highest-end Kaveri CPU. Consider the most inexpensive in the Kaveri line but still running the integrated Radeon R7 GPU, the A8-7600:
- Processor: AMD A8-7600 3.10 GHz ($120 via Anandtech)
Priced at $70 below the A10-7850K yet still packing the same Radeon R7 integrated GPU, the A8-7600 drops the Steam Machine’s price down by $140. This means with Kaveri, the entry price to Valve’s wild ride can potentially start well below $349 with the A10-7850K and just over $250 with the A8-7600.
Of course, downgrading to the A8-7600 will choke up CPU performance (though GPU performance will be similar, if not the same), and in games dependent on the CPU (read: Civilization 5 and co.), the performance hit can severely limit your fun.
Absolute price minimum aside, adopting the A10-7850K Kaveri will bring the already-low $499 price tag on the CyberPower Steam Machine even further down. And while games probably cannot be played at over 60 FPS on a 1080p resolution, benchmarks and frame tests at lower resolutions can and will stably play at well over 30 FPS and in some cases come just short of 60 FPS.
But you don’t have to take our word for it.
Benchmarks courtesy of Tom’s Hardware.
