Originally posted by sammorris:

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$235 buys you a Core i3 2100 Dual core CPU and a P67 board, which is faster and more efficient than the AMD A8. Powerful integrated graphics seems to be coming at the expense of everything else.

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Originally posted by sammorris:

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I agree with the principle, but realistically hybrid crossfire doesn't make the slightest difference to any reasonably powerful card, as the performance of the IGP will make up such a small fraction of the dedicated card's performance, that you won't see any of the benefit for the overheads. While the A8-3850 would be 'fine', a normal Phenom II setup would be far superior for now.

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Originally posted by theonejrs:

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Originally posted by sammorris:

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I agree with the principle, but realistically hybrid crossfire doesn't make the slightest difference to any reasonably powerful card, as the performance of the IGP will make up such a small fraction of the dedicated card's performance, that you won't see any of the benefit for the overheads. While the A8-3850 would be 'fine', a normal Phenom II setup would be far superior for now.

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Sam,
What are you and Estuansis, the Bobbsy Twins playing little sir echo! LOL!! JK! care to take a scientifically wild asses guess what market this is aimed at? It it's present incarnation, it's meant for the general public. I'm sure as time goes by, they will have more powerful APUs. I read through the review I posted as well as a bunch of others, and I just don't see the i3 whipping up on it very much. Like all comparisons between Intel and AMD, both have solid points and some not so solid points. I do a lot of video encoding, so I would stay with AMD. I won't really be interested until they have a 6 core one, or higher.

I may even just go ahead and buy a socket AM3+ motherboard for my 6 core so I can get all the advantages out of my 6 core for now, and plug in a Bobcat or bulldozer (whatever is socket AM3+) when the time comes.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128519

Russ

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Originally posted by sammorris:

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As always, it depends more on which review you read, not on what program is being tested. In the bit-tech review, the Fusion CPU is plainly behind the i3 on almost every count, including video encoding, yet some sites paint the opposite picture. With a different socket required, AMD lose their main advantage for a lot of home builders, this design is pretty much solely confined to the realms of off-the-shelf PCs. A smart decision though, because it's those that make up the majority of the market share.

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Originally posted by sammorris:

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All the decent programs I've seen use all of your CPU, because that's the most efficient. Not sure why you'd be seeing far less unless you're I/O limited for input. With standard def DVDs I can see how that could be a problem.

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