Kaveri Update

Been a week!  I am running a lightly overclocked A10-7850K setup.  I have had crashing issues so updated drivers and BIOS, still had issues... looks like my RAM could possibly be going (old RAM, I had to send the original set I ordered back because it did not work) so I ordered a new set yesterday.  We shall see if this is some sort of MB or CPU issue.

Oddly, since I placed the order for the new RAM my system hasn't had a single hiccup.  I am running her at 4.0 GHZ and she has been running smooth as butter.

I DID download and install the latest version of A-Tuning and through it, modified the FAN algorithms.  I have the fans running a little more aggressively.

Tonight I should try running CIV V again because it seems to be able to crash my system easily and frequently.

As far as performance goes... I can play my games with little or no noticeable difference to my old setup, despite having fewer cores running at a slower speed than my FX-8350 (again, this is running at a light overclock of +400 MHZ).  Compilation of large Java programs runs barely 1/2 second to 3/4 second behind, and the startup process of a large, JBoss website has similar results.

I am pleased with the performance of this chip.  I really think future revisions will only get better, and perhaps faster clock speeds will be released as the production processes improve.

Still the reason for going with this chip is the PROMISE of excellent performance using the proper development APIs / techniques.  I am hoping developers, even just a few, will embrace this direction and show off the strong points of this APU.

I still go back and forth in my head as to whether I made the right decision to go with the FM2+ APU instead of simply sticking with the AM3+ platform and simply purchasing a revved up Piledriver CPU.  I think I did.  While in many respects the A10 series are somewhat limited, they do contain a much improved core in regards to execution, and the built in memory and data sharing with the processor cores and the graphic cores is a welcomed advancement.  I am not entirely thrilled with the motherboard I chose but I think I can live with it and I believe any of its shortcomings are BIOS related, not construction related, as many of the components are obviously very good.

Perhaps the build decision that I might come to either love the most or regret the most was the purchase of 2 discrete graphics cards running in Crossfire, vs. a single, more powerful card.  The crossfire decision limited the amount of VRAM I could have, and that could affect performance in a negative way in many games.  On the other hand, the processing power of the two cards is immense, surpassing the highest end graphics cards.  Time will tell.