Can an AMD A4-3400 CPU be used to play games such as BF3, Crysis, etc.?

[soarwitheagles]

Hi all!

Picked up a couple of new AMD's A4-3400 for $20 each.

Just wondering if they could be used to play some of the more recent games.

Is it possible or are they too low end?

If I installed a decent video card such as a AMD 6870 would they be able to get the job done?

Thanks,

Soar

 

[PP Mguire]

Yes they can get the job done, but being dual core they will hold back performance. Not sure exactly how much, but the 6870 is a decent card. Should maintain medium to high settings on BF3.

 

[Warmonger]

They are capable, tho BF3 is a heavy game even my Athlon II x3 struggles to run it. And it has faster cores along with one additional core than your A4's. The CPU side is capable, but don't expect anything above 60 FPS on ultra low settings on the iGPU side. Also them chips will bottleneck any decent size dedicated video card. Llano is built on Stars core (Phenom II) so, I wouldn't expect a whole lot from them. In short, they will run BF3 on ultra low. Just make sure you pair them with some high frequency ram to get the most out of them if you plan on using the iGPU for gaming. I would aim for 1866 to 2133 and up. Timings don't matter in this situation, its all about memory bandwidth. If you plan on installing a dedicated card such as the 6870 than yes, you should be able to play it on med-high settings. Tho again don't expect much, as them processors are going to be a huge bottleneck for a 6870.

 

[jasonalwaysready]

it'll work, but will be a huge cpu bottleneck. don't really expect to play at above low settings and 720p

 

[-RockMan-]

Hi all!

Picked up a couple of new AMD's A4-3400 for $20 each.

Just wondering if they could be used to play some of the more recent games.

Is it possible or are they too low end?

If I installed a decent video card such as a AMD 6870 would they be able to get the job done?

Thanks,

Soar

Yes they are capable of good gaming but I'd be a little concern about the clock speed and what you are using.

AMD A8-3870K Unlocked Llano 3.0GHz Quad-Core Desktop APU with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6550D AD3870WNGXBOX - Newegg.com
Next time if you see it elsewhere for lower pick it up.
Couple with nvidia higher end GT 500's or 610's-630's.
Make sure to get ram a little higher than 1600mhz.
Reason why, when you begin to clock down the ram speed it will help give you a higher oc.
If at all possible don't deal msi's lower end fm1 boards.
Nothing but hell and misery in the end using their fm1 line up boards.

 

[soarwitheagles]

They are capable, tho BF3 is a heavy game even my Athlon II x3 struggles to run it. And it has faster cores along with one additional core than your A4's. The CPU side is capable, but don't expect anything above 60 FPS on ultra low settings on the iGPU side. Also them chips will bottleneck any decent size dedicated video card. Llano is built on Stars core (Phenom II) so, I wouldn't expect a whole lot from them. In short, they will run BF3 on ultra low. Just make sure you pair them with some high frequency ram to get the most out of them if you plan on using the iGPU for gaming. I would aim for 1866 to 2133 and up. Timings don't matter in this situation, its all about memory bandwidth. If you plan on installing a dedicated card such as the 6870 than yes, you should be able to play it on med-high settings. Tho again don't expect much, as them processors are going to be a huge bottleneck for a 6870.

Yes they can get the job done, but being dual core they will hold back performance. Not sure exactly how much, but the 6870 is a decent card. Should maintain medium to high settings on BF3.

it'll work, but will be a huge cpu bottleneck. don't really expect to play at above low settings and 720p

Yes they are capable of good gaming but I'd be a little concern about the clock speed and what you are using.

AMD A8-3870K Unlocked Llano 3.0GHz Quad-Core Desktop APU with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6550D AD3870WNGXBOX - Newegg.com
Next time if you see it elsewhere for lower pick it up.
Couple with nvidia higher end GT 500's or 610's-630's.
Make sure to get ram a little higher than 1600mhz.
Reason why, when you begin to clock down the ram speed it will help give you a higher oc.
If at all possible don't deal msi's lower end fm1 boards.
Nothing but hell and misery in the end using their fm1 line up boards.

Ok, thanks for the info and ideas.

Well, I just purchased these two FM1 motherboards because they had ok reviews and were on sale:

GIGABYTE GA-A75M-DS2 FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3)
GIGABYTE GA-A75M-DS2 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - Newegg.com

ASUS F1A55-M LE FM1 AMD A55 (Hudson D2)
ASUS F1A55-M LE Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - Newegg.com

Will these two motherboards get the job done?

And, what type of RAM do you recommend?

Thanks,

Soar

 

[PP Mguire]

Yea they'll get the job done. If you aren't using the IGP then 1600 is fine, if you are then 1866.

 

[Warmonger]

Ok, thanks for the info and ideas.

Well, I just purchased these two FM1 motherboards because they had ok reviews and were on sale:

GIGABYTE GA-A75M-DS2 FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3)
GIGABYTE GA-A75M-DS2 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - Newegg.com

ASUS F1A55-M LE FM1 AMD A55 (Hudson D2)
ASUS F1A55-M LE Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - Newegg.com

Will these two motherboards get the job done?

And, what type of RAM do you recommend?

Thanks,

Soar

If you plan on using the iGPU get the fastest DDR3 the board will hold. If you don't than the iGPU will be bottlenecked by slow memory bandwidth. If you plan on putting dedicated video cards into the machines than it doesn't matter what speed. Tho again, if you plan on doing dual graphics mode. I would aim for the fastest DDR3 you can install into the boards. Otherwise I wouldn't put no bigger than a HD 7770 into these machines, else your money will be going out the window from the bottlenecks (buying more card than your machine can use).

Yea they'll get the job done. If you aren't using the IGP then 1600 is fine, if you are then 1866.

Even 1866 is going to impact performance, benchmarks show don't skimp out on memory speed when using iGPU's. If the board holds 2400MHz than I would pick up that, otherwise you might be disappointed at what slower memory bandwidth is going to do to your performance.

 

[PP Mguire]

He is getting this stuff on sale rather cheap. He isn't going for the high end expensive RAM just to get a few extra FPS out of the IGP. That's what the 6870 is for. I mean come on, he spent 20 bucks a piece on each CPU and only a little over a bill on both motherboards.

 

[Warmonger]

He is getting this stuff on sale rather cheap. He isn't going for the high end expensive RAM just to get a few extra FPS out of the IGP. That's what the 6870 is for. I mean come on, he spent 20 bucks a piece on each CPU and only a little over a bill on both motherboards.

Well you can get 2133 for less than $10 more than 1600 DDR3. And it will boost FPS over 5-10 in every game, which is a big difference than playing BF3 on medium at 25 FPS and playing it at medium at 35 FPS. Memory has that big of an impact on iGPU's, why do you think Kaveri will have GDDR5 as system ram? AMD APU's are being held back by slow desktop DDR3. Tho like I said if he's going with discrete, than it doesn't matter. Tho I don't see who would have two 6870's to build two low end gaming machines out of...