Test Setup, Overclocking, Results, Conclusion
Test Setup
All tests were run 3 times, then averaged to obtain final result.
Sleeping Dogs was tested with the following settings: high res textures off, shadow resolution normal, shadow filtering normal, SSAO normal, v-sync off, quality motion blur off, fps limiter off, aa normal (FXAA).
Hitman: Absolution was tested with the following settings: no AA, no AF (trilinear), shadows medium, textures normal, reflections medium, LoD medium, DoF medium, SSAO normal, Bloom normal, v-sync off.
F1 2012 and DiRT 3 were both tested on the 'high' preset, individual options were left to the preset default, except AA which was 4x, and v-sync was disabled.
Far Cry 3 was tested with the 'medium' preset, individual options were left to the preset default, again v-sync was disabled.
Overclocking
The first overclock applied was to the CPU. Turn off turbo, raise clock speed on all cores to 4.3GHz (as distinct from the occasional turbo on one or more cores to 4.2GHz), a minor 62.5mV bump for 90-minute Prime95 stability, and keep an eye on the temperature!
Usual disclaimer applies: not a lot of time was spent chasing this overclock (it's not exactly huge) and it's no guarantee of the products general potential.
Keeping in mind the aforementioned gains to be had with faster RAM, a shiny new kit of DDR3-2133 replaced the original DDR3-1600, with timings nearly as tight. Cheater's overclocking, but it's still faster!
The APU's GPU was CRU (cranked right up, acronym soup best enjoyed warm, with croutons) from 800Mhz to 1100MHz, a spiffy 37.5% overclock, with just an extra 50mV applied.
With CPU, GPU and RAM overclocks combined, the final box checked to maximise performance was to increase the CPU-NB from 1.8GHz to 2.2GHz, a nice 22% overclock.
Lastly, for bit of fun, 3kg of dry ice was dumped into a big copper tube on top of the APU, over the course of a day. Results were OK, culminating in a #6 position (at the time) on hwbot for wprime 1024M, with this CPU.
It's worth going into a little more detail on the gains in GPU memory bandwidth with faster RAM. Going from 1600MHz to 2133MHz resulted in a 33% gain in GPU-Z's reported memory bandwidth, from 25.6GB/s to 34.1GB/s, and the difference is even greater (60%) if the baseline setup has 1333MHz RAM.
 
These numbers are peak theoretical numbers and as such aren't a guarantee of anything, but the following game tests reveal that it certainly helps.
Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs is a title with a chequered history. Originally developed by Activision as a sequel to True Crime: LA, it was cancelled, then sold to publisher Square Enix. An open world game, in the style of Grand Theft Auto but set in Hong Kong, there's plenty to enjoy about this release. Thankfully the developers included an in-game benchmark, divided into a few different environments.
In what will be a re-occurring trend, increasing memory frequency provides the most noticeable improvement to minimum frame rates. Combining other overclocked elements gradually helps performance as one might expect. The final air-cooled result of a minimum of 32fps (frames per second) is considered just above the 30fps minimum for an enjoyable experience; not too shabby considering there is no discrete GPU.
It's worth noting that the obsession with frame rates is generally a PC-specific concern; many console games run at 30fps and remain playable, it is a case of personal preference most of the time.
Hitman: Absolution
This title is a touch controversial amongst fans of the series, being somewhat more “accessible” (dumbed down, according to it's critics) than the past incarnations. Still, there aren't many alternatives in the semi stealth targeted assassination genre, to satisfy the sociopath in all of us. Developers IO Interactive were also good enough to include an internal benchmark, complete with pretty fireworks and a rather large crowd.
Boosting the RAM provides an instant 10% hike in minimum frame rates, and a big jump in the maximum frame rate, and performance scales gradually through combining overclocked components.
F1 2012
Codemasters acquired the license for Formula One games in 2009, and F1 2012 is the third iteration of the PC title, following on from the imaginatively titled F1 2010 and F1 2011. Codemasters have been developing their EGO rendering engine for a while now, and F1 2012 utilises version 2.0.
Testing began at 1280x720, as with the previous two titles, but the unexpectedly impressive performance justified raising the resolution to 1920x1080, and enabling 4x anti-aliasing.
The effect of the RAM OC is even more dramatic than the previous two tests, this time raising the minimum frame rate by 25%. By the time all the various overclocks are combined, performance is at a level that should satisfy the most picky of fluidity freaks, and at these settings the game looks gorgeous.
DiRT 3
Another one from Codemasters, and using the same EGO 2.0 engine, DiRT 3 continues the move away from the pure rallying experience of the Colin McRae series towards Rallycross and Ken Block-style gymkhana events.
Unsurprisingly, DiRT 3 performs quite similarly to F1 2012, but the lower number of vehicles in the benchmark (8, as opposed to 24) possibly contributes to the generally higher numbers. Whatever the technical explanation, the results are better than the already stellar performance of F1 2012.
Far Cry 3
Far Cry is a series that needs little introduction, having been a staple of PC first person shooters since the original was released in 2004. Developers Crytek left publisher Ubisoft for another giant, Electronic Arts, and took their Crytek engine with them to spawn another classic series Crysis. Consequently, Ubisoft handed over development to their Montreal office for Far Cry 2 and Far Cry 3.
This is the only title tested that required the use of FRAPS to record frame rates.
Another result where the game's rendering goes from choppy at stock settings, to pretty nice with a bit of effort. The combined OC minimum of 38fps, with an average of 48, is hard to criticise for this class of product.
Conclusion
Holy Trinity, or much APU about nothin'? The market for a quad core x86 chip that will game decently without purchasing a discrete GPU is pretty much Trinity or nothing, depending on how you define 'decently' (frame rates, game compatiblity, etc.).
Out of the box, the gaming performance of the A10-5800K platform is acceptable. With some fast RAM and a bit of time and effort, it begins to demand respect. The performance of F1 2012 and DiRT 3 is simply stunning for a single chip.
Gigabyte's F2A85X-UP4 is a solid offering, with a groovy UEFI interface and solid credentials.
Trinity is a watershed in computing history, scratching the surface of a revolution via the amalgamation of two distinctly powerful processing methods. One can only pause to imagine the future capabilities flowing from this stream of technology. Big talk, but time will tell.
Thanks to AMD and Gigabyte for providing review samples. Feel free to comment on this review in this thread.
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