AMD A10-7800 Review

Memory bandwidth in SiSoft Sandra

SiSoftware Sandra provides a robust package of diagnostic tools for testing your system and teasing out its problems–or potential headaches.

This download launches a cheerfully designed interface with an array of colorful–one might even say sprightly–icons for each of its tools. Its arrangement of tools was nicely categorized for the user's benefit: Computer Maintenance, Module Types (Benchmarks, Hardware, Software, Support), and Program Maintenance. Across the top of the window are tabs for each category that match the icons, and each tab provides access to a set of focused tools. We were very pleased with SiSoftware Sandra's performance during our tests. We liked that we could choose from a thorough list of options of items for tests–less robust packages simply run their diagnostics without informing the user just what is getting tested or how. Novices may be in the dark about some of the particulars listed by the app's option boxes, but experienced users will appreciate the thoroughness. Thanks to these option lists, we were able to pinpoint devices, peripherals, and processes for testing; we didn't have to wait for the tool to run a complete test through our entire system. We also liked the benchmarking and reporting features, which are required for anyone interested in comparing performance over time or developing trending reports.

For those running SiSoftware Sandra from a server for network diagnostics, the 75-module limit for the trial version may seem inadequate. However, the price is nice for the robust feature set provided by this toolbox.

The obvious thing is that the bandwidth increases from 13.47 GB/sec with the A10-7800 running memory at 1866MHz through to 15.63GB/sec with the A10-7850K at the maximum AMP speed of 2400MHz.

There is one exception to the rule that faster memory speed delivers more bandwidth as the A10-7800 only gave 9.2GB/sec with the TDP set to 45W. This apparent drop in bandwidth didn't affect other benchmark tests so it might be a problem with the Beta MSI BIOS or could be a consequence of the drop in CPU speed when the power is throttled back.

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