2010 onwards we saw a slow fusion of the traditional CPU and the GPU, which AMD decided to call an APU, or an “Accelerated Processing Unit”. Intel doesn’t use the APU moniker, even though its recent CPUs have all qualified for the title.
In 2006, the purchase of ATI Technologies by AMD — the Sunnyvale-based company — decided that its future would be in the fusion of GPU and CPU. “Future is Fusion” was AMD’s marketing slogan. Interestingly, both AMD and Intel released their first APUs in 2010.
AMD has been pushing its APUs as the future of computing and talked about the benefits of technologies like OpenCL that can significantly improve application performance via hardware acceleration or the fact that APUs are great playing games.
But how do you know if AMD’s APUs are worth it?
If you use your computer to do light multi-tasking, word processing, play a few simple games etc., then chances are that you don’t need a lot of GPU power. Even a simple Pentium or Core i3 would be perfect. They’re low power, quick and have a pretty decent GPU for non-graphically intensive work.
If you need more CPU power but relatively low GPU power, Intel’s i5s and i7s are still a better choice, or from AMD’s lineage, the FX-8350 is great at highly parallel workloads, often out-pacing the more expensive i7-3770K.
Same logic applies to laptops — you don’t need a graphics card with 2GB RAM to edit a few lines in MS Word or to check your mail. Intel’s HD Graphics will do.
If you’re a gamer, then there things can be confusing. If you must-not-spend-any-money-at-all-because-games-and-Indians-think-games-are-for-kids-duh, then an APU might work for you, but usually only the highest end APU will cut it, currently the A10-6800K.
With mobile gaming, an APU may make sense, if your budget isn’t too much, or if you prefer gaming while not being plugged to the wall. So a laptop with an APU should make for a decent gaming platform, but as always, have realistic expectations. For a dedicated gaming laptop, discrete CPU + discrete GPU will always make more sense.