I have the following:

Processor: AMD A10-5800K APU with AMD Radeon HD 7660D
http://shop.amd.com/us/All/Detail/Processor/AD580KWOHJBOX

Mainboard: Asus A55BM-Plus
http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/A55BMPLUSCSM/

Video Card: Nvidia Geforce Galaxy GT610 GC 2GB DDR3 64bit
EN_GB/Product2/ProductDetail?proID=30

I have not added the video card to the desktop since this processor has discrete GPU technology built in and the board has GPU boost when using an AMD A Series processor.

Should I add the video card? I would love to hear what people more knowledgeable than me on the subject have to offer.

Thanks in advance,
SysopChris.

Dani AI

Generated

Short answer: the GT610 (DDR3) is an entry‑level card and in many real‑world cases will not give a noticeable gaming boost over the A10’s integrated Radeon 7660D. was right that the APU’s iGPU is surprisingly capable for light gaming; ’s suggestion to use a dedicated CPU is directionally correct if the plan is a stronger discrete GPU, but the FX series he named uses AM3+ and will not fit the A55/FM2 board in this thread. The Athlon X4 760K is FM2 and would work on the existing board if the iGPU is intentionally being abandoned.

Clarification about the “GPU Boost” BIOS option: that feature is for overclocking the APU’s integrated graphics. When a PCIe graphics card is installed, most boards will default to PCIe as the primary adapter; setting Primary Display/Initiate to PCIe (PEG) in BIOS and disabling the iGPU is the cleanest setup to avoid driver/driver‑memory sharing issues. Leaving GPU Boost enabled only affects the iGPU and is unnecessary when running a discrete card.

A concise before/after test plan (keep all other variables identical):

  • record OS, BIOS revision, and current driver versions;
  • benchmark the iGPU (three runs) with a lightweight synthetic and one real‑game/benchmark; log avg/min FPS, CPU/GPU usage and temps;
  • shut down, install the GT610, connect the monitor to the card, set BIOS to PCIe primary, install Nvidia drivers cleanly, then repeat the same tests (three runs each);
  • compare avg/min FPS, utilization, and temperatures to see where the bottleneck lies.

Practical takeaway: if the goal is genuine gaming improvement, selling/parking the GT610 and putting the budget toward a stronger discrete GPU will yield far better results than swapping to an Athlon solely to use the GT610. If Nvidia‑only features (CUDA, specific PhysX uses, or extra display outputs) are required, the GT610 can serve that role but should not be expected to outperform the APU’s iGPU for general gaming.

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Adding a video card will certainly improve the overall graphics performance. But the A10-5800K leaves you with a processor that has the ability to process both system and graphics. Add the GT610 for sure, but consider switching your A10 to an AMD FX series processor, which is a dedicated CPU; that will ensure you are getting the most performance from your system.

The AMD 7660 is a very capable chip set. Myself, I prefer the nVidia gear, but it may be overkill for your needs unless you have some requirements for the nVidia GPU math co-processor acceleration for scientific/engineering purposes.

Thanks for the info. Before I put the card in I wonder if you can suggest a good free benchmarking tool I can use for a before/after test?

There is a GPU boos switch on the mainboard and GPU boost settings in the BIOS. Do I need to turn theese off when I start using the Geforce card? Here's what the box says.
"Exclusive GPU Boost is able to unlock anu APU for overclocking integrated graphics. Even non-Black Edition APU's can be boosted up to 30%"
Is this only for processors with Discrete GPU technology built-in?

If it helps I will attach my dxdiag.txt results and Belarc results here.

Thanks again for taking the time to help,
Chris.

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