Performance
The performance of the Biostar A68N-5000 has been measured using popular benchmarks. The tests are based mainly on APU processing power and storage bandwidth. Due to the low graphics performance I have not been focusing on games as this product is not designed for gamers.
The test platform also includes a 2x4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3-2400 CL11 1.65V memory kit and a Plextor M5P 128GB SATAIII SSD.
The Biostar A68N-5000 has no overclocking options in BIOS/UEFI. The memory clock has been set to 1600 CL9-9-9-27 CR1 1.50v which is also the highest memory clock possible on this platform.
Overall Performance
The overall performance has been tested using Futuremark PCMark8 Home and Creative presets using accelerated mode which is using full power or our platform.
The Home preset is testing our computer in daily basic operations like writing, photo editing, casual gaming and video chat. Except for maybe the casual gaming test all other tests passed without problems. Gaming is not the strong point of this APU and 12.5 FPS will be for sure too low to enjoy games.
The performance should still be satisfying for the less demanding users who are using their computer for browsing the web, writing, and photo editing or using video chat.
The Creative preset is using the more advanced tests, but even here Biostar A68N-5000 is performing pretty well. Again we have to exclude any games as the HD8330 graphics performance is not the strong point of the A4-5000 APU. Some calculations may take some more time than on regular desktop computers but all those who can wait couple of seconds more can use this platform for nearly everything.
Storage Performance SATA and USB 3.0
The Storage performance has been checked using popular benchmarks like CrystalDiskMark and ATTO Disk Benchmark so that all of you readers can easily compare results on your computers.
Both results are showing the good performance of the SATA controller. As we see, the maximum bandwidth in tests was near the maximum declared by manufacturer. The Plextor M5P Pro 128GB is offering maximum transfers of 540MB/s read and 330MB/s write. In both categories the results were about 5MB/s short which are about the same as on most high performance desktop computers.
USB 3.0 tests were performed on two fast USB 3.0 flash drives from Kingston and Lexar. In both cases we could see much above 220MB/s maximum bandwidth what is about the same as we can see on the fastest full ATX size motherboards. Results on a Kingston HyperX 64GB flash drive in ATTO Disk Benchmark we can see below:
Graphics and APU Performance
As we already have seen in PCMark8, the graphics performance is not high, but the HD8330 which resides inside the A4-5000 APU has almost all of the features that we can find in the highest AMD graphics cards series.
Cinebench R15
As we can see, the A68N-5000 had no problems passing this test but the results are not very high. Still, if we have time then it is not a problem to use any rendering software on this little APU.
Futuremark 3DMark
The BIOSTAR A68-N-5000 is not a gaming platform but I have decided to show a couple of 3D tests based on the latest Futuremark benchmark – 3DMark (2013).
The Ice Storm test which is designed for entry level PCs is working pretty well. However it is hard to compare it to any newer games and I can say that it is as demanding as last decade’s DX9 games. The Cloud Gate test is the test designed for home PCs and here is where we start to run into problems. For most of the time we can see about 10 FPS what is too low to enjoy any game. I decided to stop testing during the Sky Diver test which is already too demanding for the A4-5000/HD8330 and the average FPS dropped to about 5. The general results are still good considering what platform we were using for all of the 3D tests.
