AMD Kabini AM1 Athlon 5350 APU (FS1b) Review

Gaming Performance

720p “Desktop” Gaming

We’ve had a run around in six games, all of which are graphically intensive and well respected titles. We selected our in-game settings, which you can see more of on the testing methods page, based on what would give realistic playable frame rates, or meet a minimum standard of graphically quality.

In most games we can see the Athlon 5350 just isn’t cut out for 720p even with low detail settings. Only Sleeping Dogs and Batman Arkham Origins offered reasonably playable experiences. Battlefield 4 had periods that were like a flick-book (sub 10 FPS) and others that were reasonably smooth (25 FPS+). Most of the current DX11 games will struggle unless you can find a way to minimise GPU resource demand.

 1080p “Casual” Gaming

While traditional desktop games are important, a lot of people have moved towards more casual desktop games that are a lot easier to run. These often “indie” titles have ties to mobile, notebook and android games more than desktop games.

If we look at more “casual” games we can see that at full 1080p with maximum settings we easily get 60 FPS +. This suggests that the Athlon 5350 is better suited for the light home user, not so much the power user.