Introduction
Amd A10 7870k Dual Graphics Compatibility Graphics
The best Discrete Graphics Card which can used in Dual Graphics with the A10-7870k is the R7 250. The thing to remember about Dual Graphics (and CrossFire) is that both GPU's have to be running at the same speed for it to work correctly. This means that both cards will only be able to utilize the running power of the lowest end card. Radeon R7 7870K is an integrated Graphics Card in the APU A10-7870K. It is based on the Graphics Core Next Architecture and offers 512 Shader Processing Units, 32 TMUs and 8 ROPs.
Drum pads 24 for mac. AMD launched the A10-7870K last year but now it comes bundled with the new near-silent Thermal Solution that's designed to handle TDPs of up to 125 watts. The A10-7870K is identical to the A10-7890K in terms of core counts and TDP but it is clocked 200MHz lower. The base frequency of the A10-7870K is 3.9Ghz and boosts up to 4.1Ghz which makes it the second fastest AMD desktop APU to date. Its got four CPU processing cores and an integrated Radeon R7 GPU clocked at 866Mhz. I have already reviewed the A10-7890K and found it to offer fantastic performance for entry level gaming. You can find the A10-7870K for $140 and the A10-7890K for around $150 on Amazon.
I want to quickly mention that back in February AMD announced the A10-7860K APU that aims to replace the A10-7850K. The A10-7860K is an interesting processor because it has a 65W TDP, full A10 four steamroller cores and 8 GCN Cores with 512 Stream Processors and this makes the A10-7860K the most efficient AMD APU released.
Moving on, the A10-7870K is an unlocked quad-core Kaveri APU with 512 stream processors, 4MB of L2 cache and a 95W thermal design power. Like the A10-7890K, the A10-7870K is also aimed at budget users who play a lot of entry level games and don't really need discrete graphics. Graphics is AMD's big advantage against Intel so you can pair the A10-7870K with a cheap discrete video card such as the R7-250 and run it in CrossFire mode and not only it will be cheaper but the performance will be faster than a system with an Intel i7 5775C without a discrete video card.
The near-silent thermal solution cooler that ships with the A10-7870K is basically the same as the Wraith Cooler that ships with the flagship A10-7890K and FX-8370/50. The difference is that the near-silent thermal solution cooler lacks the plastic shroud and LED AMD logo of the Wraith. You can read my review of the Wraith Cooler if you want to get an idea of the cooling and noise performance.
Comparison
AMD APU Processors Lineup | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Model: | AMD A10-7890K | AMD A10-7870K | AMD A10-7860K | AMD A8-7670K | AMD A8-7650K | ||
Graphics: | Radeon R7 Series | Radeon R7 Series | Radeon R7 Series | Radeon R7 Series | Radeon R7 Series | ||
GPU Clock Speed: | 866 MHz | 866 MHz | 757 MHz | 757 MHz | 720 MHz | ||
CPU Codename: | Godavari | Kaveri | Godavari | Kaveri | Kaveri | ||
Cores / Threads: | 4/4 | 4/4 | 4/4 | 4/4 | 4/4 | ||
Core Clock: | 4.1 GHz | 3.9 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 3.3 GHz | ||
Boost Clock: | 4.3 Ghz | 4.1 GHz | 4.0 Ghz | 3.9 GHz | 3.8 GHz | ||
L2 Cache: | 4MB | 4MB | 4MB | 4MB | 4MB | ||
L3 Cache: | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
TDP: | 95W | 95W | 65W | 95W | 95W | ||
Socket Support: | FM2+ | FM2+ | FM2+ | FM2+ | FM2+ |
The FM2+ socket is nearing the end of its life and AMD's AM4 platform is not expected to arrive till end of this year or early next year. The AM4 socket will become the only socket needed for any AMD Zen processor and it will replace AM1/AM3+/FM2+ sockets. This will make for a clear and easy upgrade paths from entry level to high end hardware.
Test Setup & Power Consumption
Test Setup | |
---|---|
Processor: | AMD Athlon X4 845 AMD Athlon X4 880K AMD A10-7890K AMD A10-7870K AMD FX-6350 Intel Pentium G4400 Intel Core i3-6100 |
Motherboard: | ASRock A88M-G/3.1 MSI H110M Pro-VD |
RAM: | Kingston HyperX 8GB DDR3 2133Mhz G.SKILL Ripjaws 8GB DDR4 2133Mhz |
Graphics Card: | Integrated GPU/Sapphire R9 390X |
Storage: | Samsung 840 Pro 256GB |
Power Supply: | Antec HCP 850W |
Case: | Corsair 750D |
OS: | Windows 8.1 64Bit |
Thermal Compound: | Noctua NT-H1 |
Heatsinks: | AMD Stock Cooler Intel Stock Cooler |
I have prepared a number of different synthetic benchmarks and game benchmarks for the A10-7870K APU. Testing will be conducted by comparing the A10-7870K against the Core i3-6100. The i3-6100 retails for $120 while the A10-7870K retails for $140 so the Core i3-6100 is $20 cheaper depending where you look. Both are popular among users who are on a tight budget that just want to build a dirt cheap gaming rig.
The integrated GPU will be used in the gaming benchmarks. We will be comparing the iGPU in the A10-7890K/7870K against Intel's HD 530 graphics to see who offers the best gaming performance.
Synthetic Benchmarks:
+ CineBench R15
+ 7-Zip Ultra Compression
+ GeekBench 3
+ 3DMark Fire Strike
Gaming Benchmarks:
+ World of Tanks
+ Counter-Strike Global Offensive
+ F1 2015
+ DOTA 2
+ World of Warcraft
+ Battlefield 4
+ Witcher 3
+ Tomb Raider 2013
+ GTA V
All of the testing is done with an ambient temperature of ~19C. CPU-Z will be used to verify the CPU speed and the voltage being used in Windows 8.1. Also, the CPUs are tested with the default settings (Turbo, C1E etc) enabled in the BIOS.
Synthetic Benchmarks:
+ CineBench R15
+ 7-Zip Ultra Compression
+ GeekBench 3
+ 3DMark Fire Strike
Gaming Benchmarks:
+ World of Tanks
+ Counter-Strike Global Offensive
+ F1 2015
+ DOTA 2
+ World of Warcraft
+ Battlefield 4
+ Witcher 3
+ Tomb Raider 2013
+ GTA V
All of the testing is done with an ambient temperature of ~19C. CPU-Z will be used to verify the CPU speed and the voltage being used in Windows 8.1. Also, the CPUs are tested with the default settings (Turbo, C1E etc) enabled in the BIOS.
Idle power consumption of the entire computer will be measured after leaving the computer idle for 20 minutes. Load power consumption of the entire computer will be measured after playing Counter-Strike GO on max settings at 1080P for 20 minutes. I want to make it clear that the power consumption measurements will differ per computer and components from my measurements if you add optical drives, HDDs etc.
In idle state, the i3-6100 draws 27 watts while the A10-7870K draws 35 watts. When playing CS:GO, the i3-6100 draws 66 watts and the A10-7870K draws 91 watts.
CPU Performance Results
Cinebench R15 is the perfect benchmarking tool for comparing CPU performance across various systems and platforms. Looking at the chart above, we can see that the A10-7870K offers decent single and multi core performance but the i3-6100 clearly wins this test. I'm amazed at how great the X4 845 is. Despite being clocked lower and having only 2MB of L2 cache, it performs almost on par with A10-7890K/7870K and X4-880K.
The Core i3-6100 was able to finish this test in under 10 minutes with the A10-7890K/7870K coming in at 12 minutes.
Geekbench 3 is a benchmarking software for processors that separates single-core and multi-core performance. Geekbench 3 shows the i3-6100 winning in both single and multi-core performance. The A10-7870K performed relatively the same as the X4-845 and A10-7890K.
Here we see the core i3-6100 coming in on top with 6391 points and the A10-7870K with 4758 points.
AMD A10-7870K In Gaming
![Amd a10 vs intel i5 Amd a10 vs intel i5](/uploads/1/1/8/1/118129108/700384944.jpg)
World of Tanks is a free-to-play tank shooter game that is based on war conflicts from the mid-20th century. This game is not too demanding so we set it to 720P with medium settings. The i3-6100 struggled a lot and couldn't manage to deliver a playable gaming experience. On average, both AMD's APUs were able to deliver more than 40fps which makes the game playable.
With the fast-paced nature of CS:GO, you need a video card that can deliver 60fps at all times. Intel's i3-6100 wasn't able to deliver 60fps on average. The A10-7890K/7870K performed much better and had no trouble maintaining above 70fps.
Moving on to F1 2015 benchmark, the i3-6100 fell behind while the A10-7890K/7870K did much better.
Some settings were turned to low in DOTA 2. DOTA 2 relies heavily on the GPU so once again we see AMD's APUs performing much better than Intel's i3-6100.
The minimum FPS was about the same on all three processors but AMD's APUs delivered about 5-6fps higher on average.
BF4 is another GPU intensive game so here we see the A10-7890K/7870K beating the i3-6100 again.
The A10-7890K/7870K destroyed Intel's HD530/i3-6100 in Witcher 3. The i3-6100 stuttered a lot and the game was beyond unplayable.
Most of the settings in Tomb Raider 2013 were turned to medium with some to low. The game was somewhat playable with Intel's HD530/i3-6100 but it still didn't perform as good as the A10-7890K/7870K.
In GTA V, AMD's APUs performed similarly the same delivering above 55fps on average while the i3-6100 maintained around 40fps. Overall, the A10-7870K performed much better than the i3-6100 in all the games that I tested so if gaming is your top priority then the A10-7890K/7870K might be what you need.
Value & Conclusion
Since I have already reviewed the A10-7890K, this conclusion page will be similar to what I wrote about the A10-7890K. At $140, the A10-7870K isn't expensive and it offers a great gaming experience at 720P and it can certainly play most games at 1080P with some settings turned down. Not needing to purchase a discrete video card to play entry level games at playable fps is what sets the A10-7870K apart from the Core i3-6100. The A10-7870K is also plenty fast for everyday usage like browsing the Internet and office applications and it can certainly handle all the Adobe applications (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc) with little effort.
If you want to build a cheap HTPC then the A10-7870K might be perfect for you. HTPCs don’t require much processing power so the A10-7870K hits a sweet spot between price and performance. As you saw on the previous page, the A10-7870K beat Intel's HD 530/i3-6100 in all the games that I tested and it wasn't even close. The A10-7870K's iGPU can handle most games at medium settings just fine and the CPU performance is decent.
The bundled near-silent thermal solution cooler keeps the APU nice and cool at all times. It provides plenty of headroom for overclocking so you can easily push the A10-7870K to 4.3Ghz+. The A10-7870K supports dual graphics so you can pair it with the R7 250 for the best gaming experience. What you have to keep in mind when running dual graphics is that both video cards have to be running at the same speed otherwise it won't work properly.
Pros:
+ Dual Graphics Support
+ Low Power Consumption
+ Affordable Platform Price
+ Fantastic Gaming Performance
+ Silent Stock Cooler
Cons:
- Slow Single-Core Performance
- No Upgradeable Path
Pros:
+ Dual Graphics Support
+ Low Power Consumption
+ Affordable Platform Price
+ Fantastic Gaming Performance
+ Silent Stock Cooler
Cons:
- Slow Single-Core Performance
- No Upgradeable Path
Overall, if you are a gamer on a budget that mostly plays entry level games then the A10-7870K APU is perfect for you. It can easily handle entry level games such as DOTA2, CS:GO or WoW at 1080P on high settings. Paragon disk wiper 15 for mac os x free. The FM2+ platform is affordable and is great for users who are on a tight budget that just want to build a nice cheap gaming machine. Intel is still behind AMD in the graphics department so if gaming is your priority then get the A10-7870K.
Amd A10 Processor Comparison
Final Score 9.0
After an extended period of hardware silence, AMD has recently made its resurgence with updated GPU and CPU lines. The Radeon 300 series refreshed the existing R200 lineup, followed shortly by the architecturally revamped Fiji GPU on the Fury X; we've reviewed both of these launches (R9 390 & 380 review / Fury X review). Back in May, we also posted about the company's promised Kaveri refresh – the A10-7870K – and its market positioning.
Today we're reviewing that APU.
The A10-7870K APU is built on the Kaveri architecture and refreshes the A10-7850K, mostly by way of small frequency boosts to the CPU and GPU. This AMD A10-7870K review compares the APU against budget CPU + GPU purchases – like the G3258 – and Intel's own HD 4000 series IGPs.
AMD's A10-7870K is priced at $150 at most retailers. Note that, at the time of this review, Amazon is selling the A10-7870K for $122 as a “daily deal.” Pricing will return to $150 once the day has concluded.
We understand that AMD's market positioning and target may differ in Asiatic countries. This review strictly looks at the product from a US / Western perspective, where the price structure of competing and ancillary products is more familiar.
AMD A10-7870K Specs
A10-7870K | A10-7850K | A10-7700K | |
COMPUTE Cores | 4 CPU + 8 GPU | 4 CPU + 8 GPU | 4 CPU + 6 GPU |
Frequency | 4.1 / 3.9GHz | 4 / 3.7GHz | 3.8 / 3.4GHz |
L2 Cache | 4MB | 4MB | 4MB |
GPU Frequency | 866MHz | 720MHz | 720MHz |
Feature Support | Dx12, HSA, FreeSync, Unlocked | Dx12, HSA, FreeSync, Unlocked | Dx12, HSA, FreeSync, Unlocked |
Changes from the A10-7850K
The A10-7870K reflects similar feelings to the R300 refresh. It's not a new architecture, but there are some small changes instituted to the existing platform. As with the R300 vs. Kings road cheat engine hack pastebin. R200 references, we would consider the 7870K a “refresh” to the 7850K; that is, it's not a true “rebadge” – the selling of an existing product under a new name – but isn't entirely new, either. There is no inherent flaw with refreshing a product as long as the new price and feature updates reflect progress. Most companies, even non-electrical manufacturers (like those who make cases and coolers), will refresh products between cycles.
AMD's 7870K has increased the CPU frequency from 4GHz / 3.7GHz (turbo / standard) on the 7850K to 4.1GHz / 3.9GHz (turbo / standard) on the 7870K; that's a 0.2GHz pre-overclock. The GPU frequency is slightly more noteworthy, increasing from 720MHz to 866MHz. The rest is the same – Dx12, HSA, and FreeSync are all supported on both the 7850K and 7870K. The 7870K still hosts 4 CPU and 8 GPU cores.
AMD's Kaveri platform hosts Steamroller, for those who recall the now-aging Bulldozer / Piledriver / Steamroller nomenclature. The architecture remains heavy on COMPUTE and arithmetic (integer) processing. Steamroller drove IPC performance more heavily than its power-focused predecessor, Piledriver. Kaveri hosts 2.41B transistors on a 245mm^2 physical die package, using 28nm manufacturing process.
Kaveri's programming model allows developers to tap into its heterogeneous system architecture (HSA) for more equal loading of the coupled CPU and GPU components. The CPU and GPU are able to jointly access most sets of data in the same memory locations, theoretically allowing for co-processing in a fashion that accelerates applications. This is something that must be optimized for in the codebase and is not necessarily a “free” performance improvement.
Test Methodology
We tested using our updated 2015 GPU test bench, detailed in the table below. Our thanks to supporting hardware vendors for supplying some of the test components.
The latest AMD Catalyst drivers (15.7.1) were used for testing. NVidia's 353.62 drivers were used for testing. Game settings were manually controlled for the DUT.
Testing was split between CPU bottleneck analysis and IGP benchmarks. To test at what point the CPU bottlenecks a high-end GPU, we equipped all platforms with a GTX 980 Ti and performed tests using the following settings:
A10 7870k Overclock
- Metro: Last Light - Very High w/ high tessellation.
- GRID: Autosport - Ultra, 4xMSAA.
- Shadow of Mordor - Ultra preset.
- GTA V - Very High / High.
- GTA V - Very High / High with Advanced Graphics (to find bottlenecks).
- FireStrike (normal).
IGP testing was performed with a lower-end set of games due to limitations on the on-die GPU:
- CSGO - High / Very High with AA disabled.
- GRID: Autosport - Medium.
- DOTA2 - Medium on the sliders, other settings as below.
- GTA V - Lowest (normal).
- FireStrike (normal) for physics.
All tests had the resolution set to 1080p.
Each game was tested for 30 seconds in an identical scenario, then repeated three times for parity.
Average FPS, 1% low, and 0.1% low times are measured. We do not measure maximum or minimum FPS results as we consider these numbers to be pure outliers. Instead, we take an average of the lowest 1% of results (1% low) to show real-world, noticeable dips; we then take an average of the lowest 0.1% of results for severe spikes. Anti-Aliasing was disabled in all tests except GRID: Autosport, which looks significantly better with its default 4xMSAA. HairWorks was disabled where prevalent. Manufacturer-specific technologies were used when present (CHS, PCSS).
Here is the Intel test bench:
GN Test Bench 2015 | Name | Courtesy Of | Cost |
Video Card | GTX 980 Ti R7 250X | NVIDIA AMD | - |
CPU | Intel i7-4790K CPU Intel i5-4690K CPU Intel i3-4160 CPU Intel G3258 CPU | CyberPower GamersNexus GamersNexus GamersNexus | - |
Memory | 16GB 2133MHz HyperX Savage RAM | Kingston Tech. | $300 |
Motherboard | Gigabyte Z97X Gaming G1 | GamersNexus | $285 |
Power Supply | NZXT 1200W HALE90 V2 | NZXT | $300 |
SSD | HyperX Predator PCI-e SSD | Kingston Tech. | TBD |
Case | Top Deck Tech Station | GamersNexus | $250 |
CPU Cooler | Be Quiet! Dark Rock 3 | Be Quiet! | ~$60 |
A10 7870k Amd
And the AMD bench:
GN Test Bench 2015 | Name | Courtesy Of | Cost |
Video Card | GTX 980 Ti R7 250X | NVIDIA AMD | - |
CPU | AMD A10-7870K AMD Athlon X4 760K | AMD GamersNexus | - |
Memory | 16GB 2133MHz HyperX Savage RAM | Kingston Tech. | - |
Motherboard | ASUS A88X-PRO | GamersNexus | $285 |
Power Supply | NZXT 1200W HALE90 V2 | NZXT | $300 |
SSD | HyperX Savage SSD | Kingston Tech. | TBD |
Case | Top Deck Tech Station | GamersNexus | $250 |
CPU Cooler | Be Quiet! Dark Rock 3 | Be Quiet! | ~$60 |
Amd A10 7870k Dual Graphics Compatibility Nvidia
Continue to page 2 for the benchmark results!