AMD A8-3870K CPU Review - PAGE 1

AMD has recently released a few new APUs across all markets bearing speed jumps compared to the original offerings. There is more than just speed increases in the desktop segment, however; enthusiasts will be pleased to learn that AMD just introduced unlocked SKUs, much like the FX series or the Black Edition Phenom IIs.

AMD has decided to make use of the same naming scheme as Intel, that is adding a 'K' after the model name. Additionally, the two unlocked parts consist of the top performer as well as a cheaper alternative; the A8-3870K overtakes the A8-3850 at 3GHz, whereas the A6-3670K is slightly more affordable but toned down at 2.7GHz on its four x86 cores and with 80 Radeon cores disabled. The top performing A8-3870K APU will be tested thoroughly in this article.

Specifications are courtesy of AMD.

Physically, the A8-3870K is exactly the same as the other FM1 offerings, outside of the writing on the lid. There is of course a new OPN for it:

The AMD processors are meant to be great bang-for-the-buck offerings. It's now time to analyze what is being offered in terms of x86 processors on the market, as was done in previous reviews focusing on 100MHz bumps in the Athlon II and Phenom II lineups. It is important to note here that all Core 2 and Clarkdale offerings have been ignored, as they aren't competitive anymore with the newer offerings from the same manufacturer. Also, all processors listed here are the retail versions, and the table is limited to processors from AMD costing $150 and less.

Prices come from Newegg.com, in date of 12/01/15.

Starting at the top of the list, AMD does not offer anything between $150 and $200 price ranges. AMD does have three offerings sitting at $150, but they are not APUs. At the upper pricing levels, Intel offers dual-cores that promise a much better single-thread performance, but hexa-cores will have the lead in applications that exploit them properly. The X4 975 and FX-6100 also have the advantage of being unlocked, unlike the Intel Sandy Bridge offerings which can only be overclocked by a few mere MHz. If a powerful IGP is desired in that price range, the A8 APUs simply crush the competition, even the oddly-numbered offerings which feature the HD 3000. In fact, the latter is better paired with the lower-end IGPs such as the HD6530D performance wise, although they lack many features such as DX11. In the $110 price range, AMD offers two decent quad-cores with large caches which also compete against an Intel dual-core. Games generally make use of four threads now, so this shouldn't be a tough choice.

However, it is clear that the Pentium G8xx series are going to perform better than the Athlon II offerings, which generally do not score well in gaming due to their small cache. Furthermore, their TDP is much lower. Below $80, the IGP performance seriously begins to suffer, so it shouldn't be a factor anymore. As for the x86 performance, the Pentium G6xx and Celeron G5xx series are also stomping the A4s and low-end Athlon IIs.