AMD A10-7870K Godavari APU Review

John Williamson / 8 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

Currently, the AMD A10-7870K APU is available from CCLComputers for £107.85 including free delivery. This a very attractive price when you consider the APU is an all-in-one solution which doesn’t require a discrete graphics card. Of course, a budget dedicated graphics solution such as the RX 460 or GTX 950 will dramatically enhance the gaming experience. However, even the cheapest graphics cards available today cost at least £75 and this is a major expense for someone with limited funds. In theory, you could opt for something like an FX 4350 and buy a used graphics card. On the other hand, this approach is more complicated and will likely cost more than the A10-7870K for something you’d want to own. Therefore, I believe the product offers great value.

Overview

Analysing an affordable APU requires a fair approach and ensuring it’s compared against products within a similar performance category. Throughout the review, I would have preferred to include more results from popular low-end CPUs like the Intel Pentium G3258. Unfortunately, this wasn’t possible due to sampling reasons and I’ve contacted Intel to try to secure a wider range of processors for the near future. Clearly, AMD has a significant advantage when it comes to iGPU performance unless you’re using a processor which utilises the Iris Pro 6200 or something similar. This usually has a cost associated with it and exemplifies the superb price to performance ratio on mainstream AMD solutions.

To be clear, the A10-7870K’s graphics segment isn’t a suitable replacement for a discrete graphics card and will probably disappoint if you have unrealistic expectations. However, when you consider the performance of competing chips and ability to play games via a single investment, the overall package is quite impressive. Furthermore, if you simply want to play casual games or eSport titles, the APU is ample for your requirements. On another note, it’s possible to increase the performance considerably alongside a supported graphics card such as the R7 250. During the review, this combination proved quite useful and games appeared to scale rather well. The chip’s support for Freesync is another highlight and allows you to enjoy a gaming experience without screen tearing. Although, stutter will emerge when tackling more demanding titles due to a lack of GPU horsepower.

As expected, the A10-7870K isn’t overly adept in single-threaded workloads and reports average performance numbers. Saying that, the multi-threaded numbers are good for the price point. Overclocking the product is a simple process and it’s not too difficult to exceed 4.4GHz. On the sample I received, 4.5GHz was perfectly stable although the voltage requirement could have to be lower. Of course, you may be able to achieve 4.6GHz or even 4.7GHz with a similar voltage reading due to the silicon lottery. Once overclocked, the APU achieved pretty decent gains, especially in heavy tasks like video encoding.

When you consider, the A10-7870K is under £110 and fulfills the mainstream customer’s needs in CPU tasks while being decent for light games, it’s hard to argue with the performance figures. Granted, Zen is on the horizon and the FM2+ socket has limitations such as DDR3 memory and no M.2 support. I actually think the FM2+ socket is a major selling point because some people haven’t got the money to invest in a new platform and simply want a product which slots into an existing motherboard. This means it’s a great solution for people who experienced a hardware failure and need a quick replacement outside of the warranty period. Also, the A10-7870K is a versatile, affordable APU and doesn’t cost much more than the A10-7850K based on today’s market value.

Pros

Affordable all-in-one solution for basic gaming needs
Decent multi-threaded performance on a budget
Excellent packaging
FM2+ socket provides a painless upgrade path for many users
Impressive performance gains when Crossfired with the R7 250
Only £5.67 more than the A10-7850K
Overclocking process is really easy
Respectable power consumption
Supports Freesync

Cons

Single-threaded performance is lacking

“The AMD A10-7870K is a fantastic product for users on a tight budget who struggle to afford a discrete graphics card. In particular, the APU’s ability to play competitive titles at modest settings while performing adequately during mainstream CPU workloads makes it a compelling choice.”

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