AMD A10 7870K CPU Review – Welcoming Competition!

GAME STREAMING TEST

We tested streaming using OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) with the recommended settings for Twitch streaming, 1080p (downscaled to 720p) 30FPS. Our in-game settings remained the same at Medium at 1080P

We see much of what we saw last time round, the Intel hardware struggles to keep up with AMD’s hardware and the A10’s absolute minimum is just below 60FPS. this allows a great experience for those looking to do a bit of streaming running a less demanding title like Counter Strike

FRAME TIME VARIANCE

We’ll be measuring both the average frame time and the 99th percentile as well as the 99.9th percentile as well, which is essentially the worst results you can expect 99% of the time

INTEGRATED GRAPHICS TESTS

For our Integrated tests we choose to use very popular titles such as CS:GO, DOTA 2, Starcraft 2, Heroes Of The Storm as well as GTA V, which we added just to see how well it can handle a demanding game.

We also wanted to test League of Legends, but there being no built in recording system like DOTA or the other games in our suite, we had to pass. We will say it performs very similarly to DOTA 2, except at medium settings is about 20% less intensive, we would strongly recommend the APU there as well!

COUNTER STRIKE: GLOBAL OFFENSIVE 

The latest installment to the legendary competitive FPS series, CSGO is easily one of the most popular PC games to date. While it isn’t a very intensive game, we feel this is a game many people may want to run with integrated graphics.

We test at “Medium” settings at 1080P with MSAA off

As we saw last time, the AMD’s APUs really show off their graphics muscle in the games testing. Anyone looking to play Counter Strike: Global Offensive will be more than happy with the results posted here and with Freesync enabled the experience was absolutely fantastic.

DOTA 2

Rounding out our eSports titles is another game from Valve. Dota 2 is one of the most popular titles on PC played and watched by millions around the world.

We test using a pro replay of EG VS Vici Gaming we benchmark between 11:25 and 11:50 with a large hectic battle to showcase the game when it’s at its most demanding.

Looking at the graph above, our frame time variance shows that all of the CPUs struggle to keep from stuttering, although the A10 7870K performs best at these settings, we would recommend running it on low settings. Although this is a worst case scenario and playing a full game will get much closer to 50FPS average.

This round of testing at 720P shows much more playable numbers from the 7870K and 7650K, the i5 still trails behind by 100% in average and 1%, and 50% in minimum .01% against the stock clocks and even worse against the overclocked variant.

HEROES OF THE STORM

Yet again the A10 7870K tops out, besting the i5 by doubling the average frame rate, although the minimums are closer this time.

At 720P the numbers aren’t quite as different as in Dota 2, we do see a much better showing at the lower resolution. The i5 again almost gets beat by double the average frame rate and minimum 1% and .01%, you see the strength in the iGPU here. If you plan on playing this game and don’t have the budget for a dedicated GPU or want a small form factor system the choice is VERY clear here.