AMD Athlon X4 860K review @ pcpop

[inf64]

To me it looks like 1st review (I could find).
http://www.pcpop.com/doc/1/1039/1039026_all.shtml

They compare it to Pentium G anniversary edition, it does fairly well in modern (threaded workloads). Once OCed the difference would be lower but I'd still have somewhat weaker ST Performance than just 2 threads available for the same money.

They haven't done any OCing on it as far as I can tell but I guess one can expect on par with 7850K OCs, so 4.3-4.5Ghz should be doable on air.

It's worth noting that 860K apparently has full 4MB of L2 cache(just like full APU Kaveri parts) and not just 1MB per module like some websites initially reported.

PS Around the same clocks, my 750K (PD core) scores 15-20% lower than what pcpop got in those benchmarks(apps).

Edit:

Another one, dunno if reviews are related:
http://digi.takungpao.com/pc/jspc/2014-09/2727979.html

More tests in this one though, still reading it.

OK they OCed it to ~4.5Ghz just like I assumed. Pretty solid result.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Thanks for the links. Pretty much in-line what I expected. Some OC scaling tests would have been nice though...

 

[inf64]

Thanks for the links. Pretty much in-line what I expected. Some OC scaling tests would have been nice though...

Last page on the second link .

 

[frozentundra123456]

Looks decent, but would prefer a more complete test that doesnt have to be translated. The gaming was apparently gpu limited, so no different from the Pentium, and no frame time results either. It looked good in the cpu tests, but I assume all are multithreaded, since I am sure the pentium is faster in single threaded.

I would like to see a test of the 860k vs 750k vs pentium in more applications and gaming with frame time results as well.

Edit: Actually seems better than the 7850k results in that they dont lose clockspeed and if I read it correctly, overclocking is similar also.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Last page on the second link .

Sorry, don't speak a word of the lingo... :biggrin:

Thanks though.

(bonus point if you can figure out the reference... )

Edit: Actually seems better than the 7850k results in that they dont lose clockspeed and if I read it correctly, overclocking is similar also.

I'd expect the 860K to stay at maximum turbo longer, since it doesn't have that power hungry IGP onboard.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Google translates it for you. Mostly.

 

[inf64]

Sorry, don't speak a word of the lingo... :biggrin:

Thanks though.

(bonus point if you can figure out the reference... )



I'd expect the 860K to stay at maximum turbo longer, since it doesn't have that power hungry IGP onboard.

Long story short: around 15% more performance at 4.5GHz (due to effect of Turbo core @ stock clocks). Very good results I must say .

 

[AtenRa]

There was no way the Pentium could come close to 4T Athlon in MT loads.

Edit: Also, those two are not in the same price point.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Those are better results than I was expecting. I guess the previous Kaveri benchmarks were held back by the throttling. It is also nice that the previous reports about the cache for the 860k appear to be inaccurate. This seems like to be the best balanced chip for a budget gamer -- single threaded is just a bit slower than Intel, but multithreaded performance is very compelling.

 

[inf64]

The MT performance is close if not better than QC Phenom II (45nm) while ST is better. Power draw is much better so this is finally a worthy successor to 965BE for a fraction of its price. If only AMD had a 6T BE model we would have an i5 competitor there...

 

[AtenRa]

Does Memory at 2133MHz gives better results in Cinebench R15 or is it something else ??

 

[Kalessian]

What mid-to-high end motherboard would be good for this chip? (adequate power/phases for OC, xFire perhaps)

 

[AtenRa]

What mid-to-high end motherboard would be good for this chip? (adequate power/phases for OC, xFire perhaps)

Im using an ASUS A88XM-Plus and for the price its very good. The new ASUS Crossblade RANGER, MSI A88XM Gaming and A88X-G45 Gaming are looking exceptional and at a good price.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Those are better results than I was expecting. I guess the previous Kaveri benchmarks were held back by the throttling. It is also nice that the previous reports about the cache for the 860k appear to be inaccurate. This seems like to be the best balanced chip for a budget gamer -- single threaded is just a bit slower than Intel, but multithreaded performance is very compelling.

Lets not get carried away. According to the chart in post 11, single threaded performance of the i3 is almost 50% faster than the 860k. And the cpu performance of the pentium 3258 should be within about 10% of the i3, so it is still about 35% faster in single threaded. Even granted cinebench is an intel biased benchmark, the athlon will not reach the single or dual thread performance of the pentium, but will beat it in multithreaded, getting about i3 levels at a lower price.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Just goes to show that many Kaveri benchmarks have been tainted by throttling. Most, if not all of them should be redone with modified p-states to defeat throttling. Kaveri got a bum rap! Well, sort of. If only AMD hadn't configured it to throttle in the first place.

So here's the real question: How do these scores line up against a 5 ghz Richland?

 

[Abwx]

Cinebench is an unfavourable bench for Steamroller and generaly FP benches if they are not optimised, on integer tasks, the ones that interest most users, Intel ST advantage is 30-32%, this can be evaluated with integer benches :

http://www.pcpop.com/doc/1/1039/1039026_all.shtml

http://digi.takungpao.com/pc/jspc/2014-09/2727979.html

 

[Gikaseixas]

This is proof that Kaveri pays a price by having a powerful igpu, specially the A10 7850K. Unbalanced chip period but this little guy seems to be fairly potent

 

[AtenRa]

Kaveri throttles down its CPU only when the iGPU is being heavily used. In CPU only tasks and workloads i have never seen any sign of Throttling with the A10-7700K or the A10-7850K on the ASUS A88XM-Plus.
I believe the initial reviews got lower performance due to motherboards and not because of Throttling. I got a huge performance gain and lower consumption using the ASUS A88XM-Plus over the ASROCK FM2A88X-ITX+.
Have a look at the following Cinebench 11.5 slide, the A10-7700K scoring 2.61 is with the ASROCK FM2A88X-ITX+ at default clocks when the score jumps to 3,47 using the ASUS A88XM-Plus again at default clocks.

Edit: Also notice that A10-7700K at default clocks(3,4GHz base and 3,8GHz Turbo) is faster than A10-5800K at 4GHz using the same ASUS A88XM-Plus motherboard.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Kaveri throttles down its CPU only when the iGPU is being heavily used. In CPU only tasks and workloads i have never seen any sign of Throttling with the A10-7700K or the A10-7850K on the ASUS A88XM-Plus.

That's a lot of game and gaming synthetic benchmark hits for Kaveri, though. Such throttling should also occur on and CPU + GPU compute benchmark.

Edit: Also notice that A10-7700K at default clocks(3,4GHz base and 3,8GHz Turbo) is faster than A10-5800K at 4GHz using the same ASUS A88XM-Plus motherboard.

That leaves open the question of how long the 7700k was able to stay at full turbo. I'd still like to see 4.5 ghz 860k vs. 5 ghz 760k, no throttling, no turbo, etc. Estimates based on existing benchmarks indicate that they'd be about the same, which sort-of defeats the purpose of the 860k for overclockers.

 

[inf64]

That leaves open the question of how long the 7700k was able to stay at full turbo. I'd still like to see 4.5 ghz 860k vs. 5 ghz 760k, no throttling, no turbo, etc. Estimates based on existing benchmarks indicate that they'd be about the same, which sort-of defeats the purpose of the 860k for overclockers.

Except 5Ghz stable on air for 760K is a pipe dream... 4.5-4.6Ghz is doable but anything above that is very hard to achieve with high end air cooling. Investing more $ into cooling defeats the purpose of this(and other similarly priced) chips. 4.5Ghz 860K would beat 5Ghz PD in most stuff and consume way less power due to less heat (lower vcore bump required for 4.5Ghz clock, process node is a bit better under similar clocks/volts).

At ~4.5Ghz (when both are OCed), 860K would have a healthy lead over PD based 760K so it's a no brainer for those building a budget system.

 

[Yuriman]

A very respectable chip, will probably be my low-budget recommendation until something new comes out. I'd take this over a Pentium any day of the week.

 

[SPBHM]

it would be Interesting to see the 860K OC against the 4150 on a more complete test (including CPU bound gaming with a fast GPU), when I was checking the 7850K OC CPU tests I was not impressed, but it was mostly due to the absurd price, so the 860K could do well, since it's a lot cheaper

the g3258 is great for some games and emulators, but overall I would normally recommend paying the extra for the i3 because the MT performance does suffer with the loss of HT, just 2 thread, so the 860K seems like a good alternative (for all the rest, not pcsx2/dolphin, FSX or something)

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Lets not get carried away. According to the chart in post 11, single threaded performance of the i3 is almost 50% faster than the 860k. And the cpu performance of the pentium 3258 should be within about 10% of the i3, so it is still about 35% faster in single threaded. Even granted cinebench is an intel biased benchmark, the athlon will not reach the single or dual thread performance of the pentium, but will beat it in multithreaded, getting about i3 levels at a lower price.

I think you are jumping the gun on that. There are very few results with 860k in an overclocked state -- and an overclock would probably close a sizable gap in single threaded.... I don't see a 50% lead standing firm with a locked i3 versus an unlocked 860k.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I was only using the i3 to estimate the single thread performance of the Pentium, since the i3 is the only CPU that had a result for single thread cinebench. The Pentium would overclock to the same range as the athlon, so would still be faster in single or lightly threaded workloads.

 

[cbn]

Except 5Ghz stable on air for 760K is a pipe dream... 4.5-4.6Ghz is doable but anything above that is very hard to achieve with high end air cooling. Investing more $ into cooling defeats the purpose of this(and other similarly priced) chips. 4.5Ghz 860K would beat 5Ghz PD in most stuff and consume way less power due to less heat (lower vcore bump required for 4.5Ghz clock, process node is a bit better under similar clocks/volts).

At ~4.5Ghz (when both are OCed), 860K would have a healthy lead over PD based 760K so it's a no brainer for those building a budget system.

How fast do you think the average Athlon x4 860K will go on the stock cooler?