The Kaveri Refresh 'Godavari' Review: Testing AMD's A10-7870K
by Ian Cutress on June 1, 2015 11:59 AM ESTProfessional Performance: Windows
Agisoft Photoscan – 2D to 3D Image Manipulation: link
Agisoft Photoscan creates 3D models from 2D images, a process which is very computationally expensive. The algorithm is split into four distinct phases, and different phases of the model reconstruction require either fast memory, fast IPC, more cores, or even OpenCL compute devices to hand. Agisoft supplied us with a special version of the software to script the process, where we take 50 images of a stately home and convert it into a medium quality model. This benchmark typically takes around 15-20 minutes on a high end PC on the CPU alone, with GPUs reducing the time.
Cinebench R15
Cinebench is a benchmark based around Cinema 4D, and is fairly well known among enthusiasts for stressing the CPU for a provided workload. Results are given as a score, where higher is better.
HandBrake v0.9.9: link
For HandBrake, we take two videos (a 2h20 640x266 DVD rip and a 10min double UHD 3840x4320 animation short) and convert them to x264 format in an MP4 container. Results are given in terms of the frames per second processed, and HandBrake uses as many threads as possible.
Hybrid x265
Hybrid is a new benchmark, where we take a 4K 1500 frame video and convert it into an x265 format without audio. Results are given in frames per second.
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MrSpadge - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
There are reports that this chip throttles back to 1600 MHz quickly after being loaded, only to jump up to a turbo mode for a short time and back to throttling again. This might due to unfinished pre-release bioses, but AMD certainly changed the performance tuning. And applies a mad voltage to this chip.silverblue - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
Apparently, it was an early BIOS that caused the throttling, and as such has now been fixed.Valantar - Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - link
From what's being said in the forums, stock voltages for these chips are ludicrously high - in the 1.4-1.5V range! - causing all kinds of throttling and other odd behavior. From what's being said there, most Kaveri chips run just fine at stock speeds at~1.2V, so this overvolting is causing some real havoc in the test results. I would love to see AT look into this, at least for a bit, as it could cause some serious differences in both speed add power usage.tabascosauz - Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - link
The 7850K auto-throttles to 3.0GHz CPU-side whenever iGPU is pulling a lot of watts. It's a known issue that basically can't be fixed, probably because AMD is too paranoid about more ASRock A88X-ITXs blowing up under load. I wouldn't be surprised if the 7870K doesn't suffer from the same thing. The CPU speed boosts are always nonsense with Kaveri; the APU runs into its thermal envelope faster than you can say "throttling".Maybe AMD should start setting spec for VRM design. VRM design is the one killing AM3+, since MSI clearly doesn't know how to make them properly on that platform. FM2+, being the modern platform, shouldn't even have to address these problems (AMD should have made the necessary precautions), but it must if AMD wants to make any money.
Hobbitter - Friday, June 5, 2015 - link
I recieved a Asus crossblade ranger fm2+ and i had to send it back because of the VRM, they burnt my finger as soon as i touched them they were that hot. Plus it kept shutting my computer down even with a desk fan it would be red hot. could be a common problem with these APU's.Gigaplex - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
I don't see how the conclusions match the test results. In many (arguably the majority) the new chip was bested by at least one other older AMD chip yet the conclusions of each segment pretty much state that the new chip is the clear winner. What?lefty2 - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
You are correct. He says "almost all of our graphics tests saw a gain over the previous head of the Kaveri list".This is plainly not true. The test results show that Alien Isolation, Total War Attila and GRID autosport it's slower than 7850K. That's 3 out 5 games where it's slower! and it seems that most of the CPU tests it's slower than older Kavari CPUs.
jeffrey - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
"I don't see how the conclusions match the test results. In many (arguably the majority) the new chip was bested by at least one other older AMD chip yet the conclusions of each segment pretty much state that the new chip is the clear winner. What?"Agree 100% !! All I could think of while reading the review was how bad AMD's scaling looked and how the 7870K was dominated by the 7850K. I figured I was going to get to a page somewhere in the review explaining why it trailed the outgoing chip so often and then bam, dat conclusion tho..
FriendlyUser - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
Thanks for the review guys, much appreciated as I am considering one for my brother.nikaldro - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
You're better of with a pentium + GTX750 in most cases