AMD A8-3870K Unlocked Llano APU Reviews

• HardwareHeaven:
  
  

  "Out of the box it is a little bland compared to the A8-3850, only offering an additional 100MHz core speed boost but when we dig a little deeper it becomes very appealing. The performance increase possible through overclocking via multipliers is significant and those using the on-board GPU will appreciate the flexibility there too.
  
  The end result is a product which is worthy of being the high end product in the A8 range and when combined with a 6670 in Dual Graphics mode we get a system which breezes through 1280x720 gaming, often reaching playable levels at 1920x1080. Those who need that little extra performance will also find that the A8-3870K is more than capable of being the basis for a 6900 series gaming system, ideal for a £120 CPU... well, APU."

  
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• Hardware Secrets:
  
  

  "Also on the good side, applications that perform better with four “real” cores will perform better on the A8-3870K and A8-3850 than on the Core i3-2100 and Core i3-2105, which have only two “real” cores and two “simulated” ones, using Hyper-Threading technology.
  
  The bad news is that aside from gaming, 3D rendering, and overclocking, the Core i3-2100 and Core i3-2105 are faster and, depending on the application, by a large margin. They also cost less.
  
  So, if you are a gamer or an overclocker on a really tight budget, the new A8-3870K is a really nice option. But if you are an average user who won’t play games, the Core i3-2105 and the Core i3-2100 are far better options."

  
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• Guru3D:
  
  

  "The cherry on top of the ice cream is that the new K model 3870 APU can be overclocked so much easier. Now granted, it's not huge due to the complexity of the architecture, but on a simple air cooler you will get at least 3700 MHz out of the APU's processor and that will get you an instant 20% performance benefit. By doing so, this APU comes closer to the Phenom II X4 975. Obviously that CPU can overclock as well so it's an ongoing never ending cycle.
  
  The graphics core on the 3870K can now be tweaked as well, and if you give it the proper dedicated time and lovin' you can quite easily bump up performance by a third."

  
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• ocaholic:
  
  

  "With the A8-3870K, AMD has a really versatile allrounder in its portfolio. We very much liked that this CPU was very easy to overclock. Setting the multiplyer higher as well as give the CPU a bit more volt is already enough to have some overclocking fun. Furhtermore there is the very attractive price of just CHF 149.- (est. EUR 124.-). For this kind of money you do not only get a CPU, you also get an integrated HD 6550D graphics chip, that offers sufficient performance to do casual gaming a lower resolutions."

  
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• PureOverclock:
  
  

  "But the release of the A8-3870K is essentially a new revision of the A8-3850 with a stock core boost from 2.9 to 3GHz and now what AMD used to call a Black Edition (now a “K” version) with a adjustable multiplier and GPU core speed. The performance of the new chip, compared to our inaugural review of the A8-3850, is nothing groundbreaking or surprising. They both perform essentially the same at core to core speeds. The APU has not changed in any significant fashion but does give the enthusiast the option to boost performance on the standalone on-die GPU. The performance gains to the mainstream user do not mean much but getting a little extra does not take a lot of work."

  
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• t-break:
  
  

  "Ultimately the AMD A8-3870K doesn’t exactly benefit much from the unlocked multiplier. Firstly you’ll just see marginal performance improvement, but more importantly, to get much higher speeds, you’ll need a performance based A75 motherboard. Sadly there’s hardly any such motherboard in the market, so at best you’ll be relegated to minor overclocks before the whole system gets too unstable for 24/7 usage.
  
  For the purpose of pure computing, whether it office work, or HTPC or gaming, the AMD A8-3870K provides a much better platform than Intel’s Core i3 processors. The integrated GPU on its own will help a lot in video and photo processing applications, not just games. And clock for clock, the AMD A8-3870K just provides better performance in general than any Core i3."

  
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• TechwareLabs:
  
  

  "Alright the numbers have been crunched but what does it all mean? When we overclocked the CPU by 10% we saw ~9% benchmarking increase which is pretty impressive in the overclocking world. When we overclocked the GPU by 34% we didn’t see similar results. For a product boasting superior GPU performance the overclocking performence is medicore. However, at the pricepoint of $144 at writing this is the best solution for mid-level gaming. We did our gaming tests in 1080p and came up just short of the 30fps goal. We are confident that gaming in 720p would be no problem for (almost) any game currently on the market. A big plus for the GPU side of the A8-3870K. The CPU side shows exactly what AMD is aiming at with their APU line: Powerful Graphics and effective computing."

  
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