Technoglitch
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the A10-7890K gives AMD’s top-end parts a modest frequency tap while holding TDP steady at 95W. Compared with the A10-7850K that AMD launched two years ago, the A10-7890K has an 11% higher base frequency and a 7.5% higher top frequency. The GPU frequency has increased by 20% compared with the original chip AMD launched two years ago, though the gains compared to the A10-7870K are much more modest.
These improvements are in line with what we’d expect AMD to offer from a thoroughly mature 28nm process. AMD has had some success in pulling Kaveri’s power consumption down — the recently-launched A10-7860K is a 65W chip that’s almost identical to the 95W A10-7850K we reviewed two years ago. The Steamroller architecture doesn’t hit high frequencies as easily as the old Piledriver-based Richland APUs, and I suspect we see that reflected in the A10-7890K’s 95W TDP rating. The Athlon X4 880K doesn’t include an integrated GPU at all, but its 4GHz – 4.2GHz CPU clock and associate TDP don’t change. It’s possible this means the X4 880K has a smidgen more headroom than the APU flavor, but without knowing more about AMD’s binning we can’t speculate.
The X4 880K compares well against the bottom of AMD’s stack, where the FX-4350 is $90 for a 125W quad-core at 4.2 – 4.3GHz; Steamroller’s core improvements over Piledriver should be a net win there, even if the X4 880K lacks an L3 cache. The $155 price on the A10-7890K is a bit high, even if we only compare it with AMD’s other processors. The A10-7850K from 2014 is just $119, while the A10-7870K is $135.
AMD releases new, higher-clocked A10-7890K APU, Athlon X4 880K CPU | ExtremeTech
