a10 7890k or 7870k?

[ZHU92]

Wondering if I should spring for a 7890k or save 20 bucks and go with 7870k. Looks like the 7870k is exactly the same as the 7890k but just just has a slightly lower cpu clock (0.2ghz). Will be overclocking cpu anyway with a closed loop liquid cooling system so cooler included is negligible. Anyone know if the 7890k has better bins? Thoughts?

 

[Ecky]

Need more context. If you're building a system from scratch, I strongly recommend staying away from AMD's APUs. If you're upgrading from another socket FM2+ CPU, chances are good you'll be better off going with an Athlon x4 and a discrete GPU.

 

[clutchc]

+1^ Pretty much what Ecky says. If you don't need the iGPU, go with the Athlon X4 880k, 870k, or 860k.
Otherwise, the slight difference in stock clocks will (like you say) be offset w/OC'ing. There is however, the slight chance that the faster CPU has a higher binned piece of silicone and may lend itself to better OCs. But the performance difference will be hardly noticeble.

 

[amtseung]

If this is a toy/experiment build (I'm assuming this since you say it'll be overclocked on an AIO), I'd take one of the athlon X4 CPU's. They'll overclock better. I don't know if AMD bins these things, but binning doesn't usually make a massive difference in maximum frequency, since motherboard power phase design and quality probably play the bigger role at higher voltages. My 760k overclocked further than most people could achieve on the (then new) 860k, despite the hopes of better overclocking on richland over trinity.

If this is not a toy/experiment, I would recommend staying far away from anything on the FM2/+ platform, since it's obsolete and has no upgrade path.

 

[Ecky]

The reason the 860K overclocks less is that it uses TSMC's power-optimized 28nm process, rather than Global Foundries' frequency-optimized 32nm process. For a long time AMD was building their CPUs on GF and their GPUs on TSMC, but with Piledriver they moved their CPUs over to TSMC as well.

 

[amtseung]

The reason the 860K overclocks less is that it uses TSMC's power-optimized 28nm process, rather than Global Foundries' frequency-optimized 32nm process. For a long time AMD was building their CPUs on GF and their GPUs on TSMC, but with Piledriver they moved their CPUs over to TSMC as well.

I didn't know that. That explains a lot of things between the trinity APU's versus their richland counterparts.

 

[ZHU92]

If this is a toy/experiment build (I'm assuming this since you say it'll be overclocked on an AIO), I'd take one of the athlon X4 CPU's. They'll overclock better. I don't know if AMD bins these things, but binning doesn't usually make a massive difference in maximum frequency, since motherboard power phase design and quality probably play the bigger role at higher voltages. My 760k overclocked further than most people could achieve on the (then new) 860k, despite the hopes of better overclocking on richland over trinity.

If this is not a toy/experiment, I would recommend staying far away from anything on the FM2/+ platform, since it's obsolete and has no upgrade path.

correct on the toy/experiment build amtseung. Saw a post on hardforums from last year where someone got their a10 7860k to achieve a score of just over 2000 in the firestrike so I wanted to test my luck and see what I could get as well as see how well it could run games with such a heavy overclock. Local shop was having a crazy deal on amd apus and I had a spare fm2+ along with leftover ddr3 ram, psu and lc unit so it was the perfect time. I actually went and got an a8 7670k because it was cheaper than the 7870k by $30 it's also only about 5% worse in single/multi threaded tasks but I'm thinking that's just because it's clocked slower. I am aware the gpu is weaker but the price was too good to pass up for similar performance. Sorry for lack of context, I'm still pretty new to posting here so i'll remember to include more detail in my next posts

 

[lnpott]

I think is the same processor but with high clock on CPU and GPU. Coming with the Wrath cooler to lower the temperature. I send a twitter to @amdcare, but still wating for a answer. Follow me on @lnpott