Question 1

Does the cpu come with heat sinks and a fan, or is that bought separately?

Accepted Answer

It does have the heat sink and fan included. And it already has thermal paste applied to the the heat sink.  So it is pretty close to plug and play.

Question 2

I'm thinking of building an   mATX rig with this APU. I will include an fast SSD and 16GB of RAM DDR3-2133 with it. I'm a light-casual gamer, So if I'm lucky to play a decent game on  OK settings, that is all fine.

My  question is,  will this APU be zippy enough to handle medium multitasking such as having a browser with10 tabs open,  listening to a youtube video and other misc. stuff all at the same time?

Accepted Answer

I also setup a system with a ssd and 16gb ram but of ddr3 2400 ram.  Keep in mind faster ram speed will help a bit on the graphics side.  The apu allocates ram for graphics so the faster the better.  For your other questions gaming runs surprisingly well.

It will run casual games just fine full graphics and resolution.  Even "heavyweight"games I have played such as metro 2033 run well with some adjustments.  For those heavier games I usually drop to get 720p resolution and tweak some in game settings averaging 45 frames per second.  The rest of then time for casual games I run full resolution of my monitor  (1080p).  Also you can pair several other AMD graphics cards to this apu for a hybrid crossfire setup (coprocessing).  This will if boost graphic processing power, just check AMD's website for compatibility.

For opening multiple tabs and multitasking everything runs just fine.  Now if you plan on lots of intense high end video/photo editing or rendering then it wont be as flat out fast as Intel processors.  Remember this is a great value processor for everyday use.  All in all, I have no complaints.

Question 3

How is the Stock Fan? I'm noticing it's a lot different than other Stock Coolers from AMD.

And is it possible to replace the Fan on the Cooler with a better one?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it is different from the previous from the last line of A series. It's about 1/3 bigger from the last line and uses heat pipes. But that being said it does keep the APU cooler from previous stock heatsinks, if you plan to push it when playing high end games be warned the fan does get pretty loud. And for a replacement, yes you can replace it with a 3rd party brand. Just make sure it supports the FM2+ type of motherboard socket

Question 4

Does the CPU come with thermal paste or no, and if so should I buy a third party paste?  Also does the CPU come with the thermal paste already on it?

Accepted Answer

Actually, it is the heatsink that comes with a square pad of thermal paste already on it.

I just use this stock thermal paste because I have never had an issue with it. I also am not doing anything intensive on this machine so I wasn't too worried about heat being an issue. I personally would use Arctic Silver IF I were going to apply a different thermal paste but you would need to clean off the old stuff first unless you were purchasing an aftermarket heatsink that didn't come with any.

Question 5

This comes with a graphics  card? Can never been too safe.

Accepted Answer

Hello, the graphics processor is embedded into the same chip as the CPU. Similar to Intel processors that house the Intel HD series graphics chips, only much more powerful.  The key to getting the best graphics performance out of the 7870k, is DDR-3 2133Mhz Memory.  That speed of memory and faster really helps the Godavari shine. Also worth noting, do not waste your money on getting the R7 250 to use in dual graphics mode with the 7870k.  While a 3d mark benchmark will show higher results, most games do not support dual graphics, as it is different than CrossFire.  These chips are fantastic if you are a casual PC gamer, that isn't wanting to play the newest and most demanding titles, or if you are building a Mini PC micro ITX build.  Just don't expect to be seeing anything near 60fps on newer titles, even with a fast set of memory and a liquid CPU cooler.  I hope this helps!  Have a great day!

Question 6

Dose this come with a CPU Fan?

Accepted Answer

It does come with a cooling system. Be sure to put thermal paste in between the fan and the CPU when you're installing though, else you'll cook your CPU! Great core, works fantastic.

Question 7

A8-7670K vs A10-7870k: It appears that for 40% price premium I am only getting 5% speed boost.  Is there a compelling reason to go with the A10 that I am not seeing?
My current mobo is an FM2(not +) and I already have a HD 7770 card.
Since I have to get a new mobo either way should I go with the FX-6300 for the same $ as the A8 and keep the current graphics card?
Thanks.

Accepted Answer

A10-7870k typically has higher OC potential than any other A8/A10 as these are cherry picked chips(think of this similarly to the FX-8350 vs FX-9590). I hit 4.7ghz no issues with mine and 1030mhz i-GPU. VERY impressive numbers for myself but some can get even higher on their 7870Ks. Be aware if you intend to use the i-GPU memory speed is critical to perfomance. Check around youtube for demonstrations of memory speed impact on APU performance. Pairing an APU with a GPU isnt really that great for real world performance. You can take a leap and bank on DX12 but thats a pricey investment.

Deciding between an A10 or FX-6300 depends on your theoretical workload. If you tend to run some labs with VMs or other multi-threaded workloads I would suggest an FX-6300 or even better an FX-8350 for such tasks.

HD 7770 is an outdated card. If you are forced to upgrade I would look at Skylake + a new GPU; unless you have some sort of love affair with AMD.

Sadly due to the current environment both gaming and workstation tasks are written for intels architectures.

Question 8

I currently have an AMD Athlon X4 760k, and am looking for a higher performance CPU to work with. I am using a discrete ASUS Radeon R9270X in this machine as well, so I was wondering if they might combine forces graphically. Also, what's the better CPU: the A10 7850K or this one?

Accepted Answer

The short answer, no simultaneous processing for an R9 270x and 7870k, and the 7870k is a bit more powerful for processing ability (especially multithreaded applications) than your 760k.

For the log answer...What you are probably referring to is AMD dubbed  "dual graphics" where you pair a certain level GPU card with the APU and they coexist for graphics processing (not the same as Crossfire). The Highest card you can pair with the 7870k is the R7 250.  It's listed in their website and I also asked AMD directly after I purchased this APU.  The reason is you have to have a GPU with similar specs matching the graphics cores built into the processor.  You can pair the R9 270x with APU.  Since your card is more powerful it will be the default GPU used not the 7870k.  Well here now comes the exception inside Windows 10 DirectX 12.

DirectX 12 allows for asynchronous shaders so can use different level/brand cards for co processing of scene data.  Now the cards you use have to support DirectX 12 and the game/software has to use DirectX 12 as well.  In this scenario you can use both the APU and your R9 270x simultaneously. Look it up on Google for a detailed explanation as there is a lot of information pertaining to new features and all the behind scenes of DirectX 12.

Now for the processing ability.  You asked the 7850k vs 7870k.  Main difference is the the speed of the GPU built into the 7870k.  It is a nice bump in speed vs the 7850k so I would go with this 7870k APU.   You could also over clock your processor to make up the difference (most cost efficient solution). If you plan on keeping the R9 270x then you could get a X4 860k processor.  The 860k processor is much closer to the 7870k without the GPU cores (always check for motherboard compatibility).  Just another option I'm bringing up.  Overall I am very satisfied with the 7870k and the new Crimson Drivers gave me a good 10-15% boost in the games 
I do play.

Question 9

Ok, 4 cores.  Is that 2 CPUs and 2 GPUs, or 3 CPUs and 1 GPU?

Accepted Answer

It has 4 compute cores and 8 GPU cores.  The most important thing with the APU is RAM.  Buy 2400 mhz ram and my suggestion is 16 GB's since you're saving money if you don't plan on buying a discrete video card.  Aftermarket cooler needed to overclock.

Question 10

can this be used in a orchid-s motherboard?

Accepted Answer

I believe the HP/Compaq motherboard is a FM2+ socket. It is made by MSI and is probably a good motherboard. I think it has the A78 processor rather than the more desirable A88 though. So yes it will. Your computer probably has a 350 watt power supply, I would get a 550w to accompany it. Do some research and find the highest frequency memory your motherboard supports and get 16MB of it.

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