Cooling and Power
On top of the CPU and GPU performance it is important to consider how well the A10-7870K will perform in your specific build. This is even more important in HTPC’s and small form factor builds. For power usage the 7870K under load pulled the same 117 watts that the 7850K pulled. This is still a little high compared to the recent Intel CPUs even the new i7-6700K that pulled more than the Haswell CPUs. At idle the power draw is about twice what the Intel CPus are pulling, but still much better than the high core count Intel’s and FX line.
In tight builds how warm will the 7870K run? Well surprisingly under load it runs down near the bottom of our charts, well below the Haswell based Intel’s and especially cooler than the newer i7-5775C and i7-6700K.