AMD Athlon X4 880K CPU Review - PAGE 1

Continuing to build upon their Athlon X4 lineup, AMD released the Athlon X4 880K CPU on March 1st, 2016, positioning it with a 4.0 GHz base operating frequency and a turbo mode frequency of 4.2 GHz. Packaged with a "near silent" heatsink featuring four heatpipes and a thermal dissipation rating of 125W (identical to the AMD Wraith thermal solution but without the shroud or LED logo), the Athlon X4 880K is designed to provide higher performance than previous Athlon X4 models along with smoother video performance when paired with a quality graphics card.

Based on the Godavari core using 0.028 micron technology, the newest lineup of Athlon X4 CPUs have a low 95 watt Thermal Design Power (TDP). With the aforementioned thermal solution included in the retail versions of the unlocked CPU, users have some headroom for mild overclocking out of the box without the added expense of an aftermarket heatsink installation.

Today I am going to test the Athlon X4 880K CPU on an Gigabyte F2A88X-UP4 motherboard provided by AMD with two different sets of 16GB DDR3 RAM: one set at 1600 MHz and the other at 2133 MHz. Then I'll compare those results to the AMD FX-4350 CPU on an MSI 970 Gaming Motherboard with the same set of 16 GB DDR3 memory models at 1600 MHz, which should show how the two different CPUs compare with the same RAM set against the Athlon X4 880K performance at its maximum design 2133 MHz RAM frequency.

Specifications:

Information courtesy of AMD http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/processors/desktop/athlon-cpu

AMD provided the Gigabyte F2A88X-UP4 motherboard for use with the X4 880K review sample. Later in this review I will list the additional equipment used to make the complete test setup.

Closer Look:

The following table highlights the current AMD Athlon X4 processor lineup with the basic specifications for each model. Although all four indicate a new thermal solution, only the 880K comes with the heatsink based on the AMD Wraith.

AMD Athlon X4 Processors with New Thermal Solutions 

As mentioned earlier, the new thermal solution is basically the AMD Wraith cooler without the fan shroud and LED illumination. As seen in the next photo, the upgraded 90mm fan covers the entire top of the heatsink to push up to 34 percent more air flow across the dissipation fins. The mounting clip is the same as older heatsinks, so this heatsink can also be mounted on any current AMD socket mount.  (The clear plastic film over the thermal paste was added to protect the paste while handling and will be removed prior to mounting the heatsink.)

The footprint of the cooler is identical to the older model heatsinks, but the heat pipes themselves have a wider stance. The second most notable change is the dissipation fin area that's 21 percent larger to accommodate for the larger fan helping keep the processor cool.