15 specifications

AMD A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D vs AMD FX-4100

On paper, the AMD A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D boosts higher. Specifications describe what each chip is designed to do; how much of that either one holds under continuous load is a separate question.

10 specifications · 2 with a higher side

Full specifications

AMD A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D

AMD · A-Series (Richland) · Desktop

Full specifications

AMD FX-4100

AMD · FX · Desktop

Cores and clocks

Cores

Threads

Base clock

3.9 GHz

3.6 GHz

Boost clock

4.2 GHz

3.8 GHz

Cache and power

L3 cache

Not verified

8 MB

TDP

65 W

95 W

Platform

Socket

FM2

AM3+

Process

32 nm

Integrated graphics

AMD Radeon HD 8570D

Not verified

Launched

Not verified

A check marks the higher figure only on rows where higher is unambiguously better. Rows without one are not ties; they are specifications where “better” has no meaning.

Reading the table

What the difference means.

Boost clock

The A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D boosts to 4.2 GHz against 3.8 GHz, 11 percent higher. Across generations it is not a guide to speed on its own, for the reason above. Boost is also a peak: it is held for seconds to minutes, on one or two cores, while the cooling and the power limit allow. What either chip settles at under a long load is lower, and it depends on the cooler and the motherboard as much as the chip.

Power and cooling

The FX-4100 is rated at 95 W against 65 W. The rating is the heat the cooler has to move for the chip to hold its speed, and modern chips draw well above it in short bursts. A competent tower cooler suits the FX-4100; the A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D is easier to keep quiet and fits smaller cases. A chip whose cooling falls short does not fail. It slows down, and it does so after the first minute, which is why short benchmarks miss it.

Platform

They use different sockets, FM2 and AM3+, so moving from one to the other means a new motherboard. For an upgrade, that cost belongs in the comparison; for a new build, the newer platform is the one with later chips still to come.

Which to pick, on paper

A quiet or compact build: A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D; 65 W against 95 W: less heat to move, so a smaller cooler and slower fans.

What no table says

How much of its speed a processor keeps after the first minute depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in. If you own one of these, measure it: the test is free and runs in this browser.

Free CPU stress test

Questions

Is the A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D better than the FX-4100?: By need, on the specifications: a quiet or compact build: the A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D. No specification says how much speed either one keeps under a long load; that depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in, and it is what a sustained test measures.
Do the A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D and the FX-4100 use the same socket?: No. The A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D uses FM2 and the FX-4100 uses AM3+, so switching means a new motherboard.
Which runs hotter, the A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D or the FX-4100?: The FX-4100 is rated at 95 W against 65 W, so it produces more heat under load and needs the larger cooler. How hot either one actually runs depends on the cooler and the case more than on the chip.

More comparisons

Every figure on this table is a design target. None of it is a measurement.

Nothing above describes how a processor behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.

We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.

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