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Home » AMD A4-7300 CPU Review

AMD A4-7300 CPU Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]
The A4-7300 from AMD, with two cores and 4.0 GHz, is one of the most inexpensive CPUs available today. Let’s find out how it performs and compare it to the Celeron G3900. Check it out!
Entry (low-end) CPUs are usually fitted for inexpensive computers aimed on office or simple home tasks, like text editing and web browsing, which don’t demand high computing power. Intel has, for this market, the Celeron G3900 (which we tested recently). On the other hand, inside APU family from AMD, the A6 and the A4 are the most basic processors.
The A4-7300 is one of the most inexpensive AMD processors available today. It has two “Richland” cores, Radeon HD8470D video engine, 3.8 GHz base clock and 4.0 GHz turbo block, and uses the FM2 socket (being compatible, however, also with FM2+ motherboards).
Figure 1 shows the A4-7300 package.

AMD A4-7300 CPU ReviewFigure 1: the box of the A4-7300

Figure 2 shows the package contents: a manual, a case sticker, the CPU itself, and a cooler.

AMD A4-7300 CPU ReviewFigure 2: box contents

Figure 3 unveils the A4-7300 CPU.

AMD A4-7300 CPU ReviewFigure 3: the A4-7300 CPU

In Figure 4, you see the bottom of the processor.

AMD A4-7300 CPU ReviewFigure 4: bottom of the A4-7300

In our tests, we compared the A4-7300 to the Celeron G3900, for they are in the same price range. We also included, for comparison, the Pentium G4400 and the A6-7400B (which is similar to the A6-7400K), because they are two of the the most inexpensive CPUs we had available at the lab. It is important to keep in mind, however, that those processors are a little more expensive than the A4-7300 and the Celeron G3900.
Let us compare the main specs of the reviewed CPUs in the next page.
[nextpage title=”The Reviewed CPUs”]
In the tables below, we compare the main features of the CPUs included in our review.

CPU Cores HT IGP Internal Clock Turbo Clock Core Tech. TDP Socket Price

A4-7300

2

No

Yes

3.8 GHz

4.0 GHz

Richland

32 nm

65/45 W

FM2

USD 45

Celeron G3900

2

No

Yes

2.8 GHz

–

Skylake

14 nm

51 W

LGA1151

USD 55

Pentium G4400

2

No

Yes

3.3 GHz

–

Skylake

14 nm

54 W

LGA1151

USD 65

A6-7400B

2

No

Yes

3.5 GHz

3.9 GHz

Kaveri

28 nm

65 W

FM2+

USD 65*

Prices were researched at Newegg.com on the day this article was published. TDP means Thermal Design Power, the maximum amount of heat the CPU can dissipate.
* This price refers to the A6-7400K model, which is similar to the A6-7400B.
Below you can see the memory configuration for each CPU.

CPU L2 Cache L3 Cache Memory Support Memory Channels

A4-7300

1 MiB
– Up to DDR3-1600 Two

Celeron G3900

2 x 256 kiB

2 MiB

Up to DDR4-2133 or DDR3L-1600

Two

Pentium G4400

2 x 256 kiB

3 MiB

Up to DDR4-2133 or DDR3L-1600

Two

A6-7400B

1 MiB
– Up to DDR3-1866 Two

Below we have a comparison of the graphic engine of each CPU.

CPU GPU DirectX Clock Cores
A4-7300 Radeon HD 8470D
11 800 MHz
192

Celeron G3900

Intel HD 510

12

350/950 MHz

12

Pentium G4400

Intel HD 510

12

350/1,000 MHz

12
A6-7400B Radeon R5
11.2 756 MHz
256

[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]
During our benchmarking sessions, we used the configuration listed below. Between our benchmarking sessions, the only variable device was the CPU being tested, besides the motherboard and memory, which had to be replaced to match the different CPUs.
Hardware Configuration

  • Motherboard (socket LGA1151): ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+
  • Motherboard (socket FM2+): ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+
  • CPU Cooler: Intel/AMD stock
  • Memory (DDR3): 8 GiB DDR3-2133, two G.Skill Ripjaws F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZH 4 GiB memory modules configured at 2,133 MHz
  • Memory (DDR4): 8 GiB DDR4-2400 two G.Skill Ripjaws 4 F4-2400C15Q-16GRR 4 GiB memory modules configured at 2133 MHz
  • Boot drive: Kingston HyperX Savage 480 GB
  • Video Card: integrated
  • Video Monitor: Philips 236VL
  • Power Supply: Corsair CX500M

Operating System Configuration

  • Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
  • NTFS
  • Video resolution: 1920 x 1080 60 Hz

Driver Versions

  • AMD driver version: 15.11
  • Intel Inf chipset driver version: 10.0

Software Used

  • 3DMark 1.5.915
  • Cinebench R15
  • DivX 10.2.4
  • DVD Shrink 3.2
  • Media Espresso 6.7
  • PCMark 8 2.4.304
  • Battlefield 4
  • Dirt Rally
  • GTA V

Error Margin
We adopted a 4% error margin. Thus, differences below 4% cannot be considered relevant. In other words, products with a performance difference below 4% should be considered as having similar performance.
[nextpage title=”PCMark 8″]
PCMark 8 is a benchmarking software that uses real-world applications to measure the computer performance. We ran three tests: Home, which includes web browsing, writing, light gaming, photo editing, and video chat tests; Creative, which includes web surfing, video editing, group video chat, video conversion, and gaming; and Work, which runs tasks such as writing documents, web browsing, spreadsheets, editing, and video chatting. Let’s see the results.
AMD A4-7300 CPU Review
On the Home benchmark, the A4-7300 was 14% slower than the Celeron G3900.
AMD A4-7300 CPU Review

On Creative benchmark, the A4-7300 was 31% slower than the Celeron G3900.
AMD A4-7300 CPU Review
On the Work benchmark, the A4-7300 was 14% slower than the Celeron G3900.

[nextpage title=”3DMark”]

3DMark is a program with a set of several 3D benchmarks. Sky Diver measures DirectX 11 performance, and is aimed on average computers. The Cloud Gate benchmark measures DirectX 10 performance, and the Ice Storm Extreme measures DirectX 9 performance and is targeted to entry-level computers.

AMD A4-7300 CPU Review

On the Sky Diver benchmark, the A4-7300 performed similarly to the Celeron G3900.

AMD A4-7300 CPU Review

On Cloud Gate, the A4-7300 was 16% slower than the Celeron G3900.

AMD A4-7300 CPU Review

On the Ice Storm Extreme benchmark, the A4-7300 was 20% faster than the Celeron G3900.

[nextpage title=”Photoshop CC and Cinebench R15″]

Cinebench R15

Cinebench R15 is based on the Cinema 4D software. It is very useful to measure the performance gain obtained by the presence of several processing cores while rendering heavy 3D images. Rendering is an area where a bigger number of cores helps a lot, because usually this kind of software recognize several processors (Cinebench R15, for example, can use up to 256 processing cores).
We ran the CPU benchmark, which renders a complex image using all the processing cores (real and virtual) to speed up the process. The result is given as a score.
AMD A4-7300 CPU Review
Here the A4-7300 was 37% slower than the Celeron G3900.

DivX

We used the DivX converter, a tool included in the DivX package, in order to measure the encoding performance using this codec. The DivX codec is capable of recognizing and using all available cores and the SSE4 instruction set.
We converted a Full HD, six-minute long .mov video file into a .avi file, using the “HD 1080p” output profile. The results below are given in seconds, so the lower the better.
AMD A4-7300 CPU Review
On DivX encoding, the A4-7300 was 35% slower than the Celeron G3900.

DVDShrink

DVDShrink is an old but still very useful program to “shrink” video DVDs that have more than 4.7 GiB of data to fit single-layer DVD media. We used it to compress the DVD of “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” DVD to 4.7 GiB. The results below are given in seconds, so the lower the better.
AMD A4-7300 CPU Review
On this test, the A4-7300 was 21% faster than the Celeron G3900.

Media Espresso

Media Espresso is a video conversion program that uses the graphics processing unit of the video engine to speed up the conversion process. We converted a 1 GiB, 1920x1080i, 23,738 kbps, .mov video file to a smaller 320×200, H.264, .MP4 file for viewing on a smartphone. The results below are given in seconds, so the lower the better.

AMD A4-7300 CPU Review

Here the A4-7300 was 20% slower than the Celeron G3900.
[nextpage title=”Gaming Performance”]

Battlefield 4

Battlefield 4 is the latest installment in the Battlefield franchise, released in 2013. It is based on the Frostbite 3 engine, which is DirectX 11. In order to measure performance using this game, we walked our way through the first mission, measuring the number of frames per second three times using FRAPS. We ran this game at 1920 x 1080, setting overall image quality at “medium.”
The results below are expressed in frames per second (fps) and they are the mean between the three collected results.
AMD A4-7300 CPU Review
On Battlefield 4, the A4-7300 was 17% faster than the Celeron G3900.

Dirt Rally

Dirt Rally is an off-road racing game released in April 2015, using Ego engine. To measure performance using this game, we ran the performance test included in the game, in 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) resolution and image quality configured as “low” and MSAA off.
The results below are expressed in frames per second.
AMD A4-7300 CPU Review

In this game, there was a technical tie between the A4-7300 and the Celeron G3900.

Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V, or simply GTA V, is an open-world action game released for PCs in April of 2015, using the RAGE engine. In order to measure the performance on this game, we ran the performance test of the game, measuring the framerate with FRAPS. We ran GTA V at 1280 x 720, with image quality set to the minimum.

The results below are expressed in frames per second.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to run decently GTA V on the A4-7300. The game actually adverts us, at launch, that the system doesn’t comply the minimum requisites to run the game.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]
In a direct comparison to the Celeron G3900, it is clear that the A4-7300 has less processing power. It is also clear that the performance of its integrated video is not much higher. So, similarly as we concluded on the Celeron G3900 review, we can say the A4-7300 is not a good choice for a gaming computer.
Anyone who buys an entry CPU like the A4-7300 is not looking for a processor for tasks that demand high processing power. On the other hand, for simple applications like text editing, web browsing, and even media playing, it can be a good deal, due to its very low cost.
And the A4-7300 also has the option to reduce its TDP to 45 W, using an adjust present on compatible motherboards setup, which can be amazing on ultra-SFF computers or HTPCs that need do be quiet.

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