CPU Comparison

The AMD A10-7870K and Intel Celeron N5100 are both quad-core, quad-thread processors, but they represent vastly different design philosophies and market segments. The A10-7870K is an unlocked desktop part from AMD’s Steamroller generation, built on a 28 nm process and targeting a 95 W TDP. The Celeron N5100 is a mobile-focused, low-power chip from Intel’s Tremont architecture, built on a 10 nm process with a 6 W TDP. The benchmark data shows a clear, consistent winner across all tested workloads, but the nature of that victory, and the hardware behind it, tells a more nuanced story about efficiency versus raw capability.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The data from the head-to-head benchmark suite shows a sweep for the AMD A10-7870K, winning all five tests with a remarkably consistent margin. The largest delta appears in the Cinebench R23 single-core test, where the A10-7870K scores 420 against the Celeron’s 396, a 6.1% advantage. This pattern repeats across every other workload, with the AMD part winning by 5.9% or 6% in each case. The Cinebench R15 multi-core test shows the A10-7870K at 299 points versus 282 for the Celeron, a 6% lead. The Cinebench R20 multi-core result is 1249 for the AMD chip and 1179 for the Intel part, again a 5.9% difference. Single-core in R20 follows the same trend: 176 vs 166, a 6% win for AMD.

The most substantial raw score gap is in Cinebench R23 multi-core, where the A10-7870K posts 2975 points against the Celeron’s 2809. That 166-point difference represents the largest absolute margin in the suite, even though the percentage lead remains in the same narrow band. What is striking is the uniformity of the results, the delta never strays outside a 5.9% to 6.1% window across five different tests. This suggests the performance relationship between the two chips is stable regardless of workload type, whether it is single-threaded rendering or fully multi-threaded execution. For a benchmark database perspective, this is a clean, unambiguous result: the AMD part is consistently faster, but not dramatically so.

Looking at the broader benchmark context, the A10-7870K’s average benchmark score is 975, while the Celeron N5100 averages 966. Both processors sit at the 26th percentile of all CPUs, placing them in the same performance tier despite the AMD chip’s head-to-head sweep. The A10-7870K’s nearest rivals include the Intel Core i3-4130 and AMD Athlon X4 840, both at an identical 975 average score with a 0% delta, as well as the Intel Core i5-5257U at 976 with a -0.1% delta. The Celeron N5100’s nearest rivals are the Intel Xeon X5570 at 967 (-0.1%), AMD Ryzen 7 3700U at 968 (-0.2%), and Intel Core i5-2400S at 968 (-0.2%). The Pentium Gold G5500T trails at 963, putting the Celeron 0.3% ahead of that part. These rivalries show that while the A10-7870K wins the direct comparison, both chips inhabit a similar performance neighborhood among their peers.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear directive: the AMD A10-7870K is the superior performer in every measured benchmark. If the selection criteria are purely about compute throughput, the A10-7870K wins outright. The 6% lead in Cinebench R15 multi-core, the 5.9% edge in R20 multi-core, and the 6.1% advantage in R23 single-core all point in the same direction. There is no benchmark in the suite where the Celeron N5100 takes a win, and the wins column reflects that with a 5-0 tally for AMD.

However, the verdict is not solely about performance. The Celeron N5100 operates at a 6 W TDP, a figure that is a tiny fraction of the A10-7870K’s 95 W TDP. That 89-watt gap is enormous. The Celeron is a mobile part in a BGA 1338 socket, designed for low-power, fanless or lightly cooled systems, while the A10-7870K is a desktop chip in an AMD Socket FM2+ with an unlocked multiplier for overclocking. For a user building a desktop rig where power draw and thermal output are secondary concerns, the A10-7870K is the data-backed choice. For a scenario demanding minimal power consumption or a compact mobile form factor, the Celeron’s performance deficit is the trade-off for its dramatically lower power envelope. The benchmark data does not declare a winner in such a trade-off; it simply quantifies the cost of efficiency at roughly 6% performance across the board.

Architecture Differences

The two processors diverge sharply in their underlying architecture. The AMD A10-7870K uses the Steamroller architecture, specifically the Godaveri codename, built on a 28 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It packs 2,411 million transistors into a 245 mm² die. The Intel Celeron N5100 uses the Tremont architecture with the Jasper Lake codename, manufactured on a 10 nm process by Intel, with a much smaller 63.8 mm² die size. The process node difference alone, 28 nm versus 10 nm, explains a great deal about the power and efficiency gap between the two.

Cache configurations also differ significantly. The A10-7870K has a 256 KB L1 cache and a 4 MB L2 cache, with no L3 cache at all. The Celeron N5100 has a 64 KB per-core L1 cache, a 1.5 MB shared L2 cache, and a 4 MB shared L3 cache. The presence of an L3 cache on the Intel part is a notable architectural advantage, even if the benchmark results do not translate that into a performance win. The AMD chip’s larger L2 cache (4 MB versus 1.5 MB) may compensate in some workloads, but the overall scores show the AMD part ahead regardless.

Memory support is another point of divergence. The A10-7870K supports dual-channel DDR3 with a memory bandwidth of 34.1 GB/s, while the Celeron N5100 supports dual-channel DDR4 and LPDDR4 with a higher memory bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s. The Intel part’s memory bandwidth advantage is substantial on paper, yet it does not yield a benchmark win. PCIe connectivity also differs: the A10-7870K offers Gen 3 with 16 lanes, while the Celeron N5100 offers Gen 3 with 8 lanes. Both lack ECC memory support. The integrated graphics differ as well, with the A10-7870K featuring Radeon R7 graphics and the Celeron N5100 featuring UHD Graphics 24EU. The AMD part has an unlocked multiplier, whereas the Celeron is locked, and the A10-7870K has a release date of May 2015, while the Celeron’s release date is not listed in the data.

FAQ

Q: Which processor wins the most benchmarks in the head-to-head comparison?

A: The AMD A10-7870K wins all five head-to-head benchmarks, including Cinebench R15 multi-core, R20 multi-core, R20 single-core, R23 multi-core, and R23 single-core.

Q: What is the largest performance margin between the two chips?

A: The largest delta is 6.1%, seen in the Cinebench R23 single-core test, where the A10-7870K scores 420 versus the Celeron N5100’s 396.

Q: How do the two processors compare in terms of power consumption?

A: The AMD A10-7870K has a TDP of 95 W, while the Intel Celeron N5100 has a TDP of 6 W, a substantial difference in thermal design power.

Q: Do both processors have the same number of cores and threads?

A: Yes, both the AMD A10-7870K and the Intel Celeron N5100 have 4 cores and 4 threads.

Q: What are the average benchmark scores for each processor?

A: The AMD A10-7870K has an average benchmark score of 975, while the Intel Celeron N5100 has an average benchmark score of 966.

Q: Which processor has an unlocked multiplier?

A: The AMD A10-7870K has an unlocked multiplier, while the Intel Celeron N5100 does not.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD A10-7870K wins in every benchmark category that was measured. Its victories span both single-core and multi-core workloads, from Cinebench R15 to R23, with margins ranging from 5.9% to 6.1%. For any task that relies on CPU compute, rendering, encoding, or general multi-threaded productivity, the data shows the A10-7870K is the stronger part. Its 4 MB L2 cache and higher base clock of 3.90 GHz (versus the Celeron’s 1.10 GHz base) likely contribute to this edge, though the Celeron boosts to 2.80 GHz. The AMD chip’s unlocked multiplier also gives it headroom for overclocking, which is not available on the locked Celeron.

The Intel Celeron N5100’s wins are not in the benchmark scores but in the architectural attributes that surround them. Its 6 W TDP makes it a fit for fanless or battery-powered systems, where the A10-7870K’s 95 W TDP would be impractical. The Celeron’s 10 nm process, 4 MB L3 cache, and support for DDR4 and LPDDR4 memory with 46.9 GB/s bandwidth are modern features that the older 28 nm Steamroller part lacks. The Celeron also uses a BGA 1338 socket, which is a soldered, space-efficient form factor for mobile devices, whereas the A10-7870K requires an FM2+ desktop socket. For a user prioritizing power efficiency, modern memory support, or a compact mobile footprint, the Celeron N5100 is the sensible pick, accepting a roughly 6% performance penalty in exchange for those attributes. The data does not show the Celeron winning any compute test, but its design wins in the metrics that matter for a different class of device.