Amd Fx 8320 Vs Fx 8350

TechRadar Verdict

Nosotros tin can't help simply feel disappointed with the lack of functioning progress the FX-8150 represents. It's not a bad bit, only we wanted more.

Pros

+
Great overclocking
+
Serious multi-threading chops for less than £200

Cons

-
Just slightly faster at stock than 1100T
-
Struggles against 2500K
-
And is pricier

We've waited a long time for AMD to release a brand new processor architecture, merely finally the AMD FX-8150 has arrived.

This first fleck is the vanguard of the somewhat tardy Bulldozer technology and is this peak-of-the-line AMD FX bit, code-named Zambezi. This is the full-fat, eight-core AMD super-fleck running at a non inconsiderable 3.6GHz direct out the box.

The FX moniker isn't a new i for AMD chips.

The concluding time we saw information technology used for its loftier-end parts was in the 90nm Athlon 64 FX-74 in tardily 2006. It'southward been reborn this year to cover the starting time in what AMD hopes volition be a long line of Bulldozer-based CPUs.

The AMD FX CPUs represent the bit maker's first existent new compages since the exciting times of the first Athlon back in 2003.

And it is very much a new architecture; AMD has started from scratch with the design of the Bulldozer modules, taking a very different approach to what makes up a CPU core than anyone else.

Nosotros'll explore the depths of that architectural alter later, merely the real fundamental is the use of that word 'module'.

Each of these modules holds the essential makeup of a standard dual-core processor, sharing sure non-timing sensitive parts.

The AMD FX-8150 has 4 of these Bulldozer modules and AMD claims that makes it the world's first viii-cadre desktop chip. Information technology's tough to ignore the sickly sugariness scent of fudge here, though this hardware-based solution ought be a lot more effective than Intel's mostly software-oriented HyperThreading.

The Bulldozer module represents the futurity of AMD processors going forwards.

Speaking with Bernard Seite, an AMD Technical Advisor, last month he told us that the Bulldozer modules are likely to last as the basis for its CPU range for the next 5-7 years.

At the moment we've only seen the roadmap for the adjacent couple of years, with the Piledriver update coming next twelvemonth, Steamroller coming in 2013 and Excavator in 2014.

Yes, we know it sounds similar a joke, only AMD's latest roadmap actually does read like the Urban Dictionary Karma Sutra.

Just hopes are however loftier for these new AMD FX processors, specially afterward it managed to snag the Guiness World Record for highest CPU clockspeed in September.

We saw this summit CPU here running at well over 8GHz.

That is impressive, but realistically it's simply numbers. The world record didn't demand the machine to really run whatsoever applications, it just needed to kick into Windows and report information technology's clockspeed. It also didn't demand to be running all its cores. The earth record was actually just broken past a single Bulldozer module in operation and under serious liquid helium cooling also.

The precedent is in that location though and means the AMD FX-8150 ought to be one hell of an overclocker's flake. What that will mean in real-world applications though we'll soon meet.

So how does the new AMD FX CPU stack up and then? Can it give Intel's Sandy Bridge a run for its coin and tin can it make AMD a performance chip manufacturer once more?

Current folio: AMD FX-8150 - Overview

Side by side Page AMD FX-8150 - Architecture