AMD FX-8150 Review: From Bulldozer To Zambezi To FX

[Seabound07]

Lets see how this plays out, to be honest, i should've waited for this, and PCI-E 3.0, but core i7-2600k will be alright til next year, i hope. im glad AMD got this out before the end of the year, any later and they would've had to release it when Southern islands is scheduled to come out... that'd be a good combo CPU+GPU for xmas.

 

[torque79]

I am so pissed off I waited for this load of crap before buying a new pc. What a HUGE disappointment. It's unfortunate that gaming companies are very slow developing heavily multi-threaded software, so AMD's approach of more cores just does not work.

I would love to see more effort from software companies to have open-ended multicore processing rather than limited to only using one or two extra cores.

 

[julianbautista87]

I don't consider myself a fanboy, but I've had the k6, duron, athlon x2, athlon x4. And I've had those processors because they were faster than the Intel's counterparts. But now what? this processor is more expensive than the 2500k, and is slower... I guess it's time to go for the intel solution this time.

 

[Lyden]

This is so hilarious. All of the people saying bulldozer is going to crush the 2600k. Oh man... sooo glad I don't have to upgrade!

 

[machvelocy]

Lesson of the decade... when a company didnt release any performance preview of an upcoming product, that product is gonna be a fail..

AMD did this twice
sad day for us enthusiast

 

[mapesdhs]

Including the 920 in the review provides an interesting baseline. AMD is
fortunate CA didn't use an 870 instead as that would make the 8150 look
even worse for those tests where the 920 is ahead (re the 870's much
higher Turbo levels). Must admit, I had been expecting 8-core BD to be a
match for 6-core SB; I was not expecting it to end up being pegged as a
'match' for just the 4-core SB. That's a real shame. My main app is
Handbrake; I though the 8150 would be well ahead of the 2600K, so this
is a big letdown.

homeboy2 is spot on to say this is bad news for Intel fans aswell. The
market needs competition; BD isn't good enough to make Intel rethink its
pricing, except perhaps at the low end when the 4100 is reviewed. Without
a doubt, SB-E is going to remain being priced at a premium level.


Chris, speaking of the 920, why is it so fast for the 7-zip test? The
graph shows it significantly outperforming the 2500K (51s vs. 62s). Or
is it the 920's HT which somehow gives it such a large gain over the
2500K? Though I would have thought the 920's HT effect would be swamped
by the 2500K's much higher clock, etc. Strange. And has there been any
response from AMD to your review? Just curious.

Thanks for the article! 8)

Ian.

 

[halls]

I guess if I buy an AMD processor anytime in the future, it will be Llano or a lower-end Bulldozer, but not this one.

 

[billybobser]

No convincing reason to even move from phenom II's, let alone chosing between a 2500k and AMD.

I was a pessimist in this, but it's worse than expected. The AMD market graphs were VERY ambitious.

Ideally AMD's gfx cards are competitive. Though it seems their desktop consumer market won't be generating much revenue.

 

[tajisi]

To sum it up, this matches my predictions all along. AMD has now released its own glorified version of Netburst, sacrificing performance for raw clock speed. A sad day indeed. I knew this had to be coming, particularly due to their reluctance to release any information.

To the AMD fanboys who complained all those years about Intel's tricks, such as using higher clocks instead of improving performance per clock, needing heavy software optimization to pull ahead, etc... Want to go ahead and be a hypocrite and explain to us how it's suddenly acceptable when AMD does it? Big green just pulled a big blue. AMD is now as dirty as Intel, so maybe these little fan wars can stop.

In any case I'm disappointed, but not surprised. AMD pulled an Intel P4 move that sounds like on paper you're getting more (higher clocks, more cores), but really it's not as good as the offerings of the previous generation. Hopefully the next time around they'll have their own Core 2 revolution and things will get more interesting.

 

[Guest]

Fritz benchmark please

 

[gxpbecker]

Guess i will hold on to my 940 for antoher year.. sigh

 

[tmax]

Glad I stuck with my Phenom II x6 1090 from over two years ago. It is going to be a while before I build my next machine.

 

[kikireeki]

No word can express My depression and disappointment This is The last nail in AMD's coffin. and this is coming out from an AMD [strike]hardcore [/strike] former fan.

 

[rolli59]

Reminds me of the Phenom release, when will we see Bulldozer II?

 

[youssef 2010]

[citation][nom]Article[/nom]The HyperTransport link also enjoys a speed-up, from 2 GHz (4 GT/s) up to 2.6 GHz (5.2 GT/s). [/citation]

Phenom II chipsets were capable of 5.2 GT/s too so, it's an improvement to the CPU and not the chipset.

 

[burnley14]

What a let-down. i5 2500k still reigns supreme for value.

 

[Guest]

What many thousands of computer chess players need to know is

will the 8 core help chess engines
the AMD 6 core is a match when overclocked for the i72600k overclocked re speed and performance as chess engine do not recognize HT in fact HT is damaging to there performance
i know we are a small minority compared to main gamers but there are many 10s of thousand potential customers(including pc illiterate females like me ) awaiting answers re these 8 core cpus for chess

help please

http://morethanchessagame.forumotion.com

 

[jjb8675309]

This is very dissapointing... as a gamer I have absolutely no reason to upgrade from my P2 955 @ 4.0ghz, and for that matter to a 990 board at all..

Like Crowe said for gamers this is a huge flop and I tend to agree and if the new 4 core performs similar this will really hold true...

 

[lp231]

Coming from a person who has never own AMD, but have build them for others.
Man this sux!

 

[jjb8675309]

Now all I care about is the NV 600 series and AMD 7000 series, the am3+ platform is going to be absolutely pointless for me to pursue...

 

[spookyman]

I guess I will have to buy a I7 2600k then.

 

[atmapuri]

As expected Buldozer wins only highly multi-threaded benchmarks. This is actually a great server CPU, but a big miss for the desktop.

 

[youssef 2010]

[citation][nom]Article[/nom]The same thing happens in WinZip 14, a completely different class of software, but also single-threaded. FX-8150 drops into last place as a result of its dismal IPC.[/citation]

I wouldn't consider Single threaded apps when buying a processor, because the developers of such apps obviously haven't realized that multi-core processors are the way to go.

[citation][nom]Article[/nom]Why does FX-8150 fare so poorly, then? Hard to say. The hierarchy after Intel’s Sandy Bridge-based chips would suggest that Visual Studio likes clock rate. Zambezi has plenty of that, but its IPC is bad enough to put it under Phenom II X4 and X6.[/citation]

It might be that this app stresses the FPU and not integer calculation.

 

[happyballz]

Intel will totally get greedy now...what a letdown for all consumers inloved in CPU market!

 

[liquidchild]

[citation][nom]thesnappyfingers[/nom]I feel sad, I was really hoping AMD could compete with the i5 2500k and the i7-2600k, Alas I must make an intel build.[/citation]
It does compete with the 2500K.....but i was suppose to mop the floor with it. Its not a fail chip, it just didn't live up to the hype. Other sites have shown that it overclocks like a boss and beats the 2600K in some new apps. You also have to take into account that its a entirely new architecture, and Intel uses code that slows down non intel chips(http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1567108/intel-compiler-cripples-code-amd-via-chips). Looks like I will be getting middle of the pack AMD AGAINNNNNN...Cuz im not spending over $200 on a overhyped chip that cant even use the extra cores effectively. FX 6core it is...I guess.