- Aug 21, 2015
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I have had several requests from customers to create a guide to the FX Piledriver 6 and 8 core processors, and I have noticed a lot of confusion in this forum as well, so this is my guide to the FX Piledriver line. This guide will be expanded a few times to include many different topics relating to the FX Piledriver line so it will take a little bit of time to be complete.
First topic Who would benefit from a FX Piledriver processor. This question is asked more often than almost any other right now. It is an interesting time as far as processors go right now. Intel has released their Skylake processor line with Kaby Lake on the horizon and AMD is gearing up to launch their exciting new Zen architecture. So where does the older Piledriver FX “stack up” and fit in with newer Intel and Zen architectures and who should consider either upgrading to or building a new FX Piledriver system? To answer this you have to take several things into consideration:
1. Are you looking to upgrade your current computer or are you building from scratch? And of course what is your budget? AMD makes the some of the very best budget processors available.
-If you have a “healthy” budget and have no problem buying a new motherboard, RAM, and processor then my recommendation is going for either Intel Skylake or waiting a couple more months for AMD Zen and Intel Kaby Lake to launch and then choose which processor line has the best performance per cost and fits your needs the best.
-Upgrading to AMD Zen or Intel Skylake / Kaby Lake will give you the very best high performance machine possible.
-If you are on a tighter budget or just want to save money and upgrade from a older processor while keeping an existing AM3+ motherboard and DDR3 RAM then there is nothing wrong with upgrading to an FX Piledriver 6 or 8 core processor. However you first have to ensure your system can handle the upgrade.
-To upgrade to either the 6 core (FX 6300, FX 6350) or the full 8 core (FX 8320(E), FX 8350, FX 8370(E), or the FX 9000 series you will need to have a AM3+ motherboard.
-If you want to upgrade to the FX 8 core processors you will also need a tier 1 or 2 power supply unit (psu) capable of handling the 125W TDP (Unless you upgrade to the more power efficient “E” series which operates at 95W TDP). You need to ensure that your psu is powerful enough to handle your entire systems power draw and if you are going to be overclocking have an extra additional 100W available.
-If you are looking to upgrade to the FX 8 core processors you should have a motherboard with 8+2 power phase to properly support the FX 8 core processor. Some motherboards with 4+1 power phase are suitable to handle the “E” series processor (FX 8320E and FX 8370E) as they are 95W TDP processors, if you are unsure if your motherboard is capable of supporting the FX 8 core processors be sure to ask.
-If you are building from scratch continue reading:
2. What do you need your computer to do? What is the primary use for your computer?
-If your primary use is gaming and your computer will only be turned on long enough to play a game for several hours and then be turned off as soon as you are done (ie using a computer as a glorified console system) you would be better served with an Intel iCore processor (i5 Haswell or better) or waiting and upgrading to Zen, unless of course you are upgrading from an older AMD processor on a AM3+ motherboard.
-If you are upgrading from an older AMD processor, don’t lose heart or think that your new upgraded computer can’t run games. I have the FX 8370 and can run all newer games @ 1080p, 60+ FPS with all Ultra settings and have no issues. You can get better FPS with an i5 Haswell however most times the real world difference in performance between Intel i5 and AMD FX comes down to under 10FPS which is barely noticeable.
-If your primary use is more well-rounded, ie your computer is used for web browsing, word processing, video rendering and editing, and gaming then an FX can be a very good value.
-FX piledriver 6 and 8 core processors can outperform Intel i5 processors in highly multithreaded tasks and applications.
-FX 6 and 8 core processors can produce better performance when having many internet pages open at the same time, are video rendering or editing, or are recording and streaming video gameplay.
-The flagship FX 8370 still outperforms even Intel Skylake i5 processors in video rendering and editing as well as other highly multithreaded applications and is cheaper than i5 processors making it a very cost effective video editing system only being outperformed by much more expensive Intel i7 builds. Simply put the FX 8370 is the best budget build video rendering / editing system there is, outperforming Intel i5s and coming in much cheaper than Intel i7s.
So who would I recommend a FX Piledriver system to? I would recommend the FX processors to anyone upgrading from an older processor with a compatible AM3+ motherboard. The FX processors make a really nice upgrade from older 4 or even 6 core AMD processors, however if you have a hexacore Phenom II processor the only real upgrade would be going to 8 core FX and I would suggest the FX 8370 to see a real bump in performance. I would also recommend an FX Piledriver new build to anyone looking for an excellent budget video editing / rendering or other heavy multi-tasking system. For anyone looking to build a new system that brings us to the next section.
3. Intel is ahead of AMD in overall performance and efficiency.
-If you want the most power efficient processor available right now Intel is the way to go, however bear in mind that the actual power usage difference between Intel and AMD will on average only be 30 cents a month on your power bill so cost of operation isn’t really an issue.
-Intel (especially i7s) hold a performance advantage over AMD. Intel processors have better IPC and single core per core performance over AMD FX. For this reason Intel processors will hold a performance advantage over FX in games and other applications that only require a few cores (i7 will of course hold a performance advantage across the board).
-Keep in mind that Intel processors are more expensive than FX processors so you will pay for that performance advantage.
4. AMD is set to release Zen as early as October 2016. Zen is AMDs new architecture which is very exciting and has many people saying will bring big changes to the high end computer market.
-Zen is slated to have 40% IPC gain over AMDs current Excavator architecture. That alone would place Zen at the same IPC single core performance as Intel Haswell and is a huge leap for AMD. However the latest leaks from AMD are now stating that Zen is performing better than anticipated and has “better than” 40% IPC gain over Excavator. Along with this exciting news is news that Zen should be releasing October 2016 with 8 core FX Zen processors. That means that if all the leaks are correct 8 core Zen processors (if 8 thread) should outperform 4 core (4 thread) i5 Skylake processors and if the 8 core Zen processors are 8 core 16 thread should be able to outperform 4 core (8 thread) i7 Skylake processors.
For these reasons if you are building from the ground up and want the best performance possible my recommendation is to hold off a few months and see what AMD Zen brings to the table and how it compares to Intel's current offerings before deciding on building a system.
Next topic: So you have read though and decided that the FX Piledriver will be a good choice for you to build / upgrade to.
So Which FX Piledriver processor is right for you?
-If you are looking to upgrade from an older processor and have found that your motherboard supports FX but isn’t really the of the best quality, only has 4+1 power phase, or your primary need is gaming then the FX 6300 or FX 6350 is the best upgrade choice. Of the two processors the FX 6350 has better binning so if you are overclocking and looking for the best performance possible the FX 6350 is the best choice. If you aren’t overclocking or just looking for a very mild overclock then the FX 6300 is a better value.
-If you are upgrading from an older processor and have found that your motherboard is of good quality but only has 4+1 power phase then you have a choice between the FX 6300, FX 6350, FX 8320E or FX 8370E. All 4 processors are 95W TDP with the FX 8320E and FX 8370E being 8 core processors. Bear in mind that the “E” series 8 core processors will run stock on 4+1 power phase but overclocking an 8 core “E” series 8 core processor on a motherboard with only 4+1 power phase should not be attempted. Upgrading to a non “E” 8 core FX on a motherboard with 4+1 power phase should never be done.
-If you are upgrading from an older processor and have a quality motherboard with 8+2 power phase or better then you can upgrade to any FX processor, even the FX 9000 series, but I don’t recommend the 9000 series.
-If you have a quality 8+2 power phase motherboard your big decisions will be do you need 8 cores or 6 and which processor is right for your needs.
-If your just gaming 6 cores is plenty, 8 may be utilized with DX 12 but as of right now DX 12 games still aren’t the standard and 6 core systems game just as good as 8core systems.
-If you are planning on using your computer for heavy video editing or rendering or for anything that is going to require a lot of windows open at the same time or several programs / applications running at the same time then an 8 core FX would be better than a 6 core processor.
-We have already been over the 6 core processors, so if you decide you want a FX 8 core processor you have a choice between the FX 8320, 8350, and 8370 or the “E” series FX 8320E or 8370E. I don’t recommend the FX 9000 series as if you want the performance of a FX 9000 series (ie 4.7 to 5Ghz of performance) it is much better to get a FX 8370 and overclock it to 5Ghz+. The FX 8370 is more than capable (on average) of overclocking past 5Ghz with less power draw and heat production than the FX 9590 at stock settings (due to its massive 220W TDP).
-When deciding on which 8 core processor you want keep in mind that the main difference between the processors is binning and tweaks. The 8320 has the lowest binning of the 8 core processors and the FX 8370 has the best binning. The binning really doesn’t have much of an impact at stock speeds, but when overclocking everything is dependent on the binning of the processor. Although early FX 8 core processors had golden examples of the FX 8320 and 8350 that could overclock to 5Ghz+ the process is now in a very mature stage and on average FX 8320s now overclock to about 4.5Ghz, the FX 8350 overclocks to about 4.8Ghz, and the FX 8370 overclocks to 5Ghz+. The “E” series can be expected to overclock about the same as their non “E” bigger brothers, however when overclocking the “E” series they use almost as much power as their bigger brothers and thus negates the main reason of having an “E” processor (ie power efficiency).
-For the highest performance possible my recommendation is the FX 8370. The FX 8370 has performance tweaks making it perform slightly better than the FX 8350 and has slightly better power efficiency than the FX 8350. The FX 8370 also has AMDs best binning so it will overclock on average better than any other 8 core processor. If you want 5Ghz+ out of a processor my recommendation is always the FX 8370.
-If you are building from the ground up the choice of processors is the same as above , just keep in mind that if you are building a 6 core system a quality motherboard with 4+1 power phase is sufficient, if you are building for a 8 core processor a quality motherboard with 8+2 power phase is required. My recommendation for motherboard if you are building an 8 core system is the new 970 gaming motherboards with 8+2 power phase or if you want the very best performance possible a 990FX chipset with 8+2 or better power phase.
-As stated a FX 8370 build with quality 8+2 power phase motherboard is the very best budget video editing / rendering system available. The system will run any heavily multi-threaded application better than Intel i5s (while on average being cheaper) and come in much cheaper than an Intel i7 system. FX 6 and 8 core systems also make very capable gaming systems. As stated my FX 8370 runs all the modern games at 1080p, 60FPS+ smooth as butter.
Overclocking the FX Piledriver.
-You can’t really have a FX Piledriver guide without talking about overclocking as 90% of people who have a FX Piledriver processor are going to overclock it as some point in time.
-There really is no reason to rewrite an entire guide when there is already an excellent guide available. Make sure to read and follow the linked guide below.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard
-For first time overclockers I always recommend doing a multiplier only overclock as it is much less complex than fsb overclocking.
First topic Who would benefit from a FX Piledriver processor. This question is asked more often than almost any other right now. It is an interesting time as far as processors go right now. Intel has released their Skylake processor line with Kaby Lake on the horizon and AMD is gearing up to launch their exciting new Zen architecture. So where does the older Piledriver FX “stack up” and fit in with newer Intel and Zen architectures and who should consider either upgrading to or building a new FX Piledriver system? To answer this you have to take several things into consideration:
1. Are you looking to upgrade your current computer or are you building from scratch? And of course what is your budget? AMD makes the some of the very best budget processors available.
-If you have a “healthy” budget and have no problem buying a new motherboard, RAM, and processor then my recommendation is going for either Intel Skylake or waiting a couple more months for AMD Zen and Intel Kaby Lake to launch and then choose which processor line has the best performance per cost and fits your needs the best.
-Upgrading to AMD Zen or Intel Skylake / Kaby Lake will give you the very best high performance machine possible.
-If you are on a tighter budget or just want to save money and upgrade from a older processor while keeping an existing AM3+ motherboard and DDR3 RAM then there is nothing wrong with upgrading to an FX Piledriver 6 or 8 core processor. However you first have to ensure your system can handle the upgrade.
-To upgrade to either the 6 core (FX 6300, FX 6350) or the full 8 core (FX 8320(E), FX 8350, FX 8370(E), or the FX 9000 series you will need to have a AM3+ motherboard.
-If you want to upgrade to the FX 8 core processors you will also need a tier 1 or 2 power supply unit (psu) capable of handling the 125W TDP (Unless you upgrade to the more power efficient “E” series which operates at 95W TDP). You need to ensure that your psu is powerful enough to handle your entire systems power draw and if you are going to be overclocking have an extra additional 100W available.
-If you are looking to upgrade to the FX 8 core processors you should have a motherboard with 8+2 power phase to properly support the FX 8 core processor. Some motherboards with 4+1 power phase are suitable to handle the “E” series processor (FX 8320E and FX 8370E) as they are 95W TDP processors, if you are unsure if your motherboard is capable of supporting the FX 8 core processors be sure to ask.
-If you are building from scratch continue reading:
2. What do you need your computer to do? What is the primary use for your computer?
-If your primary use is gaming and your computer will only be turned on long enough to play a game for several hours and then be turned off as soon as you are done (ie using a computer as a glorified console system) you would be better served with an Intel iCore processor (i5 Haswell or better) or waiting and upgrading to Zen, unless of course you are upgrading from an older AMD processor on a AM3+ motherboard.
-If you are upgrading from an older AMD processor, don’t lose heart or think that your new upgraded computer can’t run games. I have the FX 8370 and can run all newer games @ 1080p, 60+ FPS with all Ultra settings and have no issues. You can get better FPS with an i5 Haswell however most times the real world difference in performance between Intel i5 and AMD FX comes down to under 10FPS which is barely noticeable.
-If your primary use is more well-rounded, ie your computer is used for web browsing, word processing, video rendering and editing, and gaming then an FX can be a very good value.
-FX piledriver 6 and 8 core processors can outperform Intel i5 processors in highly multithreaded tasks and applications.
-FX 6 and 8 core processors can produce better performance when having many internet pages open at the same time, are video rendering or editing, or are recording and streaming video gameplay.
-The flagship FX 8370 still outperforms even Intel Skylake i5 processors in video rendering and editing as well as other highly multithreaded applications and is cheaper than i5 processors making it a very cost effective video editing system only being outperformed by much more expensive Intel i7 builds. Simply put the FX 8370 is the best budget build video rendering / editing system there is, outperforming Intel i5s and coming in much cheaper than Intel i7s.
So who would I recommend a FX Piledriver system to? I would recommend the FX processors to anyone upgrading from an older processor with a compatible AM3+ motherboard. The FX processors make a really nice upgrade from older 4 or even 6 core AMD processors, however if you have a hexacore Phenom II processor the only real upgrade would be going to 8 core FX and I would suggest the FX 8370 to see a real bump in performance. I would also recommend an FX Piledriver new build to anyone looking for an excellent budget video editing / rendering or other heavy multi-tasking system. For anyone looking to build a new system that brings us to the next section.
3. Intel is ahead of AMD in overall performance and efficiency.
-If you want the most power efficient processor available right now Intel is the way to go, however bear in mind that the actual power usage difference between Intel and AMD will on average only be 30 cents a month on your power bill so cost of operation isn’t really an issue.
-Intel (especially i7s) hold a performance advantage over AMD. Intel processors have better IPC and single core per core performance over AMD FX. For this reason Intel processors will hold a performance advantage over FX in games and other applications that only require a few cores (i7 will of course hold a performance advantage across the board).
-Keep in mind that Intel processors are more expensive than FX processors so you will pay for that performance advantage.
4. AMD is set to release Zen as early as October 2016. Zen is AMDs new architecture which is very exciting and has many people saying will bring big changes to the high end computer market.
-Zen is slated to have 40% IPC gain over AMDs current Excavator architecture. That alone would place Zen at the same IPC single core performance as Intel Haswell and is a huge leap for AMD. However the latest leaks from AMD are now stating that Zen is performing better than anticipated and has “better than” 40% IPC gain over Excavator. Along with this exciting news is news that Zen should be releasing October 2016 with 8 core FX Zen processors. That means that if all the leaks are correct 8 core Zen processors (if 8 thread) should outperform 4 core (4 thread) i5 Skylake processors and if the 8 core Zen processors are 8 core 16 thread should be able to outperform 4 core (8 thread) i7 Skylake processors.
For these reasons if you are building from the ground up and want the best performance possible my recommendation is to hold off a few months and see what AMD Zen brings to the table and how it compares to Intel's current offerings before deciding on building a system.
Next topic: So you have read though and decided that the FX Piledriver will be a good choice for you to build / upgrade to.
So Which FX Piledriver processor is right for you?
-If you are looking to upgrade from an older processor and have found that your motherboard supports FX but isn’t really the of the best quality, only has 4+1 power phase, or your primary need is gaming then the FX 6300 or FX 6350 is the best upgrade choice. Of the two processors the FX 6350 has better binning so if you are overclocking and looking for the best performance possible the FX 6350 is the best choice. If you aren’t overclocking or just looking for a very mild overclock then the FX 6300 is a better value.
-If you are upgrading from an older processor and have found that your motherboard is of good quality but only has 4+1 power phase then you have a choice between the FX 6300, FX 6350, FX 8320E or FX 8370E. All 4 processors are 95W TDP with the FX 8320E and FX 8370E being 8 core processors. Bear in mind that the “E” series 8 core processors will run stock on 4+1 power phase but overclocking an 8 core “E” series 8 core processor on a motherboard with only 4+1 power phase should not be attempted. Upgrading to a non “E” 8 core FX on a motherboard with 4+1 power phase should never be done.
-If you are upgrading from an older processor and have a quality motherboard with 8+2 power phase or better then you can upgrade to any FX processor, even the FX 9000 series, but I don’t recommend the 9000 series.
-If you have a quality 8+2 power phase motherboard your big decisions will be do you need 8 cores or 6 and which processor is right for your needs.
-If your just gaming 6 cores is plenty, 8 may be utilized with DX 12 but as of right now DX 12 games still aren’t the standard and 6 core systems game just as good as 8core systems.
-If you are planning on using your computer for heavy video editing or rendering or for anything that is going to require a lot of windows open at the same time or several programs / applications running at the same time then an 8 core FX would be better than a 6 core processor.
-We have already been over the 6 core processors, so if you decide you want a FX 8 core processor you have a choice between the FX 8320, 8350, and 8370 or the “E” series FX 8320E or 8370E. I don’t recommend the FX 9000 series as if you want the performance of a FX 9000 series (ie 4.7 to 5Ghz of performance) it is much better to get a FX 8370 and overclock it to 5Ghz+. The FX 8370 is more than capable (on average) of overclocking past 5Ghz with less power draw and heat production than the FX 9590 at stock settings (due to its massive 220W TDP).
-When deciding on which 8 core processor you want keep in mind that the main difference between the processors is binning and tweaks. The 8320 has the lowest binning of the 8 core processors and the FX 8370 has the best binning. The binning really doesn’t have much of an impact at stock speeds, but when overclocking everything is dependent on the binning of the processor. Although early FX 8 core processors had golden examples of the FX 8320 and 8350 that could overclock to 5Ghz+ the process is now in a very mature stage and on average FX 8320s now overclock to about 4.5Ghz, the FX 8350 overclocks to about 4.8Ghz, and the FX 8370 overclocks to 5Ghz+. The “E” series can be expected to overclock about the same as their non “E” bigger brothers, however when overclocking the “E” series they use almost as much power as their bigger brothers and thus negates the main reason of having an “E” processor (ie power efficiency).
-For the highest performance possible my recommendation is the FX 8370. The FX 8370 has performance tweaks making it perform slightly better than the FX 8350 and has slightly better power efficiency than the FX 8350. The FX 8370 also has AMDs best binning so it will overclock on average better than any other 8 core processor. If you want 5Ghz+ out of a processor my recommendation is always the FX 8370.
-If you are building from the ground up the choice of processors is the same as above , just keep in mind that if you are building a 6 core system a quality motherboard with 4+1 power phase is sufficient, if you are building for a 8 core processor a quality motherboard with 8+2 power phase is required. My recommendation for motherboard if you are building an 8 core system is the new 970 gaming motherboards with 8+2 power phase or if you want the very best performance possible a 990FX chipset with 8+2 or better power phase.
-As stated a FX 8370 build with quality 8+2 power phase motherboard is the very best budget video editing / rendering system available. The system will run any heavily multi-threaded application better than Intel i5s (while on average being cheaper) and come in much cheaper than an Intel i7 system. FX 6 and 8 core systems also make very capable gaming systems. As stated my FX 8370 runs all the modern games at 1080p, 60FPS+ smooth as butter.
Overclocking the FX Piledriver.
-You can’t really have a FX Piledriver guide without talking about overclocking as 90% of people who have a FX Piledriver processor are going to overclock it as some point in time.
-There really is no reason to rewrite an entire guide when there is already an excellent guide available. Make sure to read and follow the linked guide below.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard
-For first time overclockers I always recommend doing a multiplier only overclock as it is much less complex than fsb overclocking.
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