AMD Bulldozer aka FX series CPU Reviews

[Goku]

BD is a dud actually in my opinion. Anyway will be interesting to see where it goes in the future in terms of new designs.

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by cain marko

this is actually proves this is no dud from AMD and does have a good future.

At best, they made a CPU that can't meet it's potential, and thus will perform badly until after it's successor has been released...How is that not a dud?

[Mutant]

Originally Posted by Vancha

At best, they made a CPU that can't meet it's potential, and thus will perform badly until after it's successor has been released...How is that not a dud?

I think it is quite clear that it has somthing "wrong" with it. For a 2 Billion transistor chip it seems sorely lacking.

Maybe it was just targeted to server/HPC workloads and desktop was an afterthought. looks like AVX and FMA make quite a difference to workloads that can take advantage of the new extenions.
http://translate.google.com/translat...en/index17.php


This is interesting too;http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...Threaded-Perf.
Benchmarks showing the differance between 2M/4C and 4M/4C.



All that being said the only metrics that matter are performance/$ and performance/watt for the workloads you accutaly run. I would take an FX-8150 at <$200. (FX-8150 really is not bad at all for well threaded gaming, seems to regularly beat the 2600K in modern games like BF3 and DE:HR)

[Vancha]

Right. If they'd said they were making a server/HPC CPU, I think everyone would've been fine with it. As it is, they purposely marketed it to the enthusiast crowd. Bringing back the "FX" alone raised expectations because of what it hailed back to. Breaking the OC record, the slides they put out etc. were all aimed towards making people think this would be something it clearly isn't. It's a marketing failure as much as anything.

[Bags]

Originally Posted by Mutant

. (FX-8150 really is not bad at all for well threaded gaming, seems to regularly beat the 2600K in modern games like BF3 and DE:HR)

I like how in their closing thoughts under "pros" they list that it;s faster than the 2500k... for an extra $60 I'd damn well hope so.

lol

[Traak]

Liquid-nitrogen overclocking of AMD Bulldozer running on only four cores

According to AMD, in this article, the Bulldozer can see 5Ghz with only a 100 dollar cooling solution.

Hm. I wonder what that 100 dollar cooling solution is?

If all I have to do to OC a BD to 5GHz is spend a hundred bux, it becomes more appealing to see how far I could take it.

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by Traak

Liquid-nitrogen overclocking of AMD Bulldozer running on only four cores

According to AMD, in this article, the Bulldozer can see 5Ghz with only a 100 dollar cooling solution.

Hm. I wonder what that 100 dollar cooling solution is?

If all I have to do to OC a BD to 5GHz is spend a hundred bux, it becomes more appealing to see how far I could take it.

From what I've gathered, you'd have police coming round to arrest you for running a domestic nuclear reactor with a 5GHz Bulldozer.

[Chaff]

Originally Posted by Goku

Review List:

Hard OCP - CPU tasks - Gaming Performance
Hardware Canucks
Guru 3D
Hardware Heaven


My previous opinion is still the same. I am underwhelmed by the performance. Gaming performance is so so and even loses to the former 1100T (AMD six core CPU) at times. There is times in highly multi threaded programs it comes out ahead of the 2600K or matches it, but this doesn't really matter to gamers. I still don't see myself recommending these unless we see them get a good price cut in the coming months.

The Anandtech review pretty much says the same thing. It's the only review I've read through, but it was enough to make me think the 2600K will be it for me for the next year or so. Doesn't look like AMD will match or significantly improve beyond the 2600K until 2013 at the soonest .... and by then the 2600K will have been replaced.

I don't know what to make of the PCI3 video cards and the 32 GB bandwith .... and 22nm CPU .... and Ivy Bridge ..... too many compatability questions for me at the moment.

I think I'll jump in under (or close to) the $2,000 price point - and then play the upgrade strategy you originally expoused to me.

BTW - I CLOSE escrow tomorrow. I'll have to spend $10-$20K to bring the house up to acceptable cosmetic level. I'll be done by mid-November.

Looks like the early Holiday (December) window will be my shopping time.

[Goku]

Originally Posted by Chaff

The Anandtech review pretty much says the same thing. It's the only review I've read through, but it was enough to make me think the 2600K will be it for me for the next year or so.

I don't know what to make of the PCI3 video cards and the 32 GB bandwith .... and 22nm CPU .... and Ivy Bridge ..... too many compatability questions for me at the moment.

I think I'll jump in under (or close to) the $2,000 price point - and then play the upgrade strategy you originally expoused to me.

BTW - I CLOSE escrow tomorrow. I'll have to spend $10-$20K to bring the house up to acceptable cosmetic level. I'll be done by mid-November.

Looks like the early Holiday (December) window will be my shopping time.

Another 10 pages of questions incoming.

[Chaff]

Not until December, and I think I'll be much more in-line with your point-of-view than you seem to think.
I'll annoy (mildly) in December.

[Goku]

Intel SB-E is coming out in November and AMD **may** (only slight chance) have their next gen cards out early December. Yes I am expecting lots of questions .

[Bags]

Originally Posted by Goku

Intel SB-E is coming out in November and AMD **may** (only slight chance) have their next gen cards out early December. Yes I am expecting lots of questions .

What is your favorite color?

[Goku]

Originally Posted by Bags

What is your favorite color?

As in brand or actually? Brand wise I've swapped back and forth since 2005. Actual color is blue.