AMD FX-8150 CPU Overclocking Review: A Bulldozer for Gamers?

[siopao1984]

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Game - Street Fighter 4 (DX9)

Settings:

Resolution: 1920x1200

Parallel Rendering: On

Texture Filter: 16x

Everything else: High or Highest



The FX-8150 gains a lot from overclocking here, but its still unable to catch the i7-2600K.



Game - Final Fantasy XIV (DX9)

1920x1080 HIGH Preset



Yet another win for Intel here.



Game - Left 4 Dead 2 (DX9)

1920x1080 Max Quality



The Source Engine that Left 4 Dead 2 uses is highly multithreaded and less of a GPU Hog. We see AMD losing by almost 50% here.

[siopao1984]

Power Consumption





The results are shockingly bad to say the least. On overclocked full load, the power usage of the slower FX-8150 was nearly TWICE that of the faster i7-2600K. We haven't seen such monstrous power usages except in some dual socket systems or extreme overclocking (which ours isn't). We redid the tests multiple times using different motherboards and power measuring equipment but the results were the same everytime. Using a multimeter, the 12v rail on the extra 8+4pin CPU connectors also measured a whopping ~23A. With overclocked power loads like these, its no wonder AMD has to ship a water cooling solution together with the chip.



Performance per Dollar & Power Efficiency:

For this segment, we used the Cinebench R11.529 scores from the benchmarks and got the Intel i7-2600K pricing from Newegg.





The overclocked FX-8150 scored a pyrrhic victory in the performance per dollar comparison - it was BADLY let down in the power efficiency tests by a huge margin which implies significantly higher electrical bills if you are overclocking the FX-8150.

[siopao1984]

Conclusion



Our readers will be thoroughly disappointed with the overall lackadaisical showing of the new AMD FX-8150 today, especially with the ridiculous overclocked power consumption figures on load. The review team took great lengths to check and recheck our benchmarks and methology and even used different motherboards, bios versions, drivers and chips, but the results remained stubbornly the same. People living in denial/Spin doctors/I have 0 friends may argue that the results are "good enough" or that our software suite is "not optimized for the new instruction sets" - you really can't build a competitive solution only for the future and expect every piece of software from Angry Birds to business mission critical applications to operating systems to be recompiled and tested overnight just to support a niche architecture. Moreover not every practical workload can utilize the new instruction sets without significant algorithmic changes and more crucially most software applications today remain largely single-threaded.

Clock for clock in multithreading heavy scenarios the FX-8150 is typically behind the quad core i7-2600K by ~20%, and in single-threaded workloads it gets totally annihilated. Overclocking was also nothing to shout about, as it needed a significant voltage bump to even reach a (prime stable) 4.7GHz on noisy air. Bluntly, the performance we are seeing from the 8-core FX-8150 today is only marginally better than last year's high end quad core Intel i7 "Nehelam" and AMD's own Phenom II "Thuban" 6-core offerings, and definitely not a "i7-990X killer" as hyped over the last few months. No disrespect intended to the record holders but disabling cores to achieve high frequencies is just going to confuse unsuspecting buyers and split-second CPU-Z screenshots is not a measure of true stability.

Pricing wise (US$245) it is also more expensive than the Intel i5-2500K (US$219.99), which should be on par or ahead performance and overclocking wise despite its 4-core/thread handicap. However, in some markets a sub US$100 water cooling solution will be bundled, making it better value for money and frankly quite necessary considering its humongous power output while overclocking.

What would really save the day for AMD now is that if the sub US$200 6-core FX-6100 or even the 4-core FX-41xx gets core/module unlocks with special bios sauce - we have seen this done before with the Phenom II.

A short mention for the ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard that we used in the review today - the UEFI bios options were verbose and had a very practical layout for serious overclocking (we really HATE obtuse interfaces and gratuitous bloatware from some of the other motherboard vendors). You really need the excellent power regulation and components that this board is built with, as the chip will pull up to a whopping 26.5A from the 12v CPU rails (from the 8pin and 4pin connectors before OCP kicks in) during extreme overclocking loads.

Next year, we will get to see the next-generation Bulldozer (codenamed "Piledriver", basically more instruction sets and optimizations) together with AMD's move to 32nm SOI HKMG production. Hopefully AMD will address the dismal performance and massive power leakage issues as Intel will by then be out with LGA2011 based Sandy Bridge-E for enthusiasts and eventually the Ivy Bridge refresh for LGA1155.

Would you buy this chip? Let us know what you think.

[grifter127]

Now that its finally out...i'll have to say that i'll be going for Intel i5 2500k..wooohooooo!!!

[breinrules]

All the hopes just waned like a dust in the wind

But the lower end is good, affordable price and faster than i3. I hope the board also matches the 1155 price to remain competitive

[ct22eton21]

yeah the bulldozer's performance is very disappointing haha good choice jd ang nag.Intel set-up.
Anyway, see another link sad medjo mas kompleto nga reviews with comparisons :AMD Bulldozer FX-8150 Processor Review

Intel user's point of view before sa release sa Bulldozer : If it can par head to head with Sandy Bridge, Sandy Bridge's price will surely drop.. "wenk wenk" unta...
From a neutral point of view: before the review = Bulldozer is very promising (Ill hold my pocket for some time before AMD release it) After the full reviews came out : NAH BULLDOZER IS A BIG SHAME EVEN TO ITS OWN NAME CANT BEAT EVEN THE PHENOM II X6 1100T HEAD TO HEAD COMPARISON
Ill go intel 100%

"Actions speak louder than words" I'm still hoping mous-us ang presyo sa i72600K para kaupgrade nako

[bim27142]

big OMG?! AMD is gonna die?! back to intel camp?!

[butitoy]

and u can one these 8core madness..

if you are in the states...

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[breinrules]

and u can one these 8core madness..

if you are in the states...

waaaaaaaa

AMD Bulldozer Arrives. Enter to Win One of Your Own.

We have a chance of winning man

like this page Mass Luminosity | Facebook
I luckily won a gaming mouse, unfortunately, mao ra ako nadaug but still good.
This is not a scam coz the owner is the creator of what we call now E Sports

[butitoy]

^^ can i use ur account?

L0Lz!

for whatever its worth...

AMD had just made intel shove more monopoly in our ashes..