It's been in the works for over three years now. That's right, the first
we heard of "Bulldozer" as a processor architecture under development
was shortly after the launch of "Barcelona" K10 architecture. Granted,
it wasn't possible to load close to 2 billion transistors on the silicon
fab technology AMD had at the time, but AMD had a clear window over the
last year to at least paper-launch the AMD FX. Delays and bad marketing
may have cost AMD dearly in shaping up the product for the market.
After drawing a consensus from about 25 reviews (links in Today's Reviews on the front page), it emerges that:
source:http://www.techpowerup.com/153452/Review-Consensus-AMD-FX-Processor-8150-Underwhelming.html
After drawing a consensus from about 25 reviews (links in Today's Reviews on the front page), it emerges that:
- AMD FX-8150 is missing its performance expectations by a fair margin. Not to mention performance gains in its own presentation,
these expectations were built up by how AMD was shaping the product to
be a full-fledged enthusiast product with significant performance gains
over the previous generation
- AMD ill-marketed the FX-8150. Hype is a double-edged sword, and
should not be used if you're not confident your offering will live up
to at least most of the hype. AMD marketed at least the top-tier FX-8000
series eight-core processors as the second coming of Athlon64 FX.
- FX-8150 launch isn't backed up by launch of other AMD
FX processors. This could go on to become a blunder. The presence of
other FX series processors such as the FX-8120, six-core and four-core
FX processors could have at least made the price performance charts look
better, given that all FX processors are unlocked, buyers could see the
value in buying them to overclock. TweakTown took a closer look into this.
- There are no significant clock-for-clock improvements over even
AMD's own previous generation. The FX-8150 drags its feet behind the
Phenom II X6 1100T in single-threaded math benchmarks such as
Super/HyperPi, the picture isn't any better with Cinebench
single-threaded, either.
- Multi-threaded data streaming applications such as data
compression (WINRAR, 7-ZIP) reveal the FX-8150 to catch up with
competition from even the Core i7-2600K. This trend keeps up with
popular video encoding benchmarks such as Handbrake and x264 HD.
- Load power draw is bad, by today's standards. It's not like AMD
is lagging behind in silicon fabrication technologies, or the
engineering potential that turned around AMD Radeon power consumption
figures over generations.
- Price could be a major saving grace. In the end, AMD FX 8150
has an acceptable price-performance figure. At just $25 over the Core
i5-2500K, the FX-8150 offers a good performance lead.
- Impressive overclocking potential. We weren't exactly in awe
when AMD announced its Guinness Record-breaking overclocking feat, but
reviewers across the board have noticed fairly good overclocking
potential and performance scaling.
source:http://www.techpowerup.com/153452/Review-Consensus-AMD-FX-Processor-8150-Underwhelming.html
