AMD FX-8350 “Piledriver” Processor Review

Hardware Setup:

Test system:

• Motherboard:
  • Asus Crosshair V Formula (Socket AM3+) AMD 990FX/SB950 Chipset
• Processors:
  • AMD FX-8350 (Vishera) 4.0 GHz (20 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3+
  • AMD FX-8150 (Zambezi) 3.6 GHz (18 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3+
•  Memory
  • Kingston HyperX (KHX2133C9AD3T1FK4/8GX) 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-2133
• Hard drive:
  • Crucial M4 256GB SSD
• Video Card:
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 1.5 GB
• Power supply:
  • NZXT 1000W
• Cooling:
  • AMD FX closed loop water cooler (similar to the Antec Kuhler 920).
• Operating System:
  • Windows 7 Ultimate x64

In our tests, we will pit the FX-8350 against AMD’s previous “Bulldozer” based FX-8150 to see just how much of a performance gain the new cores really bring to the table. We will run a variety of synthetic tests, gaming, and we will also take a crack on finding a stable 24/7 overclock. Obviously with the overclock, some features will be disabled (i.e. Turbo core). All tests run will include for the FX-8150, FX-8350 (base), and FX-8350 overclocked.

Overclocking:

Before we get into the tests, let’s take a moment to discuss how well the FX-8350 overclocks. Not everyone is going to feel comfortable overclocking a CPU, mainly because the process can be more of an art then a science. However, I can say that some processors are easier to overclock then others, and right off the bat I can say that the FX-8350 is probably one of the easiest CPUs I have overclocked in sometime. This chip really seems comfortable running at higher clock speeds. So my plan was to find a stable 24/7 overclock that would require the least amount of additional voltage to the CPU and NB and stay around 50c under loads. There are many people that are comfortable overclocking their CPU’s with higher load temps, but at some point heat becomes your biggest enemy.

With a simple bump in ratio, and stock voltage I was able to get a stable 4.4Ghz (200×22) overclock, but ultimately was able to nudge the bus speed to 210 with a slight boost in CPU voltage (1.4) for a stable 4.6Ghz overclock that ran with almost no heat increase…which is almost perfect.

Now I did want to see how much I could push this CPU and where I was able to get stable overclocks of 4.8Ghz and 5.0Ghz, it the required voltage jumps nearing the high end (1.45/1.5 on the CPU). This ultimately lead to some really high load temps, that I was uncomfortable accepting as a 24/7 overclock. There just seemed to be a pocket at 4.8Ghz that required to much additional effort (voltage and cooling) to justify, which is why I kept coming back to the 4.6Ghz overclock as my particular “sweet spot” given my particular cooling setup(and this is running the fan on extreme…or leaf blower mode).

  Previous Page         1. Overview2. Closer Look3. Hardware Setup and Overclocking4. PCMark 75. SiSoftware Sandra 20126. x264 HD and CINEBENCH7. Gaming Benchmarks8. Conclusion9. View All         Next Page