New amd fx series: Used — Like New: AMD FX-8120 — FX-Series Zambezi 8-Core 3.1 GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Desktop Processor — FD8120FRGUBOX

AMD FX-8370E CPU Review: Vishera Down to 95W, Price Cuts for FXCPU BenchmarksGaming BenchmarksAMD FX-8370E Conclusion

I will be honest, after AMD did not update its FX processor line using the Steamroller architecture, I was not too hopeful for the brand to see anything new in 2014. But since the start of the year the 5 GHz turbo FX-9590 has been rereleased as a consumer part and today AMD is showing it can get four Piledriver modules down to 95W with a few frequency adjustments and cherry picking the dies. This is accompanied with price cuts for the eight-thread FX parts, which AMD is aiming squarely at similarly priced Intel i5 and i3 processors.

The Information

The new CPUs being released today come in three flavors. The FX-8370 is an upgraded version of the FX-8350, giving an extra bump in clock speeds over the FX-8350 in the same 125W envelope. The other two processors, the FX-8370E and FX-8320E, carry this new ‘E’ designation from AMD, representing their ‘energy efficient’ range. For these processors, this means a four-module die with 8 threads with turbo frequencies matching their non-E counterparts but base frequencies reduced slightly.

Part of this makes you wonder just how much energy is used per MHz to hit the high numbers. It only takes a relatively small drop in base frequency to net a large power gain. We saw similar things from AMD with their 65W configurable TDP Kaveri parts earlier this year.

The base frequency drop does come across as a larger number than a first glance might suggest. The FX-8370E is 700 MHz lower than the FX-8370, while the FX-8320E is only 300 MHz lower. While I can imagine that 700 MHz reduces the power consumption by 30W, the 300 MHz number might indicate a better binned CPU from AMD. One of the issues AMD will have however is the Turbo mode. In the past, only specific workloads seem to cause the low thread count/high frequencies to kick in, meaning that an abnormal workload will keep the frequency low.

Also, unlike on Intel’s side of the fence, the motherboard manufacturers have not embraced MultiCore Turbo on AMD with the same gusto. This is a feature that places all the cores of the CPU in its highest frequency state any time it is not idle in order to allow software to be completed faster at the expense of power consumption and some heat. While this does not affect our testing due to the way we test, it might affect the experience the user has on a day-to-day level by being down on the top turbo mode.

In terms of the processor architecture, one of the most obvious questions to ask is:

Why update the FX line with more Vishera based processors? Can’t we get an update?

AMD’s reasoning for these new processors, apart from the slowly increasing yields of the higher bin parts over the past year and tweaking the overall design, is because of the motherboards available on the market. Due to the construction of some of the early motherboards intended for AMD’s no-IGP line, these early motherboards could only support 95W or 125W maximum, let alone the 220W of the FX-9590/9370 behemoths. By releasing an 8-thread Vishera processor with a 95W TDP, this allows these users to upgrade without spending an extra $120-$200 on a new motherboard.

With our CPU sample from AMD, we were also sent one of the newest motherboards that shows this limitation. We ran a news item on the 990FX Killer when it was first announced, and it was interesting due to its use of M.2 on 990FX. One of the items I spotted at the time on the specifications sheet was its recommended limit of processors: 125W TDP maximum. At the time (December 2013) AMD’s Roy Taylor and I discussed this on Twitter. It seemed odd that new motherboards were coming out that would not support AMD’s fastest CPU, even though motherboard manufacturers and AMD’s partners wanted to push the FX-9590 as the top end product. To solve that conundrum, this line of E processors was launched.

At the moment, AMD’s future roadmaps do not include FX processors based on new architectures, and there is no publicly disclosed new chipset, as we discussed in our recent FX-9590 review.

However, during the pre-briefings for these processors with AMD, one series of lines from AMD’s Adam Kozak piqued my interest, regarding the future of the FX processor line. Particularly mentioned was the lack of further FX updates for the rest of 2014, however there were indications that 2015 might hold something. AMD’s James Prior answered an email of mine regarding the exact wording, and aside from confirming that AMD are committed to supporting the current AM3+ lineup, one line gives hope:

“The AMD of today is funding the AMD of tomorrow by working hard to ensure the ongoing success of products like FX.”

To say ‘today funds tomorrow’ is no big leap of the imagination, but ‘ongoing success’ could stress future updates for the FX line. Now that AMD has started this energy efficient nomenclature, it would make sense to sustain it and introduce it to more of its customers over time. The earliest indication is 2015 for anything slightly new, though it is currently difficult to predict exactly what would be coming. But if we take into context ‘products like FX’, it might imply that there are no future FX parts, or at least how we commonly recognize them.

But for now we have the energy efficient side of Vishera to test.

The CPU, The Chipset and The DRAM

While AMD is stating that the 32nm process for Vishera has been updated and tweaked over time to allow for better yields and more efficient products, they have not stated if the silicon is changed in any way. For all intents and purposes, 32nm is getting a bit long in the tooth in the land of processors – Intel’s 14nm designs and second generation tri-gate transistors/FinFETs are almost upon us and 32nm is some way behind.

CPU Specification Comparison
CPU	Manufacturing Process	Cores	GPU	Transistor Count (Schematic)	Die Size
Intel Haswell-E 8C	22nm	8	N/A	2.6B	356mm2
Intel Haswell GT2 4C	22nm	4	GT2	1.4B	177mm2
Intel Haswell ULT GT3 2C	22nm	2	GT3	1. 3B	181mm2
Intel Ivy Bridge-E 6C	22nm	6	N/A	1.86B	257mm2
Intel Ivy Bridge 4C	22nm	4	GT2	1.2B	160mm2
Intel Sandy Bridge- E 6C	32nm	6	N/A	2.27B	435mm2
Intel Sandy Bridge 4C	32nm	4	GT2	995M	216mm2
Intel Lynnfield 4C	45nm	4	N/A	774M	296mm2
AMD Trinity 4C	32nm	4	7660D	1. 303B	246mm2
AMD Vishera 8C	32nm	8	N/A	1.2B	315mm2

AMD is keeping the new energy efficient CPUs in the AM3+ socket, which means the 990FX is still top of the chain. However, these new CPUs are aimed at the lower end motherboards or even the older chipsets that were not designed to cope with >95W TDPs. In AMD’s briefing, they specifically called out the 700 series that supported AM3 and DDR3, although this applies to 800 series and 900 series equally.

The 990FX+SB950 platform combination is still limited to PCIe 2.0 without using a PCIe 3.0 PLX chip, although the connection to the CPU in that orientation is still PCIe 2. 0 — only the data between the GPUs is accelerated. Nevertheless this is still the latest platform from AMD to have SLI support, with the north bridge being able to use two PCIe 2.0 x16 slots. The south bridge gives out the IO, to which we get six SATA 6 Gbps ports that are RAID capable. No native USB 3.0 though, as this combination was introduced before USB 3.0 became a must-have feature. This is one of the common criticisms with AM3+ — it needs a chipset update. There are plenty of PCIe 2.0 x1 ports in order to use USB 3.0 controllers, however this adds cost and AMD motherboards are generally low cost to begin with. It also goes against the mantra AMD is using for the new energy efficient CPUs of keeping the motherboard.

Memory is still DDR3, with the new CPUs natively supporting DDR3-1866 MHz under JEDEC specifications. Nevertheless, in AMD’s pre-brief it was stated that DDR3-2133 overclocking should be possible on almost all samples, with DDR3-2400 being a potential. Normal rules apply with DDR3: if you are buying new, buy a single kit with all the modules you need rather than two kits of the same modules. A kit is by definition only designed to work with itself, and it may be too strict on its timings to work with another kit, even if that kit is the same type. That is why four module kits often have a lower specification than a dual module kit. If the kit cannot combine with another kit at the rated settings, it can be a hard problem to diagnose. However the DDR3 market is quite mature at this stage, with plenty of options available.

Competition and Market

There are many ways in which a manufacturer can order up the competition. We could have 8-thread CPUs against 8-thread CPUs, or we could put 95W CPUs against 95W CPUs. For these processors, due to the accompanied price reduction across most of the FX desktop line, AMD is deciding to compare setups based on price.

This slide AMD provided is rather amusing. It shows that an FX-8320E + R9 280X will perform similarly to an i5-4430 + GTX 770 while being $88 cheaper. This is despite the DOTA 2 benchmark being performed on a UHD monitor which would cost just as much. But then again, perhaps that extra $80 could be going on an SSD – AMD’s focus over the past few years has always been oriented towards the cost effectiveness.

In real terms, the FX-8370 sits between the FX-8350 and the FX-9370, and the FX-8370E/FX-8320E are both equally priced to their non-E counterparts. The tradeoff is that for the lower TDP option, you pay a bit more compared to if we just looked at the speed. 

Unfortunately AMD’s pricing is not telling the whole story. For the FX-9370 and FX-9590, that pricing is for the CPU-only version, whereas the FX-8370 and below pricing includes a boxed cooler. AMD’s reasoning on this is that for users buying the 9000 series, even with the price cuts, many of them will either purchase the version with the all-in-one liquid cooler (+$80 or so), or use their own after-market cooling in order to deal with the 220W TDP.

If we do a direct comparison of the SEP of the new CPUs with prices at retail for Intel Haswell:

At the high end, the FX-9590 has competition with the i5-4670K although with twice as many threads in tow. At the FX-8370 level, the pricing of both the Core i5-4590 and the S model would make for an interesting battle if we had these CPUs in to test. For the FX-8320E, we are split between two Core i3s, meaning that the i3 with two cores and HyperThreading is up against a full 8 threads from the FX-8320E. While this seems one sided, the i3’s power consumption is almost half that of the FX processor. AMD is also keen to point out that all of its CPUs are unlocked for overclocking, unlike the competition where it is limited.

This Review

At this point in time AMD is currently only sampling the FX-8370E to the press, with the other CPUs to follow later this month. Due to our sample arriving only yesterday, this aims to be a quick overview of performance against other processors we have already tested. Note we only have a few from the list above, but as the new processors arrive we can aim for a more targeted punch-counterpunch scenario with overclocked testing. Our testing today encompasses the usual array of CPU and gaming benchmarks at stock speeds and official supported memory frequencies. 

Test Setup

Processor	AMD FX-8370E		4M/8T	3.3 GHz / 4.3 GHz
Motherboard	ASRock 990FX Extreme9
Cooling	Corsair H80i Cooler Master Nepton 140XL
Power Supply	OCZ 1250W Gold ZX Series  Corsair AX1200i Platinum PSU		1250W 1200W	80 PLUS Gold 80 PLUS Platinum
Memory	G. Skill 2×4 GB		DDR3-1866	8-9-9 1.5V
Memory Settings	XMP
Video Cards	MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB (1150/1202 Boost)
Video Drivers	NVIDIA Drivers 337.88
Hard Drive	OCZ Vertex 3
Optical Drive	LG Gh32NS50
Case	Open Test Bed
Operating System	Windows 7 64-bit SP1
USB 2/3 Testing	OCZ Vertex 3 240GB with SATA->USB Adaptor

Many thanks to. ..

We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our test bed:

Thank you to OCZ for providing us with PSUs and SSDs.

Thank you to G.Skill for providing us with memory.

Thank you to Corsair for providing us with an AX1200i PSU and a Corsair H80i CLC.

Thank you to MSI for providing us with the NVIDIA GTX 770 Lightning GPUs.

Thank you to Rosewill for providing us with PSUs and RK-9100 keyboards.

Thank you to ASRock for providing us with some IO testing kit.

Thank you to Cooler Master for providing us with Nepton 140XL CLCs.

Load Delta Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single MSI GTX 770 Lightning GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the OCZ 1250W power supply. This power supply is Gold rated, and as I am in the UK on a 230-240 V supply, leads to ~75% efficiency under 50W and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency.

We take the power delta difference between idle and load as our tested value, giving an indication of the power increase from the CPU when placed under stress. 

I retested our very early FX-8150/FX-8350 samples again for the power tests due to lack of data, and even though the result was very high over several tries it was consistent. Thus the power saving by comparison, switching to the efficient processors is great, but the latest AMD architectures perform best.

CPU Benchmarks
AMD FX-8370E CPU Review: Vishera Down to 95W, Price Cuts for FXCPU BenchmarksGaming BenchmarksAMD FX-8370E Conclusion

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90,000 new line of processors AMD FX

AMD has announced the update of the AMD FX processor line, which included the Ginnes records, continuing the glorious history of the Brand by the release of fully disclosed and postponed and postponed. CPU for high performance desktop users. At the heart of the new AMD FX processor is the revolutionary multi-core Piledriver architecture, which can deliver up to 15% performance gains at a lower price than previous generation processors, with the highest performing processors starting at less than $200. The latest high-performance architecture is designed for multi-threaded applications such as content creation, video and audio encoding, and gaming, providing users with high-speed performance and good multitasking performance.

«Gamers and PC enthusiasts who buy AMD FX processors will be happy with the speed and cost savings we offer them today,» said Leslie Sobon, AMD VP of Desktop Solutions. “Following last year’s release of the world’s first and only 8-core desktop processor, we have further increased clock speeds and introduced a new, high-performance x86 core architecture to users.”

Combined with other AMD technologies such as AMD 9-series chipset based motherboardsand AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 graphics cards with Eyefinity, AMD FX opens the door to a world of new possibilities. AMD also gives you the option to download software updates that let you boost performance with AMD OverDrive™, control your games with AMD Catalyst™ Control Center, or combine the power of multiple graphics cards in parallel with AMD CrossFire technology.

«After what we’ve seen in the previous generation of AMD’s FX series, overclockers can’t wait to see what the new AMD FX processors will bring to the game,» says HWBOT.org Founder and CEO Frederik Colardyn. “If the previous generation set a world clock speed record, then we can expect a higher bar from the new AMD FX line.”

007

# of CPU Cores	8	8	6	4
MAX Frequency	4.2	4.07	4.1 9000	4.0 9000 9000 9000 9000 L2 CACH (KB PER) CACH	1024	1024	1024	1024
1866 MHZ DDR3	1866 MHZ DDR3 9000
AES Support	x	x	x	x
FMA	x 137 ASRock: «AMD’s new FX processors are the ideal solution for PC enthusiasts looking for performance improvements,» said James Lee, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, ASRock. “We are pleased to inform users that our new ASRock motherboards work seamlessly with these processors and provide ample opportunity to showcase their capabilities.” Asus: «A year ago, the FX series broke all records, and we’re excited to hear about the new 15% performance improvement,» says Joe Hsieh, General Manager, Asus Motherboard Division. “We produce a huge number of motherboards every month and are always ready to provide customers with the best PC experience. The FX series update will allow us to continue equipping our motherboards with processors with record-breaking performance.” MSI: «The new AMD FX processors deliver performance and cost-efficiency improvements that give overclockers and enthusiasts the responsiveness they need to tackle any task,» said Ted Hung, vice president of MSI’s Motherboard Division. “When the FX processor is paired with MSI AM3+ motherboards, users not only get the highest level of performance, but also experience the benefits of our OC Genie II technology, which guarantees military-grade stability and intelligent overclocking in just a second. ” Information Resources: Follow the AMD Game Blog for interesting insights into AMD FX processor performance, overclocking, and more. Make sure your system is ready for an AMD FX processor Follow the latest AMD FX processors on Twitter: @AMD_Unprocessed Follow AMD on Facebook. AMD CrossFire™ technology requires an AMD CrossFire Ready motherboard and may require AMD CrossFire™Bridge Interconnect (for each additional graphics card) and dedicated power supply. Please note that the following graphics cards only support AMD CrossFireX technology in dual mode (up to two graphics cards): AMD Radeon™HD 6670, HD 6570, HD 6450, HD 5670 and ATI Radeon™HD 5670, HD5570, HD 5550, HD 5450; no bridging is required. AMDEyefinity technology works with games and applications that support custom aspect ratios, which is required for panning across multiple displays. Connecting three or more monitors requires additional display panels with native DisplayPort™ connectors and/or compatible active DisplayPort™ adapters to match the monitor input connector to the DisplayPort™ or Mini-DisplayPort™ connector(s) of the video card. AMD Eyefinity Technology is capable of supporting multiple monitors with a single compatible AMD Radeon™ graphics card on systems running Windows Vista® or Windows® 7 — the number of displays varies by card design and should be checked with manufacturer prior to purchase. SLS (Single Large Surface) functionality requires the same screen resolution on all connected displays. AMD Socket AM3+ Processor Table (FX-series) The AM3+ platform (Bulldozer architecture) replaced AM3 in 2011 and was replaced by AM4 in 2016. Processors based on the Bulldozer architecture were named AMD FX-**** (where **** is the digital value of the model). In total, two generations of FX processors were released: The first generation — «Zambezi» went on sale in 2011. Second generation — «Vishera» went on sale in 2012. CPUMark — CPU performance rating in points. It can be used to roughly compare the capabilities of different models. The rating is the same for all generations of AMD and Intel processors. Full list of AMD FX processors released: Model Process family Cores/Threads Frequency Turbo Cache_L2/3 CPUMark Memory Video core TDW Price Model Architecture Cores/ Streams Frequency Cache CPUMark Memory GPU TDW FX9590 Vishera (32nm) 8/8 4.7/5.0Ghz 8/8Mb 6756 DDR3 1866 —- 220W FX9370 Vishera (32nm) 8/8 4.4/4.7Ghz 8/8Mb 6029 DDR3 1866 —- 220W FX8370 Vishera (32nm) 8/8 4. 0/4.3Ghz 8/8Mb 6123 DDR3 1866 —- 125W Price FX8370E Vishera (32nm) 8/8 3.3/4.3Ghz 8/8Mb 5226 DDR3 1866 —- 95W Price FX8350 Vishera (32nm) 8/8 4.0/4.2Ghz 8/8Mb 5939 DDR3 1866 — 125W Price FX8320 Vishera (32nm) 8/8 3.5/4.0Ghz 8/8Mb 5399 DDR3 1866 —- 125W Price FX8320E Vishera (32nm) 8/8 3.2/4.0Ghz 8/8Mb 4977 DDR3 1866 —- 95W FX8300 Vishera (32nm) 8/8 3.3/4.2Ghz 8/8Mb 5266 DDR3 1866 —- 95W Price FX8170 Zambezi (32nm) 8/8 3. 9/4.5Ghz 8/8Mb —- DDR3 1866 —- 125W FX8150 Zambezi (32nm) 8/8 3.6/4.2Ghz 8/8Mb 5050 DDR3 1866 —- 125W Price FX8140 Zambezi (32nm) 8/8 3.2/4.1Ghz 8/8Mb 4953 DDR3 1866 —- 95W Price FX8120 Zambezi (32nm) 8/8 3.1/4.0Ghz 8/8Mb 4537 DDR3 1866 —- 125W Price FX8100 Zambezi (32nm) 8/8 2.8/3.7Ghz 8/8Mb 3847 DDR3 1866 —- 95W Price FX6350 Vishera (32nm) 6/6 3.9/4.2Ghz 6/8Mb 4488 DDR3 1866 —- 125W Price FX6330 Vishera (32nm) 6/6 3. 6/4.2Ghz 6/8Mb 4455 DDR3 1866 —- 125W Price FX6300 Vishera (32nm) 6/6 3.5/4.1Ghz 6/8Mb 4130 DDR3 1866 — 95W Price FX6200 Zambezi (32nm) 6/6 3.8/4.1Ghz 6/8Mb 4005 DDR3 1866 —- 125W Price FX6130 Zambezi (32nm) 6/6 3.6/3.9Ghz 6/8Mb —- DDR3 1866 —- 95W FX6120 Zambezi (32nm) 6/6 3.6/4.2Ghz 6/8Mb 3886 DDR3 1866 —- 95W Price FX6100 Zambezi (32nm) 6/6 3.3/3.9Ghz 6/8Mb 3653 DDR3 1866 —- 95W Price FX4350 Vishera (32nm) 4/4 4. 2/4.3Ghz 4/8Mb 3271 DDR3 1866 —- 125W Price FX4330 Vishera (32nm) 4/4 4.0/4.2Ghz 4/8Mb 3248 DDR3 1866 —- 95W Price FX4320 Vishera (32nm) 4/4 4.0/4.1Ghz 4/4Mb 3167 DDR3 1866 —- 95W FX4300 Vishera (32nm) 4/4 3.8/4.0Ghz 4/4Mb 2944 DDR3 1866 —- 95W Price FX4170 Zambezi (32nm) 4/4 4.2/4.3Ghz 4/8Mb 3121 DDR3 1866 —- 125W Price FX4150 Zambezi (32nm) 4/4 3.8/4.0Ghz 4/8Mb 3327 DDR3 1866 —- 125W FX4130 Zambezi (32nm) 4/4 3. 8/3.9Ghz 4/8Mb 2698 DDR3 1866 —- 125W Price FX4120 Zambezi (32nm) 4/4 3.9/4.1Ghz 4/8Mb 2781 DDR3 1866 —- 125W FX4100 Zambezi (32nm) 4/4 3.6/3.8Ghz 4/8Mb 2557 DDR3 1866 —- 95W Price FX adequately competed with more productive, but many times more expensive products from Intel, and the six-core AMD FX-6300 became the best in CPU history in terms of cost / performance ratio. Advanced Micro Devices planned to release 16 nuclear models, but it was never implemented due to the high heat dissipation of processors (although such models were released for the server segment). Today (autumn 2020), absolutely all FX models, even the youngest ones, belonging to the first generation on the Zambezi core, can easily cope with office tasks, and older processors of the series, such as AMD FX8300, FX8320, FX8350 and FX8370 quite suitable for games at high and medium high settings. Please note that none of the FX processors has an integrated graphics core (video card), it is always integrated into the motherboard. What motherboards are compatible with: AMD FX series processors are compatible with motherboards equipped with Socket AM3+ (942 pin) based on chipsets (logic sets) AMD 970, AMD 990X, AMD 990FX. Appearance of Socket AM3+. Socket AM3+ history The AMD FX processor line debuted in 2011 with the then-new Socket AM3+. In total, Advanced Micro Devices introduced two generations of CPU FX, which received the abbreviations «Zambezi» (2011) and «Vishera» (2012). Both of them basically used the 32nm Bulldozer architecture, but unlike the Zambezi line (AMD FX 41×0, 61×0, 81×0 processors), the later Vishera (AMD FX 43×0, 63× 0.83×0.9xx0) turned out to be less “hot”, although it lost some of the overclocking potential for which Zambezi was loved by overclockers. In fact, in the FX line, AMD promoted multi-core as the main weapon against its main competitor, Intel, which managed to achieve much better performance per thread, but offered no more than four physical blocks in each of its chips. The principle of multi-core efficiency was tested by Advanced Micro Devices back in the CPU lines released for the previous Socket AM3, among which were the six-core Phenom II x6, which showed their best side both in games and other tasks. The FX series began to offer up to 8 cores (at least 4), moreover, it was the six-core AMD FX 6100/6300 models that for many years were considered the best in the market in terms of price / performance ratio. At the time of release, the AMD FX line, although it could not fully resist the 2nd and 3rd generation Intel Core processors in terms of speed, still managed to impose a fight due to cheapness and manufacturability (support for PCI-Express 3.0, DDR3-1866). At the very end of the official life cycle of Socket AM3+, the «red» chipmaker managed to release truly powerful solutions for the outgoing platform — FX-9370 and FX-9590, which could already compete on equal terms with Core i7-3770 and even Core i7-4770, but cost a lot of money and turned out to be extremely hot (200-220W), which required the owner to additionally purchase water cooling.