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AMD processor fans unite. Piledriver CPU’s will not only be launching soon, but we finally have some rumored price points for the new parts. According to the ever reliable ShopBLT.com, 4 new SKU’s will hit the market in October, with prices ranging from $131.62 to $253.06. Piledriver, for those who haven’t followed its progress, is the codename for a new “Enhanced-Bulldozer” CPU, and will be manufactured on a 32 nm SOI process.
Piledriver promises better performance by way of an updated microarchitecture, and slightly higher clock speeds. The quad-core FX-4300 will round out the new low end offerings, with the eight-core FX-8530 being touted as the next big thing to hit the CPU market. Clock speeds range from 3.5 GHz to 4 GHz, but can hit upwards of 4.2GHz using the built in turbo functions. The low end also sports a lowly 4 MB of L3 cache with a 95 watt TDP, while the high end has 8MB of L3 with a TDP of 125 watts.
We will give you our full review when parts start to hit store shelves, but until then we can only speculate on the value of AMD’s new architecture.
| Model | Box OPN | Cores | Frequency | Turbo Frequency | L3 cache | TDP | Pre-order price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FX-4300 | FD4300WMHKBOX | 4 | 3.8 GHz | 4 GHz | 4 MB | 95 Watt | $131.62 |
| FX-6300 | FD6300WMHKBOX | 6 | 3.5 GHz | 4.1 GHz | 8 MB | 95 Watt | $175.77 |
| FX-8320 | FD8320FRHKBOX | 8 | 3.5 GHz | 4 GHz | 8 MB | 125 Watt | $242.05 |
| FX-8350 | FD8350FRHKBOX | 8 | 4 GHz | 4.2 GHz | 8 MB | 125 Watt | $253.06 |
(Table Source = CPU-World.com)
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Comments are closed on this article
Rift2
September 27, 2012 at 2:22am
Those prices will scare me off I have a Bulldozer 6100 FX I guess I have to wait another 7 months for a price drop if that.
praack
September 26, 2012 at 9:01am
they ought to take the FX out of the chip's name - they ruined the name of what was good branding
FX meant something before-,
these may be Black Editions but they perform less than the phenom II BE's
as an FX chip- no comparison to what an FX chip really meant
MEH! FYE! BLEHH!
get the idea i have lost faith in AMD? and i have been building them since the first Cartridge based Athlons.
0ly1r3m@1ns
September 24, 2012 at 3:20pm
depending on the performance this could be amazing or just meh
Refuge88
September 24, 2012 at 8:30am
"AMD processor fans unit!"
All two of you....
But no seriously, I wish them luck, they are in trouble. But there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel that may finally shine upon them.
With TSX and HLE coming in the next Haswell family of processors, if AMD jumps on that bandwagon and FAST. Thay may find a very nice niche again in the high end market.
They may find themselves finally able to show the multitasking grunt of their processors in the real world. Might finally be able to see those very affordable 8 core processors stretch their legs.
Engelsstaub
September 24, 2012 at 2:00pm
They could come from all over the world and comfortably unite in a 7-Eleven parking lot.
iplayoneasy
September 24, 2012 at 7:23am
Considering I have and AM3+ motherboard and wanna up VidBlaster to HD, this is good timing.
devin3627
September 24, 2012 at 3:41am
hey, anyone know anything about foxconn brawl? http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/24/technology/foxconn-workers-brawl/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Hilarity
September 23, 2012 at 11:38pm
Another failure. The old Phenom II was better in single threaded and IPC instructions than FX. This will barely catch up to Sandy Bridge. AMD's heyday is over. Not worth buying anymore. And 95w-125w? Is this 2009?
T3RR0RH4WK
September 23, 2012 at 9:02pm
... I still have hope. I've used FX-8150s on Linux PCs and the comparison between Windows and Ubuntu, for example, feels entirely different. I know the architecture was clumsy, but compilers have helped FX Series CPUs out tremendously on Linux.
I have hope that the new revision can make it great on both platforms, since I use both.
PLEASE, AMD, don't fuck it up. :/
DR_JDUBZ
September 24, 2012 at 6:58am
Wont matter when steam moves to linux......and everything else for that matter.
Andrew.Hodge
September 24, 2012 at 10:08am
If the Linux scheduler is indeed more efficient, and valve doesn't use the Intel compiler, AMD could actually catch up to Intel on Linux, so yes, it does matter...
Jeffredo
September 23, 2012 at 6:44pm
OMG its gonna SMASH Ivy!
Actually, I'd be happy if the FX 8350 could keep up with the i5-2500k in gaming... but I doubt it.
warptek2010
September 23, 2012 at 3:46pm
And let the AMD bashing begin!
Like for example: "Duh, yeah, but... duh, how does it compare against an IVY Bridge 38XXK, duhhhhh.... "
Andrew.Hodge
September 23, 2012 at 4:52pm
...and derp, it may win in multitasking, derp, but uhhh... Derp, the only thing that matters anymore, derp, is synthetic single-threaded Intel-optimized benchmarks complied with the Intel compiler, derp. Not like were in the multicore age now, our anything.....
warptek2010
September 23, 2012 at 7:46pm
Yeah, derp, and multi-tasking is the future not single threaded. By the by, even in single threaded apps the average user (including gamers) do not notice a performance difference. I play any game on my 8150 and the Radeon 6950 without noticing a single hiccup whatsoever. The only idiots who make these comparisons are the ones who read WAYYYYY too much into benchmarks which nowadays most of those numbers don't mean very much in the REAL world.
Nimrod
September 23, 2012 at 11:37pm
ive been reading benchies to plan my buys for the past 10 years. benchmarks are the same now as they were back then, FPS. The one with the highest FPS is usually considered faster. Were at the next transition point when resolutions are getting bigger and 120hrz monitors are main stream. How are the bench marks not relevant in the real world?
Andrew.Hodge
September 24, 2012 at 2:10pm
Guess what drives high refresh rates and higher resolutions? Graphics, not CPUs. Guess where AMD destroys Intel? Graphics.
warptek2010
September 24, 2012 at 10:32am
How are they not relevant? Well they are... up to 30fps. The human eye doesn't distinguish past that except perhaps peripherally or on subconscious level. You're talking about playing a game at 100fps which to you equals performance. That is performance on a computer level but human beings do not process information that way. All we need to enjoy a game is to see NO DIPS below a certain amount of fps... let's say 60 to give it enough headroom for other processes. Now of course when you factor in other things like resolution, number of background processes, etc... you do want the headroom a faster processor brings along with a decent video card, amount of memory etc... All I am saying is the current speed and crunching power of the top tier AMD cpu's are more than enough for these needs. Anything more is just plain silly and is for nothing more than just bragging rights. "My cpu can do yadda yadda.." Who cares??? What bothers me is the completely erroneous beliefs out there like 'AMD is done' or 'can't compete with Sandy Bridge' which is completely and unequivocally false. Ten years ago I would've been "yeah MaximumPC all the way!" Not in todays economy and evolving computing philosophy.
Andrew.Hodge
September 24, 2012 at 2:55pm
While I mostly agree withyou, I will say that the human eye can definitely distinguish at refresh rates higherthan 30hz. It all depends on the game you are playing and how intently you are staring at the screen. I usually have to have my FPSs at above 40hz to be payable for me, but strategy games ,I can stand at below 30. I will even encode my non-HD videos at 20 FPS to save room on my hard drive.
Naka
September 24, 2012 at 1:21pm
Registered just to make sure you know that I dislike you, a lot. "The human eye doesn't distinguish past that" talk is a pet peeve of mine, it's horseshit ;)
Having been playing at high framerates since age 4, I feel that I'm a better judge at that. Here's a random Google result http://amo.net/NT/02-21-01FPS.htmlBeing able to react faster than the time it takes to refresh the screen is another matter, and still not a way to say that there aren't benefits past 30fps. I could never stand my FPS stable below 40, it may be playable but it doesn't feel right. Though I don't own one, 120fps monitors are an absolute joy to play on, things are twice as fluid and it really puts your mind in the game. Though I can't measure it, 120fps seems to increase my skill (partly perhaps due to immersion).
Have a nice fucking day, fuck
warptek2010
September 24, 2012 at 10:00pm
Hey, guess what? DON'T have a nice day and fuck off, fuck and go enjoy your idiotic 120fps (did you actually mean to say 120HZ monitors??? I don't know of any monitors that display 120fps of static images moron).
Andrew.Hodge
September 24, 2012 at 2:06pm
"have a nice fucking day, fuck"
Your anger portrays your fear...or ignorance, either one. As for framerates, I can definitely tell a difference between monitor refresh rates, although the effects it has on my gameplay is minimal, probably because I have a life outside of playing videogames.
All this talk is moot one way or anther, through, because a simple 6100 is more than enough to push at least 60FPS on the most demanding titles. I am currently driving three monitors at over fifty FPS on an 8150 at stock clocks playing bf3, crysis 2, and several games through dolphin. Know why? Because when you're playing video games, your biggest concerns are in the GPU, not the CPU, unless you're playing at extremely low resolutions.
Andrew.Hodge
September 24, 2012 at 10:05am
I'm pretty sure you missed the whole point of this conversion.
Bullwinkle J Moose
September 23, 2012 at 3:30pm
?
It sure would be nice to have a delete function for double posts and such...
That would be so Maximum
JLloyd13
September 23, 2012 at 4:25pm
unlikely. but at those prices it doesn't need to, its going for the i5-25xxk spot. for gamers I don't think it will get there, but for video editors its a great chip
Bullwinkle J Moose
September 23, 2012 at 5:18pm
Hahahahhahhahahhahhahahhahahha
Sure, if they are both moving in the same UPS Van
