Alrighty, time to give a small overview of the previous pages :

The AMD FX-8150 CPU out of the box, is not really what many might have expected after this long wait. Why ? As it is hardly any better in older apps then the previous AMD Thuban lineup. I explicitly mentioned older applications, as newer ones are already available or in the making. Maybe the new ones will be better in supporting the new instruction sets and exploit the design of the Bulldozer CPU better. Yet to keep all data aligned we insisted on using the older tests to get an initial idea of how this new CPU behaves versus the previously tested processors. A CPU clock per clock comparison puts the new bulldozer tech in a very bad daylight. AMD really put all their money on multithreaded tasks. And the CPU has to keep it's Mhz advantage in regards to other processors.

Hopefully due to it's agressive pricing tactics AMD partly can make up for it's lack of performance. To be honest, only targetting Intels SandyBridge based 2500K with your flagship is not a good sign from the start. The FX-8150, indeed has got the potential to come close at 2500K performance. In heavy multithreaded apps it might even tease an 2600K. And it surely surpasses the stock 2500K once overclocked. Ofcourse all will depend, as mentioned before, on the applications you run. Some favour Intel, some AMD,...

Another thing that needs to be sort of corrected : "the first true 8 core CPU" statement by the marketing team bothers me big time. Yes, there are 8 cores in this die. Two per Bulldozer module, yet they don't always work 100% as real cores. If an 8 core at higher clock speeds, can't beat a lower clocked hexacore CPU, coming out of the same factory, then AMD has got a design problem. Or the software used does not take advantage of the architecture. There's the rumour of an upcoming Microsoft patch that should improve overal performance of the Bulldozer CPU when crunching. But if it only brings similar performance as in my win7 vs 8 tests I don't have much hope for a huge boost. Till then, the only way to unleash the true potential of the Zambezi CPUs is to up the clock speeds drastically. My LN2 tests showed that I need at least 300Mhz more to beat the previous Thuban CPU. Not even talking of coming into Intel SB territory when we overclock those. Benching is not really what this CPU is designed for.

The confrontation with the i2500K can be clearly seen on page 4. Just upping the CPU speed to 4.5Ghz gives you a totally different perspective on the Zambezi architecture. It cuts loose of the Thuban architecture and even manages to close in on the hexacore Intels Gulftown series. Plz AMD this CPU needs to be run at higher speeds, then the meazle 3.6ghz out of the box. The Turbo helps, but clearly not enough to remain on a competitive level. Buyers expect to see a nice performance gain when they buy a new product. Sad side-effect of it all is the enormous power draw if you cranck up the speeds.

Ram wise it's a good choice to opt at least for 1600Mhz rams. 1333Mhz and below is a bottleneck for the Scorpius platform. The higher you can clock your ram, the bigger the reward coming back from your system. Timing wise, tighter as usual is faster. Though the gains going from Cas Latency 9 to 7 is not that big. Only big thing will be the hole in ya wallet...

A little bit of tweaking the Northbridge speed can enhance the performance. But not enough to call this CPU a real FX. Therefore the FX legacy was far too popular and powerfull. This bulldozer will prolly end up in the mainstream market. Sad story, as many AMD fans had such high hopes of this complete architectural overhaul.

All in all testing the FX-8150 CPU has been a pretty smooth ride. No special biosses were needed to unlock extra potential (PLL overvoltage story with Intel). The Asus Crosshair V Formula board itself has been rock solid even under the 6 hour LN2 marathon to get all my scaling tests done. Some minor quirks still need to be ironed out, but feedback has been given and newer, better biosses will pop up soon.

Wrap up time :

Even though the test results of our first test suite were not very promising, the FX-8150 CPU can still pack a serious punch. Believe me it's far from a slouch. Daily users, gamers will have more than enough power to play with. Even out of the box this CPU will warrant a decent multimedia experience. But for those that really want an AMD upgrade, it's obligatory OCing time. Luckily AMD has made these new FX series fully unlocked. For the lazy overclockers amongst us , it's just a matter of upping the CPU multiplier. All the other settings can mostly be left on AUTO. Looking on how my sample performed, daily 4.6-4.9Ghz without too much added Vcore is possible. Motherboard permitting ofcourse. Do not try a 5ghz OC on a low end 990FX board. something will go down for sure and it will not be the CPU. The former mentioned clockspeeds allow the Bulldozer to show good potential. Value wise AMD is known to keep on rolling out CPUs in the lower and medium price level. But the prices of this FX-8150 will have to drop fast, just to be competitive with Intels 2500K pricing. I really hope we will see a high end competitive AMD CPU in late 2012.

This Bulldozer is hopefully the start of something bigger and better...

EDIT : Madshrimps has retested the FX-8150 with newer benchmarks and games in the FX-8150 Revisited article

PROS :

• Fast enough to suit as a solid game platform
• OCing is dead easy via the unlocked multiplier
• Great encoding/compression performance (depends on app)
• AMD is working hard on performance patches/biosses to unlock more performance

CONS :

• Too low out of the box clockspeeds to be allround competitive.
• Not really FX brand worthy, this is a mainstream product.
• power consumption is nuts.

EDIT : As soon as a patch or other apps pop up to improve the Bulldozers performance we will link another article to this review. I really hope AMD can get their act together and get it all sorted out asap. The cooling kit and Corsair rams just arrived on the doorstep, too late to include all in this review.

We got info on suggested street retail prices for the new FX lineup :

• FX-8150 : 244 euros
• FX-8120 : 204 euros
• FX-6100 : 159 euros
• FX-4100 : 114 euros

If you need an "8" core best buy would be the FX-8120 CPU, as it will prolly overclock just as high as the flagship model. Comparing with the competitors prices I think the above should plummet pretty fast.

Hope you enjoyed the read... we will be back with more and newer tests on this platform.

Leeghoofd logging off............