AMD Piledriver FX-8350 Processor

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There is a fourteen page review of the AMD Piledriver FX-8350 processor posted today at Vortez that is worth checking out if you are so inclined. You can see our evaluation here for comparison purposes.

AMD have quoted that there will be an upwards of 20% increase in performance and we will be putting that to the test today to find out whether that is the case or not. We certainly hope so, AMD need to regain their lost ground that Intel have increasingly gained over the past number of years with their Core family of processors.
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I'm impressed that the architecture is getting better...for the price they are selling at you get a lot of horsepower.
 
That was a really good review I thought. Seemed to cover all the bases and the conclusion was spot on IMO.
 
I love amd but just have not had any reason to move to the new series of cpu's my Phenom 2 quad keeps up just fine. I read a lot of info on the new stuff and sounds like so far it does not live up to what they are saying about it.
 
rumbl3 said:
I love amd but just have not had any reason to move to the new series of cpu's my Phenom 2 quad keeps up just fine. I read a lot of info on the new stuff and sounds like so far it does not live up to what they are saying about it.
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I love AMD too, but it's kind of disappointing, that their FX-6300 is still struggling to beat the 1090t, after some years that the Thuban was released. I am interested only in video encoding, and the 2nd pass which is the most important and time comsuming, is still a bit behind.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/699?vs=146

Even the 8320, i still losing in some tests to the 1090T:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/698?vs=146

When prices drop, MAYBE i will buy the 6300, just for the fact it's 95W, but with half my heart, not wholeheartedly. I hope i will find a 8300 95W, but i have my doubts since it's OEM. Or maybe i will just get a 8320 and downclock-downvolt it to 8300 hoping it will behave like 95W.

The Thuban is still too good... What a mess!
 
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Are there any Windows 7 vs 8 comparisons? I remember reading a while back that Windows 8 has an improved scheduler that benefits bulldozer/piledriver architectures. Curious to see if it makes any noticeable difference in gaming.
 
ManyCowsMoo said:
Are there any Windows 7 vs 8 comparisons? I remember reading a while back that Windows 8 has an improved scheduler that benefits bulldozer/piledriver architectures. Curious to see if it makes any noticeable difference in gaming.
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As I understand it the differences aren't all that major. Windows 8 isn't enough to polish suddenly make Piledriver a winner.
 
Dan_D said:
As I understand it the differences aren't all that major. Windows 8 isn't enough to polish suddenly make Piledriver a winner.
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I wouldn't care if Win 8 made my system into a Titan supercomputer. Unless there is a Microsoft-generated way to never ever ever see Metro, I'll stay on Win 7 until I die.
 
Weeth said:
I wouldn't care if Win 8 made my system into a Titan supercomputer. Unless there is a Microsoft-generated way to never ever ever see Metro, I'll stay on Win 7 until I die.
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Amen to that.
 
Weeth said:
I wouldn't care if Win 8 made my system into a Titan supercomputer. Unless there is a Microsoft-generated way to never ever ever see Metro, I'll stay on Win 7 until I die.
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I'm normally the first one to say people are just being stuck in their ways. And in the past I've always come to prefer the newer OS to the older ones after giving it time. But I don't know if I'll be able to do that with this tablet BS masquerading as a desktop OS.
 
Absolutely right. I'm not about to trade in my Asus 27" for a touchscreen and even if I did what the heck would I do, spend all day with my elbow propped up to swish icons around and leaving oily smears all over the screen? Win 8 with a keyboard and mouse is a torture that Torquemada would envy. Proof positive that Ballmer is the worst thing to happen to any corporation since Ken Lay.
 
Dan_D said:
I'm normally the first one to say people are just being stuck in their ways. And in the past I've always come to prefer the newer OS to the older ones after giving it time. But I don't know if I'll be able to do that with this tablet BS masquerading as a desktop OS.
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Thats why I wish they could of given users an option at install to have metro style or regular. Improvements are good, but changing it to a hybrid OS just wasnt right.
I have stated in other threads I hate touch screens anyways, but sure as heck not going to put it on a desktop. I cant imagine what some of the touch screens look like after kids get done with it.(since they use comps at a realllly early age these days) NASTY!
If I want 1 click shortcuts to stuff, its easy to do in 7.
 
Hagrid said:
Thats why I wish they could of given users an option at install to have metro style or regular.
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They had that option in the betas but when it came to release they blocked it. Ballmer must have been smoking more dope than usual. Or is it that he is a dope?
 
Dan_D said:
I'm normally the first one to say people are just being stuck in their ways. And in the past I've always come to prefer the newer OS to the older ones after giving it time. But I don't know if I'll be able to do that with this tablet BS masquerading as a desktop OS.
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Am I the only person ready for change? We've been using the Fing start button since 1995. time for something new, im embracing windows 8 despite it frustrating the hell out of me the first 48 hours I spent with it.

If I must continue to use a start button and normal desktop, ill take windows xp sp3 please.
 
buttons said:
Am I the only person ready for change? We've been using the Fing start button since 1995. time for something new, im embracing windows 8 despite it frustrating the hell out of me the first 48 hours I spent with it.

If I must continue to use a start button and normal desktop, ill take windows xp sp3 please.
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It works just fine? Why change it to a touch screen....screen!

I like the regular old desktop. I can do everything I need just fine.

I dont see the big deal on giving people a choice, though some new software takes care of what MS didnt do....

XP? Why XP? Win 7 runs fantastic.

EDIT: On topic, I do want a new AMD cpu to play with and OC the hell out of it.
 
buttons said:
Am I the only person ready for change? We've been using the Fing start button since 1995. time for something new, im embracing windows 8 despite it frustrating the hell out of me the first 48 hours I spent with it.

If I must continue to use a start button and normal desktop, ill take windows xp sp3 please.
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I'm fine with change provided the change is a good one. If there is a better option to a start menu, then I'm open to it. And on tablets and touchscreens I've no doubt Windows 8 is probably the way to go. I used touch screens back with Windows XP and hated it. It just didn't work well with it and Windows Vista and 7 weren't really any better. They just had better support for it. But the interface wasn't better with it. Windows 8's interface is really geared towards those types of devices and the simplified graphics of it make sense on those devices. But it just doesn't seem like it would translate well to the desktop.

And that's the problem. I think Microsoft is hoping this will make everyone want the Microsoft Surface. And that's fine aside from the fact that people aren't ready to drop the coin on it and unless it hits keyboard + mouse pricing it won't take off like they need it to for that to become a reality.
 
Dan_D said:
I'm fine with change provided the change is a good one. If there is a better option to a start menu, then I'm open to it. And on tablets and touchscreens I've no doubt Windows 8 is probably the way to go. I used touch screens back with Windows XP and hated it. It just didn't work well with it and Windows Vista and 7 weren't really any better. They just had better support for it. But the interface wasn't better with it. Windows 8's interface is really geared towards those types of devices and the simplified graphics of it make sense on those devices. But it just doesn't seem like it would translate well to the desktop.

And that's the problem. I think Microsoft is hoping this will make everyone want the Microsoft Surface. And that's fine aside from the fact that people aren't ready to drop the coin on it and unless it hits keyboard + mouse pricing it won't take off like they need it to for that to become a reality.
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I agree. Touch screens are good for portable devices, they are good for brief tasks, they are good in an airport terminal, but not for desktop. Being with your hands extended all the time like a drunk puppet, leaving stains on your monitor, is hilarious, only MS fashion-victims would tolerate working like that with their computer for long periods.

Microsoft dominates the desktop market and really wants to occupy a big chunk of portable devices too. And what better way, if the customer is already accustomed to Metro from his home PC? There are good chances that he will go to the store, ignore the salesman and shout "Hey, i know this, it's the same i 've got at home! Give me this!"

Of course the whole operation must be presented by MS, as something "positive" for deskop users, you can't just come out and say "listen, we 're trying to shove this on your PCs, because we want you to prefer us again in your portable devices and this is the best way we could think of making you doing so".
 
Ballmer has bet the entire enterprise market on this POS and with any luck, the board will stick it where the sun don't shine. If you're a major corporation's IT manager, go tell 20,000 of your employees that from now on they have to swish and swoosh to get their work done and see how long it is until the C-suite swishes and swooshes you onto the unemployment line.
 
I'm not a fan of change just because we've used something a long time. The start button is pretty old but it also works pretty well. I don't see a need to get rid of it just for the sake of getting rid of it. We've been using mice and keyboards a long time too but I don't want them gone either.
 
MacLeod said:
I'm not a fan of change just because we've used something a long time. The start button is pretty old but it also works pretty well. I don't see a need to get rid of it just for the sake of getting rid of it. We've been using mice and keyboards a long time too but I don't want them gone either.
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I don't fear change so long as we change to something better. Short of that I'm not into it.
 
Weeth said:
Ballmer has bet the entire enterprise market on this POS and with any luck, the board will stick it where the sun don't shine. If you're a major corporation's IT manager, go tell 20,000 of your employees that from now on they have to swish and swoosh to get their work done and see how long it is until the C-suite swishes and swooshes you onto the unemployment line.
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I think Win8 for business is dead already. It's not just major corporations. Even if you take small businesses or professionals who work in office, they don't like radical change in interface. Many still run XP, just because "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Most professionals are non-techie people, who just know to run a software and that's it and often just a software update is enough to make them horrified at the change. There is no way they will accept to leave XP or 7 for Win8. MS will have many requests for "Win7 downgrade option" to those who by mistake they will order new PC.

McLeod said:
I'm not a fan of change just because we've used something a long time. The start button is pretty old but it also works pretty well. I don't see a need to get rid of it just for the sake of getting rid of it. We've been using mice and keyboards a long time too but I don't want them gone either.
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Yeah, some things simply work. Cars drive just fine with their steering wheel for over a century, no need to put a fighter aircraft's rudder in them and call it "evolution".
 
So...

I'm happy with my FX-8350. Multi-tasking and multithreaded apps are a breeze!
 
Hagrid said:
Hopefully when I do get one my 970 extreme 3 works well.
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I 've already seen people using 8350 on the board and overclocking it too. You should be fine. Asrock has also updated the BIOS way before Vishera was out (1.50 and now we are at 1.70).
 
The board catching fire like that, is that a CPU problem or board problem or user trying to push too much voltage?
 
My vote is for: "user trying to push too much voltage? "

Also this board was not made for bulldozer CPUs.
 
MacLeod said:
The board catching fire like that, is that a CPU problem or board problem or user trying to push too much voltage?
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Little bit of both. The part on the board that usually catches fire is the mosfet which is usually due to overclocking the cpu and drawing excessive power.

It's not limited to MSI boards either. I had my DFI Lanparty JR catch fire overclocking a Q6600.
 
For anyone that can answer this...I heard BD and or PD cpu's were excellent for running virtual workstation boxes. Any thought or suggestions as I'd like to run Linux natively and vm a windows install amongst other things. Looking for at least 8 cores and Intel is just out of my price range for that.
 
pcjunkie said:
For anyone that can answer this...I heard BD and or PD cpu's were excellent for running virtual workstation boxes. Any thought or suggestions as I'd like to run Linux natively and vm a windows install amongst other things. Looking for at least 8 cores and Intel is just out of my price range for that.
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The 8 core AMD's do well for it. 16-32gbs of ram, 8 core, 990 chipset MB which AFAIK have IOMMU for passthrough.
 
I think that picture is meant as part of a warning, aka. the MB has not blown up yet.

If you look at the CPU, you will notice it has an X2 marking, as in "Athlon 64 X2".

EDIT:

I know it is just a matter of time, as there are several horrible AM3+ boards out there with poor VRM designs that will blow if 125+ Watts are being pulled through them for extended periods of time.
 
Faethon said:
I guess a bad apple can happen here and there, but MSI certainly has a history about these things (interestingly, there are entries of 9xx chipsets too in the list):

http://www.overclock.net/a/about-vrms-mosfets-motherboard-safety-with-high-tdp-processors
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True, the 9xx are mostly lower-end 970 G45s (since discontinued and replaced with the G46). Only one 990FXA-GD65 made that list, and there are no 890FXA-GD65s (first AMD MSI board with 8+2 VRMs) on the list.
 
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