AMD FX-8350 Review: Improved and Advanced

Processors AMD FX Vishera are considered to be 'heavy metal' in the AMD's inventory. They belong to the products of the second generation and employ an advanced Piledriver architecture. This architecture is intended primarily at managing multi-threading applications to provide for improved performance, if compared with CPUs of the first generation. In addition, FX Vishera chips feature reasonable correlation of power, facilities and price.

Platform and Architecture

CPU AMD FX-8350 is compatible with motherboards which contain AM3+ socket and high-performance logics AMD 990FX, AMD 970, and AMD 990X. It should be noted that boards with such chipsets are able to offer two additional PCI Express x16 sockets which are characterized by high speed index on integration of two video adapters. AMD FX series consists of four CPU models; FX-8350 and FX-8320 house eight cores, FX-6300 feature six cores, while junior model FX-4300 contents itself with only four cores.

All processors have got unlocked multiplier for overclocking and support FMA3 instructions. AMD is going to release one more model, FX-8300, that will operate at lower frequencies but better TDP level (95W vs 125W). AMD FX processors do not contain an integrated graphics core; instead, all free spacing is taken by computing cores and cache-memory (III level).

In contrast to the previous generation Bulldozer architecture, Piledriver is notable y a range of improvements which permitted AMD FX processors to enter middle-end and high-end market. Therefore, AMD implemented the following facilities to advance Piledriver architecture:
— improved accuracy of conversion predictions due to the integration of hybrid two-level predictor;
— optimized scheduler activity;
— enlarged L1 TLB;
— accelerated division operations due to the upgrade of an executive component;
— improved preliminary fetching algorithms in L1 and L2 cache memory;
— enhanced efficiency of cache memory L2 due to a more intense elimination of unused data;
— extended set of instructions: 128-bit/256-bit FMA3 and SSE5 subcollection.

Overclocking

AMD FX-8350 accommodates 8 Piledriver cores that operate at 4 GHz frequency with automatic increase to 4.2 GHz on conditions of heightened loading. Such outstanding showings became possible due to an elaborated architecture that results in high frequencies. The user won't find it difficult to overclock FX CPU: he/she only needs to increase the unlocked multiplier and voltage index in BIOS to the desirable level. BIOS updates are not frequenters in the market so far, but it's already possible to overclock this processor to 4.5 GHz at 1.4V loading. Piledriver perfectly copes with a heightened voltage loading on admissible limits up to 1.5V.

This processor proves to show unmatched results when it goes about multi-threaded computing, encoding and archiving operations. In these terms, it surpasses Core i5-3570K from Intel. Thus, Vishera will be a perfect match for corporate clients, gamers and enthusiasts who long for high speeds, unmatched performance, and sensible price.