Rumor: AMD FX-8350 -Piledriver- to Launch in Q3

July 2, 2012 Jeremy Vaughan News, Processors 380

According to the website Hexus.net, AMD is preparing Piledriver CPUs sometime in August. This is welcome news for AMD fans who have pretty much despaired since Bulldozer debuted last year. It wasn’t a bad CPU per se’, but compared with Ivy Bridge, it’s just not competitive.

Which brings us to Piledriver. According to AMD’s roadmap from last October, Piledriver is supposed to gain “~10-15%” over Bulldozer, and that will be a very welcome performance boost.

I can’t really say it any better than Hexus, so I’ll let them take it away.

The Zambezi range will remain socket AM3+ compatible, with the head of the pack expected to be the FX-8350, which will feature eight cores with a 4 x 2MB L2 and 8MB L3 cache configuration. As it’s likely to feature a 125 watt TDP, we expect the FX-8350 to be clocked 10 per cent (sic) faster than its FX-8150 predecessor and, with tweaks to the Piledriver design offering around a six per cent (sic) performance boost over Bulldozer at the same clock, according to early benchmarks of Trinity, the FX-8350 may just have enough *umph* to successfully break AMD out of its performance slump.
Source: Hexus.net

They don’t say where they got this slide, but it shows some of the improvements AMD is making with the Piledriver core.

Piledriver Improvements - Image Courtesy Hexus.net

Here’s hoping AMD makes it back into the mainstream performance game. They’ve already said they’re not looking to compete on the ultra high end, letting Intel keep the kilo-buck CPU market. Hopefully they can bring back some of their mainstream glory though, else we’re all in trouble; not so much for AMD’s sake, but for the consumer market as a whole. Competition drives innovation – and lower prices. Without competition, Intel can just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Let’s see what you’ve got AMD. It’s time to bring your A game!

– Jeremy Vaughan (hokiealumnus)

About Jeremy Vaughan 197 Articles

I'm an editor and writer here at Overclockers.com as well as a moderator at our beloved forums. I've been around the overclocking community for several years and just love to sink my teeth into any hardware I can get my paws on!

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trekky

Member

1,814 messages 4 likes

#1 Jul 02, 2012

i hoping piledriver will work on my Mobo

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ATMINSIDE

Sim Racing Aficionado Co-Owner

23,925 messages 431 likes

#2 Jul 02, 2012

If this goes over well, I may be getting rid of my 1100T.

If not, we may not see much more of AMD's processors.

Edit: Trekky, it should. PD is supposed to be on the same AM3+ as BD. Should be compatible with a BIOS flash.

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txus.palacios

Member

3,934 messages 0 likes

#3 Jul 02, 2012

Shouldn't it be compared to Sandy Bridge instead of Ivy?

I think this one, PD, should compare with IVB, instead of BD with IVB.

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hokiealumnus

Water Cooled Moderator

16,561 messages 25 likes

#4 Jul 02, 2012

Yep, Piledriver is supposed to be AM3+ compatible. :)

EDIT - Txus, it was compared to Sandy in its review; I was referring to what's out on the market currently.

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Frakk

Member

2,479 messages 0 likes

#5 Jul 02, 2012

10% higher Clocks and (Hexus Quoted) 6% + IPC will put the FX-8350 on par with Thuban at best.
That's not good enough.

I hope Hexus are wrong and Toms Hardware are right.

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txus.palacios

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3,934 messages 0 likes

#6 Jul 02, 2012

Yea, I meant the first lines. That could confuse someone.

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rescuetoaster

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625 messages 0 likes

#7 Jul 03, 2012

10% higher Clocks and (Hexus Quoted) 6% + IPC will put the FX-8350 on par with Thuban at best.
That's not good enough.
I hope Hexus are wrong and Toms Hardware are right.

You know what, I just came across this review.
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...sor-vs-core-i7-2600k-review-introduction.html

They didn't use the Formula V motherboard. The 2600k still shows higher number in a majority of the tests, but the difference is marginal for a lot of the benchmarks. Hell, the actual gaming results show a slight edge for the FX. Considering the 90 dollars difference between the two, I'm still glad I chose the AM3+ platform.

Not to mention that you can get the 8120 for even cheaper than that and still push about the same level of overclocking as the 8150. I think this will all pan out. I don't think they will be crushing Intel by any means, but I'm confident we will see a good upgrade rolling out this year.

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hokiealumnus

Water Cooled Moderator

16,561 messages 25 likes

#8 Jul 03, 2012

Yea, that review is an anomaly. It was a big topic of discussion when Bulldozer came out. Basically, they ran every benchmark that the Bulldozer CPU looked good in...and few it didn't. For instance, why run GPU-bound 3DMark 11 Xtreme instead of the more normal 3DMark 11 Performance? Gaming there won't be much of a difference anyway.

I approved the CPU for a number of reasons, but its ability to keep up with a 2600K wasn't one of them. It did well at the launch price told to us and it overclocked like a banshee under LN2. When they jacked the price, it was no longer worth it relative to the competition.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad platform and no one should feel bad for selecting it, but that review site is kidding themselves and everybody else trying to show it is very close to just as good as Sandy Bridge.

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Frakk

Member

2,479 messages 0 likes

#9 Jul 03, 2012

You know what, I just came across this review.
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...sor-vs-core-i7-2600k-review-introduction.html
They didn't use the Formula V motherboard. The 2600k still shows higher number in a majority of the tests, but the difference is marginal for a lot of the benchmarks. Hell, the actual gaming results show a slight edge for the FX. Considering the 90 dollars difference between the two, I'm still glad I chose the AM3+ platform.
Not to mention that you can get the 8120 for even cheaper than that and still push about the same level of overclocking as the 8150. I think this will all pan out. I don't think they will be crushing Intel by any means, but I'm confident we will see a good upgrade rolling out this year.

Yes... i know about that review, its accurate if a little biased. Bulldozer Can and does get close enough to the 2600K, even beats it here and there... but the benchmarks tests in that review are favorable to bulldozer.

Most other reviewers do not add any results of benches favoring AMD, Hell most of them insist on using Sandra and Super PI.

it would be no good dismissing Sandra results as irrelevant in the real world, as AMD do for apparently good reason, people still look at it and make decisions based on the results.

Personally i would like to see more balanced reviews, Not Hardware Heaven balanced.... as that goes to far the other way for me.

I would like to see them drop the (favored benchmarking software) concept all together. as most of them are geared one way or the other, they just don't tell a true story.

Why not concentrate on a whole range of real life apps, like Toms did to a limited extent in my link, we would get a far more useful and accurate picture then.

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MongGrel

New Member

1,922 messages 0 likes

#10 Jul 03, 2012

I think personally I'm just going to stick to Intel these days.

I went AMD awhile in the late 90's, and really don't see going back there myself in the future.

I personally stopped reading Tom's about 10 years ago I guess too,(might just seem that way probably more like 5+) I always saw silly things going on there I suppose, about as much for getting a laugh sometimes as reading some of the Eggs reviews now and then hehe.

Why I'm an OCF member I guess.

*shrug*

:beer:

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