AMD FX-8350 Review: Does Piledriver Fix Bulldozer's Flaws?

An anonymous reader writes "AMD just officially took the wraps off Vishera, its next generation of FX processors. Vishera is Piledriver-based like the recently-released Trinity APUs, and the successor to last year's Bulldozer CPU architecture. The octo-core flagship FX-8350 runs at 4.0 GHz and is listed for just $195. The 8350 is followed by the 3.5 GHz FX-8320 at $169. Hexa-core and quad-core parts are also launching, at $132 and $122, respectively. So how does Vishera stack up to Intel's lineup? The answer to that isn't so simple. The FX-8350 can't even beat Intel's previous-generation Core i5-2550K in single-threaded applications, yet it comes very close to matching the much more expensive ($330), current-gen Core i7-3770K in multi-threaded workloads. Vishera's weak point, however, is in power efficiency. On average, the FX-8350 uses about 50 W more than the i7-3770K. Intel aside, the Piledriver-based FX-8350 is a whole lot better than last year's Bulldozer-based FX-8150 which debuted at $235. While some of this has to do with performance improvements, that fact that AMD is asking $40 less this time around certainly doesn't hurt either. At under $200, AMD finally gives the enthusiast builder something to think about, albeit on the low-end." Reviews are available at plenty of other hardware sites, too. Pick your favorite: PC Perspective, Tech Report, Extreme Tech, Hot Hardware, AnandTech, and [H]ard|OCP.

Re:Perfect for parents PC

[Animal Farm Pig]

For non-technical parents and other users, I actually like lots of cores and lots of memory-- more so than 'power users.'

Have you ever seen some people boot up their machines? It will take 5 minutes because of the sheer amount of crap installed.

It will be shit like two different anti-virus suites (the first one's subscription expired, and they installed a new one without uninstalling the old). There will be a update checker for every conceivable thing that's been installed. There's the preloader software that loads whatever crappy application it is into memory at boot time so that the application starts faster when you click on it's associated file type. Then, there are all the various helpful toolbars for Internet Explorer that "enhance your internet experience" and delivery dollars to your inbox. Of course, the user will probably go through two or more inkjet printer/scanner/copier all-in-one devices that require the manufacturer's 300 MB "printing experience suite" to enhance user experience by making pop-up windows when the ink is low and will helpfully tell you where you can order more special photo printing paper. There's the two different desktop search tools that got installed when the user downloaded the kitten screensavers pack and accompanying mouse cursors. Then, there is the sidebar app showing the weather outside and what time it is in Fiji.

That's stuff I can think of off the top of my head. I have no idea how average users manage to cruft up their machines so much, but they do. Keep in mind also that they're probably not going to upgrade hardware for a few years, but they'll likely install iTunes 32, Internet Explorer 17, and Office 2016, which will have >1 GB memory footprints.

By having lots of cores, and lots of memory, you can give them a decent user experience even on a machine that they've bogged to shit.