Before diving head-first into the performance data, let’s cover the platforms we used to test and the overclocks those components achieved.
Socket AM3+: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
As a budget-oriented piece emphasizing overclocking, we wanted affordable hardware with enthusiast-friendly features. Gigabyte's GA-990FXA-UD3 Socket AM3+ motherboard fit the bill for testing our FX, Phenom II, and Athlon II processors.
Based on the AMD 990FX/SB950 chipset, the board packs a ton of connectivity, including six SATA 6Gb/s ports, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, eSATA, and FireWire. We're able to appreciate the company's Ultra Durable 4 technology suite, 8+2 phase power design, solid capacitors, and dual BIOS chips in case something goes wrong while we're overclocking.
Socket FM2: Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-UP4
Next, we chose the feature-rich GA-F2A85X-UP4 for testing our Athlon X4 750K. Based on AMD’s A85X Fusion Controller Hub, this enthusiast-oriented Socket FM2 board is built for APU tweaking. It sports Gigabyte’s Ultra Durable 5 technology, again, solid capacitors, and a beefy power stage rated at 60 A.
A trio of PCI Express x16 slots accommodate up to two graphics cards at x8 and x8 transfer rates. The platform also supports Dual Graphics, though we wouldn't recommend going that route. Four DDR3 memory slots support dual-channel configurations at up to 2400 MT/s. Here, again, you get ample connectivity via six USB 3.0 ports, seven SATA 6Gb/s connectors, and one eSATA 6 Gb/s interface. Other notable features include dual BIOSes, Lucid Virtu Universal MVP GPU virtualization, and 3x USB Power with On/Off Charge technology.
Overclocking
Given the flexibility of these CPUs, I took a slightly different approach to overclocking than I would in an Intel-focused story. In my prior piece, I knew the chips in question offered quite a bit of headroom, so I picked frequencies that'd be easily attainable for most folks. Capping the clock rates low helped represent commonly-used settings.
In contrast, AMD's processors ship at clock rates that leave little headroom with their boxed heat sinks and fans. So, I used the same Xigmatek setup that took Intel's Wolfdale architecture to 4.5 GHz. It made sense in this value-oriented experiment to keep aftermarket cooling in the $20 to $30 dollar range. Then I doubled up on component airflow by adding a second 120 mm fan to avoid VRM-related throttling. Although I chose not to push crazy voltages, I did tweak the CPU-NB frequencies, and squeezed everything I could (within reason) from each setup, while respecting the thermals.
Die-hard enthusiasts from both camps might be crying foul, wondering why I pushed AMD's chips harder or shied away from larger air coolers. The bottom line is that we're evaluating the performance of inexpensive CPUs and stacking them up relative to each other. I suspect that the AMD crowd is going to push its chips just as hard, and with good air circulation and a respectable heat sink, you shouldn't have any trouble achieving results like mine.





- Targeting Budget-Minded Enthusiasts With AMD CPUs
- Platforms And Overclocking
- Test System Configuration And Benchmarks
- Results: Synthetics
- Results: Audio And Video
- Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Results: Productivity
- Results: Compression
- Results: Borderlands 2
- Results: Crysis 3
- Results: F1 2012
- Results: Far Cry 3
- Results: Hitman: Absolution
- Results: StarCraft II: Heart Of The Swarm
- Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Results: Tomb Raider
- Power Consumption
- Performance Summary
- Wrapping Things Up: AMD Vs. Intel In Gaming
- Wrapping Things Up: AMD Vs. Intel In Applications And Power
- AMD: Loving More Cores And Unlocked Multipliers


K10 has so much more potential...
I always wanted to see how it would compare to newer models, and even intel counterparts. Thank you for this. I loved reading the article. Keep comparisons like this coming.
The main thing I hate about FX CPU's in the IPC. companies like intel have steadily increased the IPC of their CPU's while with AMD, going from Phenom II to the latest FX, they significantly reduced the IPC of their CPU's, and furthermore the resource sharing of the cores (by going with core modules instead of true cores). if similar resources are stressed, performance suffers as shown in the link below
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/138394-amds-fx-8350-analyzed-does-piledriver-deliver-where-bulldozer-fell-short/2
AMD would have done better by improving upon the phenom II and making an 8 core version.
I currently use a Phenom II x6 1075t overclocked to 3.9GHz
in cinebench 11.5 I get 7.01 points Which is still acceptable even by todays standards.
Northbridge is at 2.6GHz and hyper transport is at 2.08GHz
The highest I can push the CPU is about 4.4GHz but those speeds require around 1.575 volts, meaning I cant load the CPU to 100% for very long unless I take more drastic measures of connecting a vacuum hose from the case air intake to the air output of an air conditioner (to siphon off some of the cold air)
If you want to see just how bad the fx is compared to phenom II, clock some phenom II's and some FX's at the same clock speed, then do a range of benchmarks.
if Only AMD optimized there K10 arch ..., 8 core k10 will be much better ...
Are you serious, K10 have evolved for years and reached its wall, we talking about semprons --> athlons ---> Phenoms 1 ---> Phenoms 2 ---> AMD FM1 APU`s
And The Phenom 965 using 45nm as seen in the above chart uses 180Watts on load and upwards ...
So wake up people, if there was any untapped resources in k10 AMD would have popped them.
Also an index of cinebench single threaded performanc results from my research is :
Sandy Bridge/ivy/and haswell (no real innovation since SB, and those 10% CPU improvements, only adds 0.0x) :
i3 = ~1.3x Point
i5 = ~1.5x point
i7 = ~1,8x point
AMD :
AMD Athlon a8-3850 k10 CPU 0.8 Point
AMD Phenom x6 1100T (BEST AMD K10 CPU) 1.08
Richland A10-6800K ~1.11 point.
All above results all from my research and wether you want to simply belive or better go research yourself is your choice, but AMD have problem in Single threaded perfomance, and the way they hided back day was giving more cores, like the Phenom x6 in CInebench Multi threaded it scores ~6.0 points even the lowert 1050T scores 5.9 point, and all intel i5 CPU does not go up than 5 points.
but adding real 6 cores is trouble and problematic and too much power and resource hungry for BULK designs using BULk materical, remeber those x6 can reach 200W and upwardes, and more there costly and there prices does not budge.
Since Bulldozer first design, there have been many fixes and improvements, and Pilediver is only the first step forward, next step is steam roller, with each step steadily enhancements are being made, not can be much said about k10 that after 3-4 steps forward it froze.
I have been waiting for this test since I first heard mention of it.
Fantastic work! am always harvesting older chips to cobble together some frankenstein machines - or even just buying newer parts to do the best possible super budget machines for friends - so this is a godsend. Thanks for the wide selection of games too - some reviews just do a handful which doesn't give a broad enough picture. Icing on the cake is the comparison to the intel chips, including that 8400. Even the global (fix the spelling on the chart) wattage is v interesting. Very nice.
Intel is offering a good balance between multi threading and single threading performance by having CPU's that can give more than 2 points per core in applications such as cinebench.
Clock for clock, the phenom II is significantly faster than the FX series.
If they cannot put 8 true cores on a single CPU, then they need to work on releasing a quad core with an IPC that rivals the intel CPU's.
Lower IPC is a step in the wrong direction, FX is the wrong choice.
(minor quibbles...) For completeness, it would have been nice to see the FX-8350 lining up. And perhaps include the 3570k in the individual results as a benchmark, for context (Though I realise this was an AMD roundup, of course).