AMD's Bulldozer Architecture: Overclocking Efficiency Explored

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AMD’s FX processor line-up was supposedly designed with efficiency in mind, according to AMD. We're putting this claim to the test, assessing the Bulldozer architecture at a number of different clock rates and comparing the results to Intel's CPUs.

Clock Frequency: 3.6 GHz, Multiplier: 18x, CPU Voltage: 1.332 V

We start out with the default settings. Turbo Core is enabled, the base clock rate is 3.6 GHz, the multiplier is set to its default 18x, and the CPU voltage is at its stock value of 1.332 V.

The CPU-Z screen shots taken at idle, in a multi-core benchmark (yielding the "middle" Turbo Core frequency), and during a single-threaded test (resulting in the fastest possible Turbo Core ratio) are all on display below.