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: 3.8 GHz, Multiplier: 19x, CPU Voltage: 1.352 V

Even a slight frequency increase required more voltage to keep the system stable. This fact alone is enough for us to predict that its standard settings will be the FX-8150's best for efficiency. Overclocking for more performance probably won't justify the additional power consumption. In contrast to Intel's Sandy Bridge architecture, Bulldozer doesn't seem to have headroom available allowing it to run faster at the same voltage. Perhaps this is attributable to the architecture itself, or maybe it can be blamed on an immature manufacturing process.