AMD FX: Energy Efficiency Compared To Eight Other CPUs

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We've already seen AMD's Bulldozer architecture come up short in the performance benchmarks. However, the company also claims it made important improvements to power consumption. Can FX-8150 at least score some points in the energy efficiency department?

AMD CPUs: Phenom II X4 980 BE And X6 1100T

The allure of AMD's Phenom II is that it facilitates a lot of cores at a (relatively) low price. The article AMD Phenom II X6 1090T And 890FX Platform Review: Hello, Leo contains all the information about its architecture and performance. The six-core Phenom II X6 and the less expensive quad-core Phenom II X4 are the most relevant to our discussion here.

AMD puts 256 KB of L2 cache in each core, and 6 MB of shared L3 cache per CPU in its highest-end Phenom II processors. Those same models get 125 watt TDP ratings, which is hardly a surprise given their aggressive clocks and aging 45 nm lithograph node. On paper, at least, the FX's architecture has the potential to deliver energy savings. Bulldozer incorporates a number of power-reducing features and it leverages a more advanced 32 nm process. That potential bears out in the fact that AMD does offer 95 W versions of the multiplier-unlocked FX.

Patrick Schmid
Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.