The World's First 8-Core Desktop CPU Detailed

[gamfrkI]

Source

Last month, AMD earned a Guinness World Record for highest clocking speed ever recorded with its forthcoming 8-core CPU, code-named Bulldozer. Now, however, the company has pulled back the curtain on the new multicore processor line, which will come in four varieties, ranging from a $115 entry-level model to a $245 high-end configuration.



The FX-8150 heads up the pack, and features an 8-core design that has a base clocking speed of 3.6GHz, which can be turbocharged to 4.2GHz. Dropping down to the FX-8120 affords you the same eight cores, but a base clocking speed of 3.1GHz and a max of 4.0GHz. The FX-6100 will provide users with six cores and a base clocking speed of 3.3GHz, which can be boosted to 3.9GHz. Finally, there's the four core FX-4100, which yields 3.6GHz base speeds and a max of 3.8GHz.

The FX-8150 and FX-8120 will cost $245 and $205, while the FX-6100 has a $165 MSRP and the FX-4100 will retail for $115.

However, speed-hungry PC lovers will also be able to get their hands on a new Asetek cooling bundle early next year, which comes with the FX-8120 and a liquid cooling system for $345. The bundle will provide up to 800MHz of extra clocking capability but will be exclusive to Japan this year, with only 500 units produced, but it is expected to be available in additional regions in Q1 2012.



What makes the new FX line unique? AMD says the chips will provide drastically better performance than preceding models, and will provide added boosts for gaming applications. Moreover, the company will also be shipping the chips completely unlocked, allowing users to determine specific clocking speeds for each core, establish preset configurations for certain applications or games, and more.

For more on AMD's FX line and PC gaming tech, stay tuned to IGN.com.

[stinow]

This sh*t kicks @$$!

Seen it, but first saving money for other (classic) stuff

[Kherr]

I'm sorry but I'm an intel guy. This is cool and all, but do you really think that Intel is gonna let AMD hop into the spotlight? No, intel has a new 8 core on the way too... It's not really all that impressive as of yet, but I'm sure intel will blow the doors off of AMD's thing right now. :3

Alpha stages of the latest Intel i7 8-core processor

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eBay Listing (Source 3)

[gamfrkI]

if i had about $1000+ laying around ill buy an intel but i dont so ill go with a amd and its cheaper cpus

[Kherr]

They may be cheaper, but you know what they say:

"You get what you pay for"

I don't have $1000 laying around either, but I'll save up for it. :3

[Hot Trout]

It is not always about price. AMD have in the past been able to produce better processors that Intel from time to time. When Intel launched the 486 DX2-66 as the largest CPU in the world AMD came back with the excellent AMD DX2-100 which was faster, cheaper and overclockable. When Intel had the P4-3.2 GHz as the largest, AMD had the Athlon X2.

Currently the Intel i5 and i7 is the best around but that does not mean that AMD dont have something lurking around. I find that Intel have the development money to keep making great CPU's but AMD have a lot of creativity and this sometimes produces the better real world CPU.

[crustyasp46]

Not a big fan of Intel, as they make it harder to obtain drivers for Linux.that being said I stumbled on this article about AMD and overclocking.

AMD Achieves New
World Record CPU Frequency

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We bet you weren’t expecting to see this headline today, but it’s true – AMD’s yet to be released FX processors have already achieved a significant overclocking world record.

About 2 weeks ago, we had the opportunity to fly down to Austin, Texas in order to get briefed on the finer points of AMD’s upcoming and highly anticipated Bulldozer (Zambezi-FX) processors. While we still can’t reveal any particular details about the CPU’s themselves, we can now tell you about this new milestone.

Now AMD have only been testing the extreme overclocking capabilites of the FX processors for about a month, but they were quickly able to determine that these new chips did not appear to have any cold bugs under liquid nitrogen, and this opened the door to something a little more extreme – liquid helium (LHe). The hope was that by improving conductivity and decreasing operating temperatures to a few degrees above absolute zero, they might be able to achieve something amazing with their new microarchitecture…and they did.

With a bunch of media in attendance, some quickly binned processors, and whole lot of liquid helium a supremely capable group made up of Sami (Macci) Mäkinen, Brian (Chew*) McLachlan, Aaron Schradin, Pete Hardman, and Simon Solotko pushed an octo-core FX-8150 (with two cores enabled) to new heights and achieved a new CPU frequency world record of 8429.38 MHz at 2.016V. This surpasses the current record by 119.44 MHz, a Intel Celeron 352 LGA775 chip clocked at 8308.9 MHz, and finally ends the streak of lowly “Cedar Mills” Celerons that have consistently held the title of world’s highest CPU frequency.

More images and source: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... uency.html

[Kherr]

While I agree and respect your opinion HT I'm more of a person that values benchmark results, and currently speaking intel has more money and resources to produce a processor better than AMD. Earlier it was completely AMD all the way; I remember when AMD was the best out there and was what you wanted for a gaming rig, but now intel has them beat and all I care about are benchmark results and durability.

Before you say anything, I've had horrible experiences with the couple of AMD processors I've had frying out at their default clock speeds within 3 years on fan cooling, comparing to the 2 intel P4 processors I've had that still worked perfectly when I threw them away, plus the P4 I currently have sitting in the other room that has over 7 years run time on it and it's in perfect condition.

AMD being better than intel in the future is something I'm highly skeptical about but not entirely against happening either. Probability of it happening with the amount of money that intel has is probably minimal. Like you said HT, it's not about the cost but about real-world application and currently speaking intel has that in the bag; their i7 980x extreme 6-core speaks for itself in durability, longevity, and performance vs. the equivalent AMD. ;3

It's nice that someone finally beat those old records, but you have to look at the comparison... an old processor that's default clock speed was 119.44 MHz and it safely got up to over 8 GHz....... AND it was a CELERON... the worst of the intel line versus these results that AMD got with a new age processor that isn't even out yet. So how do we know it's going to keep these results when it drops into the real world? We don't, so we'll just have to wait and see. :3

[erebus]

Its great to see AMD getting a chipset out thats faster than anything Intel has.

[stinow]

Its great to see AMD getting a chipset out thats faster than anything Intel has.

It's not...