AMD Bulldozer - Is it worth it? [I very much guess so..]

[Zipppy]

I've been considering an AMD Bulldozer FX-series processor for a few months now, and I ask, is it worth buying, compared to a Phenom II X6 or even an Intel? for now, I'm on a tight budget for buying PC parts, and I'm wanting something that can play Battlefield 3 and do multithreaded tasks, such as rendering video and 3d models. My main concern is that it may get disappointing figures. Should I try and save up for an Intel i5, or what people would recommend?

There was post on LFSForum of someone getting good FPS out of an AMD Phenom II X6 1090T and keeping cool on Crysis and Battlefield 3 maxed out, with a maximum of 35 degrees Celsius (with a Corsair H100), this may be because of the Hexa-core design though, yet it rarely reaches 90% usage when overclocked to 3.6 GHz while playing those games.
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p...ost1711452

[rttnpig]]

i5 is one of the best gamming CPU you can actually get. Dont get a bullodzer

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/434?vs=288

[[TC]»Elmo«]

My Phenom II X4 955 (3.2GHz) has no trouble with BF3 and Crysis. Bulldozer is certainly an improvement over the Phenom II, but I haven't properly compared the two. Specifically, the FX-8150 has roughly twice the performance of my 955.

The i5 wins for a lot of games, but it does very much depend on the game.
As rttn's link shows, the Bulldozer wins hands down for most of the multithreaded multimedia stuff and a few of the gaming type benchmarks.

Based on current UK prices and overall performance, the FX-8150 is roughly 25% better bang/buck over the i5-2500K and is a bit cheaper overall as well.

If you do a lot of the multimedia stuff, I would recommend the FX-8150 as it is generally better at it.

[Tom]

AMD suck get a intel cpu e.g. i5 or i7!

[[TC]»Pete«]

That's not very helpful Tom.

[Street]

My Phenom II X6 runs BF3 at High with no issues whatsoever if that's of any use I'd recommend it, 1055T, 2.8 I believe. Very quick.

[Zipppy]

I could as well ignore Fanboyistic comments.
Keep in mind, I'm on a budget, but I want performance. Local i5 2500K prices are $230, See below. I may consider looking on newegg. I feel that the i5 might be a bit too much, but I'll look into it.

Here are the prices at Canada Computers for the i5's.
http://canadacomputers.com/advanced_sear...filter_id=

and for the AMD Bulldozers, includes Quad-core to Eight-Core models, 95W to 125W.
http://canadacomputers.com/advanced_sear...filter_id=

Phenom II X6 1090T BE
http://canadacomputers.com/advanced_sear...ter_id=AMD

[Street]

I've heard Black Editions on Phenom's are very good value as well.

On the whole, I wouldn't listen to me tech wise on processors, but from experience, I can tell you that my X6 is very good and could probably handle a lot more than what I use it for, and that black edition looks like very good value for money, but at the same time I've seen/heard a lot of very good ratings for i5's.

Never heard much about the bulldozers, but they would appear to be pretty decent value for money. If you're looking purely for gaming then an i5 would appear to be the way forward, but the best advice I can give you...


Listen to Elmo.

[Zipppy]

I most certainly would listen to Elmo, and I've been reading that the Bulldozers are not that big on improvement to the Phenom II's, so that is why I'm a bit skeptical.

[Nitros]

If your building a new computer go intel. I like AMD, usually hey were my preference, but intel seem to have much better things lined up upgrade wise.
If your already on an AMD system looking to upgrade, the AMD chips are very good price/performance, so def stick with that. But as I said, loohing to the future and upgrade potential, along with current line of chips - intel is dominating at the moment and for the foreseeable future - so any new system, I would say, should be socket 1155. If the i5 is too expensive, have a look at the i3s? Then upgrade in a year or two if your feel you need it.

[Zipppy]

I feel like replacing the motherboard as well, since the current one is a low-to-Mid-end one. I have my mind set on an ASUS Sabertooth line board, I liked the 990FX, since I can use my current processor on it, and change it later, as it is an AMD-based board.

I can't seem to keep a high amount of money at a time though, not exactly sure why. If I had proper hardware, I would edit video more than I do now, as this can barely handle Vegas 10 with HD footage due to a lack of RAM.

[Tommer]

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

Judge for yourself.

[[TC]»Elmo«]

(2012-06-08 13:39)Nitros Wrote:  But as I said, loohing to the future and upgrade potential, along with current line of chips - intel is dominating at the moment and for the foreseeable future - so any new system, I would say, should be socket 1155.

Don't be so sure about the upgrade potential, considering Intel have something like 6 different CPU sockets on the go atm and AMD basically has 3, two of which are pin-compatable, and the other is for APUs. 1155 hasn't been around for too long so far and there's no telling what socket they'll use the generation after Ivy.

Normally, I'd recommend an i* series for most people, but Zipppy specifically mentioned the multimedia stuff that AMD excels at atm, so the choice isn't so clear cut. AMD's also have the benefit of more solid, better featured chipsets.

So in this case, it really depends on what kind of task is the priority for Zipppy and, to some extent, what he wants the motherboard to do.

[SLiiDE]

I use a FX-4100, and its pretty awesome for the price i paid for it (£80). It has MASSIVE overclock room, im overclocked to 4.5ghz. FX-6100 is sub £100 so its probable the best thing to get on a budget.

EDIT - Forgot to add, Ive played BF3, Crysis 2 and many other games maxed out, with my HD 6850 with atleast 30fps.

[Zipppy]

Just to answer the question on what I do most, I am more of a gamer person, but I'm doing more video editing now in Sony Vegas 10, due to interest, and event coverage, like I said before, I'm at the lower limit of what I can use.

I just bought a NZXT Phantom case, so airflow and cooling shouldn't be much of a concern now.

How hot can the new AMD Chips get though? Been hearing that the 125W ones heat up quite a fair bit under load, especially with the stock cooler.

For the Hexacores, there's the 6100 and the 6200. The 6200 is 125W, and is clocked at 3.8 GHz (doesn't fall far behind the 8100 on PassMark), while the 6100 is clocked at 3.3 GHz and is 95W.

[SLiiDE]

My 4100 doesn't get above 65 and i use a fairly low end cooler. My advice (if you were to get a FX) would be to buy the cheapest 4 core/6 core/8 core you can find and just over-clock to a satisfying speed. I know that the FX-8120 on custom cooling and stock speeds temperature stays at around 55-60. I'm sure there's more information online though.

EDIT- Just found this:
Max temps for AMD CPU's:
All Athlon II x2's max temps are -> 74~75'C
Athlon II x3 Series -> 73'C
Athlon II x4 Series -> 71'C
Phenom II x2 5XX Series -> 70'C
Phenom II x3 7XX Series -> 73'C
Phenom II x4 8XX Series -> 71'C
Phenom II x4 9 Series 95W -> 71'C
Phenom II x4 9 Series 125/140W -> 62'C
Phenom II x6 1035T/1045T(new released)/1055T 95W -> 71'C
Phenom II x6 1055T (125W) 1065T 1075T 1090T 1100T -> 62'C
FX8120/FX8150 (BULLDOZERS) -> 61'C
FX6100/FX4100 -> 70'C

[Zipppy]

Okay, considering either a 8120 or 6100, the 8150 is as much as an i5 itself at Canada prices. I noticed the 6XXX series has a higher Max temp than the 8XXX series.

also, the 6100 has a very good "Turbo" boost difference, and is slightly better value per core.
http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPU...770&id=771

I am constantly bothered by my current CPU nearing 100% in most games, not that big of a surprise, since it's a triple-core, AMD Athlon II X3 445.

[Glass Cleaner]

i5 seems to be best for pure gaming

thuban 6/8 cores seem best for multithreading

look at i5 or maybe 1045T or even 960T?

[Zipppy]

As I already said, an i5 is too expensive, so that one's out, even the lowest end ones are expensive, i3's are a little too slow if you ask me, and aren't unlocked. If I didn't have such a tight budget, I would get a 2500k (unlocked), despite me doing other demanding tasks.

The Phenom II CPUs are a bit of a hard find here, and are priced more expensive because of that. My AMD Processor of choice would be the Bulldozer 6100, mainly due to my budget. I still find that the 6 cores will give it a good balance.

[[TC]»Elmo«]

A little update, in case you haven't bought it already:

If you can wait and the price isn't too bad, the Piledriver is looking like it may be 10-15% faster than Bulldozer for the same clock.
Unfortunately, there haven't been any benchmarks of the FX yet (although the Fusion based ones have been and show the 10-15% improvement) and I'm not sure exactly when it'll be out. It's due Q3 this year and uses the AM3+ socket.