The AMD FX-8150 8-Core CPU

Up until recently, I had been running an Intel Q9400 Core 2 Quad. I upgraded to the new AMD FX series for a few reasons, and I'm happy to say I'm not disappointed one bit.


I use an i7-2600K at work, and the i7 is a powerhouse, however, it gets bogged down when running VMs, or Virtual Machines. I use VMs to troubleshoot issues on older operating systems, and use tools that you just can't run on Windows 7 Enterprise. My work computer can handle 2 or 3 VMs with a gig of RAM each. My home machine can run 6 VMs before it begins to noticeably slow down. The FX-8150 has significantly lower per core performance, and you can really feel it on heafty 3d games, such as Battlefield 3. With that said, The multitasking performance is unmatched. I know the benchmarks disagree, but over my work computer, which cost the company significantly more to buy than my FX rig cost to build, It's a striking difference in multitasking.


The FX-8150 does not under-perform in gaming. You might not hit a ridiculous frame rate, but everything I've thrown at it is playable on high or better settings. Games I've thrown at it include...

• Skyrim
• Civilization V
• Crysis 2
• Crysis
• Sins of a Solar Empire (admittedly, even my laptop runs this)
• Far Cry 2
• Battlefield 3
• Battlefield - Bad Company 2
• Oil Rush (Linux and Windows Versions) 

All of these games run flawlessly on my current rig, but the workstation performance is amazing. If you do video editing, graphic design, or if you're looking for a cost effective Linux rig, this is a great platform. The FX-8150 really shines on the latest Linux kernel with performance up to 25% higher than on Windows. I bench-marked using Blender 3d renders and compared the time on various projects varying in complexity from a still render to a 30 second animated clip.


I can't vouch for overclocking yet, because I'm waiting for a proper cooler, but the few small tests I've done were pretty good. On automatic overclock of 3.9 Ghz, Passmark scores were above that of the i7-2600K and temps were stable, but still a bit high for my liking, so I've been running stock. 


Feel free to leave questions in the comments and I'll answer as I get time.


Thank you for reading!