The Vishera Review: AMD FX-8350, FX-8320, FX-6300 and FX-4300 Tested
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 23, 2012 12:00 AM ESTFinal Words
Vishera is a step in the right direction for AMD, it manages to deliver tangibly better performance than last year's disappointing FX processor without increasing power consumption. Thanks to architectural and frequency improvements, AMD delivers up to 20% better performance than last year's FX-8150 for a lower launch price, while remaining within the same thermal envelope.
AMD does manage to pull away with some very specific wins when compared to similarly priced Intel parts. Performance in the latest x264 benchmark as well as heavily threaded POV-Ray and Cinebench tests show AMD with the clear multithreaded performance advantage. Other heavily threaded integer workloads also do quite well on Vishera. The only part that didn't readily beat its Intel alternative was AMD's six-core FX-6300, the rest did extremely well in our heavily threaded tests. Look beyond those specific applications however and Intel can pull away with a significant lead. Lightly threaded applications or those whose performance depends on a mixture of single and multithreaded workloads are typically wins for Intel. The story hasn't really changed in that regard. For AMD to become competitive across the board it needs significant changes to the underlying architecture, some of which I don't know that we'll see until the 2013 - 2014 timeframe. Even then, Intel's progress isn't showing any signs of slowing.
Power consumption is also a big negative for Vishera. The CPU draws considerably more power under load compared to Ivy Bridge, or even Sandy Bridge for that matter.
Ultimately Vishera is an easier AMD product to recommend than Zambezi before it. However the areas in which we'd recommend it are limited to those heavily threaded applications that show very little serialization. As our compiler benchmark shows, a good balance of single and multithreaded workloads within a single application can dramatically change the standings between AMD and Intel. You have to understand your workload very well to know whether or not Vishera is the right platform for it. Even if the fit is right, you have to be ok with the increased power consumption over Intel as well.
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CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - link
Problem is you have that attitude more than once, and then you're into a slow degrading slop with lost performance.So, why do we get these arguments from amd fanboys ?
Obviously you purchased the 6950 and decided you needed every last drop of juice from it, and there you go, oc'ed to 6970...
So on the one hand you've takena safe and sufficient card and hammered the piss out of it for a few more frames you cannot notice, as you do tell us you cannot notice them, and then you take your cannot notice them argument, and claim that's why your amd cpu is so great... and intel is not needed.
I see you did that without even noticing. You totally freaking contradicted yourself, completely.
Look, go ahead and buy amd and be a fanboy, I say more power to you, just DON'T type up crap talking points with 100% absolute contradiction, plussing them blatantly in amd's favor, and expect I'l just suck em down like freaking koolaid.
DO NOT.
Intel is desired for the very same reason, you the amd fanboy, bought the 6950 and have it OC'ed to 6970 speeds.
Sorry bub, nice try, till you ate both your own shoes.
Ellimist - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link
I would also like to see virtualisation in benchmarks as well. Multi core processors should lend to some interesting results in these sort of benchmarks.Good Review btw. Keep up the good work.
silverblue - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link
I think that's Johan's domain; expect him to do so when he looks at the new server-based models.HW_mee - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link
The 8320 is a 125W partCeriseCogburn - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - link
LOL - oh dats not much powa ! All da amd fanboys don't care about power or saving the earth, they never cared, they never are worried, nor have they ever been worried about housefires...All that hate toward JenHsung and all those years of destroying the earth rage against nVidia, that actually happened on another planet in an alternate universe.
gamoniac - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link
Anand, while enjoying your Vishera review, upon loading a page, the ad on your page took over my browser and navigated to a fishy looking "You are today's 100,000th visitor!" site. I know AT contracts out the ad part, but I thought you might be interested in knowing what happened. Here is a screenshot of what I experienced -- http://i45.tinypic.com/2aigegx.jpgGood reading, as always.
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link
Thank you for reporting that. I'll see if I can track down the source and get them removed.artk2219 - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link
Thanks for the review and all of the time that went into it! It looks like I can finally start recommending something that isn't a Phenom II from AMD. Even though I personally love AMD and haven't used an intel chip since the P3 coppermine days, I couldn't recommend anything from AMD to anyone else this past year with a clear conscience, at least if it wasn't a stand alone CPU upgrade. But from the tests that I could find that compared the fx 4300 to the i3 3220 it looks like its mostly a wash between them, well other than power usage and thermals that is, so that was looking great! Is there any chance of a stand alone review in the future comparing the two? It looks like the 8350 performs about like a 2500K which is also awesome, unfortunately it's at least a year late to the party :(. This does however give me great hope for Steamroller, the only issue I had with the article is with the games selection (too few and too intel biased in the titles (SC2 and WOW)), might there be a more in depth review on that in the future as well? Thanks again for the review though!CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - link
Wow hi there. Glad to meet you, an amd fanboy with the glimmers of a conscience.Now, don't forget the i2500K Oc's from 3200 right on up to 4500 (and beyond) on stock voltage and crap stock fan, so it actually SMOKES the daylights out of this fishy vishy.
Just thought I'd mention that.
SilthDraeth - Monday, October 22, 2012 - link
That was weird, was reading this article about Vishera and it got pulled in the middle of me reading it.