Even though there is still some time left until AMD makes the FX-Series processors based on the Bulldozer architecture official, engineering samples of these chips have already started making their way intro the hands of enthusiasts who have published the first benchmarks of these CPUs.
The performance seems to be sub-par this time as these processors were designed only to allow motherboard manufacturers, and other hardware makers, to test the functionality of their products.For starters, we are going to take a look at a series of benchmarks published by a member of theChiphell forum, which used a 2.8GHz clocked 8-core chip that was overclocked to 3.2GHz.The AMD processor was paired together with an Asus Sabertooth 990FX motherboard and with 4GB of DDR3-1333MHz memory, and achieved 4.60 points in CineBench R11.5 at its base frequency, where it lagged behind even the Core i7 860.Other tests that were run include Fritz Chess and SuperPi, and these too offered disappointing results.The second Bulldozer processor to make its way into the hands of an enthusiast user was clocked at 3.2GHz and managed to achieve 4GHz through overclocking.Despite its improved clock speeds, the chip performance seems to mimic those of the Chiphell FX processor and only manages to achieve 5.63 points in CineBench R11.5 as well as a SuperPi time of about 22 seconds.At this year's Computex fair, AMD has officially announced that the first Zambezi FX processors, based on the Bulldozer architecture, aren't expected to arrive until later this summer (August or September).Before the news was made official, various reports suggested that AMD is having trouble with the performance of its Bulldozer architecture, as the first chip revisions functioned at lower than expected frequencies.In order to fix these speed issues, AMD reportedly plans to build a new Bulldozer stepping, called B2, which should make the chips competitive with Intel's offerings.
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