Bulldozer Arrives: AMD FX-8150 Review

Synthetic Performance

SPECviewperf v11 is clearly not optimized for processors with more than four cores, as the highly clocked 4.2GHz AMD FX-4170 came away with the win. Rendering an average of 10.56fps in the SolidWorks test, it was slightly faster than the FX-8120 and FX-8150 processors. The FX-8150 still managed to outpace the Phenom II X6 1100T by 39% and it held a 17% margin over the Core i7-2600K.

The Maya benchmark revealed a similar trend. AMD's FX-4170 seized the throne, while the FX-8150 trailed with a 55% lead on the Phenom II X6 110T and a 7% jump on the Core i7-2600K.

CINEBENCH R11.5 broke Bulldozer's momentum as the FX-8150 rendered an average of 48.96fps, which was 9% slower than the i5-2500K and i7-2600K. Nonetheless, it was 4% faster than the Phenom II X4 980 and 6% quicker than the Phenom II X6 1100T.

The FX-8150 performed exceptionally in the WinRAR benchmark, delivering a multithreading result of 4287KB/s -- 18% faster than the i7-2600K and 32% faster than the i5-2500K. Moreover, it landed 52% ahead of the Phenom II X6 1100T and 66% higher than the Phenom II X4 980.