AMD FX 8320 analysis

[ALXAndy]

Hey guys. So I've been meaning to do this for ages but pretty much everything that could get in the way got in the way.

It's been a lot of work and I've collected an enormous mass of data.

So why is this an analysis and not a review? well firstly I have not included any other processors as put simply, I don't have them. This is not going to be a "who can pee the highest" sort of write up any way so all that matters here is the subject matter itself; the AMD FX 8320 8 core CPU.

There are two ways in which to use one. You can go cheap, and be limited in your clock speeds or you can go the opposite and spend a pretty penny on the sort of motherboard you would need for extreme clock speeds. In this write up I will be demonstrating both, thus leaving nothing to chance. I will even be showing you exactly how I based my testing on the numerous clock speeds used and how they were achieved.

How I tested.

This is going to differ to many of your usual review type write ups. I always tend to do things differently (that'll be the Aspie in me !) but I will do my best to explain my methods.

Firstly let's cover our system specs.

When I mention 4.3ghz I will be referring to this machine -

AMD FX 8320 clocked to 4.3ghz
Asus M5A97 R2.0 (4+2 power stages)
4GB Geil Extreme memory
GTX 670 SLI

Cost for board and CPU - £172 (est)

When I mention either 4.6 or 5ghz I will be referring to this machine -

AMD FX 8320 clocked to either 4.6ghz or 5ghz
Asus Crosshair V Formula Z motherboard
8GB Mushkin memory
Radeon HD 7990.

Cost for board and CPU £272 (est)

In 3Dmark I will use the following terms.

P = performance mode and or score
X = Extreme mode and or score

Our clock speeds

4.3ghz



4.6ghz



5ghz



So without any further ado, let's get benching.. First up is the rather old 3Dmark Vantage.

Performance



And Extreme



3Dmark 11 Performance



3Dmark 11 Extreme



3Dmark Firestrike Performance



3Dmark Firestrike Extreme



Unigene Valley Benchmark Extreme HD



Unigene Heaven 4.0



Cinebench R15



Now onto the games. Battlefield 4, using this level here.





Crysis 3 using this level (follow Psycho)





Metro Last Light inbuilt benchmark



Tomb Raider inbuilt benchmark



Hitman : Absolution max settings 8XMSAA



Bios settings on 4.3ghz PC





Bios settings on 4.6ghz PC 2





And 5ghz





Peace out

 

[ALXAndy]

Well done Andy, good work. Must have taken a lot of time.

I will post some of my BF4 results here so people have some comparisons if you don't mind. Also can I ask whether your 7990 was at stock speeds and what stock boost did you get on it?

Stock. I tend not to overclock my graphics cards if I'm honest. I guess when it doesn't cut it any more I may be tempted into giving it a shove, but I always tend to go total overkill to feel somewhat safe with forthcoming titles..

Yeah it's an awful, awful lot of data. Just inputting it to the charts took over four hours

 

[ALXAndy]

Fantastic mate, just what I was after! What sort of temps are you getting underload. what did you use to stress-test?

Cheers.

I use LinX, five runs. To be completely frank? if it makes it through that, it's stable.

Temps are 59c in LinX on the 4.3ghz rig (using a Scythe Ninja). At 4.6ghz the other rig tops out high 40s low 50s. At 5ghz I see temps of around 61c, right on the limit of stability.

I'm now running it at 4.7ghz @ 1.42v. Temps are high 40s load.

 

[ALXAndy]

BTW I forgot to mention.. In some games you'll note I didn't use all of the different clocks. The reason? take a look at this. This is Tomb Raider during the benchmark.



The moral of this story? don't listen to people who tell you to spend ridiculous amounts of money on over priced CPUs.

1. You will sometimes only need a CPU inserted for the sake of it. Spend the money on GPUs.
2. The game will actually use the CPU and all of the cores so a FX 6300 will be more than adequate.

 

[ALXAndy]

Metro was exactly the same. Around 25% use on core one, the rest just sat there like boobies in a trance at around 18%.

I can not emphasise enough how important GPU grunt is.

 

[ALXAndy]

ALXAndy, how easy was it to get the CPU to 5ghz with the ROG board?

im really really considering this setup from my i5 760, also im running a 7990, is there any bottlenecks anywhere?

i dont suppose you have company of heroes 2 that you could do a bench on with the 5ghz FX and 7990?

Don't have the game downloaded but am pretty sure I own it. I won't be able to get it down until December though when the internet is finally installed.

With that board I actually hit 5ghz by mistake. I enabled level up 2 and forgot to reboot (F10) to let it apply the settings. I then ramped up the multi thinking I was aiming for 4.6 but when I got into Windows I was running 5ghz lol.. It's painfully easy you will soon learn your CPUs limit. Later ones seem to clock like demons I would imagine because of Centurion. AMD have ramped up their quality process. Seriously the CHVFZ is so easy to clock it's almost cheating. I've since tinkered dropping the volts down but for the most part it does all of the important stuff for you.

As for bottlenecks? do the results of the gaming benchmarks seem reasonable to you?

Let's cut the crap for a moment. I ran the latest games at the most punishing of settings and the 8320 came out singing every time. So whether it's a bottleneck?

I would just answer with "It's enough".

 

[ALXAndy]

is that under water? i will using a h100i but may move to custom water after

H100. Don't bother with custom water unless you want to chase Cinebench records for the chip. Some of the games actually showed drops at 5ghz. 4.6-4.8 seems to be optimal, so just get it there with as few MVs as you can and leave it be. H100i is more than enough IMO.

 

[ALXAndy]

If it's dropping at 5GHz over a lower clock it must be throttling. I'd aim for 4.8GHz though myself, anything higher is a bonus but obviously means more heat. A high end air cooler will do 4.8-5GHz on a good chip as well.

It's not throttling. I have them all disabled. I know when it's had enough because it'll literally shut itself down lmao.

I did start benching at 5.2ghz but it proved too much.. I think the FPS drop because it's either only using a core or two. Either that? or the game engine itself may not like being pushed so hard.

But yeah, on the CHVFZ I've disabled all of the safety settings and it's seat of the pants

 

[ALXAndy]

thats awesome, thanks guys

may i ask why drops have been shown with 5ghz over 4.6-4.8?

im also wondering how much mantle will help this chip and radeon cards out when its released

Mantle is basically there to rule out the CPU completely and leave everything down to the GPU. Hence AMD's recent statement that you could down clock the FX 8320 to 2ghz and it wouldn't matter.

 

[ALXAndy]

Hmm. Well tbh I know for a fact it's not throttle. What it could be is simple margin of error.

You'll note there that I hit 800 points in Cinebench. Was a sheer fluke. I've been capped at around 795 for ages, yet all of a sudden I finally hit 800. What I should have done was run every bench three times and take the average score. Sadly that would have taken so much longer.

Maybe next time I won't go so in depth lol. It's got to have taken me a week all told.

 

[ALXAndy]

worth it tho dude, helps a lot more that you have a 7990 with the ROG and 8320

Indeed it's a nice luxury, but let's not take anything at all away from the 8320 at 4.3ghz on a el cheapo motherboard.

In anything recent it belies its price with brilliant performance.

 

[ALXAndy]

Mantle will help if its supported. It has huge potential specifically for such cheap 8 core chips. bf4 in December could prove interesting.

Tepic: Damn, an i7 is gpu bottlenecked at only 2.5Ghz in company of heroes!

From what I've been hearing Mantle will pretty much attempt to eliminate the CPU completely from the equation, leaving everything down to the GPU.

BF4? all noises point to it only being used for the lighting or shading. Shame really, but I guess the initial engine work is a lot of work.

 

[ALXAndy]

It won't be just for the lighting and shading, AMD and DICE have said they have reduced draw calls and other CPU tasks....... The lighting and shading in BF4 is already done on the GPU so they can't offload it from the CPU if it's not done there to begin with.

Good to hear ! I must admit I did feel a little disappointed when I read that.

 

[ALXAndy]

Yes I use Win 8 now on both machines. I actually quite like it, though it can annoy at times

 

[ALXAndy]

Voltages seem high, I bet you can bring the temps down by tweaking the power delivery and fiddling with the CPU/nb volts

Sorry mate I missed this post. I already have tbh. I'm now running 4.7ghz @ 1.42v which I'm delighted with as it's as cool as a cucumber

 

[ALXAndy]

Is that with a single GPU?

No. I can't even remember the last time I used a single GPU.

Very intresting results Thank you. Not a benchmarker myself but wonder what the real life difference in feel is like between this and a i7?
Could certainly save me some money going amd

What would you be doing with it? if it's just general desktop duties and gaming you wouldn't notice a difference unless you were frame counting.

 

[ALXAndy]

Then what settings and resolution you use?

If you look at the chart headers you can see. But in case you missed it - 1080p 4-8XMSAA.

For 3dmark I used P and Extreme and for Unigene both were set to extreme HD.

 

[ALXAndy]

Gaming If can find something can play as almost blind lol. Other than that watching films and occasional encoding

Then you'll be fine. In productivity (encoding and the likes) the 8320 will be in front of any quad core Intel. They're actually up there duking it out with the 3770k, but obviously won't go near the 4770k.

But yeah, as a casual use CPU I think you'll find the FX 8 is more than good enough.

I've had a couple of I7s myself (920 and 950) and I noticed little difference in many things when leaving my Phenom 2 940 behind. Obviously in heavy stuff the I7s were much better but for day to day use it was hard to tell the difference.

 

[ALXAndy]

So you tell him an 8320 will be in front of any quad core Intel and then in the next sentence tell him they duke it out with a 3700k and can't get near a 4770k.

Both of which are quad core Intel CPU's??

Oh for crying out loud. Please don't litter this thread with more of your nonsense.

Funny how a I7 is only quad core when it suits really.

 

[ALXAndy]

I would say more like £900? though don't quote me on that.

I wouldn't bother with 16gb ram either, 8gb is more than enough for any game.