Official Bulldozer Reviews

[Stolly]

Bad news. Not only can Intel maintain their prices, they could even increase them. Bad for everyone.

 

[Juantjie]

Hmm,after reading some reviews the results are disappointing,is there anything AMD can do to improve?

Can updated/improved chipset drivers make a difference in the near future?

Could someone please continue from this post; is it possible that AMD can still sell some of these... things... if chipset/drivers are released?

:s

I'm very saddened, yet I'm still going to buy one - the gain in performance would be massive for me and I'd love to put the 8 cores to good use with folding. Apparently it's good with its FPUs.

 

[Agnostic]

AMD, I am dissapoint. Although, I'm still going to get a Phenom ii x4 for my low budget gaming PC soon!

 

[RiseAgainst]

So is it not even worth getting the 4 core bulldozer over a 4 core phenomII ?

 

[Firegod]

Either way I can't see much changing in the realistic lifetime of these cpus.

In terms of the Win8 thing it didn't look like HUGE gains a few percent here and there (I wouldn't expect more but just to point out it isn't magically going to make this CPU competitive overnight) and it may be that other chips may get some gains from Win8 too (haven't researched it so don't know if anyone has tested it)

As for whether you should wait for xyz, my attitude would be to get a 2500k if you really feel like you need an upgrade now, otherwise hold fire.

Thanks HangTime. I think I'll hold fire.

 

[gug54321]

glad i didnt wait 8 months now!

 

[eddiew]

Apparently it's good with its FPUs.

All 4 FPUs... I'd definitely get some benchmarks of any specific programs you want it for, I suspect an i7 would wipe the floor with it for £50 more.

Are you not better doing GPU based folding, or is that something I dreamt?

 

[Gerard]

Rage 3d's review is a bit of an eyebrow raiser, a wee bit too positive considering the shortfalls of the chip:

http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/cpu/amd_fx_8150/index.php?p=1

 

[WingZero30]

How would 2nd and 3rd gen bulldozer turn out if the first gen been quite disappointing?

 

[appletree]

//double-facepalm

Exactly! No need for long reviews as it can be all summed up in just one picture:

 

[Orcvader]

http://youtu.be/8rDwXuAINJk

Quite a lot of dislikes on the vid... and it seems they decided to disable comments!

 

[Gerard]

http://youtu.be/8rDwXuAINJk

Quite a lot of dislikes on the vid... and it seems they decided to disable comments!

Yup, amusing considering most of their vids have comments enabled

 

[HighlandeR]

This bulldozer launch can dent or kill AMD in this recession.... not at all good news for anyone, even if you do own a intel cpu or 2500k/2600k.

If AMD go down with this launch..... we all (our wallets) will suffer

I doubt anyones gonna wait for AMDs next improved/revised cpu next year, really surprised no one at AMD ran a test and thought wait we got 8 cores thats double... and a faster ghz then the 2500k but were still slower, was no point releasing it and there charging more for it over a 2500k. Not good for intel owners or anyone who appreciates technology this could make intels next prices higher if they become the dominating brand left !

 

[Orcvader]

This bulldozer launch can dent or kill AMD in this recession.... not at all good news for anyone, even if you do own a intel cpu or 2500k/2600k.

If AMD go down with this launch..... we all (our wallets) will suffer

I doubt anyones gonna wait for AMDs next improved/revised cpu next year, really surprised no one at AMD ran a test and thought wait we got 8 cores thats double... and a faster ghz then the 2500k but were still slower, was no point releasing it and there charging more for it over a 2500k. Not good for intel owners or anyone who appreciates technology this could make intels next prices higher if they become the dominating brand left !

Bare in mind the majority of buyers will still buy it. They can't tell the difference with architecture, they still think "more speed + more cores" is the better CPU.

Also, it's the server market that AMD makes most of the profit from. The extra cores will definitely help in server work that requires as much cores as possible. The gaming/enthusiast market only makes up a small percentage of buyers.

 

[logi-cat]

Is there any point for Intel to release the 2700K now?
l

 

[MooMoo444]

Bare in mind the majority of buyers will still buy it. They can't tell the difference with architecture, they still think "more speed + more cores" is the better CPU.

Also, it's the server market that AMD makes most of the profit from. The extra cores will definitely help in server work that requires as much cores as possible. The gaming/enthusiast market only makes up a small percentage of buyers.

BD is extremely power hungry, which is not attractive when you're considering server chips, which are going to be under load often. Plus benchmarks using 8 cores don't really have significant gains over current availables

 

[titaniumx3]

Sigh ... seems I may as well just keep my Core 2 Quad and wait for Ivy Bridge now.

 

[Final8y]

BD is extremely power hungry, which is not attractive when you're considering server chips, which are going to be under load often. Plus benchmarks using 8 cores don't really have significant gains over current availables

The server versions are clocked lower so use less power.

 

[Orcvader]

BD is extremely power hungry, which is not attractive when you're considering server chips, which are going to be under load often. Plus benchmarks using 8 cores don't really have significant gains over current availables

True, but it can handle more threads which servers needs and not massive single thread performance, and I believe with the Opterons you can change the TDP to keep it within power consumption limits?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4481/details-on-amd-bulldozer-opterons-to-feature-configurable-tdp/2

 

[Rob_J]

Oops AMD, you certainly dropped a gonad there didn't you.