AMD Bulldozer News: New Roadmap And More Benchmarks Leaked!


With Intel nailing each new processor platform release as of late, the pressure is certainly on AMD to deliver something that isn’t only cheaper, but better. Many AMD enthusiasts are tired of the at times budget-minded company taking a backseat to power and performance while Intel dominates the headlines. The previous generations of Phenom were supposed to be AMD’s return to the high performance ring, though ultimately fell short of Intel’s own offerings. But AMD’s latest upcoming high-end platform, Zbamezi-FX, has many a enthusiasts salivating uncontrollably.

For those dedicated to the AMD camp, a new roadmap and updated performance benchmarks have leaked showing some rather impressive products and results! Hop inside for the goods…


Kicking things off is a new roadmap that details how AMD sees it’s own product lines compared to Intel’s. While we can all agree there needs to be distinct low-, mid-, and high-end options, we can’t help but focus on the king of AMD’s Bulldozer platform — the FX 8100 8-core processor. In theory, the FX 8100 has the potential to really give Intel’s Sandy Bridge Core i7 processors a run for their money as 8 real cores are better than 4 real cores + 4 virtualized cores. With that said, we’ve seen plenty of AMD hardware over the years that may have been better on paper or in theory, but that ultimately failed to produce tangible results.

But power isn’t necessarily everything. AMD has built up a reputation over the years as a manufacturer of budget-friendly hardware with options for even the most cash strapped individual. If a recently leaked pricing sheet (above) is to be believed, we will be able to have our cake (affordable hardware) and eat it too (high-end Intel 2600K fighters). In our eyes, the $320 asking price for the top of the line FX-8130P is more than reasonable.

Of course, we can talk about pricing schemes, affordability, and roadmaps until we’re blue in the face, but if AMD can’t or won’t deliver then there’s no point. On that note, we’ve already seen several claimed benchmarks trickle out over the last few months all pointing to another potential disaster for AMD enthusiasts hoping to topple Intel’s reign of power and performance. The latest benchmarks, however, finally give AMD some bragging rights.


Chinese forum Zol.com.cn managed to snag the screenshots above showing off Bulldozer’s 6/8-core capabilities before being pulled from the original source. As you one can see, the higher end of AMD’s Bulldozer lineup is quite potent sitting in between the Intel Core i7 2600k and Core i7 990x hex-core processor with a CineBench R11.5 score of 7.37. Compare that to the Intel Core i7 2600K and its 6.23 showing and a 990X with a score of 8.42. CineBench R10 scores come in at 28,074.

Looking at the new benchmarks has made us re-think our previous opinion on Bulldozer. Early reports of another dud are thankfully appearing to be false. However, worth mentioning is the fact that the Intel Core i7 2600k can overclock rather high — we have an in-house model that runs nice and stable at 4.8GHz — and do so quite easily. The 990x itself is another good overclocker thanks to the 32nm architecture. AMD on the other hand hasn’t had very good luck with easy overclocking for end users as of late, with “high” overclocks netting only a few hundred megahertz over stock speeds in stable environments. In that light, the Core i7 2600k could actually still outperform some or all of AMD’s high-end FX processors.

Obviously we’ll have to wait until review samples are released so we can see the real power of Bulldozer before making any conclusions. But as it stands now, we’re quite impressed and no less excited.

Source: Donanimhaber
Via: WccfTechOverclock.net Forums