AMD BD FX-8150 and Crosshair V Formula: My experience so far

[Kipper]

I am sure most of you have read as many different reviews of the FX-8150 as I have and have as many questions now as you did before the release a couple of days ago.

I just do not have the time to do an in-depth review but I did get the FX8150 setup on the CH5 and have it running fully stable right out of the box.

Overclocking greatly varies due to what hardware is being used and who is doing the overclocking. Remember that no two pieces of hardware will perform the same, so your results will differ from what others might be able to get.


This what AMD has to say about possible Over Clocks with the FX-8150:





This is not a sample and I paid the full retail price for this chip so I will not be trying to take it to the limits and burn this baby up, I need to keep it fresh for the wife's next system.


I did a quick OC to 4.2GHz and ran a couple of what I call everyday real world benchmarks at least for some of main projects that I will be doing on this setup.







Maybe it's just me but I prefer to use AIDA64 for stress testing; it stresses the system at 100% CPU resources but is designed to stress all aspects of the processor as well as memory and drives.

I let AIDA Stress testing run for a little over an hour without any problems and the temps were kept below the 60° C that AMD recommends for this chip. I do have WC on the Processor with a 3X120mm Rad, Swiftech pump/res and a Swiftech Apogee XT rev 2 block.



I seem to always be working on HD video projects and I find that a great benchmark for this task is the x264 HD benchmark.

It is a reproducible measure of fast your machine can encode a short HD-quality video clip into a high quality x264 video file. It's nice because everyone running it will use the same video clip and software.

I ran this benchmark with the 4.2GHz overclock and the results were very good in opinion; right in line with the results I have attained with the 25/2600K processors.

It messures fps in two passes 4 runs utilizing all available cores. Here are the results:

Pass 1
------
encoded 1442 frames, 120.67 fps, 3911.61 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 120.05 fps, 3911.61 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 123.42 fps, 3911.61 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 123.42 fps, 3911.61 kb/s

Pass 2
------
encoded 1442 frames, 39.88 fps, 3959.95 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 39.91 fps, 3959.59 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 39.96 fps, 3958.89 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 39.96 fps, 3959.84 kb/s


I have a decent Blu-ray movie collection and with the cost of each movie running as much as 40.00 I prefer to watch the original disc one time and then make a backup for future use.


My favorite software for this is DVDFab's sub-program "Blu-ray to DVD". The time might seem long for some but when you figure that the video streams need to be ripped then compressed to fit on either a DVD DL or SL disc and finally burned, it seems quick enough for me anyways.






For those movies that are not available on Blu-ray and only on DVD-ROM (commercial movie) I still backup my personal copy of the disc with another nice tool (CloneDVD 2). This process is much quicker singe the video is only ripped and transcoded and can be burned at any speed your burner and media will allow.


In this case I used my ASUS burner as the source drive and the other ASUS burner as the destination.







I am not going to say that BullDozer is a huge success nor am I going to declare it a major failure, at least not for the time being anyways.


From my 3 plus days of playing with the processor and putting it through tests with every piece of software that I use for my computing needs I am satisfied that the FX-8150 will serve the needs and wants for the average (whatever that means) user. However, if you are wearing the moniker of an OC King and want your system running on the edge of stability and have the funds to pay those electric bills then I suggest you forgo BullDozer and go with a 2500K from Intel instead.


Well, there you have my thoughts on the FX-8150 and I am not an AMD type guy by no means. I am a true hard-core Intel nut-case but I must give an honest opinion based on my finding.

[DaemonCantor]

Thank you Kipper that was more than expected...and it does shed a better light on the chip...From what I seen it might just be a good base for doing my little electronics projects...

[trailer_park_bo]

o wow real life benchmarks from real user,fx series should work well for three monitors,it has good size cache.while playing dirt3 on one 24 inch monitor all 4 cores of my phenomII hit 100%,570 hits 97%. im sure all the gamers are crying fx is crap but i think in the long run its gonna dominate. graphic cards have become way bigger over the years, so now the cpu is having a hard time keeping up or i mean afordable cpus.Ill get my buldozer soon might wait for 8170 might not.anyways enough of my babbling i really appreciate your review i hope more people put in there input even simple imput of how it works for you the user

[NemesisChild]

I realize that CPU-Z doesn't have the codec for the FX-8150 yet, but why is the NB frequency not showing up?
Also, I find it odd that your Command Rate for your memory isn't listed.
Curious, when you ran the AIDA64 stability test, what was your CPU/NB frequency & voltage set at and your CPU voltage for 4.2GHz?

Your actual load temp was 44c (not 59c) as reported by AIDA64.
We got word directly from an AMD techie that the core temps (not CPU temp) need to be monitored under CPU load.
The CPU temp is taken from a thermal sensor embedded within the mobo CPU socket.
The core temps are readings taken from sensors within the CPU die.
Thus, there can be a 6-10c difference between the CPU temp and core temp readings.

Here's more on the subject:

http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=12&threadid=153804&enterthread=y

[chrsplmr]

AMD comfortable @ 5Ghz on Water. Sold. Thats nothing to sneeze @.

Thats encouraging news Kipper, as always Sir, Thank You.
(I especially like the part where you apologize for not taking it to the limit as to keep it fresh for the wife. cudos.)

This is what I suspected would be the outcome and from here it will only get better as more voices join.

A few questions that still need answering:

*(Is the bios flash an issue on the original 404 bios for new boards or only boards that were updated above 506 for AM3's?)

*(Do you think future V versions will already have a working AM3+ bios onboard @ purchase?)
Im not saying they dont, but thats whats being reported. There has to be a simple solution to this. What? Ideas?

*(What of any lingering memory questions now that AM3+ is onboard..ie..16gb with ease?)

Your efforts could not be more appreciated in this.+

[Kipper]

If I remember correctly the CPU/NB was 1.2 and the CPU at 1.35

The included CPUZ withing AIDA64 has been updated for BullDozer if I am reading their site correctly.

AIDA shows the cores at 44° but I am sure all of these benchmark programs are going to have several updates to bring them into true form for BD.

[Kipper]

It would not surprise me to find that the ASUS folks at Freemont will be flashing the new CH5 boards that come ashore before they are shipped out to vendors. Maybe Brian, Mason or Raja will chime in and give us the real scoop.

[chrsplmr]

Hahahahhaha....Asus, Fly me out !!!...Ill sit there and flash them all.
I require Cot, Shower, Eggs, Burgers and coffee...fair enough?

All kidding aside, it would be prudent. (The flashing, not my flying.)

This is like a brand new board again. WinWin.

[speed]

I think when it is all said and done this cpu will suprise a lot of the people who were jumping ship before they even went on sale.

[Retired]

Hi ya folks.A word here...The FX 8150 works well.I havent danced around it yet..I only game,so I have not seen a major improvement over the the 1100T,yet..well not realy had the hours yet..gotta work sometime too.I will say,price:Submitted:10/12/2011 9:25:50 AM 1 AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor $279.99 .The 1100T was $190.For me,the 8150 realy may not have been worth it..but.I wanted it,so i got it.Dozer works well.I admit I was caught up in the hype the dozer would also was the dishes,so far it has not,yet.Now,dont get me wrong,this rig will game.Just say'n from this chair,not shure "Dozer" was worth the extra funds.YET.now..it's the weekend.Time to play,and realy see.Hey,If you want it,if you have,it get it, It's pretty darn sweet! Now I also do some vids,photo work,so far it has done quite well there too.Just waiting for the new AMD to come around,I will probably get it,and try it.if it fits this board..Oh,I do own two Intel rigs and well,Intel makes a fine product.I dont wish to portrey myself as a fanboy so to speak,but it's good to get a headshot.lol.So,lets play some unreal/codbo/wow/bulletstorm. Piratezip