Value Award
AMD FX 8350
RRP: $229.99 | Website: www.amd.com
Test Machine
ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z
G.Skill F3 Trident 2,666MHz
CL11
MSI NGTX680 Lightning
Cooler Master M2 Silent Pro
1500W PSU
Windows XP SP3/Windows 7
64-Bit SP1
A
MD seems to be
garnering a reputation
for recovering well
from mistakes. One need only
look at Barcelona, Llano, and
26 The OverClocker Issue 22 | 2012
Bulldozer to see that each
of those have been promptly
succeeded by better versions
after their dubious first
showing. In some ways, a
one step back and two steps
forward rhythm.
With the FX 8350 we find
ourselves at a familiar place
then. Looking at a product line
that was initially disappointing
but has, with a few changes,
managed to salvage the brand
and in particular the FX brand.
There’s truly no point in going
back, further dissecting the
performance of the FX 8150 or
rather the lack there off. That
boat sailed and before us we
find, for lack of a better word
– a “charming” CPU. We say
so because it isn’t the fastest
at anything we care about,
but it’s decent enough at most
things we are concerned with
that it makes for a worthwhile
purchase. It’s not a perfect
CPU by any measure, but had
AMD released this instead of
Zambezi, we can’t help but
think things would have been
a different right now for the
company, even a little.
Right then on to the
performance. The 8350
as you know comes in at a
blistering 4GHz. Once again a
milestone for AMD, claiming
the highest clocked retail x86
CPU in history for the second
time. We’d generally not care
about such, especially with