Skip to main content

AMD updates FX processors with Piledriver cores

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The flagship of AMD’s desktop processor line is the FX series – yet, strangely, these processors have had to wait for an update to the “Piledriver” architecture revision that rolled out for laptops earlier this year. Updating to Piledriver will, according to AMD’s estimates, provide an overall performance boost of about 15 percent.

AMD’s reveal comes in the form of four new processors. The most powerful is the FX-8350, an eight-core part with a base frequency of 4.0GHz and a price tag of about $200. This is followed up by the least powerful but still impressive FX-8320, an eight core-part with a lower base frequency of 3.5GHz. It will be sold for $170.

Budget-conscious buyers may want to consider the $132 FX-6300, a six-core part with a base of 3.5GHz. Another option is the $122 FX-4300, a quad-core with a base of 3.8GHz. 

Image used with permission by copyright holder

All of these new processors fit into AM3+ socket chipsets such as the 970, 990X, and 990FX. These chipsets can support up to 14 USB 2.0 ports, 6 USB 3.0 ports, and DDR3 memory running at 1866MHz.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

The new processors are also unlocked, which means that they are very easy to overclock by manipulating the CPU clock values in BIOS. AMD was sure to point out this fact during its press conference and even provided a slide showing the benefits of overclocking to 5GHz with the use of an AMD-branded water-cooling solution.

These products come just days after AMD’s announcement that it will be cutting 15 percent of its workforce after a weak third quarter. Releasing four new processors is unlikely to change the company’s fortunes, but it shows AMD isn’t ready to give up just yet. It’s almost guaranteed that more SKUs based on this revision will be added over time to satisfy more consumers.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Matthew S. Smith
Matthew S. Smith is the former Lead Editor, Reviews at Digital Trends. He previously guided the Products Team, which dives…
This might be why AMD’s FSR 3 isn’t picking up momentum
Combat in the game Nightingale.

AMD's platform-agnostic FSR 3 is a great feature, but months after releasing, it's only available in a small list of titles. Now, we might finally have a clue as to why.

Developers of the upcoming open world survival game Nightingale posted a development update stating that it was removing FSR 3 due to crashes. "After reviewing crash data from the Server Stress Test, a significant number of them seemed to point to FSR3 integrations, whether or not users had the setting turned on," a prelaunch update post reads.

Read more
AMD’s FSR 3 compromise just isn’t working
AMD presenting FSR 3 at Gamescom.

AMD made a compromise with FSR 3. The frame-generation tech was announced in November 2022, and it took nearly a year for it to show up in a game. Even now, months after release, FSR 3 is only available in 12 games, the lion's share of which are legacy titles and single-player games that are past their prime. Adoption wasn't working, hence the need for a compromise.

The compromise is AMD Fluid Motion Frames, or AFMF -- one of the least catchy acronyms, but I digress. This is driver-based frame generation. FSR 3 isn't available in a ton of games, but AFMF sidesteps that hurdle, so long as you have an AMD graphics card. You can use frame generation through the driver in basically any DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 game. Sounds pretty sweet.

Read more
AMD’s new CPU slammed as ‘anti-consumer at best’
The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 propped up against an action figure.

AMD makes some of the best processors, but this one is most likely not one of them. According to a video review of the recently released Ryzen 7 5700, the CPU is not only a letdown -- it's downright misleading. Compared to previous non-X Ryzen processors, the 5700 appears to be significantly cutdown, which affects its performance in a big way.

Historically, AMD's non-X Ryzen CPUs were pretty much the same as their X counterparts, but with slightly lower clock speeds. Take the Ryzen 5 5600 and the Ryzen 5 5600X, for example. Both chips have six cores and 12 threads, as well as 32MB of cache, but the Ryzen 5 5600 has a clock speed of 4.4GHz, while the 5600X hits 4.6GHz. As a result, many chose the non-X part due to it being slightly cheaper while not being a major downgrade.

Read more