AMD has a lot riding on the new Bulldozer derived architecture, the company’s first major architectural overhaul since the glory days of the K8. The new architecture will also find a way to mid range desktop APUs and mobile chips next year, but for the time being let’s take a look at FX-series pricing.
The quad-core FX-4100 ends up priced at just €115 in Germany, which sounds like pretty good value for a 3.6GHz processor. The TDP is 95W and it features 4x1MB of L2 cache and 8MB of shared L3 cache. Compared to Intel’s Sandy Bridge series, the FX-4100 looks pretty good on paper. It costs €35 less than the cheapest Core i5 2300, clocked at 2.8GHz. Of course, we still don’t know the performance, but the price is pretty attractive for a brand new processor based on a new architecture.
The six-core 3.3GHz FX-6100 is listed at €162 and like its quad-core sibling it has 1MB of L2 cache per core and 8MB of shared cache. At 95W, the TDP isn’t bad, either. Looking at Intel’s price list, the FX-6100 looks like it will be going up against the Core i5 2400, a 3.1GHz quad-core.
Now for some eight-core action. AMD is offering two FX-8xxx series parts, the 3.6GHz FX-8150, which has been the star of quite a few leaked benches, and the 3.1GHz FX 8120. Again, both chips feature 1MB of L2 cache per core, i.e. 8MB, alongside 8MB of shared L3 cache. The TDP stands at 125W, higher than on any Intel Sandy Bridge processor. However, the FX-8150 costs just €229, while the FX-8120 is priced at €189. The latter is cheaper than any Core i7 based on the Sandy Bridge core, while the flagship FX-8150 is still some €30 cheaper than the Core i7 2600, a 3.4GHz quad-core.
All in all it is still too early to call this round and we will just have to wait and see some comprehensive reviews. However, it is quite clear AMD opted for some rather aggressive pricing and we wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if it manages to beat Intel on the value front. Intel still does have some advantages, such as S-series processors with 65W TDPs, but AMD will probably come up with similar products down the road.