Sunday, July 31, 2011

AMD Confirms Eight-Core FX-Series Bulldozer CPUs Will Cost Around $300

After many rumors and suppositions, AMD has finally unveiled the approximate retail price of their upcoming high-performance eight-core FX-Series processors. Just as expected, these will cost around $300, which is about the same as the pricing set by Intel for its Sandy Bridge flagship, the Core i7-2600K.

This information was found in the “Terms and Regulations” section of AMD's recent FX Giveaway competition, that offers five eight-core FX-Series CPUs as prizes.

“Top tier prizes: Five (5) AMD FX series eight-core processors. Approximate Retail Value: $300 USD each,” reads the competition's official rules.

In comparison, Intel's fastest desktop processor based on the Sandy Bridge architecture, the Core i7-2600K, also retails for just a bit over $300, which seems to suggest that performance should be about equal.

From what we do know at this point in time, the FX-8150P should be AMD's most powerful FX-series chip as it features four Bulldozer processor modules for a total of eight computing cores, 8MB of Level 2 cache as well as 8MB of Level 3 cache.

The chip will sport a base frequency of 3.6GHz, which can be increased up to 4.2GHz thanks to the Turbo Core technology, and its TDP is set at 125W.

AMD plans to launch this processor together with three other chips, including another eight-core model that is known as the FX-8100, which packs similar specifications with the FX-8150P.

However, the FX-8100 will feature lower clock speeds, 2.8GHz base and 3.7GHz maximum Turbo, to allow AMD to drop its TDP to 95W.

The two other AMD Bulldozer CPUs expected to launch are the FX-6100 and FX-4100, which sport six and four processing cores, respectively.

Both of these include 8MB of L3 cache as their older siblings, but feature less L2 cache and lower clock speeds.

No information regarding the pricing of the six and quad-core processors is available at this point in time. The release date is also unknown, but most rumors place it in September or October of 2011. (via Insiders)