It's been a long and arduous past few years for AMD’s processor division as they've constantly been one step behind primary competitor Intel. The pain started back in 2006 when Intel launched its Core 2 Duo series, which disposed of the ill equipped Athlon64 X2 range.
With no immediate answer, AMD moved the Athlon64 X2 architecture to the 65nm design process, where they ended up with the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ clocked at 3.1GHz. However just as the Athlon64 X2 architecture was meeting the end of the road, AMD unleashed their long-awaited Phenom processors. By that time AMD was doing battle with a hardened Core 2 Quad range.
AMD struggled again as the new Phenom X4 processors didn't perform up to expectations. Yet this was the least of AMD’s worries. Their latest creation was plagued by a design flaw that became famously known as the TLB Bug. The quick solution was to disable the CPU's L3 cache, a key feature that when disabled reduced performance further.
Around the same time AMD was dealing with the Phenom issues, Intel was ready to show their first Core i7 processors with the arrival of the Core i7-920, 940 and Core i7-965 Extreme Edition.
The Bulldozer desktop processors are based on the "Zambezi" 32nm architecture and will feature up to 8-cores. This means AMD is featuring the world’s first 8-core desktop solution that's been designed from the ground up.
For better or for worse, AMD doesn't seem completely interested in charging for the performance crown. Eight cores or not, AMD will keep working the value angle by delivering processors that provide unbeatable bang for your buck. The fastest of the bunch, the FX-8150 will retail for $245, making it 20+% cheaper than the popular Sandy Bridge-based Core i7-2600K.
Keep reading as we explore the inner details of AMD's new FX series and we benchmark all four new processors being launched today.