What the Hell, AMD, or: Fanboy Tears, Tonic for the Soul.

Bulldozer got release. Many people who were willing to think critically and be objective have been just a bit skeptical, due to delays, leaked benchmarks, and the fact that AMD basically hasn't turned out a CPU that was actually worth a damn in years. All the speculation peaked in recent weeks, when they released a Youtube Video bragging about an overclock record (That they didn't bench) talking like clock speed was the be-all end-all of performance. Shortly after this, they released an ad that played way too many times during the IGN Pro League finals.

Skepticism and mockery of the way they've been dancing verbally around performance, going along with all the other factors, had people eager for vindication after debates and arguments.

Well, folks, with the actual release of AMD FX CPU's, they've finally lifted the NDA. Kind of late, yeah? Well, you can hardly blame them. Even the tests they do best in, they're coming out slightly ahead of the i7 2600k, with the FX 8150. Twice the physical cores, higher stock clock, and the best results are slightly ahead of i7. The worse results, in applications that aren't able to benefit from extra physical cores? Well, in those, they're mostly struggling to compete with the more recent Phenom 2 offerings. And those were obsolete the day they got released. Owch.

Here's the intended lineup:

• FX-8150: Eight cores, 3.6 GHz CPU base (3.9 GHz Turbo Core, 4.2 GHz Max Turbo), $245 suggested retail price (U.S.)
• FX-8120: Eight cores, 3.1 GHz CPU base (3.4 GHz Turbo Core, 4.0 GHz Max Turbo), $205 suggested retail price (U.S.)
• FX-6100: Six cores, 3.3 GHz CPU base (3.6 GHz Turbo Core, 3.9 GHz Max Turbo), $165 suggested retail price (U.S.)
• FX-4100: Four cores, 3.6 GHz CPU base (3.7 GHz Turbo Core, 3.8 GHz Max Turbo), $115 suggested retail price (U.S.) 

Now I don't know about you, but I don't see these prices as being all that interesting for the majority of consumers. Or even close. The FX-8150, in gaming performance, falls on it's face, competing with Phenom 2. This puts it well behind a cheaper i5 2500k, which OC's to about the same clock on air as an 8150... while being faster clock for clock.

I'm sure some enthusiasts will go nuts trying to OC  these things, but in my opinion, just wait for Intel's new enthusiast socket. It won't suck.

Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll compile enough things fanboys have to say in defense of FX to have a reasonable post ripping into that.