AMD 45646788 FD8350FRHKBOX FX-8350 FX-Series 8-Core Black Edition Processor

First part is about Amazon: After having some troubles with the first and second CPU, now on the third try of returning and receiving a new CPU, it finally boots without any problem with my motherboard (MSI 890FXA-GD70). After waiting for ... hmm... two weeks??? First CPU arrived but would not POST, although my Phenom II x4 worked on the same motherboard, so I returned it. (Yes, I tried everything to troubleshoot to no avail). Second CPU (took a week and a half to arrive) would work, but every now and then will not POST. After reading Frenchyaz Salut's review, I knew again that it was a bad CPU. In both cases, Amazon will take return without fussing with Free Return!!! Amazing. Finally, Amazon shipped the third CPU by "AIR" and it arrived the NEXT DAY. When I got an email alert that the new CPU arrived, I doubted. WOW. This time the CPU works flawlessly. Meanwhile, my CPU thermal paste has shrunk in half! I have tried numerous times putting in my previous CPU, then trying again with this CPU and vice versa. Anyway, Newegg, B&H, Adorama, and Tigerdirect has lost my business. Way to go Amazon. From now on, major purchase will go via Amazon. No hassle return. Wow. wow. wow. If this happened via Newegg, I would've spend a fortune returning two CPUs. Don't forget to buy it on Amazon and nowhere else, because you might get a DOA CPU like I did for twice! Now about this CPU: FX-8350 is way faster than my previous Phenom II x4 975. I'm a casual gamer, and now transitioning into family video & photo editor, and have to multi task with many document/scanning etc. This CPU is great for multitasking like other reviewer says. I can run A/V scan, run Neat scanner, play games, and edit video all at the same time without maxing my CPU. The CPU temperature reading through HWiNFO is about half of that of PIIx4, even in intense games, i.e. BF3 or 4, and uses way less percentage of CPU. If you are a gamer though, you won't feel much difference in FPS since Piix4 is already capable of high end gaming. So if you're purely interested in gaming, invest in better GPU than buying this CPU. Don't take other's "bottlenecking" crap. Piix4 975 will not bottleneck unless you are 4K Ultra-setting everything, if so even the newest and greatest Intel i7 will bottleneck. My Piix4 975 + HD 7970 didn't bottleneck my 22" monitor on Ultra in BF3/4. When doing full system scan through Norton Security Suite, Malwarebyte Anti-Malware, Spybot Search & Destroy, ESET Online, etc... it takes less than half of what it use to take with PIIx4. Neat scanner software load time is cut in half. You need to take this statement with a grain of salt though. For video editing, this thing flies compared to Phenom ii x4 975. Okay, I did make a lot of vague statements here, but that is how I feel. Nothing with concrete numerical data. You can get those through professional review sites. My point here is that this thing is way better, and worth the upgrade if you have the $$$. My 3DMark11 Basic Edition score is around 89xx, whereas it was around 77xx with Piix4. Don't get me wrong. Phenom II x4 series are great CPUs. But FX 8350 is still worth the upgrade if you are and will be doing video editing, and more multitasking.

JUNE 12, 2013 UPDATE I've had this CPU for going on four months now. It's still rocking it! Runs the latest "Metro Last Light" with a breeze. TO fixing my heating issues I mention below, I have upgraded the fans on my radiator to the Corsair SP120 high performance fans. As of now I have this thing running at exactly 5018Mhz stable right now. Also over time I experimented with RAM. Believe it or not, decreasing my RAM speed actually gained me some FPS in all of my games (its running slightly below 1600Mhz now). I recommend doing FPS benchmarks if you are aiming for gaming with this. Also I wanted to add in my last Power Supply blew up on me. I am now using the gold rated Corsair HX750 that seems work better with this CPU overclocked in terms of heat/stability. Let me skip all the BS. This is a BEAST of a CPU! I've had an AMD Phenom II x6 1045t for the past year now. Although I loved the 1045t CPU, it simply wasn't the greatest for gaming. My stock speed was 3.9Ghz and I overclocked it to 4.5Ghz via the turbo, but with turbo on the Phenom II chips, only three cores would activate. I also was gifted recently an XSPC Raystorm rs360 liquid cooling kit and with that high end cooling I simply wanted the best overclockable chip out there. For about three month's I eyeballed this CPU up on various websites. I wanted it desperately, but I had a few issues and asked myself the following questions. Was it a big enough upgrade over the 1045t? Was it worth buying over the cheaper 8320 model? Lastly should I consider saving up for an intel system instead because of AMD's rocky future in the CPU world (reports say the excavator models are pushed back to 2014 at least)? I took the plunge - I ordered this CPU and could not be happier. The base speed of 4Ghz is awesome, it's nice to see something like that right out of the box. Furthermore the overclockability of this chip is absolutely astounding. You can overclocked it to the Moon assuming you have proper cooling. With the Raystorm rs360 I was able to get this chip to a stable 5Ghz, liquid cooling the CPU and the VRM's on my motherboard. Overclocking is nothing without performance though - how does the CPU perform? Excellent! I got a very noticeable framerate increase in all my games. Crysis 3 I can run completely maxed out with msaa on medium at 60fps (which some intel users can't even handle :o) Some minor pet peeves/issues with this CPU: 1) If you're doing overclocking, you will absolutely need a custom cooler. This is a very power hungry, very hot CPU at overclocked speeds. This thing has scarily overheated on me a few times already, I've gotten this to a stable 5Ghz, although I can run it at speeds of up to 5.4Ghz it simply gets too hot at anything else. Although the stock cooler is actually impressive having copper on it, it's still not going to do the job. Here's what I recommend per the speeds you are trying to reach based on my own experience and from what I've read on the web: - Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO or similar: 4.6Ghz - Closed loop cooler (such as the h100i): 4.8Ghz - Custom cooling kit: 5Ghz+ - At least a 600w PSU for anything above (this thing consumes alot of power overclocked) 2) AMD STILL SUCKS WITH HIGH SPEED RAM. If you're overclocking this thing even slightly, good luck getting the specified 1866Mhz RAM to work with it. I can only run mine at around 1700Mhz. I tried two modules at 8GB and four modules at 16GB. Could never get this to stably run 1866Mhz, even at stock CPU speeds. If you'r buying RAM stick with a 1600Mhz kit. Other than the power/heat issues and the RAM, this is a great CPU. I paid for a $200 CPU and it felt like I got what I paid for performance wise. Vs. Intel you will see alot of users complain that the "per core" performance isn't as good, and than an Intel i5 3550k will outperform this. Personally I don't give a crap. I'm not reverting my whole system over to Intel just because some silly benchmarks are slightly better. Besides the multi-threading of this CPU will blow away an i5, especially in DX11 games which do utilize all 8 cores. One more thing - vs the AMD 8320 I think this is a much better buy - $10-20 more and you're getting a CPU that's going to be much better in the overclocking department and the increased speeds are going to be much better in gaming. Overall definitely worth the money. Great CPU that will last years to come and AMD's future is rocky if you're waiting for the "next" best thing I think you should just go with this... My build: 8350 @ 5Ghz, 1.5v core, 250Mhz bus speed, 20x CPU multiplier Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 XSPC Raystorm rs360 water cooling Primoflex tubing w/ deionized water Enzotech wmst-81 VRM Water Block G Skill Ares 1866Mhz (4x4) 16GB RAM (@ 1700Mhz) MSI Radeon Twin Frozr III 7950 overclocked Corsair Force 120GB SSD Thermaltake 600W PSU LG Blu Ray reader/writer NZXT Phantom Full Tower case (white)

Powerful and Reliable CPU That Still Holds Up I’ve been running this AMD FX-8350 for a while now, and it’s been rock solid. It’s an 8-core processor from AMD’s Black Edition line, and while it’s not the newest chip on the market, it still delivers very capable performance for multitasking, productivity, and even gaming when paired with a decent graphics card. Installation was straightforward, and it dropped right into my AM3+ motherboard without any issues. I really appreciate that it comes unlocked, giving you the flexibility to overclock if you want to squeeze out a little extra performance. The chip has plenty of headroom for enthusiasts, though it does generate a fair amount of heat under heavy load, so a good aftermarket cooler is a must if you plan to push it hard. In day-to-day use, I’ve noticed it handles multiple programs, video streaming, and light editing without lag. It’s also been a fun processor to tinker with because of its overclocking potential. Power consumption is higher than some of the newer CPUs, so that’s worth keeping in mind if efficiency is a priority. Bottom line: This is a tried-and-true workhorse CPU. If you’re building or maintaining an AM3+ system, the FX-8350 is one of the best chips you can get for the platform—fast, reliable, and a great value for what it offers.

I received this CPU today, and I installed it into my motherboard right away, the installation is really simple, I already upgraded the BIOS to the newest revision which I know will recognize 8350 (MSI 990XA-GD55 motherboard), this is very much drop in and play process, it took me more time to take off the CPU cooler than install CPU itself. I run the performance mark afterwards, since I have the AMD 980 overclocked to 4.2Ghz, the performance between 8350 and 980 is not really that much a difference, both CPUs have been installed in the same hardware environment, and bench mark was run one after another, the variation of performance due to the environment deviation can be safely ruled out for the test. What it really surprised me was when I run the Prim95 stress test, I had 8 cores running at 100% full load, I minimized the test into the background , and started to open my browser, and streaming radio station through internet, also worked on my document all at the same time, the system did not miss a bit, this is the real difference between 8350 and 980, if I am running all these in the foreground with prim95 running in the background with AMD 980, I will notice the slow down, particularly during the transition from one program to another. I did all these in 8350 over three hours, until I totally forgot I had prim 95 running and 8 cores were all maxed out at 100% utilization (based on speedfan stats). In that sense, I am very impressed with this CPU. The cooler came with the CPU is of good quality, I found it almost as quite as my Noctua unit, and it cools better, the fan on the CPU cooler turns at 3000+ rpm compare Noctua's 1300 rpm. Do not believe anyone told you the cooler is noisy, they really have no other unit to compare with. I eventually put this cooler to my other PC with AMD 980, I spent much more money on Noctua, do not really want to waste it, otherwise, I see this out of box cooler will certainly be adequate for the 8350 it came with. 3-26-2013 In operation about a week now, overclocked to 4.6Ghz stable, fast and CPU temperature is hovering between 16C and 26C running at 4.6Ghz. Performance is good. 2-7-2014 Running almost a year now, upgrade my PC to Windows 8.1, and this CPU still works fine, install many desktop applications, no comparability issue encountered, continue impressed by the performance and durability of this CPU. 4-10-2016 After more than 4 years of daily use, I can say this is a very reliable CPU, I have overclocked it to 4.4 Ghz, and it was stable, however,, I really feel that the CPU is not the most critical factor in the overall performance of a system, I have since upgraded, HDD, grpaphic card, memory of my system, Windows upgrade from Windows 7, 8.1 to Windows 10, The 8350 is still the old reliable and fast CPU. I seriously cannot think I will change it anythime soon, it is that good.

First let me provide some background; i had updated from a AMD Phenom II X4 940 @ 3ghz, 8 gigs ram and a Radeon HD 7970, and I use my PC mostly for gaming and web stuff IE chatting online and browsing. My old PC seemed to be running poorly in games despite having such a high end card, so i figured it was time to upgrade. I chose the FX 8 core due to consoles being 8 core AMDs, substantially increasing the likely hood PC Ports will be built off that AMD Tech going forward as has been the case in previous generations. I had red the reviews and propaganda all saying buy Intel's Core I5 or I7, so i was a bit leery of AMD but ultimately I stuck with them, and I am ever glad I did! This thing is a monster! It runs so fast and well, and really makes my HD 7970 shine. Its said in games like Skyrim due to poor single thread performance it wont run well and thats a crock. I noticed immediately buttery smooth gameplay at the highest settings, which my Phenom couldn't do. Same with running games and my web browser with multiple tabs in the background along with a chat program. It just takes the abuse and keeps on ticking. About the cooling, since I dont overclock, the Stock cooler is doing a great job, no overheating or anything, but to be fair this might be due to the Rosewill Blackhawk case with its great airflow and multiple fans, and the Asus Motherboard with its thermal design. Final thoughts: It seems to me, unless your a benchmark junkie, that loves running them all day and seeing the high rating, your not going to notice the difference between this and Intel. In the real world, theres no difference and I'll explain why. Say your FX boasts 65-70 FPS and intel might manage over 100 fps, guess what? Its all wasted FPS! Unless you own a 120 hz monitor, your not seeing anything over 60 FPS in the first place, the most common PC monitors run at 60 and if you hook your PC up to a LCD, its likely only running at 30-50 fps. So in the end, unless your only doing benchmarks and love seeing high numbers, for a vast majority of people the FX is a great thing and worth the buy. It might use more power then intel, but your not going to see it unless you leave your PC on all day and night, a easy fix is just putting the PC to Sleep or Hibernation when your not using it. BAM, no electric bill issues.

this processor is just like the other amd fx chips, it does NOT have a throttling issue! you simply see it go to 1.4ghz if your system is not running any programs, but you can make it 4.0ghz all the time, just change power settings in the bios, ie, cool n quite and the c settings, also change power settings in windows and you should no longer see the "throttling" UPDATE. My hard drive is a slow one from 2008. it is bottle necking my system and causing my whole system to perform worse! also my video card is the GTS-250 1GB and may also be slowing things down, all else is up to date.... So when i get a faster harddrive and better video card i will update this to show just how much better this cpu is than the 1055T and fx 6100, as those were my previous AMD processors. but in my opinion if anyone has the 1055T it was what i wish I had and stuck with the whole time. but not getting the 8120 or 8150 was the smart choice i did make! the 1055T was a BEAST but the fx-6100 was the BEST overclocker, got it up to 4.7GHZ @ 6cores and 5GHZ @2 cores. the stock power of the 8350 will make you feel good if you do not have liquid cooling for overclocking. I have liquid cooling and with it you will be happy with any of these processors. stick with the 1055T if you already have it go with the fx-6100 if you love overclocking and have liquid cooling (and you are a cheap) dont let the stock clock make you think this is better than the 1055T!!! go with the 8350 if you do not already have the 1055T BUT if you want the 8350 and have comfy money for it , get it, ifnact the best amd fx is the 8320 @150 dollars.... but this is a cost ratio, so get the best processor to suit your budget and tech wants. im not an intel guy or amd guy, i am a price guy, and the 8350 hit the spot for me and i have done research with the 3 different CPUs. compare to intel? heck no those cost too much and are not worth the quality increase that is if there is any for real world use anyway! i wish i had known all of what i do now, i would have stuck with the 1055T, and got the 8350 when the price hit around 150 dollars, other wise price per money, get the 8320. my research will save you from spending money on a cpu that does not fit your tech needs, face it, all these cpus do what you will need, but you want to be the next god among your friends with this new cpu purchase! ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW......... The only problem i had with this was it needed a fresh install of windows 7.... saw a huge increase in performance and i am working to make sure i see it the whole time i use this processor, one person somewhere said it was not any better than the 6100, fact is it sometimes performs about the same, but is capable of a lot better performance. Like i say, i just need time to figure what the settings should be. So far, the 6100 hundred cant even perform equal at a full overclock. the 8350 0n stock is a real treat in itself! and the odd thing is how you change no settings only a reboot and the performance drops to the 6100s level. I am seeing this as being the reason why intel fans hate this cpu line as it is not fluent in its highest performance.......... but in the future i am optimistic about . I dont go by benchmarks, i go by what i saw for the programs i was using and how consistent the programs ran each time i booted my computer for a use with unchanged settings. this processor is surely capable of more than what i have, as i have seen its promise even without the hotfix installed as of now however if you are looking to build a cheap pc , go with the 6100, but if you want the best there will be, the 8350 is a great idea . for its cost increase it was easily worth it for me

I decided to buy this CPU because my Phenom II x4 965 BE has aging architecure and it was starting to show in more modern games. Yes, it can still keep up FPS-wise, but stuttering is there, and that's annoying to a gamer. So, I got this. I had my 965 clocked to 3.8 pretty much its whole life. And the 8350 is clocked stock to 4.0. Night and day difference. Don't let the 200mhz clock difference fool you, if you have your 965 clocked to that (most everyone does), it's seriously night and day. Although the FPS is of course higher with the 8350, the stuttering is not there anymore. And it doesn't bog down. Heavy AI based game put strain on your CPU, and I love to play Men of War: Assault Squad. This CPU improved that drastically. Yes, the 965 can keep 60 FPS in games a lot, but with the 8350, there's hardly any of no dips in the fps at all. Diablo 3 is a prime example with max settings, this thing blazes through it. Now, with temperatures. I have this thing setup with a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ with 2 Cooler Master 120mm 2000rpm fans hooked up to the PSU to keep them at high speeds all the time. My idle is at 15-16c and video game load it's 30c. Compared to the 965 which ran at 34c idle and 45c under gaming load. Always keep in mind that AMBIENT TEMPERATURE is important to what your CPU temperature is going to be! I like to keep my room around 77F to get these temperatures. With the AC off and this CPU heating my room to 80 within an hour, temperatures rise to 25c idle and 34c under load. Although the FX CPUs run cooler, they get A LOT hotter than the Phenoms. They just spread the heat better to the Heatsink than the Phenoms did. Oh, and throw away the stock cooler. Save yourself the worry and get an aftermarket HSF setup with a push-pull if you can with your case or a water cooling setup. Extend the life of the CPU. Sorry for the long review, but anyways: Pros: -High stock clock and easily overclockable -Disperses heat very well through aftermarket Heatsink(never tried stock, too many reviews against it) -8 cores for super multitasking, yaaaaay! -Can easily play new games at 60fps at max settings when paired with a good GPU. -Very affordable for its performance it gives. -Got it for $179 -Finally got something to replace my aging Phenom II x4 965 BE :D. Cons: -Still can't keep up with any of Intels high end CPUs -Will heat up a room in a jiffy with a case that moves a lot of air -Garbage stock HSF for gaming. -ZERO protecion for the pins on the CPU in the retail box. It actually worried me quite a bit. The CPU is just snapped into plastic holders. My other CPUs usually came with a type of foam for the pins to contact into just in case. My build: Cooler Master HAF X(Blue Edition) w/max fans. Seasonic SS-760XP2 760W, 80 PLUS PLATINUM ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer AMD FX-8350(at stock clock) w/ Cooler Master Hyper 212+ w/push-pull Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 OC ADATA Gaming Series 8GB(motherboard specified clock) ASUS DRW-24F1ST CD DRIVE ASUS VX238H Monitor @1080p Logitech G230 Stereo Gaming Headset Logitech G15 Keyboard Logitech M510 Mouse Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Steelseries StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Gaming Mousepad

After using this thing for over a year now in conjunction with an aftermarket cooler master 212 cpu cooler running at 4.3 ghz, I would be very cautious of it. It has run quite well for its price, and is a perfect match for my gtx 660 ti graphics card, as both usually tend to max out performance wise at around the same point. The only thing I must warn you about with the 8350 is its temperature. I think I may have gotten a defective processor, and just didn't realize it until doing further research. Even with the aftermarket cooler constantly cranked to 95% fan speed using my BIOS, idle temperature for me is right around 50C, much higher than it should be. I have determined it to be the cpu, as changing the thermal compound and adjusting the cooler has made no difference in operating temps. While playing cpu intensive games or rendering HD video, it is not uncommon for it to go way past it's safe operating temperatures, and make me manually shut it down, as the overheating throttling on my unit is not functioning correctly either, as it happily will continue to climb in temp. The highest mine has ever gone is 92C, which is a very scary temp to see on your hardware monitor. Aside from this flaw, which I suspect to be due to a defect in the processor, it's been great. My final recommendation is that definitely consider it if you want to build a med-high level gaming rig, but make sure you have room in your budget for liquid cooling.