Compare 1090T and FX-8150

[muziqaz]

Can you believe AMD choose this CVF as a reference board if this is true?

Yes. I believe that AMD approached ASUS to partner with them for the launch, that is ASUS provides motherboards for reviewers and AMD the chips. Once you have an agreement, it is hard to back out of it. Also most of if not all motherboard manufacturers came up with latest bioses days before launch, so even if AMD had wanted to back out and go with different mobo, it would have been too late. This is my opinion and maybe I am wrong and AMD indeed wanted to screw themselves even more.

@Swanie, MSI also performs better than ASUS. I think Toms hardware tested with MSI and results weren't that catastrophic as the ones from 1st reviews with ASUS boards

@Manicdan comparing PII940 with FX would be good just to show how 32nm early process compares with early 45nm process. It wouldn't show us why FX still fails in other stuff. It would be interesting from technical point of view, but for those of us who would want to buy and use fx 24/7, process immaturity is really really bad excuse for underperforming CPU

[zanzabar]

Oh, I'm also running the 9911 BIOS, since I didn't mention it before. But as far as this board being better/worse than another, I couldn't tell ya. I've seen the same benches as everyone else, but I find it hard to accept that the flagship ASUS mobo is going to suck by that much, compared to other boards.

its supposed to be a bios problem were asus changed or is on an older AGESA platform, in the reviews the ones with asrock boards were the only ones to show a gain over the 1100/1090, most reviews used the asus as thats what amd said to use and some used gigabyte but it showed worse than the asus.

and since pegatron and asus split there is no reason that asrock is bad as they are no longer the low end brand, they are now allowed to build higher end stuff and are just as good as any1 else on the bios and quality now.

[savantu]

It would have been interesting to bench them at the same clock even if OC.

[Chrono Detector]

The FX 8150 results are pretty bad, don't know how AMD possibly messed this CPU up, hopefully there will be an optimization patch to fix this, like some people have stated but things aren't looking too good right now.

[tbone8ty]

just cant see how they can keep bulldozer at current prices...


its more expensive than the i5-2500k and it performs equal or worse than a phenom II 1100t which is at $190

i guess once Phenom II is EOL then maybe they will drop down.

$280 is just to expensive for FX-8150 if you can get one.

i hope it drops to $200

[eRazorzEDGE]

I'm still trying to figure out this random crashing bs, but once I do, I'll be sure to run some more tests. I'll try some stock clock tests, same OC tests, I'll see what programs I can use that will give me some quantifiable results. However, I like to game, so most benches will be about FPS.

[Swanie]

Thanks eRazorzEDGE for all your efforts, hope you get your BD stable. For me personally all i want is a stable OC and good performance in gaming. I also hope this possible patch or BIOS updates gives a performance boost.

[Zeus]

I'm still trying to figure out this random crashing bs, but once I do, I'll be sure to run some more tests. I'll try some stock clock tests, same OC tests, I'll see what programs I can use that will give me some quantifiable results. However, I like to game, so most benches will be about FPS.

Just make 100% sure your RAM isn't acting up on you. Pretty obvious but often overlooked. Good luck.

[Piotrsama]

Nobody around here has that Am3+ Asrock mobo to test with it?
Would be interesting to see the results.

[omninmo]

thank you for the awesome work! could i possibly bother you by asking you to try out:

http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2004/...taskassign.zip

this allows setting up profiles to run programs in specified cores, so maybe it would make up some interesting results by running 3dmark06 + gaming benches with affinity set to only one core in each module?
since games and 3dmark06 don't usually use up more than 4 threads maybe by doing this you could lower impact from resource sharing? because that 3dmark06 result is a real nasty drop in performance comparing with the thuban!

[eRazorzEDGE]

@omninmo... The beta BIOS 9911 has the same function at the hardware level, where I can disable 7 out of 8 cores. But yes, I will be trying some 4cu/4c and 2cu/4c benches as well as the stock 4cu/8c.

@zeus... I think it was my RAM. I had a set of G.Skill Snipers, 2x4GB DDR3-1600MHz 7-8-7-24 2T @ 1.6v, in there and it was crashing at random, even at stock clocks. I tried upping the volts to 1.625v to no avail. I then swapped the set for some G.Skill Flares, 2x2GB DDR3-2000MHZ 7-9-7-24 1T @ 1.65v, and I've only gotten 1 random crash last night while screwing with it. Nice to know it's probably not gonna screw up anymore, but still not sure why the Snipers were messing up, they're brand new. I tested 'em on the old CHIV a month ago with Memtest86+ with no errors on each stick. So I dunno.

Anyone else notice the DRAM Voltage dips a bit below BIOS specified even at idle (on the CHV)?

[Zeus]

Good thing you figured it out. Random crashes and BSOD are often RAM related.

Maybe Crosshair IV sets subtimings different than Crosshair V by default?

[eRazorzEDGE]

Actually, it wasn't the RAM, as the random crashing kept on occurring. I did, however, finally narrow it down to the Intel drivers for the NIC. Apparently ASUS knows about this issue and still only offers up the drivers that cause BSOD's when using the NIC, like anytime I access a file on my server or browse a web site. I went to the ASUS ROG forum and was lucky enough to see a post by someone else with the same issue and Raja was happy to offer up another version of the drivers which seems to have cured the random crashing bs.

Ok, so since I was able to cure the crashes, I went on with some tests. I added them to the first post, below the "-EDIT-" line.

My conclusion is that there is no real clear conclusion. I tested four games in both 1920x1200 and 5760x1200 with 3x 6970's in Tri-fire. Two of the games are showing that it's better to use the FX-8150 for Eyefinity and the other two Show that it's better to use the 1090T for Eyefinity, meaning that the CPU can allow the GPU's to provide more FPS.

One thing is clear to me, however, and that is the FX-8150 is $275 (or was, who knows now) plus another $200 for the ASUS Crosshair V (since ASUS doesn't yet want people to use BD on the CH IV, like they said they would) and all I get is about the same performance at a significantly higher clock, faster encoding (according to others) that does nothing for a person who sets a queue and walks away for a day, and (for me) a relatively unstable overclocked chip @ even 4.5GHz. Plus it draws a ton of power and makes a lot of heat. All in all I have to say, as a person who really wants AMD to do well and bring some competition to Intel, as well as owning only AMD chips since 2007, I can't consciously continue to buy things that just are not worth it. For the same or even less money, you can have an Intel i7-2500k and motherboard that will beat Bulldozer in any game perspective and rival it (and PH II's) in most other programs.

I definitely don't recommend the Bulldozer platform for any gamer. If you do work on anything where this platform excels, then it might work for you.

[Leeghoofd]

Very well put mate... the platform is quite okay when GPUs are maxed out, yet the heart of it all needs an added pacemaker to get it beating correctly...

[Swanie]

Not good news , eRazorzEDGE. I was buying into BD for purely gaming purposes. Well to late now as got the mobo and ordered the chip.

[eRazorzEDGE]

I only tested with 3 GPU's. It might fare a bit better against the 1090T with only a single GPU, however, we've all seen benches of single cards on Intel platforms that still show a significant FPS increase over an AMD platform.

Now I'm sure some might say, "oh you should switch it to 4cu/4c mode, it'll fare better". Well I say how many are going to know their way around a BIOS well enough to do this or even want to do this? The advertisement clearly touts the "8 cores" of the chip and if you need to restart the computer between gaming sessions and encoding video sessions just to see a performance increase, then it's definitely not a chip for me.

Speaking of which, I need to chuck this thing off a cliff or put it on ebay... decisions, decisions.