Introduction

We have been waiting for months, but Bulldozer is finally here. The weeks leading up to the launch of the new FX line of processors hasn't been the best for AMD with a large amount of leaks that haven't put the new FX-8150 in the best light.

Today, though, leaks don't matter; unofficial results don't matter. We've got all the latest drivers, the latest BIOS updates and it's time to see what Bulldozer can do. There's no denying that AMD are going to have a tough fight on their hands, though. AMD have stated that the new platform is only designed to compete against the current crop of Sandy Bridge CPUs.

The problem for AMD is that the 2600k has just done such a good job cementing itself as the overclockers CPU to get since it launched. Not only that, Intel's next generation high end platform to replace X58 is due out in literally 4 - 5 weeks, it seems. Sandy-Bridge E and X79, while will no doubt come with a higher price tag, is going to shine it seems when it comes to overall performance.

AMD over recent years, though, have done a good job of standing out in the key area that is pricing. At launch we're going to see three FX series processors hit and the most expensive one, the one we're looking at today, comes in at $245 US. Before we get into the performance of the platform, we're going to see some of those other models and have a look at what price point they hit us at.

From there we'll take a closer look at our processor to see what's going on before we talk about our Test System setup and overclocking. From there we'll get into the performance side of things to see just what the new Bulldozer CPU can do.