AMD FX 8150 AM3+ Bulldozer Processor Review

After spending a lot of time with Z68 based boards, we find ourselves taking a bit of a refresher course as to how AMD works and re-familiarising ourselves with the BIOS and the general feel of how AMD works again.

As we’re using an Asus Crosshair V Formula, we find ourselves being blessed with the UEFI BIOS that allows for a simple configuration and is also extremely friendly when overclocking which is one of the key points with this processor, as it offers an unlocked multiplier and has even seen a world record broken for being the world’s fastest desktop processor, so obviously we were keen to see what we could do under more “normal” conditions, as we’re sure not everyone has liquid nitrogen and the like just laying around.

Being a ROG board allowed us to overclock very simply and effortlessly by using automatic settings where possible, and also looked at downclocking our memory to a slower speed than its stock rating so that it can be taken out of the equation and wouldn’t end up being a limiting factor in any way. After this was done, we were able to up the unlocked multiplier to see where the limit was and once reached, we could continue to up the bus speed.

As with all of our overclocks, we crank the voltage up to its maximum safe limit and work backwards from there. After some initial hiccups, we were able to get our processor to 4.77GHz and booted into Windows 100% stable. Whilst we were able to achieve higher clock speeds, the stability wasn’t perfect and will be something that we’re look at again in the near future, as we’d love to hit the magic 5GHz with the FX-8150.