Recently, many fans of Intel products, changing their principles, are switching to AMD products. It's all about the price of computer components from these brands - having the same performance in the tests, for some reason they are very different in cost. The focus of this article is a remarkable representative of AMD, a processor with four cores, FX-4350. The description of the device, its technical specifications and owner reviews will help the buyer to learn more about an inexpensive, but very productive processor, the price of which in the domestic market does not exceed 6000 rubles.
Manufacturer's marketing move
Many readers, naturally, are discouraged by the market positioning of the new AMD FX-4350, whose characteristics are at the level of Intel Core i5, and the cost does not exceed the coveted 100 cu In fact, everything is quite simple. The manufacturer for the Socket AM3 + platform has reached the limit in the production of powerful processors. We need to create a new, more productive platform than AMD is currently doing. But Intel's competitor is on the alert, it is releasing an updated and cheaper line of Core i3, occupying the niche of budget devices.
To remove a competitor from the market, AMD management is going to reduce the cost of its flagship products - FX-43xx and FX-63xx. Naturally, this step of the manufacturer was positively received by all buyers - 4 cores for the price of two can not be purchased on the market every day. Ardent fans of Core i- based products are unlikely to wait for the same step from their favorite brand, because in the entire history of its existence, Intel has never reduced the price of its technology to oust competitors from the market.
FX-4350 Processor Specifications
The fact that the AMD FX-4350 processor belongs to the elite segment is evidenced by its platform - Vishera. In accordance with the specification, the crystal has not undergone any changes and, like all other flagships, has a 2 MB L2 cache for each pair of cores, and also fully supports a dual-channel memory controller (1866 MHz DDR3). There can be no question of any restrictions in the processor instructions - even full-fledged support for cryptography commands and vector functions are available.
It is worth noting that the lack of restrictions for the gadget with four cores operating at a frequency of 4200 MHz, led to the fact that the device in the budget class has an incomparable heat dissipation - 125 W in nominal mode. You should definitely pay attention to this when buying, because most of the cheap cooling systems are limited to 90 watts.
First acquaintance with the device
Since the crystal is associated with the heart of a personal computer, the attitude towards it of all manufacturers is appropriate in terms of packaging and configuration, this affects the AMD FX-4350 processor. Responses of owners assure that the packaging of the crystal in a huge box is made at the highest level - the processor is not afraid of shocks and falls during transportation. It is worth noting that there are 4 modifications of the same device on the market:
- a processor with a locked multiplier and with a standard cooling system (comes in the old package, in which all the devices of the Black Edition series were presented several years ago);
- a device with a locked multiplier without a cooler (in the same black package);
- processor with an unlocked multiplier with a standard cooling system limited by heat dissipation of 125 W (comes in a new, white package);
- A device with an unlocked multiplier without a cooler is included in the original white packaging.
If overclocking is supposed (and for the sake of it many buyers buy AMD products), then the last delivery option is preferable, because the owner does not have to overpay for a regular cooler.
Games with a cooling system
Very often, for owners of the FX-4350 processor, performance characteristics during overclocking are so priority that they simply lose sight of one fact, chasing a powerful and expensive crystal cooling system. The fact is that in 90% of cases, the summation of the costs of buying an inexpensive central processor and an effective cooler leads to interesting conclusions. It turns out that for the same amount you can purchase a more powerful crystal (for example, with six cores) complete with a standard cooling system.
Accordingly, before buying, the future owner must correctly weigh their needs and analyze the cost of several solutions. Focusing on high performance, it is better to give preference to a more powerful device that works with dignity without overclocking. And those who want to save money need to measure their appetites when buying a powerful cooler to cool an overclocked processor (limiting to 140 W should be more than enough).
Overclocking potential
The FX-4350 processor with an unlocked multiplier has two modes for overclocking the core operating frequency. The provided Turbo technology is based on increasing the speed of the data bus and is more dependent on the support of this function on the motherboard (the corresponding multiplier is set). The second overclock of the central processor can be performed by raising the voltage in the power supply system of the chip itself. In most budget motherboards, this parameter is limited to 1.5 Volts, respectively, above 4.9 GHz, it will not be possible to increase the performance of the crystal.
The acquisition of a motherboard with overlocking capabilities is, again, irrational. After all, having recounted all the costs of buying a computer, you involuntarily have to give preference to a more efficient processor. And with overclocking this crystal, it turns out that at 5 GHz it shows unstable performance.
A strange offer from the manufacturer
The FX-4350 processor has quite interesting reviews from owners regarding its use for building platforms for office solutions. Low cost and high performance, as it turned out, have one side factor, which AMD is silent about in commercials. Built-in graphics are not implemented on the basis of the chip itself, and accordingly, the integrated video output for connecting the monitor will not work on the motherboard. Definitely have to buy a discrete video adapter.
If the future owner does not plan to increase the performance of the system by overclocking or even wants to buy a computer for office applications or multimedia, IT professionals recommend paying attention to Intel Pentium G or Core i3 products. In all products of the competitor, in addition to the integrated graphics, the heat dissipation of the processor itself is significantly less, which means that the entire system will work much more economically in terms of energy consumption.
Performance in synthetic tests
If we take for comparison all the similar modifications of processors in the budget price niche - FX-6300, Intel Pentium G3258, Core i3 4370 and FX-4350, the review of which is carried out, then many interesting facts will be found out. Firstly, the performance of all test programs that test only one core of the chip, and excellent results will be demonstrated for all devices for processors with the Intel brand. All AMD products by a huge margin will be at the end of the list.
But the tests, which take into account the integrated performance of all the cores, their frequencies and available technologies, show excellent results, bringing the products of the FX-43xx and FX-63xx lines to the performance of the powerful Intel Core i5 processor. The conclusion here is one: the rationality of purchasing AMD products directly depends on the needs of the applications that will be used by the user. In most cases, all programs are “tailored” for the operation of one core, unlike productive dynamic games, respectively, buying this processor will be beneficial only for gamers.
The most delicious piece of cake
The revenge in the FX-4350 processor tests is clearly visible in gaming applications. It's no secret that most game manufacturers are guided by the total performance of the processor and the graphics chip working in conjunction. Accordingly, all modern toys are directly created for the line of FX processors with four cores.
AMD processors compete freely with Intel in the budget niche. Overclocking the FX-4350 processor to a frequency of 4.9 GHz even allows you to bypass the more expensive competitor Core i5 in games: Metro, Hitman and Shadow of Mordor. But lovers of the world of tanks will have to look for a processor from the Intel lineup, because the manufacturer has optimized the code for this legendary game for the performance of two Intel cores that are adapted to SSE4.2 instructions. Yes, AMD products support these technologies, but the optimization of the processor cores paired leaves much to be desired.
Unexpected expenses
For all potential buyers of the FX-4350 processor, the factor of choosing a power supply for the gaming system will be important. As the practice of testing the energy consumption of this crystal at the minimum and maximum load shows, the processor likes to consume electricity. If in standby mode all products of the budget class consume the same (about 40 watts), then the maximum load is of concern. Without overclocking, at standard frequencies, the FX-4350 processor demonstrates electricity consumption of 140 watts (while the Pentium G3258 barely goes beyond 60 watts).
In overclocking at maximum load, the tested processor breaks all existing records for budget-class devices - 240 watts (using the 64-bit Linpack application). Even the productive representative of the Intel Core i5 4690K, which demonstrates amazing performance in overclocking, is less gluttonous, is limited to 155 watts of power consumption.
Owner reviews
This may seem strange, but it is about the modification of the FX-4350 processor that the reviews contain more positive comments than negative ones. First of all, the budget cost and the presence of four cores are affected. Indeed, in fact, no one else provides such a gift to potential buyers on the market (in the segment up to $ 100). The presence of all existing technologies and instructions on the chip allows the owner to work with any application, and a great potential for overclocking will come in handy in the future when more demanding games and programs appear. Negatives include the lack of graphics on the processor core, as well as high power dissipation, which requires the purchase of an additional cooling system.
Finally
As can be seen from the review, the modification of the FX-4350 processor from AMD quickly found its customers in the market and earned a good reputation among the owners. Low cost, huge potential for overclocking and excellent technical characteristics in applications promoting new products on the world market clearly contributed to this. All potential buyers who want to save on the purchase of a processor can safely recommend this model for building a gaming platform.