AMD FX-8150 vs. Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K CPU Review
The Reviewed CPUs
Contents
In the tables below, we compare the main features of the CPUs we included in this review. The Core i7-2600K supports Hyper-Threading technology, which simulates a processing core in each physical core available. Therefore, this CPU is recognized as an eight-core CPU by the operating system. The Phenom II X6 1100T doesn’t support SSE4 and AVX instructions, and its HyperTransport bus works at 2 GHz (8 GB/s), while FX-8150s work at 2.6 GHz (10.4 GB/s). Another difference between the two is in the memory controller. In the AMD FX-8150 this component works at 2.2 GHz, while in the Phenom II X6 1100T it works at 2 GHz.
| CPU | Cores | HT | Internal Clock | Turbo Clock | Max Turbo | Core | Technology | TDP | Socket | Price |
| AMD FX-8150 | 8 | No | 3.6 GHz | 3.9 GHz | 4.2 GHz | Zambezi | 32 nm | 125 W | AM3+ | USD 280 |
| Phenom II X6 1100T | 6 | No | 3.3 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 3.7 GHz | Thuban | 45 nm | 125 W | AM3 | USD 190 |
| Core i5-2500K | 4 | No | 3.3 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 3.7 GHz | Sandy Bridge | 32 nm | 95 W | 1155 | USD 220 |
| Core i7-2600K | 4 | Yes | 3.4 GHz | 3.8 GHz | 3.8 GHz | Sandy Bridge | 32 nm | 95 W | 1155 | USD 315 |
The prices were researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review. The MSRP for the AMD FX-8150 is USD 245; however, today Newegg.com’s price is way above that, probably due to the Law of Supply and Demand. We expect the price of this CPU to drop substantially in the next few weeks.
TDP stands for Thermal Design Power which tells the maximum amount of heat the CPU can dissipate. The CPU cooler must be capable of dissipating at least this amount of heat.
Below we compare the memory cache configuration of the reviewed CPUs. The L2 memory cache of the AMD FX-8150 is shared by each pair of cores. Thus, it has four L2 caches instead of eight.
| CPU | L1 Cache (I + D) | L2 Cache | L3 Cache | Memory Support | Memory Channels |
| AMD FX-8150 | 64 kB per module + 16 kB per core | 2 MB x 4 | 8 MB total | Up to DDR3-1866 | Two |
| Phenom II X6 1100T | 64 KB + 64 KB per core | 512 KB per core | 6 MB total | Up to DDR3-1333 | Two |
| Core i5-2500K | 32 KB + 32 KB per core | 256 KB per core | 6 MB total | Up to DDR3-1333 | Two |
| Core i7-2600K | 32 KB + 32 KB per core | 256 KB per core | 8 MB total | Up to DDR3-1333 | Two |