FX-8350 vs. Core i5-3470 CPU Review

Conclusions

The FX-8350 provided a slight performance improvement over the FX-8150. However, we can’t tell if this improvement was caused by the use of the new “Piledriver” architecture, by the use of a higher clock rate, or a combination of both.

While AMD has the lead on the USD 100 price segment, it is way behind Intel on the USD 200 price segment. Also, the company doesn’t have any product to compete against the Core i7 at the high-end segment.

Costing the same and providing up to 30% performance advantage over the FX-8350, the Core i5-3470 is a far better choice. We simply can’t recommend the new FX-8350.

For games, the performance is dictated mostly by the video card, not by the CPU. Therefore, some could claim that for games it doesn’t matter which CPU you choose. However, you will use the computer for other tasks, and the CPU from Intel will be faster for those.

The only scenario where the FX-8350 was faster was on 3D rendering with Cinebench. This could mean that the FX-8350 is a better choice for professionals rendering 3D images. However, we believe this kind of user will prefer to buy a Core i7 processor instead.