AMD FX-8370E and FX-8370 AM3+ Conclusion

IMPORTANT: Although the rating and final score mentioned in this conclusion are made to be as objective as possible, please be advised that every author perceives these factors differently at various points in time. While we each do our best to ensure that all aspects of the product are considered, there are often times unforeseen market conditions and manufacturer changes which occur after publication that could render our rating obsolete. Please do not base any purchase solely on our conclusion, as it represents our product rating specifically for the product tested, which may differ from future versions. Benchmark Reviews begins our conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas that we rate.

AMD has long controlled the value portion of the sub-$200 processor market. Though the FX series is the latest iteration, the Phenom and Phenom-II processors before it also held down an excellent price to performance ratio, demonstrating the viability of AMD processors. The newest refresh of the FX series, the FX-8370E and FX-8370 CPUs show nothing different, especially in multi-threaded performance. The octa-core CPUs easily match or beat the i5-4670 in most benchmarks. Many of those wins are by a large margin when the tests rely heavily on the full 8 threads. I am actually very impressed with the performance of the AMD FX-8370E CPU, which is stock clocked at a mere 3.3GHz. That is quite a bit slower than the 4.0GHz of the FX-8370, but the difference in performance wasn’t anywhere near that 17.5% difference in clock speed. That is likely due to the excellent boosting from the clock 3.3GHz to the max 4.3GHz in necessary situations.

The AMD FX-8370E also very easily overclocked on all cores to 4.3GHZ using the auto-tune feature included in AMD’s overdrive. The FX-8370 gave me a less than stellar performance in this category, only making it to 4.5GHz stably, barely higher than the max 4.3GHz. Of course, that max clock speed is the same for the FX-8370E. In overclocking the FX-8370E and the FX-8370, it makes perfect sense why these two processors are priced exactly the same. The are, in essence, the same CPU, with nothing more than a change in core clock speed and TDP. The two could seemingly be used interchangeably by simply overclocking or underclocking. As for the scores, I’m split on the overclocking, since the 8370E did so well and the 8370 sort of flopped.

The simply fact that AMD can continue to release new versions of the same CPUs with slightly higher clock speeds while lowering prices across the board is a testament to their high level of construction and the quality of materials used. The yields must continue to improve, because we are going on two years of Piledriver based FX chips at this point. The real question that this brings up, of course, is the value of the FX-8370 over the FX-8350. While the FX-8370 only has an MSRP $12 higher than the FX-8350, the two CPUs are made from the same stock. I would bank on the likelihood of buying an FX-8350 CPU and it being able to perform just as well as any FX-8370 CPU. Of course, I’d only be banking $12.

The FX series of processors represents a small part of the huge branding efforts of AMD. You can practically build an entire gaming PC out of parts from AMD or manufacturing partners. In our testbench, the Chipset on the motherboard is made by AMD, as is the CPU, the GPU, and the RAM. You can also get an AMD SSD to go along with the rest, leaving nothing but the PSU up to the another company. This is a testament of the functionality of the FX CPUs. AMD has the ability to fine tune performance together with every other component to ensure an excellent experience across the board. I’ve said the same about Samsung’s completely in-house manufactured SSDs recently. It is true for them, and it is true for AMD.

At the time of this writing, the AMD FX-8370E and FX-8370 processors are both set with an MSRP of $199. We will see what the retailers do with this, but at just under $200, the FX-8370E and FX-8370 represent an excellent value. The performance is certainly on par or exceeding that of the slightly higher priced i5-4670. I would have to say that the best competition in price/performance for the FX-8370E and FX-8370 is actually the FX-8350.

Pros:

Cons:

– The FX-8350 might be a better value
– 2 yr old refreshed CPUs

Ratings:

• Performance: 8.50
• Overclock: 8.00
• Construction: 9.00
• Functionality: 9.00
• Value: 8.00

Final Score: 8.50 out of 10.