Just put together a new build with the FX-8150 (specs below).
After reading some of the posts on this forum I was a little worried it might not perform to my expectations but that worry is over. Everything works great and all the games I have tried (Dirt2, Dirt3, NR2003, GTR2, Rfactor, Iracing, Crysis2) run great at 1920 x 1080 with max settings. I can tell Crysis2 does not run as smooth as my I7/GTX680 build but all the others seem just as smooth.

Do I get as many FPS as with my I7/GTX680 build: NO.
Did this build cost $450 less than my I7/GTX680 build: YES.

I am not having any of the heat issues others have posted. I am running a very good air cooler (Noctua NH-D14).

The only bios changes I have made is to enable Turbo Core and to set the ram to specs.

The temp in the bios shows 36C. With CPUID I have not seen temps on the cores above 35C while playing games and running 3DMark11. I thought these temps were low and CPUID might not be reading correctly so I installed AMD Overdrive and get the same temp readings so I guess I am good to go. Anyone else getting temps this low?

I have not installed the Microsoft optimizations for the FX series but it seems I don't need to. Should I?

P.S. Giving my old 1090t/5850 build to my grandson.

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#1-ASUS Sabertooth P67 | I7-2600K w/Corsair H100 Cooler | Corsair 500R Case | G-SKILL RipjawsX 8GB DDR3 1600 | Crucial M4 256 SSD | EVGA GTX 680SC | Z-5500 w/Polk Audio Speakers | Corsair TX750W | Win7 HP 64 | Sharp Quattron 46" HDTV 1080P

#2-ASRock 990FX Supreme3| AMD FX-8150 w/Noctua NH-D14 cooler | fractal arc Case| G-SKILL Sniper 16GB DDR3 1600 | Crucial M4 256 SSD | Sapphire HD 6970 | Corsair HX850 | Win7 HP 64 | X-Fi Titanium Fatl1ty Champ1on |Asus 24" 1080P

I also decided to build an 8150 after a steep price drop and have been pleasantly surprised. I have it OC'd to 4.5Ghz and it plays games just as well as my 2 2500k rigs OC'd to 4.5Ghz. Are they faster CPUs per the benchmarks? Yes but they don't "feel" faster. The biggest problem with the 8150 is power draw/thermals when OCing. I decided to use a Corsair H100 water cooling system. The other posters Noctua is fabulous also. The big thing is the heat. I have the multiplier set at 21 and the fsb at 215. It passes both IntelBurnTest and Prime95.

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Asus Sabertooth FX990 R1 | FX 8350 @ 4.64Ghz with Corsair H100 p/p| EVGA GTX670 FTW | HAF 912 | 8g Gskill DDR3 1600 |Intel X25M-80 (OS); WD Blk Sata III 500g | Hanns HZ 281 | Win 8 Pro

You should only really consider installing the Win7 patches for AMD's FX line of CPUs if you are doing a lot of multi-threaded work such as recoding video or playing games that are multi-threaded like BF3. These patches basically make the FX-8150 look like a 4-core / 8-threaded chip rather than an 8-core / 8-threaded chip which has shown pretty good performance increases in multi-threaded performance benchmarks.

Your temps look rock solid, most likely due to your killer HSF you got in there! I would expect to see those results as long as you don't OC it...once you start bumping up that vcore the temps will start shooting up once you get into the 4.5GHz+ range.

Cheers!

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The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.
Requiescat In Pace AMD Processor Forums | Member since: 1/19/2009 | Post count: 4142
Please don't PM me with questions, instead create a thread so that everyone can assist and benefit from the knowledge provided. Thanks in advance!

I ran Prime95 for 9 hrs yesterday without an error. The Overall CPU temp was @62C but each core temp was @50C which I found to be great with the CPU OC's to 4.5 Ghz. I have a set vcore of 1.4 v. The highest temps were the chipsets at 70-71C. The H100 when set to max performance works well. Obviously, highend water cooled systems are able to have the highest OCs but the Bulldozer 8150 really starts cranking out heat when over 4.5Ghz. I also can run IntelBurntest without fail 10x with acceptable temps. If I crank the cpu voltage higher i might get a stable OC at 4.6/4.7 but the temps when running full bore are too high. Not worth the possible overheating. I have the multiplier at 21 and the fsb at 215. My Sabertooth must have a slight OC built into the fsb because my AIDA64 software reades the final OC as 21x216 or 4532.

The system, on benchmarks, is not as fast as my 2500k OC'd to 4.53Ghz but gameplay with the same video card feels the same.

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Asus Sabertooth FX990 R1 | FX 8350 @ 4.64Ghz with Corsair H100 p/p| EVGA GTX670 FTW | HAF 912 | 8g Gskill DDR3 1600 |Intel X25M-80 (OS); WD Blk Sata III 500g | Hanns HZ 281 | Win 8 Pro

Did you see a substantial performance increase by overclocking to 4.5 GHz on the 8150?
I have not tried overclocking yet as the games I most often play do fine with it set at stock settings with my HD 6970. I know your GTX 670 is more powerful just like my GTX 680 but the HD 6970 runs most games at max settings without issue.

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#1-ASUS Sabertooth P67 | I7-2600K w/Corsair H100 Cooler | Corsair 500R Case | G-SKILL RipjawsX 8GB DDR3 1600 | Crucial M4 256 SSD | EVGA GTX 680SC | Z-5500 w/Polk Audio Speakers | Corsair TX750W | Win7 HP 64 | Sharp Quattron 46" HDTV 1080P

#2-ASRock 990FX Supreme3| AMD FX-8150 w/Noctua NH-D14 cooler | fractal arc Case| G-SKILL Sniper 16GB DDR3 1600 | Crucial M4 256 SSD | Sapphire HD 6970 | Corsair HX850 | Win7 HP 64 | X-Fi Titanium Fatl1ty Champ1on |Asus 24" 1080P

I have a very good CPU cooler Corsair H100 AND a solid 990FX mb Asus Sabertooth so OCing the 8150 makes sense. I notice the jump in performance. It "feels" closer in performance to my OC'd Intel2500k chips than when it is stock.

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Asus Sabertooth FX990 R1 | FX 8350 @ 4.64Ghz with Corsair H100 p/p| EVGA GTX670 FTW | HAF 912 | 8g Gskill DDR3 1600 |Intel X25M-80 (OS); WD Blk Sata III 500g | Hanns HZ 281 | Win 8 Pro

Thanks for the reply. You are right, there is no reason for me not to try some overclocking to see if I get any significant gains since I have a decent motherboard and cpu cooler.

I have used my Noctua NH-D14 and my Corsair H100 on my I7 and they were very close in cooling performance. The H100 runs about 2-3C cooler under load with prime 95 @ 4.3 GHz overclock.

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#1-ASUS Sabertooth P67 | I7-2600K w/Corsair H100 Cooler | Corsair 500R Case | G-SKILL RipjawsX 8GB DDR3 1600 | Crucial M4 256 SSD | EVGA GTX 680SC | Z-5500 w/Polk Audio Speakers | Corsair TX750W | Win7 HP 64 | Sharp Quattron 46" HDTV 1080P

#2-ASRock 990FX Supreme3| AMD FX-8150 w/Noctua NH-D14 cooler | fractal arc Case| G-SKILL Sniper 16GB DDR3 1600 | Crucial M4 256 SSD | Sapphire HD 6970 | Corsair HX850 | Win7 HP 64 | X-Fi Titanium Fatl1ty Champ1on |Asus 24" 1080P