AMD FX-6330 Black Edition CPU quietly launched

[HEXUS]

6-core AM3+ chip is based upon the Piledriver architecture, built on the 32nm process.

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[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It's another Chinese market special, but the cooler is meant to be a new one too which has 24% more area,34% more air volume and is supposed to run at a constant 39dB.

[addz17]

Lots of performance on multi-threaded tasks for the price point i guess. I'd say they would overclock really well, probably the best silicon designated to be 6 cores from a very mature architecture. I had a 6300 and a 8350 before i changed to a 6700k and despite being a bit slower i had lots of fun with those cpu's.

[Nate1492]

Lots of performance on multi-threaded tasks for the price point i guess. I'd say they would overclock really well, probably the best silicon designated to be 6 cores from a very mature architecture. I had a 6300 and a 8350 before i changed to a 6700k and despite being a bit slower i had lots of fun with those cpu's.

I don't see how CPUs are fun... But to each their own.

The issue with all of these AMD CPUs is that they are, at best, competing against the i3. The i5 absolutely blows everything out of the water and the i7 is even better.

I just can't recommend an AMD processor or mobo to a new purchaser. There is no positive outlook here, until AMD can pull it together on the CPU front, it's just not worth it.

[pastymuncher]

Another pointless release from AMD. A overclocked 6300 on a hopelessly outdated socket. They need to be concentrating on making Zen and AM4 something that everyone wants to buy and stop being sidetracked by rehashing old products.

[scaryjim]

Another pointless release from AMD. ....

They obviously don't think so. A lot of markets are very price sensitive, and AMD are able to go after the value market with a range of good processors in some very cheap motherboards. There's a big chunk of the market - mostly in developing countries - that won't or can't spend more than £300 on a computer, and it's well worth AMD putting out products to fit into those potentially high volume niches.

Whilst in the west/developed world we want MORE POWAH and fancy new tech, that's not the be all/end all of the tech market, and it's interesting to see how companies are viewing the wider pictures. Combine this with the news of 4GB R9 390's in China, and it's fairly clear that AMD see PC Gaming as a huge growth market in China; that's two "new" products specifically targeting mid-budget gaming rigs in that region. That could well be telling, and it could also be an important play for AMD in terms of generating revenue/profit whilst they finish the ramp on the new products...

[ixo]

I dont understand why this was necessary. Is there any actual market research behind this stuff or does amd just release products with different clock rates willy nilly?

[DanceswithUnix]

I dont understand why this was necessary. Is there any actual market research behind this stuff or does amd just release products with different clock rates willy nilly?

I expect the market research is along the lines of "What do we do with that warehouse full of old AM3+ cpus because no-one will want them once Zen is out".

FX is still a perfectly usable CPU, and there are no bad chips just bad prices.

[pastymuncher]

They obviously don't think so. A lot of markets are very price sensitive, and AMD are able to go after the value market with a range of good processors in some very cheap motherboards. There's a big chunk of the market - mostly in developing countries - that won't or can't spend more than £300 on a computer, and it's well worth AMD putting out products to fit into those potentially high volume niches.

Whilst in the west/developed world we want MORE POWAH and fancy new tech, that's not the be all/end all of the tech market, and it's interesting to see how companies are viewing the wider pictures. Combine this with the news of 4GB R9 390's in China, and it's fairly clear that AMD see PC Gaming as a huge growth market in China; that's two "new" products specifically targeting mid-budget gaming rigs in that region. That could well be telling, and it could also be an important play for AMD in terms of generating revenue/profit whilst they finish the ramp on the new products...

I just can't see that it makes sense. It is 100mhz faster than the 6300 and everything else is the same. There is no point in this cpu. They already have the 6350 with clocks of 3.9/4.2Ghz and there is £15 difference between that and the 6300 so now there's going to be another cpu that's barely quicker than the 6300 filling that gap. They are barely treading water at the moment and they go and waste time on a rehashed 6300. This just doesn't make any sense to me.

I can see the point of the 4Gb 390 as that will be more than enough for 1080p, 1200p and maybe higher. The gpu market needs to lower the prices even more than the cpu market.

[DanceswithUnix]

I just can't see that it makes sense. It is 100mhz faster than the 6300 and everything else is the same. There is no point in this cpu. They already have the 6350 with clocks of 3.9/4.2Ghz and there is £15 difference between that and the 6300 so now there's going to be another cpu that's barely quicker than the 6300 filling that gap. They are barely treading water at the moment and they go and waste time on a rehashed 6300. This just doesn't make any sense to me.

I think you have to consider *whose* time it is wasting. In this case, it will be the CPU product managers time deciding the market needs this, and some time in the factory getting boxes printed and chips put inside them. If AMD had a bunch of FX6350 cpus kicking around and decide they aren't selling fast enough, then a small price drop now is better than a huge price drop in 6 months time so they can be re-marked with minimal testing as they are already tested as good enough for a faster speed.

Before someone says it, I don't think AMD could drop the price of the FX6350 much simply because it is still a competitive part with the i3 so that would have two really bad effects for AMD (albeit nice for the consumer until it drive AMD out of business):

1/ Trigger Intel to drop their i3 prices, so AMD still don't sell any more chips and the ones they do sell are at a lower price.
2/ This performance level becomes worth less money, so when Zen comes out the entry level Zen chips wouldn't be worth as much.

Zen by now will be using time at validation, engineering to find workarounds for any errata and implement fixes in the next iteration of Zen (like piledriver was a bug fixed bulldozer, Fermi was bug fixed into kepler etc) and hopefully time in manufacturing if they are near to a working product. The CPU designers will be looking at the successor to Zen.

So I expect it is using time of people with the time to spare.

[scaryjim]

I think people are also missing that this is a market-specific launch. Unless you have intimate knowledge of the PC component market in China, I don't see how you can make any credible claims about the market proposition of this chip.

it might not make sense in the UK, but it hasn't been launched in the UK. Perhaps the 6350 is selling just fine in the UK, but isn't shifting in China. Drop the 6350 price in China and the UK consumers buying the 6350s will just import them from China, so you end up losing sales & margin in a market you're already doing OK in.

Seriously, these companies don't do these things at random or on a whim. They do them because they expect to make more profit by acting than doing nothing. As I've already said, it's pretty clear that AMD see China as a market in which they can improve their reputation and increase their market share if they get the right products on the shelves at the right price. If that mean they need a China-specific SKU to fit into their pricing model, then that's absolutely the right thing to do, from a business point of view....

[deejayburnout]

As a 6300 owner, I am baffled why AMD would release this. The 6300 can be easily oced.

Why?

[uksnapper]

what is ones computer to be used for ? just social media and email or image processing and gaming !
I did all with a 286 and 16mb ram.
Comparisons are inevitable but evaluation what you do before why you are spending more than you need is a first step.
No point in buying a jumbo jet if you only need a bicycle.

[Goatzil]

I'm assuming this is only for china, and is probably going to be available only to the Chinese market. It wouldn't make sense to release this now, with Zen around the corner.