Gaming on an AMD FX-8350... Is it bad?

Before AMD unleashed the beast of Ryzen they had the AMD FX Series. A questionable set of CPUs that were AMD though and through but it was a major generation we missed so in this video we want to revisit it and see how well it can game in 2022.

Is it as bad as they say and how did it compare to the AMD Ryzens released afterwards? Let's find out by taking a look at the AMD FX-8350.

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[TechLabUK]

We really do enjoy re-visiting these older components we missed during our break from building PCs. Looking forward to getting it out again later to see how well it holds up as time goes on.

[ronch]

Didn't realize the FX-8350 is already 10 years old!! I think it came out in October 2012. Still pretty good for an old CPU! I got mine on Dec. 15, 2012. I still have it to this day, including the metal tin box!

[latt.qcd]

I've got my FX 8350 paired with a GTX 1080, and I've had little problems with performance over the years, with only a few of the most demanding titles struggling on the highest settings. I've had my FX 8350 since around 2012, so it's definitely given me a ton of value. It's a way better cpu than it's usually given credit for.

[davrsmania]

I buy a second hand FX 8350 in 2013. Still running at 4.5 GHz on Arctic Liquid Freezer 240. Probably best buy I ever made ❤

[pepperthekobold]

My old machine, which I sold to a friend and they're still using just fine, is an FX-8350 and a GTX 1080. I've not heard any complaints from them as yet. I upgraded because I wanted to run Forza Horizon 4 at 144Hz 1080p Maximum settings. Old machine managed around 90fps.

[cljohns]

I literally just got my FX 8350, 1866 ram sticks and upgraded cooler today. I'm hoping to max out my board like I never could in the past. Before in a year or so building a new AM4 smaller profile setup. My fx quad core is the current bottle neck.

[lflyr]

TechLabUK : I am still using my FX 8350 (running at stock clocks being cooled by the original Wraith 2015 cooler) coupled with a KFA2 GTX 1080 Ti EXOC 11GB, 32 GB of 1866 MH/T and an SSD....and @1080p I still play every modern game @ Ultra details easily :).

[rathstar]

I had 3 fx CPUs over the years, and I think to get the most out of them in 2022 you need to overclock them. I was able to get the two 8350s I had stable at 4.5Ghz and 4.7Ghz.

It would have been nice to see the difference in the 1% and 0.1% lows between the FX and 1700 CPUs, because I think thats where you would have seen a big difference. An overclock on the FX CPU can help with this.

[joshstarantulas]

I am actually using a fx 8350 at the moment, I have had no issues with fps even playing in 4k resolution. It is paired with a RX 580 8 gb card. I do plan on building a am4 this year but this cpu has done me solid for a long time now!

[krinodagamer]

I'm trying to find how much more performance you get with a 8370

[Markus]

Had this CPU until 2021. Aged well, and it's time came when more programs and games started to use more cores as opposed to single core performance. Liked it very much. Had it's issues with stuttering in some games, but overall it was a very sturdy and potent CPU. Tried to overclock, but it was quite toasty even on watercooling and power hungry.

[daveful]

I'm still running an FX-8350 with overclock to 4.5Ghz, paired with a 5700xt and 16gb RAM (Corsair 1600 cl9). Been intending to upgrade to a complete new system (but retaining the GPU) for a couple of years now but this system still soldiers on remarkably well. It runs older games (BF1 etc) at 1440p with no issues and newer titles at 1080p at a reasonable level- albeit with the odd 0.1% drop as noted in the video. It also runs insanely cool, with just a big (albeit noisy) air cooler on it. It's been the longest lived CPU I've had (got it in 2014) and will be a sad day to see it finally retired! Currently looking at the 7700x on the AM5 platform to give me the most longevity with a new system.

[soniclab-cnc]

I owned a few of these. I built our LAN gaming setup budget with AMD back in the day. Honestly I am surprised it keeps up with the 1660 super. I still have one AM3 board and an 8350 CPU...and a 1660 super sitting on the bench. Maybe I should build up a test bench for nostalgia.

[isparxz]

Hey Nice video i have had alot of those pc's cause i flip them but what i found out is that in some games when it gets to 100% usage the stutters are making the games very un playeble but one of the most importand things no one is talking about is that the motherboards for that gen for cpu's where terible the vrm's where overheating on alot of boards causing major issue's when the vrm's got over a temp limit i found out then the very bad lag started heapening that might also explain the low 1% lows

[jotabe]

i'm still rocking an Fx8350 at my "main" (legacy at this point) rig, w/16gb 1866mhz DDR3, SSD SATA3 and Rx570 4gb, cooled with the classic Hyper 212 Evo in a midcase tower w/another 2x 12mm fans

I think this is as far as you can aim in terms of GPU to pair it with that CPU, maybe an Rx580 w/8gb would be the absolut top tier GPU to pair it with, but i think you'll need a 4.4ghz OC in order to propper work.

Myself i had it with 4.4ghz at 1.36v OC 24/7 but after 2 years it started to run unstable, therefore i could raise the voltage to 1.38 or 1.4 to get it stable... unfortunately, that would have ment gaming above 62°c in summer, so i rolled back to default vcore, and just left 4.1 (/4.3turbo) ghz...

I think the CPU falls short in some key areas...
snap usage is kind of slow for current standards (opening windows and other normal stuffs in which not even Turbo makes it perform reasonably quick compared to modern CPUs), also it is proven unable to deal with 4K video render, so 1080p should be the max video editing capability. Last but not least, i'm an enthusiast photographer... and while not bad... i think it is kind of slow compared to modern CPUs to process large quantity of pictures aswell, despite GPU

So... at the end of the day, while retaining some bang for the buck as modest workhorse, and despite also keeping some gaming capability, the CPU has close to 11 year tech inside, so i wouldn't advice noone to buy it unless the price is extremely good... in which case, paired with 16gb DDR3 and a gpu like the ones mentioned above, can still provide computing solution in both gaming and light productivity jobs

[Nick_R_]

Still running this CPU. It's been the heart of my gaming system since 2012/13. Runs at 4.6 GHz, on an Asus Crosshair fx990 motherboard, with Corsair H80i AIO cooling. 16gb of 1866mhz RAM. I periodically remove dust and have added more storage (I've never changed the thermal paste or replaced any fans). Only recently did I replace the venerable HD 7970 with a GTX 1660ti. It plays old and modern games well. At 1920x1200 the GPU upgrade means I can use higher settings with decent frame rates, even on many demanding games. It's true that on some games, like RDR2 and SOTTR, I would really see a difference with Zen 3+, particularly in the 1 & .1% lows. But that doesn't bother me. My biggest issue is that this system still runs Windows 7, to maintain compatibility with older titles. I might need to let that go at some point.

[gameer]

Please Where can i get the most up to date drivers

[GoWMarkusFenix]

I ordered AMD FX 8350 CPU, should be tommorrow. Now i have AMD FX 4300. Besides i will be using 8350 with Asus M5A78L LE, 8 GB DDR3 1333 MHZ (Will be eventually upgraded to at least 16 GB 1600 DDR3), SSD drive, NVidia GeForce GTX 1080 MSI Gaming 8 GB

[joveboy]

Got mine Fx-8300 in 2015 for 50$ second hand and still using today.. OC stable at 4.4ghz 24/7. Open case with big cooler for 20$.

[maddogfargo]

That 1660 is holding you back. nVidia driver overhead is very high compared to AMD drivers. If you really want to remove the bottleneck, pair the FX with something like an R9 Fury or Vega 56 and some 1866 RAM with tight timings and 1T command rate.