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This question is basically an extension of Hyper-Threading and Dual-Core, What's the Difference?

The Bulldozer-based AMD FX processors are marketed as having four, six, or eight cores, but physically consist of two, three, or four modules, each with two cores. It is my understanding that the cores in each module share some silicon, falling in between the virtual cores provided by Intel Hyper-Threading Technology and two physically separate cores. How does this affect the performance of AMD FX cores when used for multitasking or other parallel workloads? What about workloads that depend heavily on floating-point operations, such as Folding@home as well as many games?

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Theoretically the efficiency runs somewhere between having the full extra cores and hyper-threading but Intel CPUs have a higher IPC so the increase is rarely enough for an 8core AMD CPU to beat out an Intel quad core with hyper-threading but obviously it will vary from one workload to another.

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  • And Intel always wins for gaming! Sep 11, 2012 at 10:42
  • I'm already aware that AMD processors tend to be slower clock-for-clock than Intel processors, but can you give more specifics, such as benchmark results? I'm most interested in floating-point performance with parallel workloads. Note that I do have a 24-hour grace period after the bounty expires, so while this question won't appear on the "featured" tab or show as having a bounty, you still have some time to add details. Just make sure you do this by around 8:00 PM EDT tomorrow, and I'll award the bounty to you.
    – bwDraco
    Sep 11, 2012 at 14:26
  • Anand do a fair bit of threaded benchmarks: anandtech.com/show/4955/the-bulldozer-review-amd-fx8150-tested/… Sep 11, 2012 at 15:13
  • Tom's do some synthetics that cover floating point: tomshardware.com/reviews/… Sep 11, 2012 at 15:15
  • And this one covers the theory behind the shared resources. tomshardware.com/reviews/… Sep 11, 2012 at 15:30

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