AMD FX-8350 (Vishera) CPU

The first thing to note with the new Vishera FX line of CPUs from AMD is that unlike the Trinity based APU, these new CPUs are based on the already released AM3+ socket that we've seen for a while now. That means that on the performance based 990FX chipset you should need nothing more than a BIOS update to get up and running. This makes the move from Zambezi cheaper and easier thanks to a new motherboard not being needed.

With no new chipset being thrown into the mix there's not as much to cover when it comes to the new Vishera platform. Saying that, though, we've of course got a bunch of new CPU models that are being brought to the table.

Alongside the 8 Core FX-8350 we've got today we're also seeing another 8 Core chip in the form of the FX-8320. Below that we've got 6 core and 4 core chips respectively in the form of the FX-6300 and FX-4300. Chips start from $122 and go as high as $195 depending on how many cores you want along with the amount of speed.

Vishera brings little new to the table when it comes to being compared to its previous generation Zambezi brother. While we've got a speed bump across the board and slightly better power efficiency, the similarities between the two CPUs is extremely small.

Comparing the new FX-8350 and older FX-8150, both have 8 cores, both are built on 32nm technology, and both offer 1.2B transistors on a 315mm die. We've got the same 125w TDP and 8MB / 8MB L2 / L3 setup. The only real change comes in terms of the clock speed which sees a base clock of 4GHz instead of 3.6GHz - the max turbo clock remains the same coming in at 4.2GHz.

The upgrade process from a Zambezi based FX chip is easy thanks to the same socket being used. The chances are you'll probably only want to make the move if you're interested in upgrading from a 4 or 6 core based FX chip to an 8 core one. The move from an FX-8150 to the new FX-8350 is going to bring little to the table. Of course we'll take a closer look and see just what happens.