Piledriver is supposed to be a 10-15% improvement over Bulldozer, unfortunately we'll have to wait for AMD's next chips to offer a huge jump, apparently. I'm going to be getting an FX-6300 in the coming month. I suspect that will be the ideal CPU for me.
So? Still not worth the upgrade from say a Phenom II X4 965. Why?
Bulldozer couldn´t outperform it´s predecessor, in several benchmarks. It even got surpassed by the Phenom II.
So why invest up to $ 260 for an FX-8350 just for lousy 10-15% more performance?
Besides, AMD´s promises aren´t trustworthy anymore. Remember when they´ve promised 10%-15% more performance with the shiny new Bulldozer? Guess that didn´t go as expected. So even if Pildriver will deliver 10%-15% more performance than the Bulldozer it wouldn´t justify $ 260 for an "upgrade". I don´t even consider this an upgrade. I, as a customer, don´t care about the POTENTIAL of this oh so awesome architecture. Software can´t make proper use of it so this architecture simply FAILs. More GHz won´t change that.
Anyone who still wants a "high-end" CPU by AMD will have to buy Phenom II and those aren´t being prouced anymore, which is probably the worst of all news for AMD fans out there.
I could get an FX-8150 for 165 € yet an Intel Core i5 3350P @ 3,1 GHz costs ONLY 158€ and easily outperforms this piece of junk of a would-be FX processor. Seriousely, how dare they call this an FX CPU??? It´s a joke, not an FX.
Once again, 10%-15% more performance doesn´t justify such pricing.