AMD FX-8350 4GHz

[TheHumanComputer]

I am just doing a little research, and i've come across that this is a 4 core cpu, not an 8 core cpu? So is this true? This cpu is a quad core, but has hyper-threading which makes up the other 4 cores

 

[PP Mguire]

http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/your-cpu-modern-games-guide-those-building-261626/

 

[cb600fshornet]

Hyperthreading is an Intel technology really, as far as I'm aware, the FX8350 has a totally different architecture.

The quad core Intel chips with "Hyperthreading" may have 4 CPU cores with dual threads in each, hence why it shows as 8 threads.

The AMD FX8350 chips with "SMT" have 4 modules, each module technically has two CPU cores in it (integer cores), with some dedicated and some shared resources. So *technically* the FX8350 has 8 cores, though in Windows it is displayed as a 4 core, 8 thread processor.

Each "core" in the FX8350 chip also has a dedicated Level 1 cache, but shared Level 2 cache with it's other core in the same module.
This pic should give you an idea of how the FX architecture works:
http://i.imgur.com/NgBdlEE.jpg

If you take a look at a new Intel chip with quad core and hyperthreading, you'll see that each of the four cores has it's own dedicated Level 1 and 2 cache, but each core has dual threads so it appears as 8 logical cores.

 

[PP Mguire]

1 module consists of 2 FPUs. Pretty much 2 gimped cores that share some resources to make it look like the whole package is 8 individual cores. This drastically decreases IPC which is why gaming lacks due to single threaded performance.

 

[Yami]

I am just doing a little research, and i've come across that this is a 4 core cpu, not an 8 core cpu? So is this true? This cpu is a quad core, but has hyper-threading which makes up the other 4 cores

cb600 gave the perfect reply. It's not hyper-threading, just that it's actually 4 sets of 2 "sub"-cores that share more resources than cores in other architectures.