AMD‘s recently released Bulldozer is their highly anticipated new series of CPUs based on a completely new architecture and manufacturing process.

Loyal AMD fans had been waiting patiently for a CPU that AMD claimed would offer seriously impressive performance, and put the competition from Intel under serious performance pressure for the first time since the Athlon 64 days.

AMD certainly believes in their new chip, but is that enough of a reason to upgrade?

Performance lower than expected

Without going too much into the hype created by AMD, Bulldozer was expected to regain the performance crown in the desktop space, being the first true consumer grade 8-core CPU.

This unfortunately wasn’t the case. Intel’s top end 2600K (now replaced by the 2700K) still outperforms Bulldozer in the majority of tests done by Anandtech, Hardware Canucks, Tom’s Hardware and Benchmark reviews.

In most cases the comparatively priced Intel 2500K also outperforms the FX8150, which begs the question; why would you invest in a platform that is outperformed by similarly priced competition?

Things don’t end there; in some tests the older generation Phenom II 1100T AMD offering outperforms the newer FX8150 Bulldozer chip, particularly where single thread performance is important.

Low performance excuses

AMD’s response to the lower than expected performance was simple – Windows 7 can’t use Bulldozers multi-core architecture effectively.

This has to do with the scheduler that assigns tasks to each core, and the one found in Windows 7 isn’t optimal for the Bulldozer architecture. The scheduler in Windows 8 however is better suited to Bulldozer, and AMD have claimed the performance increase is substantial.

The problem I have with this is that AMD effectively released a CPU into an environment without the software to optimally utilise it. The customer shouldn’t have to wait for the next version of the Windows operating system before they receive better performance out of their chip.

The other argument is that by the time Windows 8 has released, Intel will have released their new architecture that by all indications will outperform Bulldozer comfortably.

Future technology from Intel and AMD

There are also new technologies from Intel, and technology on the horizon from AMD that decrease Bulldozer’s worth.

Intel Sandy Bridge-E 3XXX series processors on the new LGA 2011 platform featuring quad-channel RAM and 6 cores (12 threads) have been released.

Intel also has Ivy Bridge up their sleeve. Ivy Bridge will be the 22 nanometer die shrink of the current Sandy Bridge fabrication process, and if early indications are anything to go by, will be another jump in performance. Ivy Bridge will also be backwards compatible with current Sandy Bridge chipsets after a BIOS update, so those on the current P/Z67 platform have a reason to stay where they are.

As for AMD; they have their next generation technology built in the Bulldozer platform, known as Piledriver. AMD claims Piledriver will feature a 10 percent performance increase over current Bulldozer chips, which is very possible considering the improvements AMD can make on the new architecture between now and the eventual release date.

Piledriver was originally planned for release in 2012, though the Bulldozer delays have put this into question.

Will AMD rush to get a higher performance chip out and risk annoying customers who have bought Bulldozer in the hopes that Piledriver actually offers a competitive offering? If I were a betting man, I’d expect to see Piledriver chips on shelves sometime in 2013.

The verdict

Bulldozer struggles against Intel chips that were released before it; it loses out in performance when compared to Intel’s previously released Sandy Bridge platform, and it doesn’t measure up to Intel’s latest platform – Intel Sandy Bridge-E 3XXX series.

It can’t be used effectively by current operating systems, thanks to the design of the architecture. It can’t overclock as high as Sandy Bridge can on air; and when it is overclocked the temperature increases significantly.

Lastly, its greatest claim to fame, the highest-ever overclocked frequency, needs a golden sample and a fair amount of liquid nitrogen to achieve.

I’d steer clear of upgrading to Bulldozer. Have a look at what the Intel Ivy Bridge platform offers. Depending on the system configuration you look at, it outperforms Bulldozer and you as a consumer get a better chip.