Back in December 2015, AMD silently launched their latest FX-6330 Black Edition processor which is based on their Piledriver architecture. The processor was exclusively built for the Chinese market and is bundled with the Wraith cooler which was showcased and demonstrated by AMD at their CES 2016 booth. Today, PConline has posted a new comparison, showcasing the performance of AMD's last gen architecture with Intel's latest 14nm Skylake architecture.
Image Credits: PCOnline
AMD's Six Core FX-6330 Compared Against Intel's Dual Core, Core i3-6100 Processor
The comparison posted is interesting since both the Core i3 and FX CPUs are aimed at budget users. Both chips retail under the $120 US price point and offer good performance to PC builders without the need to spend a lot of cash on either the platform or the processor itself. The FX-6330 is built for the Chinese markets while the i3-6100 is available worldwide, whether it's a good option for APAC (Asia-Pacific) based users can only be known by testing both chips through a list of performance benchmarks. First of all, let's compare the specifications of both processors.
The specifications of the FX-6330 processor include six cores based on the 32nm SOI HKMG process. The chip is clocked at a base clock of 3.6 GHz and a boost clock of 4.2 GHz. This puts the chip a 100 MHz ahead of the 6300 which was clocked at 3.5 GHz base and 4.1 GHz boost clock. The chip comes with 6 MB of L2 cache and 8 MB of L3 cache. Being compatible with the AM3+ platform means that it will stick around with DDR3-1866 MHz DIMM as reference.
The FX-6330 maintains the 95W TDP with somewhat improved power management and has an un locked multiplier which allows overclocking support on the chip. The chip retails at $109.99 US which is around the same price as the FX-6300 and comes with the latest Wraith cooler which offers 24% more surface area, 34% higher air volume circulated to the chip and runs with a steady noise output of 39dB compared to previous gen coolers. At CES 2016, AMD told that their Wraith cooler is 10 times more quieter than the last generation of CPU coolers offered on FX processors (excluding the AIO liquid coolers) which is a step up for their reference designs and we will even get to see it with next generation Zen and Carrizo based chips coming to the AM4 platform.
The Intel Core i3-6100 on the other hand is a hyperthreaded dual core which is based on the 14nm Skylake CPU architecture. This chip is clocked at 3.7 GHz and doesn't feature any Turbo Boost clock.. It comes with just 3 MB of L3 cache and a TDP of just 51W. The chip is bundled with the PCG 2015C thermal solution which is designed to handle 65W of heat dissipation load and enough to cool the chip under load scenarios. The Skylake chips are compatible with LGA 1151 socket motherboards and support DDR4 memory. The Core i3-6100 retails for price of $117 US which is $7 more than the FX processor. The processor doesn't feature an unlocked multiplier but all board vendors have added non-K overclock features in their LGA 1151 motherboards that allow overclocking on locked Skylake chips. The Intel platform also allows better I/O features compared to FX platforms however they do retail at slightly higher cost.
AMD FX-6330 Versus Intel Core i3-6100 - CPU Benchmarks:
AMD FX-6330 Versus Intel Core i3-6100 - Game Benchmarks:
Coming to the benchmarks, the FX-6330 has six cores which does give it the edge over the Core i3 in multi-threaded applications such as Fritz Chess benchmark, WinRar and Cinebench however, in some cases, the Core i3-6100 manages to fare well in a different set of multi-threaded apps. In games, the Core i3-6100 manages to outpace the FX-6330 by a slight notch. The games tested include Crysis 3 and Metro 2033 (tested at 1080p resolution). In Metro 2033, the FX chip manages to get 75 FPS with a discrete graphics card while the Core i3-6100 manages to obtain 80 FPS. In Crysis 3, the FX-6330 runs at under 30 FPS while the Core i3-6100 does 34 FPS.
AMD FX-6330 Versus Intel Core i3-6100 - Power Consumption:
Comparing power consumption, both systems consume 55W (Core i3-6100) and 56W (FX-6330) at idle mode. The total power consumption of these chips at full load stand at 105W for the Core i3-6100 and 151W for the FX-6330. Comparing load system power consumption, the AMD system does 396W while the Intel setup does 346W. We can see that the FX chips tend to get more hot and eat a lot of power. Overall, with an influx of new AM3+ motherboards, the FX-6330 will be a good option for someone who wants more cores in their system while Intel's option is better for users who want to stay updated with the latest list of features and I/O support.
| Processor Name | AMD FX-6300 | AMD FX-6330 | AMD FX-6350 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cores/Threads | 6/6 | 6/6 | 6/6 |
| Base Clock/Boost Clock | 3.5/4.1 GHz | 3.6/4.2 GHz | 3.9/4.2 GHz |
| L2 Cache | 6 MB | 6 MB | 6 MB |
| L3 Cache | 8 MB | 8 MB | 8 MB |
| Unlocked Multipler | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Memory Support | DDR3-1866 | DDR3-1866 | DDR3-1866 |
| Platform | AM3+ | AM3+ | AM3+ |
| TDP | 95W | 95W | 125W |
| Price | $109.99 US | $109.99 US | $129.99 US |
