Instead of making a large generational leap (like Intel), AMD has decided to gradually upgrade their socket technology. This provides a better upgrade path for consumers, but can make decoding the differences between sockets AM2, AM2+, and AM3 a tad difficult. Only a select few AMD motherboards and processors use AM3, as it is an extremely recent socket. In fact, there are only 3 AM3 processors available at this time: the AMD Z3 710, the AMD X3 720, and the AMD X4 910. While the AM3 is not a significant step forward, the DDR3 memory puts the socket in a terrific long-term position.
FX Chips
The new AMD FX-8350 is designed to change the strong market demand for Intel products. Not only is it faster than previous models, it incorporates a number of design improvements to cut execution times in both multi and single threaded environments. It centers on the same Piledrive architecture as the Trinity-based APUs, which can be as much as 15% faster than the Bulldozer-based design. In fact, the FX-8350 operates at least 400 MHz faster than the FX-8150. The FX-8350 is designed to reduce production costs, manufacturing complexity, and the CPU's size. It is significantly faster than the Intel Core i5-3550 (perhaps its main competitor) in rendering tests, although it does lag a bit behind in general application work. The gap is small enough, however, that it is almost unnoticeable. Power consumption and gaming performance still favor Intel, although the FX-8350 is not awful in either category. Ultimately, it is a decent chip for users who want a midrange CPU for productivity tasks, or who are software savvy and are able to take full advantage of the chip's 8 cores. In essence, it is a better model than the one it replaces, largely because AMD has fixed and improved some of the problems on the previous year's model.
Phenom Chips
The Phenom II X4 970 is the new fastest X4 model available, coming in at 3% (or 100MHz) faster than the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, which was the fastest X4 model before the new version was released. While it is still an attractive CPU, it is an incremental upgrade that is symptomatic of an ageing processor architecture that is on its last legs. The Black Edition ending indicates the clock multiplier can be freely increased for easy over-clocking or decreased for under-clocking without trouble, and is upwards unlocked. The main task of the chip is simple: it needs to beat (or at least match) Intel's Core i5-760. This is part of the reason why it lacks any significant upgrades or extra additional features from the previous model. Reviews are fairly good, with critics appreciating the impressive stock clockspeed, which results in an extremely competitive multi-threaded performance. Unfortunately, the ageing architecture is exposed by applications that depend on single-core performance. Reviewers also don't like that there isn't much available room for over-clocking. While AMD did not add anything extraordinary to their new Phenom, they didn't do anything bad either, and ultimately give you a little bit more while keeping the price the same.
Specs
The FX-8350 has the following specs: 8 cores, 4GHz processor clock speed, AM3+ processor socket, a Level 1 cache of 8x 16KB, Level 2 cache of 4x 2-48KB, and Level 3 cache of 8192KB, a 125 W TDP. It costs $190. The Phenom II X4 970 comes with the following specs: a VTX ATI Radeon HD 5950 graphics card, Quad cores, AM2+AM3 socket, 3500 MHz core speed, 512KB/core L2 Cache, 6 MB L3 Cache, 125 W TDP, and costs $185.