Conclusion

AMD processor have one really big advantage. The price you have to pay when you want to buy a new platform is really competitive. For as little as CHF 148.- (est. EUR 123.-) you can get a CPU that clocks at 4.2 GHz default. Furthermore there are a lot of good motherboards for AMDs FX processors which lets you realize really decent setups.

But unfortunately there is also a really big drawback. Even though the Cores are clocked 4.2 GHz this CPU isn't much faster than an Intel Core i7-920. Bare in mind that the 920 is a four year old CPU. To be honest there are only games which haven't been optimized for multicore CPUs that can partially benefit from this CPU. In all the other tests the results are disappointing. The performance per clock is really bad and there is no way that the FX-4170 could possibly keep up with Intels Sandy Bridge or even their latest Ivy Bridge CPUs. Furthermore there is the power consumption. Because of the seriously high clock frequency dissipation power is higher too and therefore this CPU isn't energy efficient at all. Under idle conditions it needs more power than an FX-8150 and under load the power consumption is almost as high.

If you are currently using an AMD rig such as AM3/AM3+ with a Phenom II x4 or lower performing CPU, then AMD's FX eigh core processor might be a neat upgrade. Should you be using a Phenom II x6 at the moment, there is no need to uprade your CPU to a Bulldozer FX. In both cases: before you upgrade, be sure to check the compatibility of AMD's FX CPU with your motherboard and if needed update your motherboard to the latest BIOS.