AMD FX-8120 Black Edition CPU Review (with Asus M5A99X EVO)

Overall we are left with generally positive impressions of the AMD FX-8120 Black Edition processor.  We were able to achieve a reasonable overclock of 4.2 GHz without even having to adjust the CPU voltage.  This resulted in a decent boost in performance throughout our set of benchmarks, letting the FX-8120 rival the i5-2500K at stock settings in a number of tests.

It was disappointing that we couldn't push the chip further than 4.2 GHz without encountering stability issues in some benchmarks, even with plenty of voltage applied. By comparison, our Core i5 2500k could easily hit 4.7ghz with a voltage increase.

That said, we achieved an impressive 5.1 GHz maximum overclock with the FX-8120 in our ASRock 990FX Fatal1ty motherboard, although this wasn't 100% stable under load. While we achieved a verification, we wouldn't use these settings on a daily basis. With only one FX-8120 at hand it may be possible that we received a weak sample for review.

For verification, we attempted to overclock the FX-8120 with an ASRock 990FX Fatal1ty motherboard which costs over £50 more.  It offers everything an enthusiast user could want, including Quad SLI and CrossfireX support. Complete stability was still limited at 4.2ghz.

We are quite impressed with what the Asus M5A99X EVO motherboard offers and it pairs well with the FX-8120 processor.

This does raise another minor concern for us because we do feel that AMD need to start working with their partners to drop the prices of their motherboards. In recent months high quality Intel motherboards are available for £80 in the UK today.

We have managed to get the Core i5 2500k overclocked to 4.8ghz with this Gigabyte motherboard, offering a very cheap entry level point. The problem is compounded further by the fact that this product costs £20 less than the M5A99X Evo, which we tested today paired up with the FX8120.

The AMD FX-8120 Black Edition can be yours for a price of £135 from OCUK which makes it about £20 cheaper than the AMD FX-8150 and Intel i5-2500K.

Even though it offers better performance than the i5-2500K in a number of multi-threaded applications that can harness the power of all eight cores, most applications will perform at a lower level. The i5-2500K offers more overclocking headroom and much better performance in many other tests, so is a better choice for the enthusiast audience.

We would like to see the price falling to around £110 before we could recommend buying the FX-8120.

We would definitely recommend the Asus M5A99X EVO to anyone looking for a well featured 990X motherboard for an FX-8120 or FX-8150 CPU.  It can be yours for £100 from Overclockers UK.

KitGuru says: The price of the FX-8120 is still a little expensive but offers good performance in multi-threaded applications.

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