AMD has certainly had a great run in the past few years.
Since the initial launch of Ryzen in late 2016, AMD has surged pass Intel in quarterly consumer CPU sales and has beaten Intel to the seven-nanometer node. This marked the turning point for AMD’s downward trend since the mid-2000s. One year before the launch of the Ryzen lineup, AMD was really struggling to compete with Intel, it’s chief rival in the CPU marketplace.
In Q3 2015, AMD’s stocks fell below $2 USD and had lost $102 Million USD in Q4 of the same year. While AMD introduced new products throughout the year, such as a refresh of the A-Series processors and the new 7000 series APUs. However, its new products failed to compete with Intel’s new 14 nanometer Skylake CPUs.
At the time, AMD’s most powerful consumer CPU was the FX-9590 but performed half times slower than Intel’s new Core i7-6700K. Not only was the 6700K better performing, but it also consumed over 100W less power than the FX-9590. But was the 9590 really a complete failure, or did it establish itself as a truly unique and worthy processor?
Today, we will find out if AMD’s FX-9590 is worth the mention.
The Launch
At E3 2013, AMD revealed their new CPUs based on the 32-nanometer Piledriver architecture. AMD promised that their new FX-9590 would reach a boost clock of 5.0GHz, a first for consumer CPUs at that time. This processor was introduced to directly combat Intel’s new twenty-two nanometer Haswell-based Core i7-4770K. Intel’s new i5- 4670K processor also posed a major threat to the 8350. It was only $40 more expensive than AMD’s FX-8350 Vishera processor. It matched the 8350’s multi-core performance while offering nearly 50% more performance in single, dual, and quad-core workloads.
This made the i5-4670K a much better processor than the 8350 and overall having more value.
AMD was losing to Intel in nearly every segment but the APU market. AMD was planning to release the FX-9590 and possibly defeat Intel. However, the 9590 became one of the most historical processors in the book. The FX-9590 was launched at a stunning $920, which was extremely unattractive to enthusiasts. Intel’s i7-4770K was only $339 -less than half of the FX-9590- and performed noticeably better than the 9590. It matched the FX-9590 in multi-core workloads while proving to be about 30% more efficient than the 9590 in lower core workloads.
A lower-priced but slightly lower clocked FX-9370 was also released at $576, but also failed to compete with Intel’s offerings.
AMD Adapts and Instills Change
Shortly after the launch of the new Piledriver CPUs, AMD brought the price down to $350 to more directly compete with the 4770K. A full retail kit was also made available for $390 from some retailers. The kit included an FX-9590 CPU and a 120mm AIO water cooler. About a year after, prices dropped even more to under $250, but Intel’s i5-4690K was then launched for $240 in Q2 of 2014. This further made the FX-9590 to normal consumers as the lower-priced 4690K was only about 15-20% slower in multi-core workstation, but over 30% faster in gaming and quad-core workloads. This lead over AMD progress straight into 2015, where Intel stretched their lead by the launch of their fourteen nanometers Skylake CPUs.
This was not challenged until the eventual launch of the Ryzen a year later.
What Made AMD’s FX 9590 Popular?
So, what exactly made the FX-9590 so widely known in the history of CPUs? Well, the FX-9590 was the first mainstream processor to guarantee a clock of 5GHz. In comparison, the 4770K has a boost speed of 3.9GHz and maxed out at 4.5-4.7GHz in overclocks. It also required intensive cooler, often with a liquid AIO or premium air cooler, as it reaches high temperatures under overclock or full workloads.
The FX-9590 also consumed a ton of power. It had a TDP of 220W and often passed 250W in overclocking or full workloads. Among the tech community, it is most widely known by its historical 5GHz achievement. The FX-9590 was also a source of memes across the internet due to extremely high power draws and high temperatures under operations.
Compared to new processors from AMD, such as the Ryzen 5 3600, the FX-9590 gets easily beaten in workstation and gaming by over 50% on most occasions due to CPU bottlenecks, as expected.
Does AMD’s FX 9590 Hold Up?
So, in conclusion, is the FX-9590 worth the mention? We certainly think so.
The AMD FX-9590 is truly a historical processor. It marked the last pre-Ryzen high-tier AMD processor. With the FX-9590, AMD reached the guaranteed 5.0GHz boost on all cores six years before Intel did with their i9-9900KS. Despite being beaten by Intel, the FX-9590 and its fellow Piledriver CPUs introduced mainstream eight-cores into the market.
The FX-9590 shall forever remain in the history of CPUs.
