Upcoming AMD FX Scores World Record for Fastest CPU

Those who thought Advanced Micro Devices was lagging behind Intel and had nothing surprising up its sleeve might revise their thinking once they learn that one of its upcoming chips actually entered the Guinness book of records just thanks to sheer speed.

Advanced Micro Devices has a very good reason to be happy right now, if not even a trifle smug and vindicated.

So far, the media's view on what the Sunnyvale, California-based company has in the pipeline has been, for the most part, cautiously optimistic.

It turns out that people actually do have enough cause to really look forward to AMD's next CPU line, given the company's most recent accomplishment.

Simply put, AMD just made the Guinness book of world records for having the fastest ever central processing unit.

This happened on August 31, 2011, in Austin, Texas, thanks to Team AMD FX, a group of elite overclockers that collaborate with AMD technologists.

Upon taking the upcoming 8-core FX desktop chip and pushing it as high as the team deemed sane (or, at least, within the bounds of chip survivability probability), the item held at 8.308 GHz.

“We applaud AMD for their entry into Guinness World Records for achieving the Highest Frequency of a Computer Processor,” said Freddie Hoff, adjudicator for Guinness World Records, who is presenting the award today at the AMD Fusion Zone, a technology showcase in San Francisco, Calif. “We congratulate everyone involved in this record-breaking achievement.”

If anything, this will restore the aura of awe that the AMD FX line of processors was always meant to project, though it remains to be seen if the situation lasts. After all, Intel probably won't want to let things stay as they are, not without some counterattack.

“The record-breaking processor speed that resides in the AMD FX CPU clearly demonstrates performance gains for the new AMD ‘Bulldozer’ multi-core architecture, which will provide x86 computing power for this CPU and future AMD Accelerated Processing Units,” said Chris Cloran, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Group at AMD.

“Along with world-record frequencies, the AMD FX processor will enable an unrivaled enthusiast PC experience for the money – extreme multi-display gaming, mega-tasking and HD content creation.”