I must reiterate that this is just a speculation post. Shonumi is correct. There is no way to make an informed guess about the potential performance of the Zen chip. Having said that, I do think it's safe to say that the Zen will most likely outperform the current 'dozer' line that include the FX and FM1-socket chips. In the past, AMD did claim they would have the upper hand in the desktop market because they made a judgment call on future software development and created a microarchitecture to suit it. They thought that software would be faster on their chips when processed in parallel with numerous core. Bad call on their end. Since then, the AM3 and AM3+ sockets have seen little love from AMD after getting smashed by Intel's Sandy Bridges in most benches. I hope AMD has learned from their, arguably, bad call. Everything I've read about the new Zen chips suggests that they have. Tentative bottom line is that the Zen's should see a nice improvement over the FX and APU lines for Dolphin emulation. How they'll pair up with Intel Skylake is anyone's guess? If anything, I hope AMD will keep cost low and put some heat on Intel to lower some prices. Intel prices haven't budged very much in the last 2 years (an i5 4670k is still $220 - $240). A claim of 40% IPC is really good...if they can deliver on it. AMD powering a heavy-duty gaming PC may be reality once again (I miss the Phenom days)!
The potential of the Zen has, at least, convinced me to put off upgrading to an i7 until I see some benches next year. Still rocking that stock FX8350...which actually runs most games pretty well with little stuttering. Furthermore, we may get a glimpse into the Zen performance when benchmarks of the server chips are introduced to businesses in early 2016. Here's me keeping my <fingers crossed> fore a good chip!
The potential of the Zen has, at least, convinced me to put off upgrading to an i7 until I see some benches next year. Still rocking that stock FX8350...which actually runs most games pretty well with little stuttering. Furthermore, we may get a glimpse into the Zen performance when benchmarks of the server chips are introduced to businesses in early 2016. Here's me keeping my <fingers crossed> fore a good chip!