The AMD FX-8300 was a desktop processor with 8 cores, launched in October 2012. It is part of the FX lineup, using the Vishera architecture with Socket AM3+. FX-8300 has 8 MB of L3 cache and operates at 3.3 GHz by default, but can boost up to 3.9 GHz, depending on the workload. AMD is making the FX-8300 on a 32 nm production node using 1,200 million transistors. You may freely adjust the unlocked multiplier on FX-8300, which simplifies overclocking greatly, as you can easily dial in any overclocking frequency.
With a TDP of 95 W, the FX-8300 consumes a good deal of power, so decent cooling is needed. AMD's processor supports DDR3 memory with a dual-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 1866 MT/s, but with overclocking (and the right memory modules) you can go even higher. For communication with other components in the machine, FX-8300 uses a PCI-Express Gen 2 connection. Although the processor doesn't come with integrated graphics, certain motherboards with compatible chipsets can provide this capability.
Hardware virtualization is available on the FX-8300, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) can run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications.