The AMD FX-6300 was a desktop processor with 6 cores, launched in October 2012, at an MSRP of $132. It is part of the FX lineup, using the Vishera architecture with Socket AM3+. FX-6300 has 8 MB of L3 cache and operates at 3.5 GHz by default, but can boost up to 4.1 GHz, depending on the workload. AMD is making the FX-6300 on a 32 nm production node using 1,200 million transistors. The silicon die of the chip is not fabricated at AMD, but at the foundry of GlobalFoundries. You may freely adjust the unlocked multiplier on FX-6300, which simplifies overclocking greatly, as you can easily dial in any overclocking frequency.
With a TDP of 95 W, the FX-6300 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 system, FX-6300 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-6300, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) can run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications.