The AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition 3.2GHz Six-Core AM3 CPU

All I can say is, "Thank you AMD!". Now anyone who knows me, or even reads this blog, knows I am an AMD fan for many reasons. This PII X6 CPU is yet another example why I will pick AMD over Intel each and every time.

This CPU is a beast. It provides 6 real 3.2GHz cores with 6x 512KB L2 and 6MB L3 cache all for a TDP of 125 watts and about $700 less than Intel's six-core i7 980x. Why on earth would anyone pay over $1000 for a processor that will have absolutely no discernible performance benefits for most users when they can spend only around $300 and get this amazing CPU from AMD? Perhaps they buy into all the hype, or maybe they are just smoking something that shuts down the part of their brain that controls logic. Though I know there are those who honestly believe the i7 and Phenom II class of CPU are not comparable. Those are the people living in a box under a rock with a giant Intel logo painted on it.

Now most people use their PC for either gaming, media, web, or software/web development. I dare anyone to sit behind two identical PC's and tell the difference in real world performance between and AMD Phenom II and comparable i5 or i7, simply put, with the exception of sheer luck, its not going to happen. That's because the Phenom II line of CPU's performs on par with much more expensive Intel chips. This is especially true when it comes to gaming.

Sure, the i7 980x will beat out the PII X6 in time trials on raw processing applications, but not by any means a huge amount. Defiantly not $700 worth. The i7 980x will also help boost frame rates in games, but no where near anything noticeable without benchmark software when compared to the PII X6. All six core processors have the same problem at the moment. Most games will not use more than 3 cores, and when they do, they will use one core at 100% while the 2nd and 3rd cores will run at about half. This is true for most all games, even the newer ones that are "optimized" for multi-core use. Meaning a quad-core and six-core CPU will be comparable while gaming if their other specs are comparable. So we will not see the real gaming potential of six-core processors for some time yet.

Now being a hardcore gamer, there is no way anyone can sit there and tell me they could tell the difference between the same game running on an Phenom II or Intel based system of comparable specs. This new X6 is no different. Here are some of the items that stick out in my mind.

1. The Phenom II X6 costs $300 on Newegg while the comparable Intel chip, the i7 980X, costs over $1000.
2. The i7 980X does boast 12MB of L3 but only 6x 256KB L2 where as the PII X6 has 6MB of L3 and 6x 512KB L2. Will that extra 6MB of L3 really make that big of a difference in gaming or real world end user use? No, not for many years yet, but that extra L2 the PII X6 has sure will.
   
3. The PII X6 is clocked at 3.2GHz and the i7 980x at 3.33GHz, so not a big difference there, not even noticeable. The average stable overclock on the i7 980x seems to be about 4.4 to 4.5GHZ. Initial overclocking results on the PII X6 BE put it at 4.5GHz, stable, with proper cooling. So again, no difference. See below for some actual overclocking results.
   
4. The PII X6 processors boast a rather impressive thermal design. At idle, with stock cooling, idle at about 24C and never goes over 43C after hours of Prime 95. With a good heatpipe cooler you can get it idle as low as 15C. If you go liquid cooling, it will run even cooler. This CPU runs very cool, even overclocked, amazing in my book.
   
5. Side by side the PII X6 and i7 980x have NO discernible performance difference when it comes to HD media creation. Such and DVD and Blu-ray transcoding.
6. This thing runs very cool thanks to its impressive power management with C1E on the CPU and low TDP. This allows the CPU to throttle up or down each core very rapidly and independently.
   

So why by and i7 980x? Well, if you plan on rendering the next Pixar film or trying to make your own version of Star Wars and want to match ILM's level of effects, then the i7 is just what you need. However, if your like the rest of us, gamers, programmers, bloggers, web designers, the i7 is a waste of money in my humble opinion.

The i7 980x is a powerful CPU, there is no debating that, but it's power is no where near it's asking price. Its 32nm vs the PII X6's 45nm in no way makes it worth $700 more than the the PII X6.

For me, since gaming is the primary use of my main system, six-core CPU's really do not offer much over 3 or 4 cores at the moment. So its not like your going to see a huge jump in performance from a quad to a six-core CPU, either i7 or PII X6. Most games do not even take advantage of all the threads available on today's high end CPU's. Mainly because developers try and save money by designing one game for all platforms. So in essence, most newer games are "ports" from one platform to another and were not actually coded with any one platform in mind. Though recently some games, such as Bad Company, Modern Warfare 2, and a few others, are truly console ports to the PC and do not even come close to taking advantage of the power available to them on a PC over a console.

However, that being said, it's not hard to see that AMD's new line of six-core CPU's is going to give Intel a real run for their money. Those of us that have been following this separation between AMD and Intel when it comes to price vs performance, can easily see that this is a fight Intel is not going to win unless they wise up and realize that a vast majority of end users are not going to drop loads of cash for a product that offers no real world benefits over one that offers the same level of performance for a MUCH lower cost.

Closing points and thoughts:

• The i7 980x will give you higher framerates in many games over the PII x6, however the number differences are quite small, and its NOT noticeable without benchmark software running! The PII X6 will still pump out very high stable framerates in any game for a very long time to come. The i7 six core CPU will only beat out the PII X6 in raw numbers that the end user, the gamer, will NOT be able to discern.
  
• It's going to be a while before we see games and such that will actually take advantage of six core processors. So there is no real need to run out and buy one expecting this huge performance boost. Your simply not going to see that much over a comparable quad core processor with comparable specs. It's going to take time for the software to catch up to the hardware.
• Across the board, there is not a single benchmark that makes the i7 980x worth $700 more than the PII X6, not to me anyway. I will go toe to toe with anyone on an i7 with my PII system in any game and still lay them to waste. Pure and simple. Then again, I am not trying to encode an HD video, compile a 4GB RAR archive, burn a Blu-Ray Disk, and run a dozen instances of my web browser all while playing my games either. While gaming I run Firefox, IRC, X-Fire, Anti-Virus, Firewall, Steam, Everest Ultimate, and my G15 software and my current CPU does not slow any game down one bit with that and about a total of 40 other processes.
  

On a side note, if your not into overclocking but would still like a powerful six-core CPU and save about a $100 on top of it? You buy the Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8GHz for around $200 and step into the six-core age knowing you wont have to upgrade again anytime soon. Short of a slower clock speed and a lock multiplier, the 1055T boasts the same L2 and L3 as well as many other specs as the 1090T Black Edition. Though, to be honest, even with it's lock multiplier and slower clock speed, the 1055T seems to be able to overclock to 4.0GHz pretty easy. See below!

Keep them coming AMD! You have a customer for life right here. Intel, I think you need to watch AMD and take notes. All be it an impressive CPU, your i7 980x "Extreme" is far from it. Especially when it can be matched by a CPU that costs $700 less for most users and gamers.

Newegg customer reviews on the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Six-Core CPU

Product Specs:

• Model: HDT90ZFBGRBOX
• Socket Type: AM3
• Core: Thuban
• Number of real cores: 6
• Core Stepping: E0
• Stock Operating Frequency: 3.2GHz
• Voltage: 1.25v to 1.40V
  
• Hyper Transports: Yes @ 4000MHz (bi-directional 2.0GHz 3.0)
• L1 Cache: 768KB per processor (Instruction & Data) - 6x 128KB (64KB + 64KB per core)
  
• L2 Cache: 3MB (6 x 512KB)
• L3 Cache: 6MB
• Manufacturing: 0.045 micron SOI
• 64 bit support: Yes
• Virtualization Technology Support: Yes
  
• Integrated Memory Controller: Dual Channel PC3-10667U (DDR3-1333), Dual Channel PC3-8500U (DDR3-1066), Dual Channel PC2-8500U (DDR2-1066)
• Multimedia Instructions: MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a, Advanced Bit Manipulation, AMD64 technology, AMD-V (virtualization) technology, Enhanced Virus Protection, Dynamic Acceleration technology (Turbo Core technology), AMD CoolCore Technology.
• Thermal Design Power: 125 Watts
• Maximum Temperature: 62C

Internal View:

Inside the box and other video reviews:

• Phenom II X6 1055T X6 - Inside the box
• 1090T Video Review #1
  

Tested Overclocking Results on the 1090T Black Edition and 1055T:

• LinusTechTip's "Frankenstein" Overclocking of the 1090T X6
  
• NCIS TechTip's 4.0GHz Stable on Air Cooling of the 1055T X6. Amazing!

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AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Performance Review

Ever since the AMD Phenom II six core processors hit the market, I have been wanting to get my hands on one for my own system, I just had no real justification to buy one since my overclocked and unlocked X2 550 Black Edition was still kicking ass running at overclocks from 3.6 to 4.0GHz on all four cores. Since I am a gamer, that was more than enough power to rip apart any games out there, and it still is.

However, with recent updates to my system, I decided to go ahead and hop on the six core bandwagon to go along with my new AMD XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB upgrade. I wanted to play around with the AMD six core and see what I could get it to do with what I had.

So anyone that knows me, or has read this blog, knows I am an AMD user. I have been for a very long time. I stopped buying into all the hype hardware manufacturers put out there, all the misinformation from armchair experts and reviewers, and started to just trust my own judgment, testing it all out for myself whenever possible. This case was no different. I knew from all I had read since the X6 hit the market, that I would love it, I have yet to own an AMD processor I did not like. However I still wanted to see what I could get one to do and how it effected my games, my software, my system. Now that I have had mine installed for a few weeks and have had time to play with it. I figured it was time I could safely share my opinions on the processor.

So I ordered the 1090T Black Edition, with a stock clock of 3.2 and a Turbo Core of 3.6, to fit in my ASUS Crosshair Formula IV motherboard, and to compliment my new XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB video card. To start off, let me just say that this is a match made in heaven.

Gaming

First, all of these results are at stock speeds on the CPU, and let me say that if you are already running a nice fast quad core processor, don't expect a massive improvement in framerates by jumping to a six core and overclocking it to the same speeds. Yes, you will see an improvement, but it's not exactly Earth shattering.

Before installing my new XFX 6950, I left my old HIS 4870 Turbo 1GB in my system so I could better assume the performance increases I would see would be on the CPU alone, and not the superior new video card.

In the games I was playing prior to my update and after, I seen more of a performance increase in the games that were able to actually use all six cores, and no real improvement in those that could not, obviously. Bad Company 2 for example did show an overall increase and does use all six cores. Other titles that did not use all the cores saw little to no real improvement. Of course, that was a different story after I popped in the XFX 6950, but that's not what this review is about.

The Crysis 2 Multiplayer Demo hit PC after I had already installed the XFX 6950, so I have no real basis for a before and after comparison. What I can say is that the game does use all six cores, it does not max any of them out, and it runs stable at over 125FPS on a single 1920x1080 display on "Hardcore" settings. The maximum available in the demo.

Now I play a lot more games that just Bad Company 2 and Crysis 2, however those two games are representative of the main reason I upgraded from a high-end quad core to the 1090T. Future-proofing. I know that's not a realistic term when we are talking about PC's, especially for high-end gaming, so I don't like to use that term very often. In this case however, my idea of future-proofing is knowing that I will have the hardware to take advantage of next generation games that can actually benefit from having six cores. Knowing I can run them all at nice high stable framerates, on maximum settings, at 1080p, on my single display. That I will not have to sacrifice settings in order to make a game playable. At least not for a little while anyway.

As the gaming world sits at this moment, while I am doing this review, the high-end hardware that is out there on both sides of the fence, no matter if your an Intel, AMD, or Nvidia user, it's ahead of the software. The games that can actually take advantage of it are just now really hitting the market. So I wanted to take advantage of that, especially since the 1090T processors are only about $200. That's an amazing price for the performance you get!

Windows 7 Ultimate 64

Now onto Windows. Have I seen any real improvement in performance? From a pure operating system standpoint, not really. The system responds just as fast as it did with the quad core. What you would expect. The WEI on my system went up to 7.7 at stock speeds from 7.5 on the quad core. Not that anyone really puts any stock in those numbers.

However, if you are on a fast dual core, or an older and slower quad core, you will notice a much larger increase in performance, obviously.

Software & Applications

This really depends on the software, in my case, the most noticeable increase in performance came from video editing and rendering. I record most all my game footage with Fraps, then edit and render the final video using Ulead VideoStudio. I have noticed it takes less time to render a final video. Though I don't have exact numbers since I did not benchmark it prior to the upgrade. Trans-coding video to DVD is also faster, as you would expect.

Other "day-to-day" applications show no real noticeable difference.

Overclocking

Well, I like the Black Edition processors for a reason, I like to overclock. Though right now I am only running the processor at 3.6 on all six cores all the time, it's not because it's as far as I can push it. I was able to push it to 4.1GHz before I backed it down since the Arctic Freezer Pro 64 cooler I am using just can't cool the processor properly. I do not want to damage it.

However, while I was sitting at 3.8Ghz in my quest to 4+, I decided to compare Bad Company 2 and Crysis 2 from stock speeds and 3.8Ghz. You only see a small unnoticeable increase in framerates.

So that really told me that there is no need to push the processor to it's limit for gaming performance. Since the performance increase is not noticeable in six-core capable games when we are already hitting high stable framerates at stock speeds. The fewer cores a game uses, the more of a performance increase you see, for the most part. Of course, results will vary depending on the game in question as well as your other hardware and overall system configuration.

I am no enthusiast, I am a realist, I don't see the need to push my hardware to the max and shorten it's operation life for unnoticeable increases in gameplay performance you would not even know about without benchmark software running. This includes the few modern six-core capable games as well as the far more abundant 1-4 core capable games. 3.2 to 3.6Ghz is enough to run any games on the market at high stable framerates when coupled with other good hardware.

So what I will be doing is going with a "mild" overclock after I see how far the processor will go and remain stable. That being 3.6GHz and a 3.9GHz Turbo Core. More than enough to handle anything I will throw at it anytime soon. Knowing that I can push it past 4.0GHz easily when and if the time ever comes that it needs to be done.

All of this after I get my new cooler. A Noctua NH-U12P SE2 120mm SSO CPU Cooler. I was going to go with the NH-D14, however since I am not pushing the 1090T to it's limit, I decided the U12P will do just fine for the overclock the processor will be under and a lot better than the outdated Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 64 that is on there now.

Final Thoughts

For a price tag of about $200, the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T processor is a beast of a deal. This thing is powerful enough for any and all high-end gaming at stock settings, and has a lot of room to overclock should the need arise or you feel the desire to do so. If you couple this bad boy with other good hardware, just like a new 6900 series AMD GPU, 8GB of good quality DDR3 "gaming" RAM at 1600MHz or higher, a good quality motherboard to plug it all into, and a nice strong power supply to feed it, this processor will not disappoint.

I am very glad I made the jump to six cores. Knowing I am set for all the next generation games coming out this year that I am looking forward too is a great feeling. Right now is the perfect time to upgrade.

This processor is, in my opinion, by far the best "bang for your buck" option on the market for gamers and non alike. Once again I have to take my hat off to AMD for a fantastic product at a fantastic price. For proving that you don't have to overpay for performance. This is one customer AMD has had since the mid 90's, and one that is still happy to be living on this side of the fence. Sorry Intel.

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