AMD’s Six-Core Phenom II X6 1090T & 1055T Reviewed
by Anand Lal Shimpion April 27, 2010 12:26 AM EST
- Posted in
- CPUs
- AMD
- Phenom II X6
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168 Comments
IntroductionAMD’s Turbo: It WorksThe Performance SummaryAMD’s 890FX Chipset & The TestSYSMark & Photoshop PerformanceVideo Encoding Performance3D Rendering PerformanceArchiving PerformanceGaming PerformancePower ConsumptionOverclockingFinal Words
A very smart man once told me that absolute performance doesn’t matter, it’s performance at a given price point that makes a product successful. While AMD hasn’t held the absolute performance crown for several years now, that doesn’t mean the company’s products haven’t been successful.
During the days of the original Phenom, AMD started the trend of offering more cores than Intel at a given price point. Intel had the Core 2 Duo, AMD responded with the triple core Phenom X3. As AMD’s products got more competitive, the more-for-less approach didn’t change. Today AMD will sell you three or four cores for the price of two from Intel.
In some situations, this works to AMD’s benefit. The Athlon II X3 and X4 deliver better performance in highly threaded applications than the Intel alternatives. While Intel has better performance per clock, you can’t argue with more cores/threads for applications that can use them.
When Intel announced its first 6-core desktop processor, the Core i7 980X at $999, we knew a cheaper AMD alternative was coming. Today we get that alternative, this is the Phenom II X6 based on AMD’s new Thuban core:
It’s still a 45nm chip but thanks to architecture and process tweaks, the new Phenom II X6 still fits in the same power envelope as last year’s Phenom II X4 processors: 125W.
Update: AMD tells us that it gave us the wrong pricing on the 1090T.
The part sells for $295, not $285, in 1000 unit quantities.
| CPU Specification Comparison | ||||||||
| Processor | Clock Speed | Max Turbo | L2 Cache | L3 Cache | TDP | Price | ||
| AMD Phenom II X6 1090T | 3.2GHz | 3.6GHz | 3MB | 6MB | 125W | $295 | ||
| AMD Phenom II X6 1055T |
2. 8GHz |
3.3GHz | 3MB | 6MB | 125W | $199 | ||
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE | 3.4GHz | N/A | 2MB | 6MB | 125W/140W | $185 | ||
| AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE | 3.2GHz | N/A | 2MB | 6MB | 125W | $165 | ||
| AMD Phenom II X4 945 |
3. 0GHz |
N/A | 2MB | 6MB | 95W | $155 | ||
| AMD Phenom II X4 925 | 2.8GHz | N/A | 2MB | 6MB | 95W | $145 | ||
You also don’t give up much clock speed. The fastest Phenom II X6 runs at 3.2GHz, just 200MHz shy of the fastest X4.
When Intel added two cores to Nehalem it also increased the L3 cache of the chip by 50%. The Phenom II X6 does no such thing. The 6 cores have to share the same 6MB L3 cache as the quad-core version.
The Phenom II X6 die.
Monolithic, hexa-core
There’s also the issue of memory bandwidth. Intel’s Core i7 980X is paired with a triple channel DDR3 memory controller, more than enough for four cores under normal use and enough for a six core beast. In order to maintain backwards compatibility, the Phenom II X6 is still limited to the same dual channel memory controller as its quad-core predecessor.
| CPU Specification Comparison | ||||||||
| CPU | Codename | Manufacturing Process | Cores | Transistor Count | Die Size | |||
| AMD Phenom II X6 1090T | Thuban | 45nm | 6 | 904M | 346mm2 | |||
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 | Deneb | 45nm | 4 | 758M | 258mm2 | |||
| Intel Core i7 980X | Gulftown | 32nm | 6 |
1. 17B |
240mm2 | |||
| Intel Core i7 975 | Bloomfield | 45nm | 4 | 731M | 263mm2 | |||
| Intel Core i7 870 | Lynnfield | 45nm | 4 | 774M | 296mm2 | |||
| Intel Core i5 670 | Clarkdale | 32nm | 2 | 384M | 81mm2 | |||
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 | Deneb | 45nm | 4 | 758M | 258mm2 | |||
The limitations are nitpicks in the grand scheme of things.
While the 980X retails for $999, AMD’s most expensive 6-core processor will only set you back $285 and you can use them in all existing AM2+ and AM3 motherboards with a BIOS update. You’re getting nearly 1 billion transistors for $200 — $300. Like I said earlier, it’s not about absolute performance, but performance at a given price point.
| AMD 2010 Roadmap | |||||||
| CPU | Clock Speed | Max Turbo (<= 3 cores) | L3 Cache | TDP | Release | ||
| AMD Phenom II X6 1090T | 3.2GHz | 3.6GHz | 6MB | 125W | Q2 | ||
| AMD Phenom II X6 1075T |
3. 0GHz |
3.5GHz | 6MB | 125W | Q3 | ||
| AMD Phenom II X6 1055T | 2.8GHz | 3.3GHz | 6MB | 125W/95W | Q2 | ||
| AMD Phenom II X6 1035T | 2.6GHz | 3.1GHz | 6MB | 95W | Q2 | ||
| AMD Phenom II X4 960T | 3.0GHz | 3.4GHz | 6MB | 95W | Q2 | ||
We’ll soon see more flavors of the Phenom II X6 as well as a quad-core derivative with 2 of these cores disabled.
As a result, motherboard manufacturers are already talking about Phenom II X4 to X6 unlocking tools.
The new Phenom II X6 processors are aimed squarely at Intel’s 45nm Lynnfield CPUs. Both based on a 45nm process, AMD simply offers you more cores for roughly the same price. Instead of a quad-core Core i7 860, AMD will sell you a six-core 1090T. Oh and the T stands for AMD’s Turbo Core technology.
AMD’s Turbo: It Works
IntroductionAMD’s Turbo: It WorksThe Performance SummaryAMD’s 890FX Chipset & The TestSYSMark & Photoshop PerformanceVideo Encoding Performance3D Rendering PerformanceArchiving PerformanceGaming PerformancePower ConsumptionOverclockingFinal Words
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AMD Phenom II X6 1090T And 890FX Platform Review: Hello, Leo
At $1,000, it’s simply not possible to use the word value when talking about Intel’s Core i7-980X. Yes, it’s nice that the company is serving up an extra two cores at the same premium price point.
And yes, we’re glad to see Intel extending the life of its LGA 1366 interface. But currently, your options for six-core CPUs from Intel include the Core i7-980X and Xeon 5600-series chips. Surprise—all of the hexa-core models are priced at a grand or more. Those prices pretty much only make sense for the folks running heavily-threaded apps in a work environment, who stand to save valuable time/money on encode projects.
AMD’s Opteron 2400-series processors also sport six cores, and they’re significantly less expensive (as low as $455 for the 2.2 GHz 2427). The compromise, of course, is that they’re not as fast. Here, you’re paying for the ability to enable a dual-socket machine equipped with twelve total cores. As with the Intel hexa-cores, these CPUs are totally overkill on the desktop.
Meet The Phenom II X6
Enter the Phenom II X6—what I’d consider to be the first viable six-core option for desktop power users.
The Core i7-980X demonstrated the benefits of increased processor parallelization versus Intel’s previous flagship, the Core i7-975.
With both chips running at 3.33 GHz, it is easy to see where an extra two cores buys you better performance.
AMD’s new flagship Phenom II X6 is going to show us whether spending extra money on two extra cores is a smart move. After all, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition bears a $185 MSRP, while the Phenom II X6 1090T will go for $295. Does a 50% higher core count translate into a greater than 50% price bump?
I’ll be honest. My immediate reaction would be that, no, simply adding two cores (and the corresponding L1/L2 caches that go with them) does not map over to a correspondingly higher price tag. But AMD is trying to sweeten the pot by introducing Turbo CORE technology, which we’ve already previewed. Briefly, Turbo CORE attempts to capitalize on the TDP headroom freed up when three or more cores are idle by dynamically overclocking the remaining three cores. On the Phenom II X6 1090T, Turbo CORE takes a 3.2 GHz CPU and boosts a trio of cores up to 3.6 GHz.
As a result, almost any way you cut it, a six-core Phenom II X6 should be faster than the Phenom II X4.
The only exception would be when taxing exactly four threads causes the processor to drop to 3.2 GHz, keeping it from benefiting from the fifth and sixth cores, while operating at a lower clock rate than the 3.4 GHz Phenom II X4 965.
Say Hello To 890FX
That’s not all, either. AMD is also launching a revised version of its discrete-only desktop platform. The 890FX might sound like a spanking-new northbridge, but it’s really quite similar to the 790FX preceding it. You’ll find that the biggest difference is the SB850 southbridge accompanying the updated platform. We’ll dig deeper into that piece of logic shortly. For now, consider it part two of a new three-part platform AMD is calling Leo, successor to the Dragon platform. The third component is a Radeon HD 5800-series graphics card.
First, let’s talk about what it means to add two cores to the Phenom II family.
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AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Processor Overview
Description
Specifications
| Released | 2010 |
| Segment | for desktop computers |
| Socket | Socket AM3 |
| Number of cores | 6 |
| Number of threads | 6 |
| Base frequency | 3200 MHz |
| Turbo Core | 3600MHz |
| L1/L2/L3 cache | 768Kb/3Mb/6Mb |
| Unlocked multiplier | yes |
| Architecture (core) | Thuban |
| Process | 45nm |
| Integrated video core | no |
Max. memory frequency |
DDR2 1066Mhz, DDR3 1333Mhz |
| TDP | 125W |
| Max. temperature | 62C |
| Windows 11 support | no |
Supported instructions: MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, AMD-V, Virtualization Technology
Supported operating systems: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 10 x86-x64, Linux x86-x64
Overview of the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T
processor The processor was released in 2010 for motherboards with the latest Socket AM3 connector for that time. The model belongs to the high-performance CPU in the line of processors created for the AM3 platform, has 6 cores with frequencies of 3200-3600 MHz and a heat dissipation of 125W, which will require a good cooling system (up to 140W+). AMD Phenom II X6 1090T is made according to the technological standards of 45nm and carries the Thuban architecture. At the time of entering the market and the next 5-7 years, this processor was considered an excellent gaming option, offering high performance and fairly good overclocking potential.
As of 2020, the Phenom II X6 1090T combined with a fairly powerful graphics card (Radeon RX470, GeForce GTX960 and above), at least 8 GB of RAM and medium-low graphics settings is still able to provide fairly good performance (35-45 frames) even in the most modern projects like Red Dead Redemption 2. In older games like GTA V and Tomb Raider 2013, Phenom II X6 1090T will give a comfortable number of frames per second (50fps+) at high graphics settings. This CPU can easily cope with office tasks, providing comfortable work in standard Windows and Office applications, surfing the Internet.
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T performance comparison table
competitor models:
| Positioning | CPU Model | PassMark | |||||||||||||||
| Test piece | AMD Phenom II X6 1090T | 3603 points | |||||||||||||||
| Junior model | AMD Phenom II X6 1075T | 3231 points | |||||||||||||||
| Older model | AMD Phenom II X6 1100T | 3692 points | |||||||||||||||
But progress does not stand still, and literally following Intel, which introduced its six-core processor for desktop computers a week ago, AMD released its six-core processor, which we will consider today.
There is also a 6 MB L3 cache shared across all cores, just like the quad-core predecessors.
The fact is that the operating frequency of the «north bridge» built into the processor must not exceed the frequency of the HT Link bus, the maximum of which is limited to 2600 MHz. However, if you set the NB frequency in the BIOS to, say, 2800 MHz, then everything will work. At least Windows booted up and some tests could be passed. However, this mode turned out to be unstable, despite the increase in the corresponding voltages. And at the same HT and NB frequencies, equal to 2600 MHz, the processor was completely stable, so the test results at these settings will be shown in the final performance diagrams.
0 GHz turned out to be stable, and all tests were carried out on it during overclocking.
Consider the case of the AMD Phenom II X6 109 processor0T. Below are fragments of screenshots of the AMD OverDrive utility, which clearly demonstrates the state of the processor cores and allows you to control their operating modes, including overclocking and changing AMD Turbo Core settings. To view the full screenshot, click on the snippet.
2 GHz, as well as the voltage — 1.3 V. The remaining unloaded cores can operate at a reduced frequency.
However, perhaps more advanced and «sharpened» for overclocking motherboards based on the AMD 89 chipset0FX will be able to unleash the full potential of new items more fully.
47 GHz). By default, Intel Hyper Threading technology is enabled, that is, the Intel Core i7 980X uses 12 computational threads, but additional tests were carried out with Hyper Threading disabled. Thus, it will be possible to evaluate the gain from the use of Hyper Threading in a particular test.|
Test equipment |
|
| Processors | AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 3. 2 GHzAMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2 GHz Intel Core i7 870 2.93 GHz Intel Core i7 980X 3.33 GHz |
| CPU cooling system | Zalman CNPS 10x Extreme @ 1600 rpm |
| Motherboards | MSI 890GXM-G65, Socket AM3 nine0107 Asus Maximus III Extreme, Socket LGA1156 ASUS Rampage II Extreme, Socket LGA 1366 |
| RAM | 3x 1GB Apacer DDR-3 2000 MHz (9-9-9-24-2T) @ 1333 MHz (9-9-9-24-1T) 2x 2GB Super Talent DDR3-2000 @ 1600 (9-9-9-24-1T) |
| Video card | AMD Radeon HD 5870 1 GB, Catalyst 3.10 |
| Hard disk | Samsung SpinPoint 750GB |
| Power supply | Lian Li PS-A750GB, 750W |
| Operating system | Windows 7 Home Premium x64 |
⇡# Temperature conditions
Since we used the same platform, it was interesting to look at the temperature regime of the novelty in comparison with the representative of the quad-core Phenom II processor series.
As already mentioned, we used the Zalman CNPS 10x Extreme cooler. This cooler has both smooth manual fan speed control and fixed steps. We chose the middle stage, at which the fan rotated at a speed of 1600 rpm. All available processor power-saving technologies have been activated.
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As you can see, under no load, in Windows desktop mode, the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T processor temperature is very low and much lower than that of its younger brother. However, it should be noted here that when enabled, motherboard BIOS monitoring showed a processor temperature of about 45 degrees Celsius, that is, 22 degrees higher than the AMD Overdrive utility, the readings of which are shown in the diagram. We still tend to believe the data of the AMD Overdrive utility, because when testing under load, the cooler heat sink and the heat pipes at its base were only warm, not hot, which is not possible at a processor temperature of about 70 degrees Celsius.
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When running several cycles of the Far Cry 2 benchmark, the temperature of the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T grew very slightly, and only slightly exceeded the bar of 40 degrees Celsius during overclocking. At the same time, the Phenom II X4 955 processor has already warmed up to 50 degrees.
Stress testing with the OCCT utility in Linpack 64-bit mode also showed very interesting results. At nominal frequencies, the temperature of the Phenom II X6 1090T was about 45 degrees Celsius, and only increasing the core voltage and overclocking to 4.0 GHz could warm up the new product to 56.2 degrees. And the old man Phenom II X4 955 even in normal mode has already reached the bar of 60 degrees. Note that AMD’s stated maximum core temperature for Phenom II processors is 62 degrees Celsius.
⇡#Total system power consumption
With temperatures, everything is clear — the novelty turned out to be very «cool» and unpretentious.
Now let’s look at the power consumption of the system as a whole. The figures below correspond to the readings of the wattmeter, which were taken from the to power supply. That is, if you want to estimate the real power consumed by the system, you should multiply these figures by about 0.8-0.85 (power supply efficiency). So let’s get started.
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In Windows desktop mode, the AMD platform consumes no more than 100 watts, and the system based on the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T is a little more economical in this indicator. It’s interesting, but a system based on the Intel Core i7 870, running at a lower frequency, consumes a little more, and when overclocked, it completely breaks out into the «leaders». System power consumption based on the six-core processor Intel Core i7 980X is about 40% higher than that of AMD.
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As the load on the system increases, the relative difference in results decreases.
However, the system based on the Intel Core i7 980X consumes slightly more power, and the «leaders» are still the overclocked Intel Core i7 870.
The Linpack 64-bit OCCT stress test completely changes the picture. The most economical system is now based on Intel Core i7 870 in nominal mode, followed by AMD representatives, also operating in normal mode. Note — here the power consumption of a system based on a six-core Phenom II X6 processor is 1090T is higher than the Phenom II X4 955 platform, which has four cores, for the first time. A system with a six-core Intel Core i7 980X consumes a little more, but the leaders are platforms with processors overclocked to 4.0 GHz. Such a significant jump in power consumption is explained not so much by the increased frequency of processors, but by an increase in their supply voltage.
And, finally, the last test in this series, which loads both the processor and the video card — the two most «gluttonous» components of a modern gaming computer.
The processor was «warmed up» using a stress test from the Everest Ultimate package. Of course, this is not such a «heavy» test as OCCT Linpack, but it also creates a very noticeable load on the CPU. Since, when the processor cores were fully loaded, the Furmark test significantly reduced the “turnovers” and the video card did not work at full capacity, the benchmark was set in the Windows Task Manager in such a way that one computational thread remained free. In this case, Furmark immediately began to work at full capacity and the power consumption of the video card increased dramatically.
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In nominal mode, platforms based on AMD Phenom II X6 1090T and Intel Core i7 870 show almost the same power consumption at about 350 watts. A system with a six-core Intel Core i7 980X already consumes just over 380 watts, and systems with overclocked processors have stepped over the 400 watt bar.
As already mentioned, taking into account the efficiency of the power supply, the actual power consumption of the computer will be somewhat lower.
Looking at these figures, it seems that even a conventional 450 W power supply will be quite enough to power a fairly powerful computer with a six-core processor and one top-end video card. In general, this is true, only it is worth considering that the power supply must be of high quality and provide normal output parameters at loads close to the maximum. As for overclocking, it’s better to play it safe and use a power supply with a significant margin of power, since any increase in voltage on the CPU or GPU significantly increases the power consumption of these components.
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⇡# Performance testing
Now let’s see what AMD Phenom II X6 1090T shows in performance tests.
Compared to its predecessor, AMD Phenom II X6 1090T demonstrates some gain in the test of reading from RAM, but it is quite difficult for it to compete with the memory controller built into Intel processors with Nehalem architecture.
AMD Phenom II X6 L3 Cache Frequency Increase 1090T allows us to slightly improve the results, but the gap with Intel representatives is still very large.
In the memory write test, the situation for AMD processors is even more depressing, and in the competition of six-core processors operating at nominal frequencies, the Intel Core i7 980X wins by almost a twofold advantage.
However, when copying in memory, everything is not so bad. In nominal mode AMD Phenom II X6 1090T is somewhat behind its six-core brother from the Intel clan here, but even when overclocked, it fails to compete with the Intel Core i7 870 operating in normal mode.
Memory access latencies for AMD Phenom II X6 1090T and Intel Core i7 870 processors are about the same, while for Intel Core i7 980X it is much worse, which, however, does not prevent it from demonstrating impressive performance.
Now let’s move on to synthetic computational tests.
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The effect of the presence of two additional cores of the Phenom II X6 1090T processor compared to the Phenom II X4 955 is quite noticeable, but this is still not enough to fight on equal terms with the quad-core Intel Core i7 870. This test responds very well to both the increase in the frequency of the CPU and computational threads (Hyper Threading), so the undisputed leader in the end is the six-core Intel Core i7 980X processor, which has as many as 12 of them.
In the Everest PhotoWorxx test, the main role is played by the efficiency of the memory controller, so Intel representatives are naturally ahead. Surprisingly, here AMD Phenom II X6 1090T in the nominal mode shows a slightly worse result than its quad-core counterpart — AMD Phenom II X4 955. However, the difference is calculated in a few percent.
This test is purely computational, so the results of the participants lined up in characteristic «ladders» according to the number of cores and threads.
The increase in performance from the presence of Hyper Threading technology in Intel processors in this test is not so significant, so AMD Phenom II X6 1090T confidently outperforms the Intel Core i7 870 in the nominal mode, and when overclocked, it almost overtakes the Intel Core i7 980X.
In this test, any processors not equipped with the AES-NI instruction set, as they say, have nothing to catch. The advantage of the Intel Core i7 980X over the rest of the participants is tenfold. At the same time, AMD Phenom II X6 1090T performs quite well at the stock frequency compared to even the overclocked Intel Core i7 870.
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The growth of AMD Phenom II X6 1090T results compared to Phenom II X4 955 almost linearly depends on the number of cores. The performance of the Nehalem architecture is very high, and other things being equal, AMD processors are far behind in this test.
In the FPU Mandel test, the picture is similar to the previous one.
The SinJulia FPU test is very sensitive to the presence of additional computational threads. However, even with Hyper Threading disabled, the Intel Core i7 9The 80X turns out to be about 1.5 times faster than the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T at the nominal frequency.
In the new version of the Cinebench package, as before, you can use both single-threaded and multi-threaded testing. Results are now measured in «points». Recall that the Turbo Core technology for the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T processor was activated, while the frequency of active cores in this mode is 3.6 GHz. This explains the advantage of AMD Phenom II X6 1090T over Phenom II X4 955 in single thread mode. Of course, in a multi-threaded test, the number of cores plays a major role. As you can see, here AMD Phenom II X6 1090T can compete on equal terms only with Intel Core i7 870, and with Intel six-core it can only go on equal terms during overclocking, and then if the latter does not have Hyper Threading technology activated.
Since we were running a 64-bit version of Windows 7, we decided to test in Cinebench 64-bit as well to see what benefits can be obtained in this case. In general, the overall alignment of forces remained the same, and the results grew by about 8%.
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The built-in test of the WinRar archiver is sensitive both to the processing power of the CPU cores and to the efficiency of the memory controller. Not surprisingly, Intel representatives show very good results here. As for AMD processors, there is an increase from the use of six cores instead of four, but not very significant, apparently, everything depends on the memory controller, which has not undergone any special changes.
In the 64-bit version of WinRar, the results were almost identical to the previous ones, although they slightly increased, by about 2-3%.
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In the first 3DMark Vantage processor test, the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T shows a significant increase over the Phenom II X4 955, but it is still a long way from the quad-core Intel Core i7 870.
In the second test, the «physical» one, the situation for AMD Phenom II X6 1090T is much better — it confidently outperforms the Intel Core i7 870 and is not far behind the Intel Core i7 980X at nominal frequencies.
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As expected, in the 3DMark Vantage gaming tests, all platforms show very close results due to the performance of the video card, since the «additional» cores and computational threads are not used in this test, and only one CPU core is loaded.
Let’s go directly to the games.
In the Resident Evil test, the advantage is on the side of Intel representatives, and by a significant margin, and even overclocking does not allow AMD Phenom II X6 1090T achieve the results of his «blue» rivals. As for the «intra-clan» struggle, the new product is ahead of AMD Phenom II X4 955 by about 13%.
With low graphics settings in the CPU test of the game Crysis, you can see a fantastic result — about 250 frames per second, obtained on a six-core Intel and an overclocked Core i7 870.
AMD processors are hopelessly behind here, and neither an increase in the number of cores, nor their operating frequency has any particular effect on the result. Apparently, the efficiency of the RAM controller plays a big role in this mode.
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With medium graphics settings in the Crysis CPU test, we again observe a one and a half times advantage of representatives of the Intel Nehalem architecture over AMD processors. But interestingly, when Hyper Threading is enabled, not only an increase, but even a slight drop in results is observed.
At high graphics settings in the Crysis CPU test, the performance of the video card begins to play a decisive role, so the difference in the results is small, but the «blue» ones are still in the lead.
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With the maximum quality of Crysis graphics, everything is determined solely by the performance of the video card, so the results of different platforms differ literally by units of fps.
However, the capabilities of all participants in this test are quite enough to unlock the potential of the Radeon HD 5870 in this mode.
In Far Cry 2, the alignment of forces is, in general, similar to the one we saw in Crysis — the advantage of Intel processors is undeniable, and with the increase in the «heaviness» of the graphics mode, the video card begins to play an increasingly important role. Somewhat surprising is the fact that at the same frequencies the Phenom II X6 109 processor0T loses to its younger brother — Phenom II X4 955. Moreover, this difference is preserved in all three test modes and, frankly, we have no explanation for this strange fact. However, any of the presented processors is enough to not experience the slightest discomfort in this game.
⇡#Conclusions
As testing has shown, the performance of the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T processor is significantly lower than that of its «classmate» from Intel — Core i7 980X.
Moreover, in many cases, the performance of the AMD novelty is inferior to the quad-core Intel Core i7 870. But this is not at all a reason to be upset. Having released its six-core processor, AMD did not at all try to take over the palm from Intel, the task was different — to make an affordable and «cold» six-core processor that could work effectively both with multi-threaded applications and those that are not optimized for using more the number of computational threads (most modern games). And, in our opinion, AMD has succeeded quite well.
Recommended price for AMD Phenom II X6 109 processor0T is only $289! At the same time, when purchasing this processor as a replacement for the previous one, there is no need to change the entire platform, and in most cases it is enough to simply update the BIOS of the motherboard. While in batches of 1000 or more, the Intel Core i7 870 processor costs $562, and the Intel Core i7 980X costs even more — $999!
By the way, in addition to the Phenom II X6 1090T processor, AMD has released another six-core processor — Phenom II X6 1055T, which differs from the older model only in a slightly reduced nominal frequency — 2.