CPU/Mobo Phenom II X6 Review

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

Dark Star

Innovator
Final thoughts and rating

It's been a while since we've had our hands on an AMD CPU that has left us genuinely impressed, but we're pleased to say that the Phenom II X6 1090T has done exactly that.

Having seemingly nowhere to go, and nowhere to hide, AMD has taken what may have been the only available route; increasing the die size of an existing chip in order to cram in an additional core or two. It's far from an inspiring method, but it has admittedly had the desired effect.

Arriving as the company's fastest-ever desktop processor, the £250 Phenom II X6 1090T becomes an attractive choice for many an enthusiast. For the more modest user, the multiplier locked alternative - the Phenom II X6 1055T - offers excellent value for money.

Ensuring that the hexa-core chips aren't only useful in heavily multi-threaded applications, the introduction of AMD's Turbo CORE technology ensures solid single-core performance. The 3.2GHz Phenom II X6 1090T, for example, is able to offer superior single-thread performance in certain scenarios when compared to the 3.4GHz Phenom II X4 965.

The mere thought of a well-clocked hexa-core processor with Turbo functionality being made available for less than £250 would have seemed little more than a hopeful dream just months ago. The fact that AMD has made that dream a reality with the Phenom II X6 line, in a backward-compatible socket no less, is certainly worthy of acclaim.

Intel remains king with its Core i7 980X, but AMD's sudden hexa-core challenge has certainly spiced things up in the mid-to-high-end space.

The Good

Fastest desktop processor AMD has ever produced
Brings hexa-core computing to the mainstream
AM3 socket continues to offer an upgrade path
Decent overclocking headroom
Turbo CORE ensures single-thread performance

The Bad

Remains a distant second to Intel in terms of raw performance
Click to expand...

HEXUS.net - Review :: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T: hexa-core computing for the masses : Page - 12/12
 
 
On a funny note, thank god AMD is sticking to one socket unlike Intel who are planning to release more sockets than processors :)

And a hexa core for 226$ is just rocking! It will only be a matter of time that we will see a sub 10k Phenom II X6 and maybe sub 7k Athlon II X6 :)

AMD rocks!

Core i7 870 current price is 550$

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T price is 310$

Guess what, 1090T beats 870 in every single benchmark run by Hexus. (unless you game on dx9 and 15" CRT). Even though it's six core processor, the power consumption at load is very much similar to 870's.

A clear winner this one is.
 
^^ I think somethings wrong with the Hexus review. Check the other reviews. The 1090T is comparable to i7 860/930, not 870.
 
Lord Nemesis said:
^^ I think somethings wrong with the Hexus review. Check the other reviews. The 1090T is comparable to i7 860/930, not 870.
Click to expand...

checked anandtech review and yes. they are comparable but given that it is 240$ cheaper, it still has an advantage :)
 
^^What are you saying :S Core i7 860 is $30 cheaper than 1090T and this X6 is still not conclusively beating the 860.

On a side note, there seems to be a lot of disparity between the benchmarks from various sources. Usually the results slightly vary, but this time, I see a lot of difference. :S
 
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
Lord Nemesis said:
^^What are you saying :S Core i7 860 is $30 cheaper than 1090T and this X6 is still not conclusively beating the 860.

On a side note, there seems to be a lot of disparity between the benchmarks from various sources. Usually the results slightly vary, but this time, I see a lot of difference. :S
Click to expand...

I meant core i7 870. and 860 is cheaper? hmm. this should heat up competition at 10k-15k price points. hope AMD gets the pricing down soon.
 
Read the guru3d review. Impressive. For the fact it will mate to an existing socket package. New technology released for same boards. Nice. Though it [1090T] does not beat the high end i7s, (extreme Intel), but is close to the 940,870s. Once OC'ed, it is sitting quite comfortably next to Intel E series i7.

6 cores, new technology, decent pricing, same socket package. Great. Impressed here.

Guru3d Link.
 
Why is there such a big variance in the benchmarks amongst different reviews. I still cannot come to a conclusion wether to get this or the i7. I mean with 109T being overclocked to 4.1Ghz its just next to stock 980X which is thrice its price according to the Guru3d reviews.
 
desiibond said:
are all the current gen cpu intensive apps optimized to make use of 6 cores?
Click to expand...

Well here is a list. Even if end user applications are not utilizing the multiple cores, this architecture will enable heavy multi tasking.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
asingh said:
Read the guru3d review. Impressive. For the fact it will mate to an existing socket package. New technology released for same boards. Nice. Though it [1090T] does not beat the high end i7s, (extreme Intel), but is close to the 940,870s. Once OC'ed, it is sitting quite comfortably next to Intel E series i7.

6 cores, new technology, decent pricing, same socket package. Great. Impressed here.

Guru3d Link.
Click to expand...

On the other hand that Guru3d review showed me how impressive 980X is. This is probably the first EE processor that I think may actually deserve its price tag. The competitors Hex Core overclocked to 4.1 GHz could not come anywhere close the 980X at its stock clock. So much difference in performance is definitely impressive desite its price tag.

As or 1090T, its definitely a great upgrade for existing AMD users with AM3 motherboards, but for people Core 2 Quad/ i5/i7 or people getting a new system, I don't think it makes a lot of sense with the CPU vfm alone.
 
ya performance is decent but for people who want to OC , i7 makes much more sense , at clock to clock its much faster than amd 6 core , and almost all i7s do 4ghz easily .

Conclusion

Despite being an astonishing £600 cheaper than the exorbitantly-priced Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition, the X6 1090T BE still isn’t a very good buy. That’s because despite being clocked at a respectable 3.2GHz and having a useful auto-overclocking feature in Turbo Core, it’s based on a comparatively old architecture – K10, which is in reality only a tweaked version of the ancient K8 architecture dating way back to 2003.

As a result, the X6 1090T BE really struggles to keep up with the similarly priced Intel Core i7-930, which has was noticeably faster in six of our eight benchmarks thanks to its far more modern Nehalem architecture. The only exception to this was our Cinebench and WPrime tests, indicating that the X6 1090T BE may be worth considering for a low cost graphics workstation. However, even then, the i7-930 retook pole position when both CPUs were overclocked to their air-cooled maximum frequency.
Click to expand...

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/04/27/amd-phenom-ii-x6-1090t-black-edition/10
 
Read the review, its the 1055T that seems interesting, its clearly better then i5750 in non game test, I am not able to evaluate gaming performance, as in Guru3d they have not included i5750 into the gaming test.

However if you see the value proposition, its enormous, and am I wrong but the idle power consumption seems lower then Lynnfield!!
 
Guys... AMD hit two targets, but with two bullets..

One with the Hex Core, one with THIS FRIGGIN AWESOME 890FX, check the IDLE figures!!!

[mod] Do not hotlink images.[/mod]
 
^^ Dont hotlink images,

AT is showing a different picture, but this release seriously displaces one of the most VFM proccies, which was the i5750..
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom