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Review: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T: hexa-core computing for the masses

by Parm Mann on 27 April 2010, 05:00 4.0

Tags: Phenom II X6 1055T, Phenom II X6 1090T, AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaxym

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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 £240 Phenom II X6 1090T becomes an attractive choice for many an enthusiast. For the more modest user, the multiplier locked alternative - the £160 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

HEXUS Rating

Five Star
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition

HEXUS Awards



AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition

HEXUS Where2Buy

The AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition processor can be ordered from the following retailers:


As always, UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum.

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HEXUS Right2Reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.



HEXUS Forums :: 35 Comments

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Very nice!

Now, if only someone were to do a comparison whether DDR2 has a negative impact on performance. How 'bout some love for AM2+ users, huh?
Nice. But it would still need to be able to hit 4.5GHz on an H50 to match multithreaded performance with an i7 920 @ 4.1Gz (my clock on an H50).
However you can easily save >£50 by going AMD mobo, which could still make it worthwhile even if it can't make 4.5GHz that easily.
Try not to get too excited chaps.

“Decent overclocking headroom” what? Please look at your headline for the i7 930, and the conclusion of

“Clocks like a champ; 4GHz should be easy as pie”
Thanks again Hexus, that really is a multi-threaded chip for the masses! Very impressive power characteristics, and good point about the nomenclature and socket compatibility!

Some questions:

I asked before about what happens when you have less than three cores loaded - can it ramp up only two cpus and down clock the remaining four? The reply from AMD seemed to indicate it was possible, but you only test the 3/3 here. Could you double check the 4 down /2 up pretty please? :)

hexus
There's nothing to choose between the quad and hexa-core Phenom IIs, all running DDR3 memory at 1,600MHz. Intel's tri-channel memory controller on X58 continues to create a sizeable performance gap as far as memory bandwidth is concerned.
So why do you think there is a sizeable performance gap for the dual-channel i7 870 and i5 750 as well?
Looking purely at ye olde Hexus bang4buck analysis, this seems to have done quite well.

Taking the i7 930 as a fairly good comparison when it comes to price, the X6 seems to beat it a fair few times - and there's still a good chunk to save on the motherboard as well.